I sat in a church listening to a preacher speak on the doctrine of hell saying that too many people shy away from the discussion but he was going to lay it out for us… that to shy away from the doctrine of hell is to be embarrassed of Jesus.

This is an evangelical Bible study church.  I probably should not have wandered on such an important subject as this, but I wondered why the walls were blank… and imagined how I might paint a Judgment scene on the front wall.

Not an original idea.

The preacher also alluded to the Catholic Church being soft on the doctrine of hell, quoting Pope John Paul II in some speech (the quote was out of context so I can not comment to its use in the preacher’s sermon).

To claim that the subject is not approached and that the Catholics in particular are soft is to ignore a few places built in the past where the subject was obvious in the very architecture.

Entrance to many a church and a Cathedral required the passing under a Judgment scene depicting people being cast into the maw of a monstrous death, or boiling in pots stirred by demon antagonists. The Sistine Chapel back wall itself is a Judgment scene by Michelangelo – the Sistine Chapel where each successive Pope is elected.

I traveled to Albi France specifically to photograph St. Cecile for her Judgment Wall–a unique muraled wall that separates the alter table and the Host Chapel.

Tell me that the Doctrine of Hell not being presented in any major or permanent way at St. Cecile- in a way that lives long after words fade? Talk about a reminder (every time one enters for communion and mass).

How wonderful that I had this image to draw on as the pastor spoke, and I felt sorry that there was nothing so powerful on the wall before us other than beige behind a stage of musical instruments. At least he was laying out the message…

I doubt though that a painted vista of judgment would have stopped those folks looking around or preoccupied by other things since they heard this message before, but I know my eye would land continuously on this image as my ears took in the preacher’s words. And I also know that my mind would be slower to return to the images of daily life around me after viewing such a image as it would likely burn itself into my brain and imagination as had the image from St. Cecile in Albi.

Oddly that scene made its way to this church today, but I am the only one seeing it.

~JWL

The pierced feet of Jesus, His hands, His side, the punctures to the crown of his head, the lacerations and bruises on His body, the swelling, the tears and rips, and the dried blood.

A quote from Beauty Will Save the World, (Gregory Wolfe) p.12 :

“…what ultimately drew me to the church [Catholicism] was another facet, one about which too little is spoken. It’s what the great Basque philosopher Miguel de Unamuno called “the tragic sense of life.” At the center of this sensibility is a profound awareness of the ambiguities and divisions within the human heart, along with a stress on the importance of suffering and contemplation. I came to understand why Catholics venerate the crucifix, not the empty cross…”

Many would disagree with me, claiming we praise a risen Lord and have taken Him off the cross, or stating that the crucifixion is not the saving grace but the resurrection; with out the resurrection there is no salvation. I have also heard to display Jesus crucified is to re-crucify Him over and over again.

Perhaps it is just I who is moved by the tragic. The resurrection has little meaning with out the crucifixion. Had Jesus just fallen asleep for our sin, and then rose from the dead, then the pain he endured for our sake is minimized. Seeing the wounds reminds me of the price that was paid on our behalf.  A statue or painting of the crucifix are not Jesus, nor a Pieta, but are reminders to me and to others – to all of us corporately – of the “tragic sense of life” and the “profound awareness of the ambiguities and divisions within the human heart,” the “importance of suffering and contemplation.”

What happens for me is my intellectual awareness from academic and practical study, drops from head knowledge to my heart through my imagination: I am united body and soul with the notion of culpability and love.

Nor is it a blame that is scornful or diminishing, rather it is a blame that conjoins me with the Love that pays my way. It is beyond words or description, and that is precisely the place where the Holy Spirit works.

It all works together.

I like the wounds we depict in the arts to remember the suffering, my suffering, and the suffering servant, who yes, is no longer on the cross.

And THAT is another subject of art for contemplation.

