Reflections of Richard Serrin on painting, Christ Encountering the Woman at the Well, John 4: 7-26

Who were the Samaritans? When the Jews sinned against the Lord in the sixth century, they were caused to be cast out of Israel by the Assyrians. The Samaritan cities were then repopulated by people from Babylon, Cuthan, Avva, Hamatha, and Sepnarviam, each city bringing with it their own god (the five husbands of the Samaritan woman). But they failed to worship the God of the land of Israel and the Lord sent lions among them. When advised of this, the king of Assyria bid one of the exiled priests of Yahweh to return to Bethel to teach the new population of Samaria the law of the God of the land. Yahweh was, thus, was the sixth companion of the woman at the well, who was not her husband; the Samaritans had not forsaken their other gods to swear fidelity to Yahweh alone.

The woman acknowledged Jesus as a prophet for knowing all her past. Jesus went on to warn her that because of that

past “the well of Jacob” could not provide the living water that would quench forever the thirst for eternal life. This water could only come from the Jews who had remained faithful to Yahweh alone, who had returned from exile.

The woman remains doubtful on this point and says, “I know the Messiah is coming; he will show us all things”. To reassure Jesus replies,“I who speak to you am he.” Are we as Christians in the modern world married to five husbands with only an adulterous relationship with the Lord?

Richard Serrin

Reflections of Richard Serrin on painting the Parable of the Good Samaritan, Luke 10: 25-37

Two Israelites have already passed the inert body. Why? Two questions might have occurred to them: was he dead? was he a leper?

Were he dead they could do nothing for him, yet were they to touch the body they would have been unclean for seven days and unable to worship in the Temple. On third and seventh day they would have had to ritually wash themselves, and on the latter, their clothes as well. It is the law, also, that he who fails to cleanse himself defiles the Temple and the whole community, and would himself be cut off from all intercourse with either.

Were by chance the man to be a leper, and they touched him, his condition would be theirs as well, a serious social impediment in ancient Israel. And, of course, alive or dead or leprous, he may have been a despised Samaritan for whom they would be reluctant to risk so much annoyance to their lives.

And what of the Samaritan? Though held in contempt by the Jews, he could very well have been bound by the same Levitical laws; the man on the road may even have been a Jew. Thus was he good, our Samaritan, when he dismounted to aid a fellow creature and compassion compelled him to take him in his arms whatever the consequences. Richard Serrin

Reflections of Richard Serrin on painting the Parable of the Prodigal Son, Luke 15: 11-32

We cannot be angry were we the elder son but rather rejoice at the return of the errant son.The father’s love nor his inheritance is diminished one jot by the son’s homecoming. Given the latter’s sincere repentance, the family is reunited and the work lightened, and concord displaces discord. “Given sincere repentance”, there’s the rub. Truly a single sinner can repent, but the repentance of the human race is a different matter Evolution has drawn us away from God; we were cast from Eden when we were separated from his will, and the choice between good and evil was ours to determine. Therefore, do we have the teaching of the Bible and moral philosophy? We are aware of God’s will but in the aggregate incapable of submitting ourselves to it. The son has returned, but he will be off again. He is, indeed, away now (for who has fled the father but we ourselves!), and it becomes more and more difficult to imagine his return. This time he does not eat with the hogs but, rather, dines off of them. The chances are greater than ever that the son will now perish in that far off country instead of returning to the father once more. And I suspect the father has few illusions.

Richard Serrin

Reflections of Richard Serrin on painting the Parable of the Rich Fool, Luke 12: 13-21

“Take heed and beware of covetousness; for a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” The earth and all therein is in our custody and we of all creatures are the ones who can abuse or use it wisely. Great wealth can only be accrued by the misuse of earth’s gifts which give us life, health, and beauty. To sacrifice all these for the wealth we must leave to others (for good or ill we cannot know) is a harsh cost. But a heavier cost still is the ravaged earth we shall also leave to others – for generation upon generation.

In the old tale, God sent us from Eden to work the land in sweat and travail, because we usurped from his dominion the knowledge of good and evil. We decide our own destiny now, and appear to have borne the serpent out – we have prospered, creating an Eden beyond Eden. Or have we? Is God so easily denied? Listen to Jeremiah: “ . . . for the wickedness of those who dwell in the land, the birds and the beasts are swept away, because man said, ‘God shall not see our latter end.’

