Visual Art – Art & Theology

Roundup: New VCS commentary, dichroic glass installation, the Lord’s Prayer in 11 languages, and more

May 19, 2026May 19, 2026 Victoria Emily JonesLeave a comment

With the feast of Pentecost coming up this Sunday, celebrating the gift of the Holy Spirit and the mission of the church, here are a few items of interest from around the web.

VISUAL COMMENTARIES: “The Risen Christ Appearing to the Disciples” by Victoria Emily Jones: This spring my latest exhibition for the Visual Commentary on Scripture was published, on Luke 24:36–49 and John 20:19–23, where Jesus appears to his frightened disciples after his resurrection, giving them peace, assurance, renewed purpose, and power. (In John’s telling of this episode, sometimes referred to as the Johannine Pentecost, Jesus breathes his Spirit onto them!) I selected and wrote about paintings by a medieval German artist, an Italian Renaissance artist, and a contemporary Indian artist that triangulate these parallel passages.

Two shortlisted artworks were David LaChapelle’s photograph Evidence of a Miraculous Event and a digital painting by Duncan Robertson.

>> Want to learn more about the Visual Commentary on Scripture [previously], an excellent free resource for pastors and other readers and teachers of the Bible? Check out the Exhibiting Faith podcast episode from April 30, where host David Trigg interviews VCS director Ben Quash about it.

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SONGS:

>> “O for a Thousand Tongues to Sing,” arr. Christopher M. Smith, performed by the MNU Heritage Choir: Smith arranged two stanzas of this Wesleyan hymn for the student choir he directs at MidAmerica Nazarene University in Olathe, Kansas. They perform the song inside the Bell Cultural Events Center, which has lines from the hymn inscribed on the walls.

>> “Citizen” by Philippa Hanna and Israel Houghton, performed with Moses Bliss

>> “For Your Gift of God the Spirit” by Margaret Clarkson (words) and Darwin Jordan (music), performed by musicians at Philpott Church in Hamilton, Ontario

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ARTICLE: “Vivid Spectrums of Color Radiate from Chris Wood’s Intricate Installations of Dichroic Glass” by Grace Ebert, Colossal: When I saw photos of this artwork by the Cambridgeshire-based light artist Chris Wood, with its prismatic colors and outward expansion, I thought of Pentecost—of the radiant gospel of Jesus Christ, from the launchpad of his resurrection and subsequent giving of his Spirit, going out to the world via and to various people groups, setting it ablaze. The artist says she was inspired by the logarithmic spiral of the nautilus shell. “We find in this a representation of how radiance can be embodied within us, as projected to those around us,” she says.

Wood, Chris_40 x 40 — Chris Wood (British, 1954–), *40 × 40*, 2022. Dichroic glass, diameter 160 cm. Commissioned by Clé de Peau Beauté.

40 × 40 was commissioned in 2022 by the Japanese luxury skincare and makeup brandClé de Peau Beauté for its fortieth anniversary. The work comprises forty spirals, each made up of forty pieces of dichronic glass, each forty millimeters long.

“Dichroic is a material that is colorless, but it has an optical filter on it,” Wood explains. “So when light hits it, certain wavelengths, which are manifested as colors, reflect back, and the remaining wavelengths pass through, creating two colors. Those colors change depending on the angle and quality of the light and the viewpoint. It’s just the most eloquent description of the magic of light that I could find.”

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VIDEO: “The Lord’s Prayer: One Church, One Prayer”: ICF (International Christian Fellowship) Rotterdam-Noord, an intercultural church in the Netherlands, recently put together a video compilation of some of its members praying the Lord’s Prayer in their mother tongues; represented are English, Papiamentu, Dutch, Malayalam, Swahili, Arabic, Twi, Spanish, Tagalog, Chinese, and German.

Rotterdam is a diverse city, home to 170 different nationalities. In the neighborhoods ICF North serves, 70 percent of residents have a migrant background. Every Sunday the church, pastored by Fred Kappinga, offers an Arabic-Dutch service and an English-Dutch service, with translations into other languages when necessary and possible. They sing Christian worship songs from around the world and host guest preachers of various ethnicities.

Ascension Day Roundup

May 12, 2026May 27, 2026 Victoria Emily JonesLeave a comment

Occurring forty days after Easter, Ascension Day is this Thursday, May 14, and will be celebrated by many churches on Sunday, honoring Jesus’s ascent to heaven. This historic event “represents both a conclusion and a commencement,” writes Ashley Tumlin Wallace: “Jesus finished his earthly work while setting into motion the gift of the Holy Spirit and the birth of the Church.” Below are a few items for the occasion.

QUOTE: “In the mystery of the Ascension we reflect on the way in which, in one sense, Christ ‘leaves’ us and is taken away into Heaven, but in another sense he is given to us and to the world in a new and more universal way. He is no longer located only in one physical space to the exclusion of all others. He is in the Heaven which is at the heart of all things now and is universally accessible to all who call upon Him. And since His humanity is taken into Heaven, our humanity belongs there too, and is in a sense already there with him. ‘For you have died,’ says St. Paul, ‘and your life is hidden with Christ in God.’ In the Ascension Christ’s glory is at once revealed and concealed, and so is ours.”—Malcolm Guite

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ARTICLE: “Ten Reasons to Celebrate Ascension Day” by John Witvliet, Reformed Worship: John Witvliet, senior scholar and professor of theology, worship, and the arts at Belmont University, answers the question “Why does Ascension Day matter?” He concludes with two book recommendations and some suggestions for corporate worship.

