Thomas Troeger – Art & Theology

LOOK: The Kiss by Sophie Ryder

Ryder, Sophie_The Kiss — Sophie Ryder (British, 1963–), *The Kiss*, 2016. Galvanized steel wire, 579 × 590 × 380 cm. From the 2016 exhibition *Sophie Ryder: Relationships* at Salisbury Cathedral, England. Photo: Ash Mills.

A monumental wire sculpture of two hands “clasped in love, friendship or prayer,” The Kiss by Sophie Ryder was one of over twenty sculptures by the artist on display from February 12 to July 3, 2016, in the close and cloister of Salisbury Cathedral. It straddled the path from the High Street Gate to the West Door for the first week but was then moved to the North Lawn after too many oblivious texters bumped their heads on it (despite the six feet, four inches of clearance in the center).

Sophie Ryder: Relationships was curated by Jacquiline Creswell, who specializes in siting contemporary art in sacred spaces.

LISTEN: “View the Present through the Promise” by Thomas Troeger, 1994

>> Traditional Welsh tune (AR HYD Y NOS) | Performed by Crystal Muro, Brenna Boncosky, and Ian Murrell with organist Phillip Kloeckner, First United Methodist Church at Chicago Temple, 2020

>> Music by Benjamin Brody, 2009 | Performed by musicians of First Congregational Church of Houston, 2020

View the present through the promise, Christ will come again.
Trust despite the deepening darkness, Christ will come again.
Lift the world above its grieving through your watching and believing
in the hope past hope’s conceiving: Christ will come again.

Probe the present with the promise, Christ will come again.
Let your daily actions witness, Christ will come again.
Let your loving and your giving and your justice and forgiving
be a sign to all the living: Christ will come again.

Match the present to the promise, Christ will come again.
Make this hope your guiding premise, Christ will come again.
Pattern all your calculating and the world you are creating
to the advent you are waiting: Christ will come again.

“Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain, but if it dies it bears much fruit.”

—John 12:24

LOOK: Untitled by Kwon Young-Woo

Kwon Young-Woo_Untitled (2002) — Kwon Young-Woo (Korean, 1926–2013), *Untitled*, 2002. Korean paper on canvas, 51 3/16 × 51 3/16 in. Photo: Chunho Ahn, courtesy the artist’s estate and Kukje Gallery.

LISTEN: “Before the Fruit Is Ripened by the Sun” | Words by Thomas H. Troeger, 1985 | Music by Carol Doran, 1985 | Performed by Sasha Massey, 2020

Before the fruit is ripened by the sun,
Before the petals or the leaves uncoil,
Before the first fine silken root is spun,
A seed is dropped and buried in the soil.

Before the Easter alleluias ring,
Before the massive rock is rolled aside,
Before the fear of death has lost its sting,
A just and loving man is crucified.

Before we gain the grace that comes through loss,
Before we live by more than bread and breath,
Before we lift in joy an empty cross,
We face with Christ the seed’s renewing death.

Text and tune © 1986 Oxford University Press