Hi everybody! Thank you so much for inviting me today. I’m thrilled to be here. It is so exciting! My name is Violet Green and I’m an artist. I love colors! I guess I was “predestined” – as Presbyterians say – to be an artist since my parents decided to name me after a color; and it was a coincidence that my last name was Green. I love being an artist because when I’m painting it’s like… it’s indescribable. There are no boundaries. I’m free. And I feel so close to God… I’m not Presbyterian or anything. I’m still spiritual but not religious.
Anyway, I don’t want to bother you with my own way of living. I’m here to share with you an exercise of reflection based on artwork observation. This is what I do for a living – because only painting does not quite pay the bills, if you know what I mean. Today I want to share with you one of my original pieces. It is based on Galatians 4:1-11. (Shows a collage with Christ on the cross in the middle; pictures of slavery on the left and pictures of light on the right.)
Let’s talk first about the formal aspects of the collage: What do you see? How did the artist use colors? How did the artist use shapes? What immediately grabbed your attention? Notice that Jesus divides the space into two distinct zones. It’s almost a before and after portrait. The side on the left has a darker atmosphere almost sad. The side on the right has more bright colors and light.
Now let’s talk about the content of the collage: What do you think is the message that the artist wants to convey? What does this artwork tell you? What do you think God is telling you through this drawing? What do you see? Jesus looks like he is in the outer space. He is a cosmic Jesus. There are slaves of different ethnicities and ages. On the other side, there are no boundaries.
In Galatians 4:1-7 Paul paints a picture of the human history. He is sharing his Cosmo vision of a world enslaved “under the basic principles of the world” and then liberated at the right time. For Paul the right time was Jesus’ death on the cross. Then in verses 8-11 Paul applies his thought to what is going on in the Galatian churches: other preachers are asking the Galatians to circumcise as a requisite to belong to the community of believers and be heirs. In the previous chapter Paul re-defined the meaning of “Abraham descendants” to be those that believe in Christ. He used the image of a custodian or tutor to assert his point that following the Law is being without power, while they are supposed to be enjoying the freedom that Jesus gave them. In chapter 4 he is using the images of slaves and emancipation, of adopted children and heirs.
Let me ask you something, what do you think when you hear “redeem”? Salvation, right? You hear church, Christ, change. What do you think when you hear “manumission”? Slavery, right? What about “emancipation”? Could be of a slave to free person or of a minor into a person with all rights that an adult have. Well, the word “redeem” that Paul used was the Greek word for freeing a slave. He used a word usually used for legal human transactions and applied it to a Christological statement. The story in a nutshell is about humanity being in a powerless state, and then experiencing liberation because divine intervention and then supposed to be living in a free state but really looking for ways to go back to enslavement. (Shows the same collage with the addition of an image of a scroll and celestial bodies.) Paul is saying to the Gentiles hearing these words that their first period of enslavement was worshiping false gods, or the celestial bodies or the elements of nature. He is saying to the Jewish Christians hearing these words that their first period of enslavement was trying to comply with the Law as a requisite to belong to the religious community. He is telling to all of them that observing special days and months and seasons and years and requiring circumcision is going back to enslavement.
What should happen after the fullness of time, when God intervenes by sending his son as if Jesus was breaking into a prison and freeing the prisoners, is life as emancipated people. People are no longer minors; they are the heirs, with all that represents. People are no longer slaves; they are free. But what is happening according to Paul is that they are moving backwards by observing the Law as a requisite to the new state. Paul insistent exhortation is against re-enslavement.
From an African-American perspective, Brad R. Braxton interpreted “the basic elements” as cosmic powers or demonic powers, forces that operate in the world. He put the emphasis of his interpretation in the act of redemption/emancipation/manumission and the consequent freedom. He embraced Paul’s exhortation to not go back to slavery. In Braxton’s perspective slavery means the dominant ideology.
Martin Luther, defending a gospel of grace and justification by faith in the midst of a church that promoted works as a means for justification, interpreted “the basic elements” as the letters of the Law. He interpreted the fulfillment of time as the time of grace.
Following Paul’s example we are called to interpret scripture to our own context, just as Braxton and Luther did. As Galatians is a general epistle addressed to the universal church we need to reflect as a community and not as individuals. Because of Christ, the church is living in a new era. The church is supposed to be enjoying its inheritance as freed people. The church should be ensuring the state of freedom for the world. Yet there are many forces enslaving the world today. Today dominant ideologies that worship capitalism over human dignity step on fellow brothers and sisters and make them modern slaves. (Show collage on modern slavery with pictures about human trafficking, immigrant workers, sweatshops.) If the church allows this modern enslavement to continue, Christ will be of no value to us at all and it is like Jesus died in vain. When the church contributes to this reality by buying very cheap clothes made in a sweatshop or consuming farm products that came from opression or investing in companies that manufacture in other countries because they can hire lots of employees at sub-human salaries, the church is not living out the freedom that God intended by sending Jesus.
I love colors. I love people. I love freedom. I love Jesus and I want to see that the state of freedom he inaugurated on the cross is now a reality in the world. Let’s join in prayer and action for a world free of bondage.
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