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ALBUM: Ascension Songs by Cardiphonia: This compilation album from 2012 features nineteen traditional hymns about Christ’s ascension, seventeen of which have been retuned by contemporary singer-songwriters and worship leaders. I featured one by Sarah Majorins back in 2019; here are two other favorites, the latter from the Sacred Harp tradition:

>> “Today Our Lord Went Up On High” | Words by Johann Zwick, 1542; trans. Catherine Winkworth, 1858 | Music by Rebekah Osborn, 2012

>> “Jesus, My All, to Heav’n Has Gone” | Words by John Cennick, 1743 | Music (NORTH PORT) by R. R. Osborne, 1850 | Arranged by Bruce Benedict, 2010

(Related post: “A Hymn of Glory Let Us Sing”)

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ORATORIO: Lobet Gott in seinen Reichen (Praise God in His Realms) by J. S. Bach: Known as the Ascension Oratorio, Bach’s BWV 11 was composed for the Feast of the Ascension almost three centuries ago. It is structured in eleven movements in two parts and runs about a half hour. Its libretto comprises some original texts (likely written by the German poet and Bach’s regular collaborator Picander) as well as quotations from the Bible and hymns by Johann Rist and Gottfried Wilhelm Sacer. It both mourns Christ’s bodily departure and extols his universal reign.

The oratorio’s closing chorale fantasia (starting at 25:48 in the video above) is often cited as one of many examples of Bach’s sophisticated expression of theology through music. The orchestra plays in D major while the chorus sings in B minor—“When shall it happen, / When will the dear time come, / That I shall see him / In his glory?”—conveying the human state of waiting and hoping for Christ’s return and the fulfillment of that hope. Both jaunty and full of longing, and harmonious between the two, movement 11 anticipates the day when we will be reunited with Christ in the flesh. Craig Smith writes,

The final chorale is an amazing tour de force. A verse set to the melody of the grave chorale “Von Gott will ich nicht lassen” is imbedded in the brilliant trumpet- and drum-dominated D Major texture of the orchestra. The B minor of the chorale never loses its identity but is simply swallowed up in the D Major. Bach understands the melancholy of being left behind, and profoundly includes it here in this ostensibly joyous festival.

The above performance from 2013 is by the Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists, conducted by John Eliot Gardiner. An English translation of the German lyrics is given as subtitles, but you can also follow along here.

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REFLECTION: “Let me go, because then the Spirit will come” by Jonathan Evens: Jonathan Evens, a vicar in the Church of England, shares the reflection he gave on Ascension Day at St Martin-in-the-Fields in London in 2020, which concludes with a verse-style meditation that I really like. Here’s the first stanza:

Touch me not.
I am not yours
to have and hold,
in this shape
in this form.
Let go.
Let me go.
Let my Spirit come.
Divine my Spirit,
know me
within.

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PAINTING: The Ascension, ca. 1340–50: Last fall while I was in Cologne, I visited the Wallraf-Richartz-Museum, which has an excellent collection of medieval German art. Here’s a lovely little Ascension painting I saw:

It’s from a small triptych made in the mid-fourteenth century in a Cologne workshop for a Poor Clares cloister in the city. The object would have been used by the nuns for private contemplation. Its central scene is the Crucifixion, and the wings portray, in addition to the Ascension: the Nativity, the Adoration of the Magi, and the Descent of the Holy Spirit.

Triptych with Depiction of the Outworking of God's Plan for Salvation — *Triptych with Depiction of the Outworking of God’s Plan for Salvation*, Cologne, ca. 1340–50. Tempera on oak. Wallraf-Richartz-Museum, Cologne, Inv. 1. Photo: Victoria Emily Jones.

As is common in medieval paintings of the Ascension, that panel shows Jesus from the waist down, rising out of frame, leaving behind a set of footprints on the Mount of Olives. To me, that physical impression is a reminder of how Jesus, the God-man, has a body—he walked the earth in it, feeling dirt between his toes, and went to heaven with it, prefiguring the day when those who are in Christ will also, soul and body, join the Father in glory. That little mark on the mound, a negative space where Jesus’s weight once pressed, speaks both presence and absence. Ten days later, he’d send down his Spirit on the same gazing group, and many more besides, and their beautiful feet would carry the good news of his risen life far and wide.

Roundup: Dissident cinema, extreme birdwatching, Thomas Kinkade’s hidden vault, and more

May 6, 2026May 6, 2026 Victoria Emily JonesLeave a comment

SPOTIFY PLAYLIST: May 2026 (Art & Theology)

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PODCAST SERIES: Dissident Cinema Marathon, Filmspotting: Over the next two months, Filmspotting, my favorite film podcast, is running a marathon on the theme of politically dissident cinema, exploring six films that confront authoritarian power and state abuse. They come from the US, Italy, Japan, Greece, France, and Iran:

The Great Dictator (Chaplin, 1940) – Kanopy, HBO, Amazon Prime, Criterion Channel, etc.
Rome, Open City (Rossellini, 1945) – HBO
No Regrets for Our Youth (Kurosawa, 1946) – Criterion Channel
Z (Gavras, 1969) – HBO
The Sorrow and the Pity (Ophuls, 1969) – Kanopy, Kino Film Collection (free trial)
The Circle (Panahi, 2000) – psst

The first episode of the marathon aired May 4 (see below). It reviews Charlie Chaplin’s first true sound film, The Great Dictator, a political satire denouncing Hitler and Nazism. Chaplin stars as Adenoid Hynkel, the delusional, power-hungry, self-obsessed “phooey” (parody of Führer) of Tomainia. Chaplin started writing the script in fall 1938 and began filming it in September 1939; the movie was released in the US in October 1940. At a time when European nations were making concessions to Hitler and many Germans, swayed in part by his charisma and promises, were supporting his ultranationalist ideology, and others were simply conveniently ignoring him (Chaplin’s own adopted country was trying to maintain neutrality), Chaplin had the guts to call a spade a spade and openly mock the world leader and, in the character of a Jewish barber who’s mistaken for Hynkel, deliver a sincere and rousing speech against his fascist rule.

Chaplin realized, says cohost Josh Larsen [previously], that “it’s a crucial thing . . . calling out a dictator, whether it’s Hitler or someone we’re living with. You call him out as an idiot, because as a comedian, this is what Chaplin is going to be able to do: lampoon the inherent silliness . . . the puffery, the pageantry, the needing of arches and ballrooms and your face on every frickin’ thing everyone looks at. . . . It takes a comedian to spoof all of this self-important buffoonery that, to my mind, is really just an attempt to mask a lack of moral authority.” The movie contains one of cinema’s most memorable and prescient scenes: the demented globe dance, where Hynkel gracefully tosses, kicks, and balances a balloon globe, imagining a “pure Aryan world” with himself as a god.