“There have been times when critics have confused the tragic sense with mere fatalism. I suspect that is because Americans still suffer from the illusion that they can escape tragedy and remake themselves in the process. The truth as I come to see it is that the tragic sense of life is the ultimate antidote to religious arrogance and sentimentality as well as to the ideological triumphalisms of Right and Left“

~Gregory Wolfe, Beauty Will Save The World

~ JWL
Pieta, Chicago.

Down below the beautifully mosaicked Abbey of the Dormition of the Virgin Mary (Haggia Maria Sion Abbey) in Jerusalem on Mt. Zion, is a Marian crypt. It is claimed to be the spot where the Virgin Mary fell asleep for the last time.

There is a statue of Marian sleeping in peace, above her a mosaic dome of Christ and six epic Biblical ladies.

But there is one mural at one of the altars that stops me in my tracks. It depicts the Virgin’s Koimesis, or “falling asleep in death.”

Mary lies still being attended to.

Christ stands above her.

Just as Mary bore the infant Christ, she is now carried to heaven by Christ, who holds her soul, portrayed as an infant, in his arms.

The “Mother of God is now His daughter… or put another way, the Son of God’s Mother is His daughter”. I put that in quotes as something to absorb just below the consciousness of literalism – to consider the paradox. Just as Jesus is before Abram was born (John 8:58). Mary’s son is her heavenly father, and He is come to carry her home.

Twice now in Jerusalem I have been theologically rocked with LARGE mystical thoughts to contemplate: the mystery of God. Both times were bound around considerations of Mary’s relationship with God.

The first time was in the Armenian Cathedral, St. James. There I was left with the thought of what does one do with the rest of their life when they have birthed Mashiach? That is a big responsibility and it can not be like any ordinary responsibility for this is no ordinary child. God had consecrated Mary’s womb and lived there for nine months. Think about it.

The idea that God is the Father to Mariam’s impregnation of Himself incarnate, suggests He is the Father and the Son and now He is the creator of Mary’s soul, now swaddled in His arms and safeguarded to the Spiritual Heaven.

A shudder goes up my spine and I need to sit down.

This piece of art communicates a powerful idea of the immensity of God, His mystery, His wondrous ways, and the tenderness of His Grace. Considering God this way is overwhelming. Perhaps this is the proper perspective…

~ JWL

The other tells of the depth of thought traversed in the making of the Cathedral Architecture, shared by the architect himself. http://www.ctlcathedral.org/resources/video_display2.shtml

Such a high calling, if not the highest ambition in creative design: being called to create something that expresses the theology of God, in this case, in wood, glass, and concrete. I would consider this the highest occupation as an artist.

It is an effort in the creation to honor that which IS and He who has graced us with His Mercy and His Poetry.

Often have I advocated the importance that a church saves its money in various ways to afford the commission of a master.

To create something beautiful and unique to the people of that church, expressing the love of The Master in image and symbol, evocative, thoughtful, profound, layered, is the only true choice. For a church to me symbolizes the synthesis of all that is human and all that is holy in the Spirit – as a created space it amalgamates the intellect, the spirit, the physical and emotional in tangible deed. It is the highest call, the greatest honor in the creative field. Plug into that space a church of people actively serving their community in love and care… imagine it. Of course it begins with the people.

I am photographing eight churches out of 1600 plus in Memphis.  There were only eight that I could find with art – (I am sure there were a few more but when I tell others of the eight it becomes a game for them to name them – and people always guess the eight! The churches with the art and aesthetic are known around Memphis).

I am in St. John Episcopal Church. Inside this church are murals by a famous artist/muralist John Henry DeRosen, a Pole and second-generation muralist, who had escaped from Nazi terrorized Europe. He had eventually made a name for himself with his unique style, in painting religious murals. His Large Christ dominates the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington D.C.

St. John’s Episcopal of Memphis had commissioned DeRosen in 1951 – it took him two years to paint the eight murals within St. John’s. They commissioned a master muralist. It was expensive at the time yet this Episcopal Church feels it was money well spent.

