Sunday, November 3, 2013

Why THAT Painting?


Luke 20: 27-38
Some Sadducees, those who say there is no resurrection, came to him and asked him a question, “Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies, leaving a wife but no children, the man shall marry the widow and raise up children for his brother. Now there were seven brothers; the first married, and died childless; then the second and the third married her, and so in the same way all seven died childless. Finally the woman also died. In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife will the woman be? For the seven had married her.” Jesus said to them, “Those who belong to this age marry and are given in marriage; but those who are considered worthy of a place in that age and in the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage. Indeed they cannot die anymore, because they are like angels and are children of God, being children of the resurrection. And the fact that the dead are raised Moses himself showed, in the story about the bush, where he speaks of the Lord as the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Now he is God not of the dead, but of the living; for to him all of them are alive.”

Priests, pastors, bartenders and apparently seafood shack fry cooks all seem to be blessed in at least one similar way.  We all hear wonderful stories. 

Peter has been a regular for the last two summers at The Shack and he shared the story of growing up on one half of an old Quaker farm.  Andrew and Betsy Wyeth owned the other half.


The day after Christmas in 1960, Peter was in Andy’s studio (he calls him Andy) and Andy told him to “have a good look” at the paintings in the room.  That’s when Andy sprung “The Game” on him for the first time, “Peter, the house is on fire, which one painting do you grab on the way out?”  

Peter pointed to one particular painting.  
“Good,” said Andy, “now tell me WHY you chose that one.”  Peter shared that he said something about the young bull’s coat and the wall matching, but that, apparently, was not the end of what Andy was looking for from Peter.

He says that, “Andy’s eyes narrowed down until he was squinting, almost glaring, at me... he was standing close to me and he suddenly looked very fierce to the ten-year old me.”
“Peter,” Andy said, very directly, “I mean I want you to REALLY tell me WHY you like this one.”  

It was Andrew Wyeth’s fierce, squinting challenge for Peter to leave the surface, the place most of us spend much of our lives, and dive into the infinite... into the Holy... into the eternal MORE.

It was the beginning of a journey for Peter... not a physical journey, but one that challenged him, and from what I’ve come to know of him, continues to challenge him to never stop journeying further into the ever deepening questions of life.

The question the Sadducees asked Jesus in today’s Gospel was not meant to challenge anyone to go deeper into anything... it was meant to accomplish the exact opposite... to stop Jesus from continuing to invite people to go deeper into the infinite... into the Holy... into the MORE.  For the Sadducees, there was no journey.  They were there.    

As Jesus pivoted to answer the question which the Sadducees had set as a trap, in my minds eye, I picture Jesus with Andy’s eyes, looking at Sadducees much like Peter describes Andy looking at him in his story; eyes narrowed down until he was squinting, almost glaring... standing close and suddenly looking fierce, Jesus said to the Sadducees and the other religious and political leaders of his day, “I want you to REALLY tell me WHY. Why do you insist on limits and on death when God is always and all about the infinite and LIFE!?  Why?”

The Sadducees were basically a denomination of Judaism.  A big part of their belief led them to only accept the first five books of the Scriptures; that meant no prophets, no history, no psalms, no proverbs and none of the new ideas found in those places... things like angels and the resurrection of the dead.  They were the wealthy, powerful traditionalists of their day.  They didn’t want to hear there was anything wrong with what they believed or the way they lived and saw no reason for anything to change.  

You can see why they weren’t big fans of Jesus.  Jesus not only talked about “new” religious ideas they didn’t believe in, like resurrection and angels but he also talked about other, even more pointed ideas from the wisdom literature and the prophets... he talked a lot about Biblical justice... the notion that God wants the poor lifted up, demands the hungry have enough to eat, insists the sick be cared for and the outcasts be brought back into the community.

Jesus’ insistence that God aches for all of creation not just to live, but to live abundantly and his further insistence that it is each one of us who is called to bring that abundant life to our neighbors was just way too much for the Sadducees to take.   

It was too much because Jesus wasn’t only challenging the way they looked at their religious lives, he was challenging the way they looked at the social, the political, the business parts of life... every, single, aspect of their very comfortable, very stable and very traditional everyday lives.  He was challenging them to leave the security and familiarity of the surface where they had always existed before, and go deeper, journey farther... to see the world through God’s eyes... to see God’s vision for creation and hear God’s deepest desire that God’s will be done, “on earth as it is in heaven.” 

Now, there is a long and rich Christian tradition of being pretty hard on Chief Priests, Pharisees, Scribes and Sadducees; the religious and political leaders who opposed Jesus... much of it well deserved.  But before we come down too hard on these Sadducees, we should probably keep in mind that they were considered among the most faithful people of their day.  When the rest of the world was messing around on the Lord’s Day, THEY were the ones who were faithfully in worship.  THEY were the keepers of tradition while everyone else chased after every new fangled idea and program, THEY were, well, in a way, a lot like us.    

When Jesus turned to stare at them 2000 years ago, as I imagine, with narrowing, squinting... almost glaring eyes... he challenged the people of that time who had become the settled, established, set religious and political leaders of the world.

He challenged them to take up the journey they had set aside, the journey God created them to take and to again dive deeply into the infinite that is God’s love for all of creation.  His challenge for them was to once again embrace God’s vision of not just existing from day to day on the surface, but diving deeply into God’s love and compassion for all of creation and daring them to really and fully LIVE!


Just as Wyeth challenged Peter that day after Christmas in 1960 to go deeper with his intense question of “Why, would you take THAT painting?” Jesus challenged the world then, and challenges us today to ask the questions that will open us up to God’s Holy and Infinite MORE.

Do the questions we ask of ourselves invite us... even compel us... deeper on that journey toward the vision of the abundant life that God wants for us and all of creation?  Or do the questions we ask ourselves stop us from looking more deeply into the eternal because we have become too content floating comfortably on the surface of life?

May each of us as individuals be open to the questions that challenge us to go deeper.  May we as the people of God open ourselves together to a never ending journey of faith, helping one another to see the surprising ways God is working all around us, in us and through us each and every day.  May we all choose, both as individuals and as the people of God, to dive each and every day ever deeper into the abundant life God created for all of creation to LIVE.  Amen. 


Thanks goes to Peter Ralston, one of the people I was meant to meet on my journey through Maine.  The paintings I've included are by Andrew Wyeth.  The photographs, including Andy's portraits, are by Peter Ralston.  Peter's gallery in Rockport has both Wyeth's work and Peter's available for you to see.   Stop by in person if you're in the area. Peter's also a great storyteller. For more visit www.ralstongallery.com.

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