I took myself to NGV International this week for quiet time to prep for communion – this is a photo from their 16th and 17th Century Art section. All the images in the gallery to the left of the frame were images of the crucifixion of Jesus and all those to my right the birth… we’ve just had Easter (crucifixion) and now we’ve got the months before Christmas (birth). It’s easy to think of Jesus at these times – the time he was born and the time he died (then rose) – those were miraculous events and out of my reach. I know there are people out there who just connect with church at the high holidays but this is what they miss… I can’t ‘be like Jesus’ in the sense of how he was born or died, this can make Jesus seem far away, but the life in between these events… telling stories, listening to others, going for walks, praying, holding kids, going fishing – these things are in our reach… Life we can live between these special sacred high holidays in ‘ordinary time’, this is when it’s easier to be near and be like Jesus.
Jesus is sitting eating the Passover meal with his friends – people who worked for the Roman Empire and rebels who worked to overthrow it… JB Were and the Occupy Movement, the rich with inherited investments and property portfolios and those of inter-generational poverty on Centrelink, Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander peoples with colonisers… took the food they were eating in front of them and made it sacred. He took ‘ordinary time’ and made it sacred, imbuing it with ritual and meaning.
…something to think about next time you go fishing.
itellyouarise 