Besides the story that art can tell beyond words, it can launch the imagination, fix the memory, and start conversations. Also, it is widely accepted, Beauty is attractive.

~ JWL

This first interview conducted for the Foundation for the Biblical Arts is a reconstructed conversation between FBA President and founder, Jeff LeFever and Father John W. Sewell, Rector of Saint John’s Episcopal Church in Memphis, Tennessee. Jeff was in Memphis photographing the consecrated when he was introduced to Father John. They talked for well over an hour on the ideas of the aesthetic and life, life and the church, soul cure, and gift economy.

In Jeff’s words, “Father John and I made a connection quickly. Thoroughly enjoying our conversation, I was a bit saddened that I could not share this with others. So I asked if he would be willing to write something for the FBA. Then the idea for an interview came since few people these days have the time to write (for free contribution). Father John is engaging, knowledgeable about art and worship, theology, and the caring for people in community. With Father John, I sensed the present, future, and past, all in one alluring possibility that suggests forward movement and revelation. The kind of experience one senses in the presence of Holy Love. It is the kind of experience that I as an artist feel in the moment of creation.”

With that said, our first FBA interview with Father John Sewell, revisiting his conversation with Jeff that day in Memphis.

THE INTERVIEW

Jeff: Father John, you have expressed a deep interest in aesthetics, especially liturgical art and church aesthetics. Is art essential in a church setting?

Father John (F.J.): I am blessed to worship in a space filled with the most amazing murals painted by John DeRosen in the early 1950’s.  The high level of these paintings constantly challenges me and my colleagues to do our very best work.  All the arts come together in the liturgy.  For example, the flower guild with great creative skill arrange flowers so that their beauty draws the eye to the cross they surround.  Like a picture frame our creative contributions enhance but must not obscure the central sign, the cross.

The great news of God in Christ is the painting and all our work, vestments, music, reading & chanting, all in a great dance celebrate creation and for Christians the great news of the resurrection.  It is all done as a great choreography of grace

Jeff: What is essential about Beauty? How is Beauty important in relation to Truth and Goodness?

F.J.: The beautiful strikes our senses as true and authentic.  I believe that creation did not end in the past but continues.  As stewards we are called to conserve and protect creation. Not all are painters or composers but a life well lived with integrity is perhaps the greatest art form.

Jeff: And for you personally, Father. John, you have fine tastes, how were those developed in you and what does it mean to cultivate one’s senses so acutely? Why bother? What good does a developed aesthetic bring to anyone?

F.J.: Thank you.  I am very visual which is ironic in that I have a degree in music. I am very curious and from childhood noticed details.  The saying not to sweat the small stuff is true in some parts of life but not here. Beauty is details arrayed in subtle patterns.  The whole is the sum of details.

Why do this?  Just for fun is my first thought. Noticing and appreciating enriches life.  Such acuity can tell many things even to the point of learning the subtle sensations of our body so when there is a change we recognize it. Paying attention may save our life.

People constantly communicate with very subtle signals that we recognize if sometimes unconsciously.   What is kindness but a gentle response to the signals from another. So for me “noticing” is a much greater enterprise.

Jeff: You mentioned to me in our time in Memphis, that “all church is theater” – I like that phrase. Can you expound upon that and maybe include why this is necessary?

F.J.: Good Liturgy and good theater come from the same place in that they speak to the deepest concerns of the human heart and do so honestly. Akin to Opera, all the arts are present expressing the message of the heart, the Great News of God in Christ. I think it was Kierkegaard who said that those vested at the front are not performers to the passive congregation, no, in fact all those present, the congregation plus those vested, are the performers and God is the audience. Worship is the great dance of grace and each person has a crucial part that no one can perform for them.  Each absence diminishes the dance for each has a unique gift to give the whole.