To participate in the marathon, watch the films on your own (above, I shared the streaming services they’re on, but you might also see if DVDs are available at your local library), and listen to the podcast discussions that will be released one by one in the coming weeks on YouTube and your favorite podcast platform.

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BOOK EXCERPT: “Thinking about Cinema and Spirituality” by Gareth Higgins, from A Whole Life in Twelve Movies: Last year I published a micro-review of A Whole Life in Twelve Movies: A Cinematic Journey to Deeper Spirituality by Kathleen Norris and Gareth Higgins. Here’s an excerpt from the book’s introduction, in which Higgins provides some principles to help you go deeper into movies, to “experienc[e] images, sounds, words, and stories in a sacramental way.” Three primary questions to ask are:

What do you remember most about the movie—what stands out for you?
What was a highlight for you, and what was a challenge?
What questions does the film raise for your own life or for the world as you see it?

And he suggests several more questions to consider as and after you watch.

This excerpt is published on the Substack Soul Telegram, which Norris and Higgins also jointly author. The second half comprises Norris’s reflections on Life Itself, a 2014 documentary about the famous film critic Roger Ebert.

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PODCAST EPISODE: “Songs for Public Faith, with Jon Guerra,” Conversing, February 10, 2026: “Singer-songwriter Jon Guerra [previously] joins Mark Labberton to explore devotional songwriting, public faith, and the tension between the kingdom of Jesus and American cultural power. Through music and reflection, Guerra considers how art can hold grief, courage, and hope together in turbulent times.” Guerra says he wants his music to help orient people to higher and longer and deeper things. He discusses his songs “American Gospel,” “Love Your Enemies,” “The Kingdom of Jesus,” and “Citizens” (last two embedded below).

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DOCUMENTARY: Listers: A Glimpse into Extreme Birdwatching (2025), dir. Owen Reiser: In 2024, twenty-something brothers Quentin and Owen Reiser, the latter a wildlife photographer, embarked on what birders call a “big year,” traveling the contiguous United States attempting to witness and identify as many bird species as possible, trying to beat the record of 751 birds. They undertook this challenge on a meager $16,000 budget (in contrast to most big year competitors, who spend hundreds of thousands of dollars), driving and sleeping in a Kia Sedona and eating mostly beans and canned tuna. Listers—a term describing birdwatchers who keep detailed records of the birds they encounter—is a documentary about the Reisers’ whimsical excursion, learning the ins and outs of birding by poring over field guides, calling rare bird hotlines, interviewing members of the birding community, and simply doing. The film alternates between high-resolution footage of the birds they observe and handheld camcorder footage of their other experiences on the road and in the wild. They delve into relevant controversies and debates, such as the playback of recorded bird calls to attract birds into view and the increasing gamification of birding through the citizen science app eBird.

But the film also encourages an appreciation of the beauty and variety of North American birds. It closes with an intertitle quote by the naturalist Kenn Kaufman, from his book Kingbird Highway: “As trivial as our listing pursuit may be, it gets us out there in the real world, paying attention, hopeful and awake. Any day could be a special day, and probably will be, if we just go out to look.”

The Reisers received distribution offers from Netflix, HBO, and Amazon but turned them all down, as they want Listers to be freely accessible to everyone. Watch the film here; trailer below. They also self-published their own field guide as a supplement.

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ARTICLE: “Lessons from the Hidden Vault of Thomas Kinkade” by Michael Wright: After Thomas Kinkade, the best-selling evangelical Christian “painter of light,” died of an overdose in 2012, his estranged family found a vault in his home containing hundreds of off-brand paintings he had made. Dark, moody, experimental—they are a far cry from the idyllic cottages that made him rich and famous. These previously unseen paintings are featured in the recent documentary Art for Everybody, directed by Miranda Yousef. (See trailer below.) Michael Wright shares some thoughts after seeing the film, which he says cultivated sympathy in him for Kinkade and the pressures he faced to be a “Good Christian Leader” and softened his harsh opinions of the artist into more complicated questions, such as “Why does an artist hide vital parts of himself for the sake of success? What happens when we curate branded versions of ourselves? Why do we continue to see this cycle of Christian leaders wrecking their lives? How can we imagine new social landscapes?” How can the market make room for an artist’s whole self?

Roundup: Exultet rolls, “Sing, Little Bird,” Biola’s Calvary Chapel, and more

April 15, 2026April 16, 2026 Victoria Emily Jones1 Comment

Most of us grew up celebrating Easter Sunday like it was the finish line, the big, joyful mic drop: “He is risen!” But the church, historically, has never treated Easter as a single day. It’s a whole season—Eastertide, stretching fifty days from resurrection to Pentecost. Fifty days of practicing resurrection. Of sitting in the reality that new life doesn’t just burst forth . . . it unfolds.

And yet, many evangelical spaces move on by the next Sunday. Back to regular programming. Back to “what’s next.”

What if we didn’t rush past resurrection? What if we let joy linger? What if we made space for wonder, for doubt, for the slow work of becoming people shaped by an empty tomb?

Eastertide invites us to stay. To notice. To live like resurrection is still happening. Maybe that’s something worth recovering.

—@thetheologygirls

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BLOG POSTS: “Rejoice Now!” by Sarah J. Biggs and “Exultet rolls: Celebrating the return of light” by Eleanor Jackson: These two posts from the British Library’s Medieval Manuscripts Blog contain overlapping content; the first (from 2013) is better for images, the second for text. “The medieval churches of Southern Italy maintained a very special Easter tradition,” writes curator Ellie Jackson. “They celebrated the Easter Vigil of Holy Saturday from a scroll made to be used once a year for this specific ritual. Known as Exultet rolls, these manuscripts combine words, music and pictures to create an enthralling multimedia experience centred on the joyful theme of light returning to the world.” Their name comes from the first word of the ancient proclamation sung by a deacon or priest during the blessing of the Paschal candle in the Roman Rite: “Exultet iam angelica turba caelum . . .” (Rejoice now, all you heavenly choirs of angels . . .) “Exsultent,” with an s, is a variant spelling.

