Gospels in Art, Music and Literature

The Story Of Salvation In Three Media Lectionary Year A

David Stancliffe

• Publisher: SPCK Publishing
• Year: 2013
• eBook ISBN: 9780281069484
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Church

For all who wish to reflect on the Gospels for each major Sunday and festival, this ebook offers extra dimensions of art, poetry, literary excerpts and music with a commentary by David Standcliffe. These extra resources can inspire and broaden the imagination and understanding.

1

Advent to Presentation: the Incarnation

The First Sunday of Advent

Photo © David Stancliffe

The Last Judgement (Beaulieu-sur-Dordogne Abbey, France)

Matthew 24.36–44

Keep awake, for you do not know when the Son of Man is coming

But about that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. For as the days of Noah were, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day Noah entered the ark, and they knew nothing until the flood came and swept them all away, so too will be the coming of the Son of Man. Then two will be in the field; one will be taken and one will be left. Two women will be grinding meal together; one will be taken and one will be left. Keep awake therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. But understand this: if the owner of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour.

The reading in the Roman Catholic Lectionary is the same passage, with a minor variation in length.

Other readings: Isaiah 2.1–5; Psalm 122; Romans 13.11–14

Recommended music

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Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750): Cantata 70 – Wachet! betet!

Click on the link below to hear the music (click off as soon as it ends). If you do not subscribe to Spotify, you will be asked, on your first visit, to sign in and choose a password for free but advertisements might pop up. Spotify subscribers will not see the adverts.

Nikolaus Harnoncourt – Bach, JS: Cantata No.70 Wachet! betet! betet! wachet! BWV70: I Chorus – “Wachet! betet! betet! wachtet!” [Choir]

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Wachet! betet! betet! wachet!

Watch! Pray! Pray! Watch!

Seid bereit

Be ready

Allezeit,

at all times

Bis der Herr der Herrlichkeit

until the Lord of glory

Dieser Welt ein Ende machet.

makes an end of this world.

Reading from literature

God

I vision God standing

On the heights of heaven,

Throwing the devil like

A burning torch

Over the gulf

Into the valleys of hell.

His eye the lightning’s flash,

His voice the thunder’s roll.

Wid one hand He snatched

The sun from its socket,

And the other He clapped across the moon.

I vision God wringing

A storm from the heavens;

Rocking the world

Like an earthquake;

Blazing the sea

Wid a trail er fire.

His eye the lightning’s flash,

His voice the thunder’s roll.

Wid one hand He snatched

The sun from its socket,

And the other He clapped across the moon.

I vision God standing

On a mountain

Of burnished gold,

Blowing his breath

Of silver clouds

Over the world.

His eye the lightning’s flash,

His voice the thunder’s roll.

Wid one hand He snatched

The sun from its socket,

And the other He clapped across the moon.

(Edward C. L. Adams and Robert G. O’Meally, from Tales of the Congaree. Copyright © 1987 by the University of North Carolina Press. Used by permission of the publisher.)

Reflection

While much of the apocalyptic imagery of the Last Judgement has migrated backwards into that period between All Souls Day and Advent (the sequence for the Requiem Mass that we associate with the great settings of Mozart and Verdi, the Dies Irae, was originally a sequence for Advent), in Matthew’s Gospel the coming of the Lord is always an imminent reality. No one knows the hour, and that long-expected final intervention is at the forefront of Matthew’s focus on the coming.

So whether you imagine it accompanied by last trump, as Bach certainly does in Cantata 70 with its upward arpeggios on the tromba, succeeded by the rushing upward scales in thirds in the voice parts; or in the majestic figure in the portal at Beaulieu, his arms outstretched like the cross held over his right shoulder, flanked by his angels with what look like oliphants – precursors of Roland’s horn; or in the apocalyptic God of the slaves of the south:

His eye the lightning’s flash,

His voice the thunder’s roll.

Wid one hand He snatched

The sun from its socket,

And the other He clapped across the moon

Matthew’s Son of Man is one who is always coming at the hour that you do not expect, so live with your eyes open.

Human beings have lost the skill that birds exhibit: that of focusing one eye on what they are doing, but keeping the other open for the danger that may suddenly appear when you are least prepared. We talk about keeping an eye open, but we can’t physically do it any more. Snatching the sun from its socket and clapping your hand across the moon is the language of blinding all natural light so that the deity’s lightning flash gives him control while his subjects stumble around in darkness. For generations the Church kept a firm control on human behaviour by threatening people with the perpetual darkness of hell, as if the Church held the strings. But Advent reminds us that it is always the Almighty who is in control, and that the coming of the Son of Man is always when we least expect it. The neat predictability of the Advent calendar’s countdown to Christmas is but a human ploy.

The Second Sunday of Advent

© SuperStock

Saint John the Baptist by El Greco (San Pio V Fine Arts Museum, Valencia)

Matthew 3.1–12

Prepare the way of the Lord

In those days John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness of Judea, proclaiming, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.’ This is the one of whom the prophet Isaiah spoke when he said,

‘The voice of one crying out in the wilderness:

“Prepare the way of the Lord,

make his paths straight.”’

Now John wore clothing of camel’s hair with a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey. Then the people of Jerusalem and all Judea were going out to him, and all the region along the Jordan, and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.

But when he saw many Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, ‘You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit worthy of repentance. Do not presume to say to yourselves, “We have Abraham as our ancestor”; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. Even now the axe is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

‘I baptize you with water for repentance, but one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Author information
• Title page
• Imprint
• Table of contents
• Acknowledgements
• How to use this book
• 1. Advent to Presentation: the Incarnation
• 2. Sundays before Lent – Ordinary Time
• 3. Ash Wednesday to Pentecost: the paschal mystery
• 4. Sundays after Trinity – Sundays of the year – Ordinary Time