Jeff: I started my quest of documenting the consecrated originally motivated by the question of “why aren’t churches open all the time?” I began to think this notion was a romantic idea of my own creation, maybe something from an old B&W Jimmy Stewart movie…  John, when we first met and talked, you told me of your church in Alabama…

F.J.: Just out of seminary I served a small parish in Albertville Alabama. Christ Church was antebellum, simple and quite beautiful.  In the early 1980’s the church was never locked.  That is amazing in itself but it was never disturbed.  Many people would tell me of going to the Church in the middle of the night to pray.  Also the police were attentive knowing that the church was unlocked.  Of course now the insurance company would cancel coverage in a second, but like Camelot there was that brief shining moment when an unlocked church served the souls of  many people in that town.

Jeff: A time when a church was available for community need around the clock. I am glad I am not imagining that. I am sure that was a blessing to the community for those in particular who made use. Sometimes, just knowing something is available is enough.

Father John, You mentioned one of the factors to churches being closed was insurance. Can you tell me about those restrictions?

F.J.:  There have been at least a half-dozen break-ins at Saint John’s in the past couple of years.  There was a time that even thieves respected the sanctity of a house of worship. Not so anymore. The church is not longer at the center of society but now on the side-lines (even though churches occupy prime real-estate in every city center). It would never even register that an open building would be respected and I am afraid that the insurance companies are largely correct when they demand that we keep the property secured.

Jeff: Yes, I have noticed bullet and rock proofing of the historic decorated windows of churches around Memphis. It is a sad commentary.

I have been hearing some interesting solutions to making a church available to those seeking entry to pray, reflect, find shelter from their own storms… seek solace. Here are a few that some churches have implemented. A gate that can be locked inside that separates the main Nave from the entrance, providing prayer nooks, and allowing the art of the sanctuary to still be reflected on with a view of the Tabernacle or Altar.

Another solution is the handing out of keys, or key codes to worshipers in the body of the church to a side prayer chapel…. And in some cases there are some architects now considering side chapels that can be left open full time for the sole purpose of prayer. At some churches, (Episcopal and Catholic with Rectories) a priest will open the door if someone rings the bell after hours… or in the case of during the day, a church employee will buzz open the locked door (but this does not extend to evening hours.

F.J.:  Many years ago I attended a great historic parish church while in graduate school. There, a chapel separated from the nave by a wrought iron grill, was open during the week while the main church was locked.  People did come to pray but quite often the pawn broker down the street would phone the parish office telling them that he had the cross and candle sticks again.  Someone would steal them and the pawnbroker illegally “fenced” the stolen property in order to preserve it.  Such a place of prayer would have to be very empty without objects that could be easily taken. In point of fact a bare, simple place is a great place to pray without distraction, sometimes circumstances motivates creativity.

Jeff: I have entered and felt called to prayer in some very austere but creatively beautiful places –some were once glorious traditional churches and now sit short of being dilapidated shells. Usually these places exhibit the remains of paint or mosaic murals that establish the theological narrative and not necessarily liturgical furnishings. This idea of how to create a space that can serve and not tempt people to steal is a wonderful challenge to new church designers if it would be but a consideration once again that a church might serve like your small parish in Albertville Alabama. There are possibilities.

Father John, I think about what could be different in society today (and our culture) if churches were socially central in their communities – I mean, replacing the local movie theater/shopping mall/food court as a socialization model (which I understand is more convenient toward maintaining and perpetuating a commodity driven market) – and if such a church model offered creative programs fostering the high arts, those arts that discover and expand humanity, critical thinking, cultural analysis (active not passive as much of today’s entertainment is passive). I am wondering … could a church (a body of people) centered by a building localized in a community be a centering anchor and serve as a productive stimulus in our society, building less on training material consumption, and instead fostering spiritual gifts and deeper humanity… what are your thoughts on this? How could something like this be made to work?

F.J.:  In order to serve such a function and occupy regard in the minds of the society we shall have to reinvent ourselves.  By this I mean that we will have to give up a “business model” for our communities.  I am not the CEO (although I am called that by some).  The leaders of Saint John’s are committed to utilizing technology to enhance our work but not talking the place of our work.