Deacon reading from an Exultet roll — *A deacon reading the Exultet roll in church*, from the Monte Cassino Exultet Roll, made at the Benedictine abbey of Monte Cassino in southern Italy, ca. 1075–80. London, British Library, Add MS 30337, membrane 11.

The British Library has one Exultet roll in its collection (Add MS 30337); learn more about it from either of these blog posts. Unfortunately, the full digitized manuscript file was among the thousand-plus lost in a massive cyberattack in October 2023, and it has not yet been rescanned, but select images can be viewed in low resolution in the posts. These images include a personification of Mother Earth and her abundance, a comparison of the Crossing of the Red Sea (the quintessential saving act in Israel’s history) to the Harrowing of Hell, bees gathering nectar (which accompanies words of gratitude to the bees that produced the wax of the Paschal candle), and more.

To read the Exultet (Easter Proclamation) from the Roman Catholic liturgy and for additional images from other Exultet rolls, see the Ad Imaginem Dei blog post “Exultet! The Easter Proclamation” by Margaret M. Duffy. To hear the Exultet sung using the Gregorian chant melody from the Roman Missal, see the following rendition from Liturgical Folk’s 2017 album Table Settings, or the 2010 OCP recording from Pange Lingua Gloriosi: Choral Music for Holy Week.

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SONGS:

>> “Surrexit Christus” by Jacques Berthier: Kester Limner and Andy Myers perform a 1984 song from Taizé, an ecumenical monastic community in Burgundy, France. Its Latin refrain, “Surrexit Christus . . . Cantate Domino,” translates to “Christ is risen . . . Sing to the Lord!”

>> “Sing, Little Bird” by Dan Damon: In 2024, the California-based hymnist Dan Damon penned new lyrics to a traditional Ukrainian folk tune that I’m sure you’ll recognize. He writes,

The Ukrainian folk song SHCHEDRYK (lit. “bountiful evening”) is a shchedrivka, or New Year’s song, known in English as “The Little Swallow.” It tells of a swallow bringing good news for the coming year. Ukrainian composer Mykola Leontovych (1877–1921) arranged the folk song in 1916. Twenty years later, American composer Peter J. Wilhousky published his own lyrics for the song. His choral arrangement, “Carol of the Bells,” has become a standard in the Christmas repertoire. As I was working on a solo piano arrangement of this song, I got an idea for an Easter text that could be sung by a congregation. The swallow in the original folk song made me think of a little bird singing the good news of the resurrection.

“Sing, Little Bird” is the title song of his latest hymn collection that is forthcoming from Hope Publishing Company in July 2026. Another new Easter hymn that will be included is “Last night did Christ the Sun rise from the dark,” a setting of a ninth-century text by Sedulius Scottus that I featured last year; follow the link to listen to Damon’s demo.

>> “Gone” by Eldridge Fox: Teddy Huffam and the Gems, with pianist Anthony Burger, perform a classic Southern gospel song written by Eldrige Fox in 1972.

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VIRTUAL TOUR: Calvary Chapel, Biola University, La Mirada, California: Constructed in 1975, Biola University’s Calvary Chapel [previously] was completely renovated in summer 2018 to enhance the sense of the sacred in that space. Biola commissioned leading Danish artists Peter Brandes and Maja Lisa Engelhardt, a husband-wife team, to conceive and carry out a creative vision that would involve updated lighting, colors, flooring, and seating and the making of new art. The renovated chapel features thirty-two handcrafted stained glass windows by Brandes (integrating innovative LED illumination technology) and two large gilded sculptures by Engelhardt, all created around the central theme of the Resurrection. The focal point is a thirty-one-foot-long gold relief sculpture that depicts the resurrected Christ emerging from the tomb, radiant with glory.

Biola’s website offers a self-guided tour comprising six videos—one for each of the four wings, plus an intro and a conclusion—and photographs and descriptions of the art. I highly encourage you to explore this resource! Here’s the video for the “western wing” (the liturgical east end):

Engelhardt, Maja Lisa_Resurrection — Maja Lisa Engelhardt (Danish, 1956–), *Resurrection*, 2018. Gilded plaster relief wall, 31 × 18 ft. Calvary Chapel, Biola University, La Mirada, California.

Peter Brandes stained glass — Peter Brandes (Danish, 1944–2025), *The Crucifixion of Christ*, *Supper at Emmaus*, and *The Resurrected Christ Encounters Mary Magdalene*, 2018. Stained glass, Calvary Chapel, Biola University, La Mirada, California.

I really like the allusiveness of the altarpiece and the semiabstract style of the biblical scenes in the windows, which include the Sacrifice of Isaac, Elijah Raising the Widow’s Son, David Playing the Harp for King Saul, Cain Killing Abel, the Baptism of Christ, Nicodemus Visiting Christ, Christ in Gethsemane,the Crucifixion, the Eucharist, the Supper at Emmaus, Christ as the Sowing Farmer, and the Return of the Prodigal Son.

Easter, Day 8: We Walk His Way

April 12, 2026April 13, 2026 Victoria Emily JonesLeave a comment

LOOK: The Resurrection by Severino Blanco

Blanco, Severino_Resurrection — Severino Blanco (Quechua, 1951–2020), *The Resurrection*, ca. 1984. Mural, Casa del Catequista (CADECA) Chapel, Cochabamba, Bolivia.

Severino Blanco (1951–2020) [previously] was a Quechua Christian artist from Ayopaya, Bolivia. His magnum opus is an extensive cycle of biblical paintings inside the chapel of the Casa del Catechista (CADECA) in Cochabamba, a center for training catechists (lay Catholic missionaries) and pastoral leaders to serve the sixty villages in the city’s archdiocese.

The centerpiece of the mural is an image of the risen Christ breaking through the chains of hell, trampling down its gates and leading an exodus of departed saints into new life. I can spot Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. of the United States and Archbishop Óscar Romero of El Salvador, martyrs of the faith, and I’m sure there are many other Latin American Christian preachers and activists pictured—those who walk the way of liberation.

