My journey - a collection of urban missio dei musings, mullings and pondering
edilberto merida...
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I first came across this sculpture of Jesus on the Cross in the Faces of Jesus series. Hideous, ugly but compelling.
It is by Peruvian artist and sculptor Edilberto Merida.
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Anonymous said…
It provides a welcome contrast to all those blonde, blue-eyed Jesuses, with the artistic single drop of blood trickling down his luminescent face.
I have a habit of greeting those pictures/sculptures with "Give me a break! Jesus was a Jewish carpenter!"
In my mind's eye he was swarthy. Dark skinned, tanned from spending so much time outdoors. Prominent nose, dark brown eyes. Broad shoulders and strong, calloused hands from 20 years in his father's carpentry workshop. Not handsome - the Bible tells us that. And, at the time of crucifixion, horribly disfigured by the brutal beatings and cruel thorns.
That is the Jesus I can trust to take upon himself the sins of the world, and in the protection of whose broad shadow I can walk my path - not the effete image we usually see!
Came across a good bit of Sally bashing over at salvationsoldiers I have to say we try and make sure that everything we raise goes into projects that build local community in Poplar but hopefully if you read this blog you get that sense anyway.
Along the world famous Oxford street in London's Westend; nestled in among the classy frontage of designer shops there is almost an unnoticeable, unimpressive wooden door. It is more or less alongside The Regent Hall's main entrance onto the busyness of Oxford Street. People pass the wooden door oblivious to the equally unimpressive wooden steps that go up three storey's to what was Regent Hall's youth club. When I was 10 I played on these bare wooden steps totally unaware of the significance behind and upon which I played. Many years later I discovered a university youth work course - as an induction to Youth Work - stopped outside this insignificant wooden door to point out that Youth Work as we know it in the UK started behind this door. ...whether that be the surbanite flower people that flooded the Westend to express their free love; or the hard core drug community this unimpressive wooden door became the 'portal' that blurred encounter between church an...
It is easy to think and to limit ourselves to a single approach to Christian spirituality. A 'if it works for me it should work for you approach' tends to narrow our appreciation of other ways which actually impoverishes our experience of spirituality. Urban T. Holmes has developed a means of exploring spirituality and helps develop an appreciation through discovering links between spirituality, temperament and predisposition. The diagram illustrates his ideas together with potential inherent dangers. The vertical continuum speaks and helps us understand our relational orientation to God. This ranges from engaging with God through understanding and theological process to a more emotive response. Horizontally speaks of a persons preferred means of pursuing the spiritual life. Kataphtic speaks of affirmation and the need of something tangible in an individuals spirituality- this may take the form of worship, art, even imagination with the use of metaphors, symbols and images play...
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I have a habit of greeting those pictures/sculptures with "Give me a break! Jesus was a Jewish carpenter!"
In my mind's eye he was swarthy. Dark skinned, tanned from spending so much time outdoors. Prominent nose, dark brown eyes. Broad shoulders and strong, calloused hands from 20 years in his father's carpentry workshop. Not handsome - the Bible tells us that. And, at the time of crucifixion, horribly disfigured by the brutal beatings and cruel thorns.
That is the Jesus I can trust to take upon himself the sins of the world, and in the protection of whose broad shadow I can walk my path - not the effete image we usually see!