We can no longer sit on our several corners assuming people will come and get us if they need us.  Nor will those without some notion of faith likely enter our churches at 11:00am on Sunday when they are sleeping in on the only day they have for rest. To simply put out an ad in newspaper will not attract many. Those who do enter do not know the “jargon” that used to be the common language of society. In the not to distant past a lawyer couldn’t practice in the South without a good command of the Bible as it was the common reference work for the culture. Now I can no longer assume that when someone comes to services that they know the basic stories. They may not know who Moses, Peter & Paul are. I need to define my terms as I go. We are in a new transitional era. I have studied the work of Christians in late antiquity as evangelism spread over Europe. In many ways we face the prospect of re-introducing people to the scriptures, practices and faith of Christianity. Doing this is slow and incremental.

This work is done person to person not machine to machine. Soul work has always been done one at a time, not very efficient as a business plan but spot on for relationships.  As a small example: Saint John’s has a Parish Life Center (gymnasium, work-out rooms and places for meeting).  It is beautiful, clean and FREE to the neighborhoods around the church.  The fact that there are no fees has given us more good will and receptive contacts than any amount of money spent on advertizing could achieve. Once we have receptive contact we still must be a friend as we seek to serve the greater community.

Christian leaders must be entrepreneurial and counter-cultural in that we offer ways of relating that does not stress people even more so that faith becomes one more thing to schedule like adding an app to a phone. I believe that long conversations face to face getting past the surface provides for the meeting of souls that we long to find.

To get past a market driven business model requires that we be willing to abandon the way of thinking that caused the problem in the first place and then practice the ancient spiritual arts. I think that is our call as Church leaders.

Jeff: A Catholic friend of mine told me once that he (a priest) was a servant to the congregation, not necessarily the “leader”. His job was to minister to the need: to serve the body.

“Soul Care” has become a popular idiom that in some ways has become trite, and in others obscure in open ended meaning. Soul Formation has also been popularized. . You mentioned to me” Soul Curing” –that it is your primary job as a priest to cure souls, though now as a Rector your job is also to oversee institutional maintenance. Tell me a bit about this . . . your work and your job.

F.J.:  I have learned in the last 29 years is that God requires one soul from each of us.  It is that simple. When I was installed as the rector of Saint John’s, I was given the responsibility for the Cure. This means that my work is the cure of souls.  My job at Saint John’s is the maintenance of the institution and I take this seriously, intending the buildings and the campus be as maintained and conserved to a high standard when I hand the parish back to the Bishop after my stewardship is done, this is my job

However, my work is the cures of souls, helping people prepare their souls to meet God. What a solemn and holy task this is but not somber. It is a joy to sit with someone and talk about our lives and what God might be saying to us.  I view myself as a player coach, in that I am playing the game out of my own soul as I struggle to allow God to do what needs doing in me plus at the same time coaching others in their soul work.

____________________________________________________________

The Rev. John W. Sewell
Rector of Saint John’s Episcopal Church
Memphis, Tennessee

The Rev. John W. Sewell was called to become the rector of Saint John’s after serving as interim rector for one year. Father Sewell previously served as rector of The Chapel of the Cross in Madison, Mississippi, as Associate Rector at St. Luke’s in Birmingham, Alabama, and as rector at Christ Church in Birmingham. He was ordained into the diocese of Alabama in 1981. Father Sewell was raised Southern Baptist and later attended the Methodist Church.

After earning a bachelor’s degree in music and voice from the University of North Alabama in Florence, Father Sewell was awarded a Masters of Divinity from The Asbury School of Theology in Wilmore, KY. He also studied at Seabury-Western Episcopal Seminary (affiliated with Northwestern University in Evanston, IL).