Barefoot and glowing, Jesus bears the puncture wounds from his crucifixion, but they are now glorified, and he holds high a cacique’s (Indigenous chief’s) staff, signifying his leadership. Beneath his feet are symbols of some of the hellish obsessions or addictions from which he frees us: a rifle and a hydrogen bomb (war and violence), money (greed, materialism), a needle and a liquor bottle (substance abuse). He walks through a rainbow-rimmed portal that frames him and his followers like an aureole and that is surrounded by flowering tree branches.

Above this vignette is the blessing hand of God the Father, and below is the Holy Spirit as dove, from whom issues forth streams of living water (see John 7:37–39). The presence of these two other persons of the Trinity emphasizes the Resurrection as a Trinitarian event.

This image is used on the cover of the German-language book Von Befreiung und Erlösung: Bilder in CADECA Cochabamba/Bolivien (Of Liberation and Redemption: Pictures in CADECA Cochabamba, Bolivia) by Alois Albrecht. The book features reproductions of the mural scenes alongside relevant Bible passages and texts by Latin American theologians and other members of the church.

One of the texts reproduced in the book is a letter from a Paraguayan base community to European Christians. (The date is not provided, nor is the original Spanish.) Here’s Google’s translation from the German:

Good people, our brothers and sisters in Europe!

Here as there, we celebrate Easter these days. How do you celebrate the feast of the resurrection of our suffering Lord, his passing from death to new life?

Here, the few rich people pass by the suffering of the poor. It is said of Jesus that he did not cling to his divinity as if it were a prize. But here, the few rich people plunder everything from the poor majority: bread, land, work, wages, health, housing, security.

How is passing over to a new life, like Easter, like resurrection, possible then? Are we not all brothers and sisters, you there and we here? Easter is an international affair.

Our situation has international roots and is caused by those who make decisions in the world, carry out plans, and in doing so forget us, the little brothers and sisters of the suffering and slain Jesus.

Easter is the feast of hopeful departure, of joyful new beginnings, of enthusiastic new life. But who among us feels anything of departure, joy, new beginnings, new life? Yes, hope—we have it! Easter is a feast of expectation; for whoever is always on the way also reaches their destination.

So, brothers and sisters! Despite everything, let us go our own way, you there and we here, in the light of Christ, the Lord raised to new life, to seek together equality and freedom for all.

We Paraguayans need you there, and not just your money, but above all your sure and loud voice against the ideology that enslaves and kills us all, us poor and you rich alike.

We all live in the same danger of death. But our risen Lord has also made us all his equal brothers and sisters. Please don’t forget that!

Arnoldo and friends and family

Another text is an excerpt from a document of the Third General Assembly of the Latin American Episcopate in Puebla, Mexico, in 1979. Again, Google Translate:

In fulfillment of the commission he received from his Father, Jesus voluntarily offered himself up to death on the cross, which was the goal of his life’s journey. As the bringer of the freedom and joy of the kingdom of God, he wanted to become the decisive sacrifice for injustice and evil in this world. On the cross, he takes upon himself the pain of creation and offers his life as a sacrifice for all.

In this way, he is the high priest who is able to share our weaknesses with us. He is the Easter sacrifice that redeems us from our sins. He is the obedient Son who, in the face of his Father’s redeeming justice, incarnates the cry for liberation and salvation of all people. . . .

Therefore, the Father raises his Son from the dead. He exalts him in glory to his right hand, pours out upon him the life-giving power of his Spirit, appoints him as head of his body, that is, the church, and confirms him as Lord of the world and of history.

Jesus’s resurrection is a sign and guarantee of the resurrection to which we are all called, as well as of the final transformation of the whole world. Through him and in him, the Father wished to re-create what he had already created.

Amen, and amen.

Addendum: At my church this morning, an invited guest preached a sermon on Colossians 1:18–20 titled “Leading the Resurrection Parade” after Eugene Peterson’s translation of the christological descriptor “the firstborn from the dead” in verse 18. I instantly thought of this image I had posted just hours earlier, in which Jesus’s staff is reminiscent of a drum major mace! The preacher spoke of Jesus steering a resurrection train of people, the new humanity, and cross-referenced 2 Corinthians 2:14: “Thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession and through us spreads in every place the fragrance that comes from knowing him.”

LISTEN: “We Walk His Way (Ewe Thina),” a South African freedom song from the apartheid era | Translated by Anders Nyberg, Jonas Johnson, and Sven-Bernhard Fast, 1984 | Arranged by John L. Bell and performed by the Wild Goose Collective on We Walk His Way: Shorter Songs for Worship, 2008

Refrain (Xhosa):
Ewe thina, ewe thina
Ewe thina, ewe thina
Ewe thina, ewe thina
Ewe thina, ewe thina

Sizowa nyathela amadimoni
Ewe thina, ewa thina
Sizowa nyathela amadimoni
Ewe thina, ewa thina [Refrain]

Refrain (English):
We walk his way, we walk his way
We walk his way, we walk his way
We walk his way, we walk his way
We walk his way, we walk his way

Unarmed, he faces forces of demons and death
We walk his way, we walk his way
Unarmed, he faces forces of demons and death
We walk his way, we walk his way [Refrain]

He breaks the bonds of hell, dying on the cross
We walk his way, we walk his way
He breaks the bonds of hell, dying on the cross
We walk his way, we walk his way [Refrain]

The tree of freedom blooms by his empty grave
We walk his way, we walk his way
The tree of freedom blooms by his empty grave
We walk his way, we walk his way [Refrain]

Easter, Day 7: New Life

April 11, 2026April 13, 2026 Victoria Emily Jones2 Comments

Do you not know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore we were buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life.

For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.

—Romans 6:3–5

If anyone is in Christ, they are a new creation: everything old has passed away; look, new things have come into being!

—2 Corinthians 5:17

LOOK: life-new life by Corita Kent

Kent, Corita_Life New Life — Corita Kent (American, 1918–1986), *life-new life*, 1966. Serigraph, 27 3/4 × 25 in. © The Corita Art Center, The Immaculate Heart Community, Los Angeles. [object record]

LISTEN: “New Life” by Broken Walls, on Drum, Created for Worship (2005)

Yahweh, hey-ya . . .

