Stay Awake

Reflections on the Lectionary for November 13th

This week, instead of writing a reflection on the lectionary readings, I am going to point you to some reflections that I already wrote on one of the lectionary texts. I have written several commentary pieces for The Visual Commentary on Scripture. That’s a website hosted out of King’s College of London that hosts exhibits based on biblical passages. Each exhibit is written by someone who curates three works of art, and writes commentaries on each of the three works in relationship to the biblical text, and then writes a summative comparative commentary on all three works plus the text. It’s a really rich way to read the bible, and it’s a lot of fun to write for.

One of the lectionary texts for next week is Luke 21:5-19, which has parallel passages in Mark and Matthew. It’s the passage where Jesus predicts the destruction of the temple, which is often called “Mark’s little apocalypse” on the premise that Mark’s version was the earliest. I wrote and curated an exhibit for the Visual Commentary on Scripture based on those passages, titled Keep Awake, and you can find it here. The exhibit features art by Steven Cogle, Tammam Azzam, and Thornton Dial. Make sure you click on each of the three works of art and then click “Enter Exhibition” and “Show Commentary” and scroll down to read what I wrote about each, and then click on the comparative commentary as well. It’s a meditation on war, apocalypticism, history, and trauma.

The VCS has a free newsletter that comes out each Monday; I recommend signing up for it. Each week a new exhibit is featured. This week it was mine!