Links to Father John:

http://www.stjohnsmemphis.org/message ,http://bengalsr.tumblr.com/

http://johnwsewell.blogspot.com/

My Hope for Minister:
www.stjohnsmemphis.org/clientimages/23318/theminstersaintjohns.pdf

Saint John’s Episcopal Church, Memphis, Tennessee http://www.stjohnsmemphis.org/

The Murals of John H. DeRosen http://www.stjohnsmemphis.org/685088

____________________________________________________________

I am happy to introduce the new “INTERVIEWS” section to the Foundation for the Biblical Arts’  website. It is here that I can now share some of these topics and ideas with others by recreating the conversations I have had regarding art, worship, and the consecrated space. I hope that people will feel free to contribute their ideas and questions as each interview is posted.

To start, our plans here at the FBA is to post an interview each month.

The first interview is with Father John Sewell, Rector of the Episcopal church of St. John, Memphis Tennessee. St. John is one of the few churches in the United States to have murals painted by John DeRosen, who also painted a mural in one of the chapels of the National Gallery.

The interview simply recreates a bit of what we talked about one afternoon in Memphis. It is due to be posted on July 1st, 2011.

I hear singing, a chant of sorts.

I walk to a small door at the right of the courtyard. This is the entrance to the Coptic Church and it is the service of these Egyptian Christians that draws me to witness.

The Coptic Chapel of St. Michael the Archangel is filled with a most beautiful and religious sound; a cross between two sounds I am familiar with (only for a rough reference), the Muslim adhan and Gregorian chant. Not knowing the language I almost feel it is stream of consciousness. It may be.

I get caught up in the stream and close my eyes.

I open my eyes and see a man, a Coptic monk perhaps, outside the gated sanctuary.

His face is in an ecstasy as he chants along, holding on to the vertical bars of the fencing. He is in an area that seems to be his area of service, a plate for coins sits on a small table.

I do not want to disturb him in his engagement to the worship. His face is so blissful. The sound is enchanting. He is wearing hearing aides.

~JWL

The Coptic Chapel, Holy Sepulchre, Old City Jerusalem

St. Michael’s in Olomouc, Czech Republic, is an ornate marble church in the Baroque style, very richly done. The marble is dark salmon and fleshy, the church is lavishly painted and the ceiling exquisite – overhead, the theology.

There is a side chapel flanking a square courtyard, the kind you would see in a monastery: walking halls that circumnavigate an open square inner garden.

Inside the halls are beautiful paintings serving as Stations of the Cross.

It is quiet and I am walking around alone, unattended. Only a nun is present in prayer, and she sits up front of the nave facing the alter.

I am in the hall looking at a painting of Christ being offered drink; He drips blood from his scourging. There is a door behind me on the opposite wall of the walkway.

My curiosity pulls me toward it.

I check it to see if it is locked­–it is not.

Looing to my left and to my right… I pause… then open the door and swiftly slip through the door to a landing atop descending stairs.

I cautiously descend into darkness, into a small cave-like room. No, it is a cave. Lights are on but it is dim.

It is not big and I am crouching at the one end where there appears to be a pool.

Yes, it is a pool with a stone cross. An arched opening to my left reveals a couple chairs, a small statue of Mary, a framed poster print of the risen Christ with sacred heart radiating the light of truth and the light of His love to us all.

It is a small space, thrifty and effective. For me, being underground in tight space alarms my sensitivities.

I have seen many a Baptismal pool, but this one acts symbolically  (and effectively) in a way the others do not.

[Show as slideshow]

I realize I am in the belly of the earth. I am claustrophobic and even my interest in documenting this unique place digitally can not quiet my heart from pounding or my breath from quickening.

To be baptized here is to surely encounter one’s symbolic death. I am actually getting the creeps.

I imagine what it must be like to be baptized here.

Descending into darkness, one’s focus is sharpened to the commitment at hand. This is a very visceral pit, not unlike a grave chamber.

What is most interesting to me is the ascent from below into the light above.