Yahweh, hey-o-hey, hey-o-hey . . .

Ga-ya-wey, o-hey, yo-hey-hey, yo-wey . . .

Rake ni:ha [My Father], hey-o-hey
You bring your warmth, hey-o-hey
Rake ni:ha [My Father], hey-o-hey
You give new life, hey-o-hey

. . .

Jonathan Maracle is a Mohawk singer from Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory, Ontario, who works as a bridge-builder between the church and First Nations peoples. In 1995 he founded Broken Walls, a musical group whose songs “communicate a message of restoration, dignity, self-respect, and the Creator’s love to all cultures.” The other two members are Bill Pagaran (Tlingit) and Josh Maus.

Written by Maracle, “New Life” is from Broken Walls’ album Drums, Created for Worship. “The song could be considered a typical Mohawk longhouse song,” he tells me, “with the call-and-response and the water drum (a part of our cultural heritage).” It consists of vocables (nonlexical syllables) interwoven with the Hebrew word Yahweh, the covenantal name of God in the Bible, and then a verse that addresses the Creator as “Rake ni:ha,” Mohawk for “my Father,” praising him for the warmth and life he brings.

While this is not explicitly an Easter song, new life is one of the key themes of this festal season. The Father raised the Son from the dead, and this “Sonrise” brings light and enables flourishing. We, too, can share in the resurrection life of Jesus.

Easter, Day 6: Mary Magdalene Sings Resurrection

April 10, 2026April 20, 2026 Victoria Emily JonesLeave a comment

It is the day of Resurrection and an auspicious beginning. Let us be made brilliant by the feast and embrace each other. . . .

Yesterday the lamb was slaughtered, and the doorposts were anointed, and the Egyptians lamented the firstborn, and the destroyer passed over us, and the seal was awesome and venerable, and we were walled in by the precious blood. Today we have totally escaped Egypt and Pharaoh the harsh despot and the burdensome overseers, and we have been freed from the clay and the brick-making. And nobody hinders us from celebrating a feast of exodus for the Lord our God. . . .

Yesterday I was crucified with Christ, today I am glorified with him; yesterday I died with him, today I am made alive with him; yesterday I was buried with him, today I rise with him.

—Gregory of Nazianzus, “On Pascha and on His Slowness,” an Easter sermon from ca. 362, trans. Nonna Verna Harrison in Festal Orations by Saint Gregory of Nazianzus (St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2008)

LOOK: Miniature from the Tomić Psalter

Miriam's Dance — *The prophet Miriam leading the women with timbrels and dances*, from the Tomić Psalter, Bulgaria, ca. 1360. Tempera on paper, 30 × 25 cm. State Historical Museum, Moscow.

This miniature comes from a fourteenth-century illuminated psalter from Bulgaria, a masterpiece of the Tarnovo art school. It’s linked to Psalm 105, which exults in the memory of God bringing Israel up out of Egypt, providing for them in the desert, and establishing them in the promised land. “So he brought his people out with joy, his chosen ones with singing,” the psalmist writes (Ps. 105:43).

More directly, the image is an illustration of Exodus 15:20–21, an episode of female-led worship that occurs just after the crossing of the Red Sea:

And Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a timbrel in her hand; and all the women went out after her with timbrels and with dances.

And Miriam answered them, Sing ye to the LORD, for he hath triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea.

The only percussion instrument mentioned in the Hebrew Bible, the timbrel (Heb. toph), or hand drum, consists of a hoop of wood or metal over which the skin of an animal is stretched. Some have jingles around the rim, like the modern tambourine, and some do not. The instrument is associated with women and celebration.

In the visual imagination of the anonymous Tomić Psalter artist, Miriam beats a drum with a stick while two of her companions clash cymbals and other women interlock arms and dance. The artist probably took inspiration from the folk music and dancing of women in his own culture.

LISTEN: “Da Mariae tympanum” (Give Mary a Tambourine) | Words by Peter Abelard, 1130s | Music by Georg Forster, 16th century | Performed by the Augsburg Early Music Ensemble on Medieval Pilgrimage to Santiago, 2003

Da Mariae tympanum 
resurrexit Dominus,
Hebraes ad canticum
cantans provocet,
Holocausta carminum
Iacob immolet.

Subvertens Aegyptios,
resurrexit Dominus,
Rubri Maris alveos
replens hostibus,
quos involvit obrutos
undis pelagus.

Dicat tympanistria,
Resurrexit Dominus,
illa quidem altera
re, non nomine,
resurgentem merita
prima cernere.

Cantet carmen dulcius,
resurrexit Dominus,
reliquis fidelibus
mixta feminis,
cum ipsa narrantibus
hoc discipulis.

Deo patri gloria,
resurrexit Dominus,
salus et victoria
Christo Domini;
par honor per saecula
sit Spiritui.

Give Mary a tambourine,
    for the Lord has risen;
as she sings, let her incite
    Hebrew women to song;
let too Jacob sacrifice
    holocausts of songs.

Egyptians he did overwhelm,
    for the Lord has risen,
filled the Red Sea’s submerged caves
    with his enemies,
whom the sea caught and buried
    in the waves below.

Let the timbrel player sing,
    For the Lord has risen,
a second Mary, different in
    her person, not in name,
she deserved to be the first
    to see him risen up.

Let her sing a sweeter song,
    for the Lord has risen,
as she mingles with the rest
    of the faithful women,
who with her proclaim the news
    to the Lord’s disciples.

Glory be to God the Father,
    for the Lord has risen,
health restored and victory
    to the Lord’s anointed;
equal honor through the years
    to the Holy Spirit.

Trans. Peter G. Walsh with Christopher Husch in One Hundred Latin Hymns: Ambrose to Aquinas (Harvard University Press, 2012)

This hymn is from the second book of the Hymnarius Paraclitensis (Hymnary of the Paraclete), a collection of over 130 Latin hymns written by the French philosopher and theologian Peter Abelard (1079–1142) [previously] for the convent of the Paraclete near Troyes, headed by Héloïse. It imagines Mary Magdalene as the New Miriam (Mary is the anglicized form of the Hebrew Miriam), leading women in song and dance in celebration of God’s victory over the forces of sin and death through the resurrection of God’s Son, Jesus Christ.