Or, as a friend was quick to point out, the life of the rich fool was not bad at all by our standards. For a wealthy man to be stricken in the prime of life after years of hard work would be sad; we might even feel he had been unfairly treated by God. Why was he the fool, then, in the eyes of Jesus?

Two brothers are contending over an inheritance, each concerned to receive what he felt was his share. They seek Jesus as an arbiter. “Man, who made me judge or divider over you?” Possessions are no concern of his, and, furthermore, to covet them in abundance is dangerous. After recounting the parable, he closes with the caution that he who lays up treasures and is not rich toward God is a fool. To Jesus, of course it is impossible to lay up treasures and be rich toward God - “you cannot serve God and mammon.” For the disciples of Jesus, as for the more ascetic Jewish sects of that intertestamental period, wealth seemed inimical to righteousness. James (5: 1-6) could say, “Come now, you rich, weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you. . . You have laid up treasures for the last days . . . the wages of the laborers which you kept back by fraud, cry out . . . you have lived on the earth in luxury and in pleasure; you have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter. You have condemned, you have killed the righteous man.”

What, according to Jesus, should be our proper attitude towards wealth: “Do not be anxious about your life, what you shall eat, nor about your body, what you shall put on . . . Instead, seek the kingdom and these things will be yours as well . . . Sell your possessions and give alms. . . for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” There is more, of course in Luke 12: 22-34’

We must presume our rich fool has, moreover, “gathered as the partridge a brood she did not hatch, getting riches but not by right.” (Jeremiah 17:11) Then, too, is not man’s ambition all vanity: “Surely man goes about as a shadow, surely for naught are they in turmoil; man heaps up and knows not who will gather.” (Psalm 39:6). This all doubtlessly seems strange and antithetical today; certainly it is seldom preached. But Jesus, the son of God preached it.

Richard Serrin

Reflections of Richard Serrin on painting, Christ Encountering the Rich Young Ruler, Mark 10: 17-22

The rich young ruler proudly proclaims for himself all the qualities of righteousness – save one: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength. He is undone by the wealth he cannot abandon to follow the First Commandment - and Jesus.

Great wealth cannot be accrued but by mocking God and imposing our world upon His - one of ugliness, disease, and violence, of spiritual emptiness and moral confusion. Such a world has grown possessions, blotting out beauty from the landscape and truth from the soul.

“It is easier,” said Jesus, “for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.” “Who then can be saved?”, cried the disciples. And Jesus answered, “What is impossible with man is possible with God.” Should this give comfort to the very rich? Who can know the meaning

of such an enigmatic claim; but there are millions in the Western world as wealthy as the rich young ruler; those of them that are Christians should give pause, however.

Richard Serrin

Reflections of Richard Serrin on painting, Christ Appears to the Disciples After the Resurrection, John 21: 4-19

“Do you love me more than these?” Jesus asks Peter. Surely he does not mean the men with whom Peter fishes, for Peter should love all unqualifiedly. Nor would Jesus ask a question that seems to have no rational reply.

Jesus has by a miracle just filled the empty net of the futile fishing expedition to overabundance. On the shore he cooks the dawn breakfast using the fish. It can be but to the fish that he refers. The miracle catch is a snare, an enticement the implications of which Peter must resist if he is to be worthy of teaching the disciples when Jesus has departed. It is not with a miraculous catch that Peter is to feed his sheep, but with the miraculous words of God, that we may live in peace with man and nature.

How many Christians, how many churches, have been caught in this snare for the covetous heart by which Christ will test us all?

Richard Serrin

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Reflections of Richard Serrin on painting, Christ Encountering the Woman at the Well, John 4: 7-26

Who were the Samaritans? When the Jews sinned against the Lord in the sixth century, they were caused to be cast out of Israel by the Assyrians. The Samaritan cities were then repopulated by people from Babylon, Cuthan, Avva, Hamatha, and Sepnarviam, each city bringing with it their own god (the five husbands of the Samaritan woman). But they failed to worship the God of the land of Israel and the Lord sent lions among them. When advised of this, the king of Assyria bid one of the exiled priests of Yahweh to return to Bethel to teach the new population of Samaria the law of the God of the land. Yahweh was, thus, was the sixth companion of the woman at the well, who was not her husband; the Samaritans had not forsaken their other gods to swear fidelity to Yahweh alone.

The woman acknowledged Jesus as a prophet for knowing all her past. Jesus went on to warn her that because of that past “the well of Jacob” could not provide the living water that would quench forever the thirst for eternal life. This water could only come from the Jews who had remained faithful to Yahweh alone, who had returned from exile.