When one dies to their old life in this pit, they ascend to the light of day –  one arises from a life not fully realized or fulfilled, a life in darkness,  dimly lit artificially, to their new life in the True Light.

As the newly baptized ascends the steps the first images one encounters at the top of the steps are of Jesus in the paintings walking toward His crucifixion.

That is powerful.

And when they step into the awaiting church, the hosts of Heaven celebrate. The newborn to the Faith stands inside a space decorated with meaning that now comes alive with the splendor of heaven.

——-

I get the sense that religion is taken very seriously here.

~JWL

St. Michael’s, Olomouc, Czech Republic

The sages state that anyone who prays in the Temple in Jerusalem, prays before the throne of glory because the gate of heaven is situated there and it is open to hear prayer. Though the Temple is destroyed, though Christians would argue that Jesus eliminated the Holy of Holies when becoming the High Priest– this wall remains and is said to have always been protected by God.

I have brought my prayers. I have brought the prayers on paper of family and of friends, and sponsors of this trip.

I must search for a space and then compact my delivered prayers even smaller to wedge them individually into different areas wherever I might find even the smallest cleft. Prayer notes fill the cracks like mortar.

These prayers get removed and buried at intervals. I am between intervals.

These paper prayers are everywhere in the Wall. Prayers for the dead and the dying. Prayers for blessing. Prayers for help and guidance, hope and need. Prayers of Love to Abba Father. Prayers of gratitude–and the Talmud teaches that all prayers ascend to heaven through Jerusalem. It is thought that writing a prayer on a piece of paper and placing it into HaKotel is like having a continual prayer linked to the prime source.

This Western Wall, the remnant of the Temple, is proof to the Jews of God’s promise to be with them and to never forsake them His Chosen People. Divine Presence rests on the Western Wall more than other places.

God’s presence is felt here.

The intent of the Jew is felt here.  Facing the wall, prayers are read from books, prayers are recited and sung in minions.

Some people are here for hours. Joy and thanksgiving, tears and anguish permeate the air–and pleas for a restored Israel and the rebuilding of the Temple.

Here the art is in the performance of worship: written word, recitals and song, and the costumes of the religious all bring deep meaning to a space where God is met. It is history. It is legacy. It is intentional and it is now.

God and humanity imbue HaKotel with deep meaning– a sacred site.

~JWL

* Jerusalem Stone is a general term, to be exact: meleke limestone (meleke- Arabic“royal” or “kingly”).

A song: http://www.hebrewsongs.com/song-hakotel.htm

Occasionally I will see somewhere in a church, a Star of David in a mural or even the décor such as above to the right of St. Michael’s Alter in Chicago or on the face of the font at Grace-St. Lukes in Memphis…a small tie to Christianity’s past, the God of Israel, and hence Jacob, Isaac, and Abraham – the promises of God to those he had covenant and the continuation into the New Covenant in Jesus, the divinely anointed King through His sacrificial death and resurrection.

Here, this is no small nod to the past, or a mere wink as in other churches, if it is intentionally designed, this most recognized symbol of the Jewish people, this design of unity, this connection to the past from whence Christianity was born hoovers as a covering over the Armenean Orthodox Cathedral of St. James like a shield representing the covering of God – with the symbol of Israel, the Magen David–a title of the God of Israel.

How much more powerful to be here in the Old City of Jerusalem – this land upon which the stage of history is set: this place where the Jews are the Chosen of God from whom Yeshua was born through Miriam.

Since I have been in this Old City of Jerusalem, this thought has been growing in me: this question of separation – why is, and why was the Christian tree separated from her Jewish roots? I had never sensed the separation before, but now I am feeling the completeness, the fullness of the lineage, and the severance from the roots makes the tree of Christianity feel dead, like the wood of the cross.

St. James, a Jew.

I am standing under the dome in the Armenian Orthodox Cathedral in Jerusalem wondering if they know that the “Shield of David” covers them.

~JWL