In Christianity, the exodus is interpreted not just as a literal saving act in Israel’s history but also as a prefigurement of the Resurrection. In many churches, Exodus 14, recounting the Israelites’ crossing of the Red Sea, is part of the Easter liturgy. The Orthodox word for Easter, Pascha—a Greek word from the Hebrew Pesach—itself means “Passover,” further reinforcing the connection between the Israelites’ liberation from Egyptian slavery and the liberation of God’s New Testament people from spiritual bondage, both made possible by the blood of a lamb and requiring passage through the waters—sea versus baptismal.

Mary Magdalene was one of Jesus’s closest disciples, and it’s she, according to the Gospel of John, to whom he first appeared following his resurrection. He then commissioned her to go tell the other disciples—to beat the drum, as it were, announcing the good news that he is alive. The Gospels of Matthew and Luke have her joined in this task by other faithful women: “the other Mary” and “Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women,” respectively.

I like the image Abelard gives us of Mary Magdalene rousing her female companions with a tambourine, leading them in the song and dance of resurrection. In the new exodus, Christ guides humanity into freedom, from death to life, as Mary praisefully proclaims, across the path he has paved by his own rising. “Resurrexit Dominus!” The men at first disbelieve her testimony . . . but once they see what she’s seen, they, too, rejoice.

The musical setting of Abelard’s text featured above is by the German Renaissance composer and physician Georg Forster (ca. 1510–1568).

Easter, Day 5: “Then so soft . . .”

April 9, 2026April 9, 2026 Victoria Emily JonesLeave a comment

LOOK: Magdalene: The Tomb by Greg Tricker

Tricker, Greg_Magdalene — Greg Tricker (British, 1951–), *Magdalene: The Tomb*, 2010. Oil, acrylic, and gold leaf on wood door, 33 3/8 × 32 1/2 in. (84.7 × 82.6 cm).

I learned about Greg Tricker from Sister Wendy Beckett, a nun who narrated several BBC docuseries about art throughout the 1990s. In the following Piano Nobile video from 2011, Sister Wendy converses with Tricker at Gloucester Cathedral about his exhibition Pillars of Faith. While they don’t discuss Magdalene: The Tomb, which is shown at 1:03, they do discuss a similar painting at 7:11.

LISTEN: “They Have Taken Him” by The Soil and The Seed Project | Words by Greg Yoder, 2023 | Music by Greg Yoder, Valerie Bess, and Taylor Bess, 2023 | Performed by Valerie Bess and Taylor Bess on The Soil and The Seed Project, Volume 9: Lent, Easter, Pentecost, 2024

Early on the first day of the week
I slip into the darkness while the garden lies sleeping
Feel the dew upon my hand, cool from the weeping of the stone
Night still clings heavy like a shroud
I whisper to the emptiness, and the echo is as loud
As thunder, it’s a wonder the dead slumber and leave us here alone

They have taken him, and I do not know where he’s gone

Then all the world is in motion
Running like the waves trying to outrun the ocean
They overtake each other, brother tumbling over brother
To the threshold, but daring not go in
Standing in the flowers, unbelieving
Hearing voices in the garden, “Woman, why are you grieving?”
They have taken him away
And I do not know where they have taken him

They have taken him, and I do not know where he’s gone
Someone has taken him, and I do not know where he’s gone

Now I have seen the lilies of the field
And I have seen the sparrows winging o’er
But if this is how you show your love
I’m not sure that I can take much more

Early on the first day of the week
I slip into the darkness where the gardener is keeping
Watch over the mourning ones
He’ll watch until the morning comes aflame
“Sir, if you have carried him away
Tell me where you laid him so I may go to him today”
His silence breaks my spirit, then so soft I barely hear it
He remakes me with the whisper of my name

They have not taken him; I have seen the coming dawn
I know they have not taken him; I know I’ve seen the coming dawn

Easter, Day 4: They Were Afraid

April 8, 2026April 8, 2026 Victoria Emily JonesLeave a comment

The two earliest surviving complete manuscripts of the Gospel of Mark in Greek (the Codex Sinaiticus and the Codex Vaticanus), in narrating the visit of the women to Jesus’s tomb on Easter morning, do not include 16:9–20, the so-called longer ending of Mark. Instead, they end on an abrupt and astonishing note, stating that when the women saw the empty tomb and received the angel’s announcement that Jesus had risen, “they went out and fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement [or bewilderment] had seized them, and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid” (16:8). Fear, confusion, and silence—not a very triumphant way to cap off the story of Jesus’s life, death, and resurrection!

The longer ending provides more closure and galvanization. It recounts Jesus appearing to Mary Magdalene, to two disciples “walking into the country” (to Emmaus, most likely), and to the Eleven, whom Jesus commissions to preach the gospel throughout the world. He then ascends into heaven. This longer ending concludes with an exultant verse 20: “And they went out and proclaimed the good news everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by the signs that accompanied it.”

Most biblical scholars, even the most theologically conservative, believe Mark 16:9–20 to be a later addition by another author, for reasons including its absence in early manuscripts, the ignorance of some church fathers such as Origen and Clement of Alexandria about the verses, and its differences in language and style from the rest of Mark. Thus, nearly all English translations of Mark place 16:9–20 in brackets.

However, the longer ending is quoted regularly by ecclesiastical writers, including from the patristic era, and became the almost universal ending of Mark in later manuscripts. Although it contains a few unique emphases, it is consistent with the rest of the New Testament, and no major doctrine is affected by whether one views verse 8 or verse 20 as the canonical ending.

I, for one, am intrigued by what most consider to be Mark’s original ending: “They were afraid.” It honors the complicated emotions of Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome, who had just seen a celestial being and been notified of an event that would change the course of history. I’d be trembling too. Maybe they didn’t tell the others right away because they wanted to take a little time to gather themselves, to process. Maybe the shock had rendered them temporarily speechless, physically unable to utter a word.

