Thursday, January 08, 2009

girl in gaza as contemporary epiphany icon?

Random swirl of connections today:

Lectionary reading = Genesis 12. Abram sent by God to a new land, in which Canaanites are already present. Read the text – verse 6. Nation of Israel and God’s people, are expected to live among cultures and people already present, already unlike them. In other words, Gaza needs to exist alongside Israel. This does not legitimate rockets or bombings or human shields, but nor does it permit a theology in which blessedness comes at the expense of anOther. This has huge implications for the way we preach and live the gospel of Jesus – that we have to have a theology which includes the option of people having different primary narratives. (Another piece of sustainable spirituality for me, a faith that lives within plurality)

Contemporary advent icon = made out of Christmas advertising, 1/4 created each week. “An artist in the community traced the image onto poster board indicating what color should go in each shape. People ages 6-65 cut out the right color from the ads and glued it in the space.”

here. I love the way it mixes initial creative skill with community participation, and the subversiveness of using Christmas advertising.

Gaza today = the icon is in an ancient style. So what, would happen if the icon was in fact titled “Girl from Gaza” (which Mary sort of, almost was) and sketched from a contemporary picture, say this

or “Gaza refugee escaping to Egypt”, like here, which is the Epiphany narrative?

Random linkage? Or is that by keeping our faith ancient, we are in fact closing our eyes to the horror of what it would have been like for Mary to run in fear from the steel blades of soldiers sent from Jerusalem? Why, oh why, do we construct faith systems that can in fact be used to legitimate the suffering of the innocent?

Posted by steve at 08:59 AM

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