But we know from the witness of the other Gospels (Matt. 28:8; Luke 24:8–11; John 20:18) that the women did, of course, tell the apostles the news—startling, joyous, transforming—and it birthed a global movement of Christ followers committed to sharing and embodying his message of love.

Read Mark 16 here.

LOOK: La casa blanca by José Clemente Orozco

Orozco, Jose Clemente_The White House — José Clemente Orozco (Mexican, 1883–1949), *La casa blanca* (The White House), ca. 1925. Oil on canvas, 25 3/16 × 30 1/2 in. (64 × 77.5 cm). Museo de Arte Carrillo Gil, Mexico City.

This easel painting by the famous Mexican artist José Clemente Orozco, best known for his murals, shows three frightened women standing in the dark outside a small rectangular stone or cement structure against which leans a dry tree. We don’t know what they’re reacting to, as it’s out of frame, but they are clearly alarmed and appear to be fleeing.

I first encountered The White House in the highly recommended book Imaging the Word: An Arts and Lectionary Resource, volume 3. The editors take for granted that it illustrates Mark 16:8, writing,

The response of the women at the tomb in Mark’s Gospel—to run away frightened—is depicted here. The Resurrection is suggested by the dazzling light reflected on the white building and in the faces of the women hastening away. (194)

In the object record on its website (which I accessed a few years ago but can no longer find), the Museo de Arte Carrillo Gil, which owns the painting, does not acknowledge this connection and speaks only in more general terms of an “invisible danger” and escape from a hideout.

But I think Imaging the Word’s reading is definitely valid.

LISTEN: “Evangile de la Résurrection (Mc 16, 1-8)” (Good News of the Resurrection, Mark 16:1–8) by the monks of Keur Moussa Abbey, on L’heure vient (The Hour Is Coming) (2007)

¹ Le sabbat terminé, Marie Madeleine, et Marie, la mère de Jacques, et Salomé achetèrent des parfums pour aller embaumer le corps de Jésus. ² De grand matin, le premier jour de la semaine, elles se rendent au sépulcre au lever du soleil. ³ Elles se disaient entre elles : « Qui nous roulera la pierre pour dégager l’entrée du tombeau ? » ⁴ Au premier regard, elles s’aperçoivent qu’on a roulé la pierre, qui était pourtant très grande. ⁵ En entrant dans le tombeau, elles virent, assis à droite, un jeune homme vêtu de blanc. Elles sont saisies de peur. ⁶ Mais il leur dit : « N’ayez pas peur ! Vous cherchez Jésus de Nazareth, le Crucifié ? Il est ressuscité : il n’est pas ici. Voici l’endroit où on l’avait déposé. ⁷ Et maintenant, allez dire à ses disciples et à Pierre : “Il vous précède en Galilée. Là vous le verrez, comme il vous l’a dit.” » ⁸Elles sortirent et s’enfuirent du tombeau, parce qu’elles étaient toutes tremblantes et hors d’elles-mêmes. Elles ne dirent rien à personne, car elles avaient peur.

English translation (NRSVue):

¹ When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him.² And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb. ³ They had been saying to one another, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?” ⁴ When they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had already been rolled back. ⁵ As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed. ⁶ But he said to them, “Do not be alarmed; you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been raised; he is not here. Look, there is the place they laid him. ⁷ But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him, just as he told you.” ⁸ So they went out and fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them, and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.

This setting of the words of Mark 16:1–8 in French, sung to a tenor kora accompaniment, comes from Keur Moussa Abbey in Senegal [previously]. According to the liner notes of the CD, the melody is inspired by a Mandinka scale reminiscent of the Latin Gospel chant of the Easter Vigil.

Easter, Day 3: Christ Is the Song

April 7, 2026April 7, 2026 Victoria Emily Jones1 Comment

The flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle[dove] is heard in our land.

—Song of Solomon 2:12 (KJV)

LOOK: Mann mit Vögeln by Max Hunziker

Hunziker, Max_Man with Birds — Max Hunziker (Swiss, 1901–1976), *Mann mit Vögeln* (Man with Birds), n.d. Lithograph, edition 56/120, 81 × 58 cm.

LISTEN: “The Song of the Birds” | Words by Arthur Cleveland Coxe, 1862 | Music by Wilder Adkins, 2023 | Performed by Wilder Adkins with Eliza King on Cardiphonia’s Resurrect, vol. 1, 2023

The winter is over and gone at last;
The days of snow and cold are past.
Over the fields the flowers appear;
It is the Spirit’s voice we hear, voice we hear.

Refrain 1:
The singing of birds, a warbling band,
And the Spirit’s voice,
The voice of all truth,
And the fountain of youth
Is heard in our land, is heard in our land.

The tomb, it was sealed, a rock at its door;
But winter is gone and comes no more.
The seal is broken and now are seen
Valleys and woods and gardens green, and gardens green.

Refrain 2:
The singing of birds, a warbling band,
And flowеrs are words
Which even a child,
So free and so wild,
May undеrstand, surely understand.

And Christ is the song of everything,
For death is winter, and Christ is spring.
Fountains that warble in purling words,
Hark, how they echo the song of birds, the song of birds.

Refrain 3:
The singing of birds, a warbling band,
And the purling words
Of sea and of surf
And mountain streams pure,
Are heard in our land, are heard in our land.

This hymn text originally appeared in A New Service and Tune Book for Sunday School by Alfred Bailey Goodrich (Utica, New York, 1862), and its author, Rev. Dr. A. Cleveland Coxe, the second Episcopal bishop of Western New York, later compiled it in his collection of original poems The Paschal: Poems for Passion-tide and Easter (New York, 1889). Wilder Adkins has lightly adapted it and set it to music—a light, gentle, lilting melody.

Many hymns connect springtime, with its flowering abundance and sunshiny warmth, to Christ’s resurrection. But Coxe bowled me over with these two lines that articulate the metaphor so freshly: “And Christ is the song of everything, / For death is winter, and Christ is spring.” Wow!