The woman remains doubtful on this point and says, “I know the Messiah is coming; he will show us all things”. To reassure Jesus replies,“I who speak to you am he.” Are we as Christians in the modern world married to five husbands with only an adulterous relationship with the Lord? Richard Serrin

Reflections of Richard Serrin on painting the Parable of the Good Samaritan, Luke 10: 25-37

Two Israelites have already passed the inert body. Why? Two questions might have occurred to them: was he dead? was he a leper?

Were he dead they could do nothing for him, yet were they to touch the body they would have been unclean for seven days and unable to worship in the Temple. On third and seventh day they would have had to ritually wash themselves, and on the latter, their clothes as well. It is the law, also, that he who fails to cleanse himself defiles the Temple and the whole community, and would himself be cut off from all intercourse with either.

Were by chance the man to be a leper, and they touched him, his condition would be theirs as well, a serious social impediment in ancient Israel. And, of course, alive or dead or leprous, he may have been a despised Samaritan for whom they would be reluctant to risk so much annoyance to their lives.

And what of the Samaritan? Though held in contempt by the Jews, he could very well have been bound by the same Levitical laws; the man on the road may even have been a Jew. Thus was he good, our Samaritan, when he dismounted to aid a fellow creature and compassion compelled him to take him in his arms whatever the consequences.

Richard Serrin

Reflections of Richard Serrin on painting the Parable of the Prodigal Son, Luke 15: 11-32

We cannot be angry were we the elder son but rather rejoice at the return of the errant son.The father’s love nor his inheritance is diminished one jot by the son’s homecoming. Given the latter’s sincere repentance, the family is reunited and the work lightened, and concord displaces discord. “Given sincere repentance”, there’s the rub. Truly a single sinner can repent, but the repentance of the human race is a different matter Evolution has drawn us away from God; we were cast from Eden when we were separated from his will, and the choice between good and evil was ours to determine. Therefore, do we have the teaching of the Bible and moral philosophy? We are aware of God’s will but in the aggregate incapable of submitting ourselves to it. The son has returned, but he will be off again. He is, indeed, away now (for who has fled the father but we ourselves!), and it becomes more and more difficult to imagine his return. This time he does not eat with the hogs but, rather, dines off of them. The chances are greater than ever that the son will now perish in that far off country instead of returning to the father once more. And I suspect the father has few illusions.

Richard Serrin

Reflections of Richard Serrin on painting the Parable of the Rich Fool, Luke 12: 13-21

“Take heed and beware of covetousness; for a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” The earth and all therein is in our custody and we of all creatures are the ones who can abuse or use it wisely. Great wealth can only be accrued by the misuse of earth’s gifts which give us life, health, and beauty. To sacrifice all these for the wealth we must leave to others (for good or ill we cannot know) is a harsh cost. But a heavier cost still is the ravaged earth we shall also leave to others – for generation upon generation.

In the old tale, God sent us from Eden to work the land in sweat and travail, because we usurped from his dominion the knowledge of good and evil. We decide our own destiny now, and appear to have borne the serpent out – we have prospered, creating an Eden beyond Eden. Or have we? Is God so easily denied? Listen to Jeremiah: “ . . . for the wickedness of those who dwell in the land, the birds and the beasts are swept away, because man said, ‘God shall not see our latter end.’

The remaining paragraph on this page is on page 11

Or, as a friend was quick to point out, the life of the rich fool was not bad at all by our standards. For a wealthy man to be stricken in the prime of life after years of hard work would be sad; we might even feel he had been unfairly treated by God. Why was he the fool, then, in the eyes of Jesus?

Two brothers are contending over an inheritance, each concerned to receive what he felt was his share. They seek Jesus as an arbiter. “Man, who made me judge or divider over you?” Possessions are no concern of his, and, furthermore, to covet them in abundance is dangerous. After recounting the parable, he closes with the caution that he who lays up treasures and is not rich toward God is a fool. To Jesus, of course it is impossible to lay up treasures and be rich toward God - “you cannot serve God and mammon.” For the disciples of Jesus, as for the more ascetic Jewish sects of that intertestamental period, wealth seemed inimical to righteousness. James (5: 1-6) could say, “Come now, you rich, weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you. . . You have laid up treasures for the last days . . . the wages of the laborers which you kept back by fraud, cry out . . . you have lived on the earth in luxury and in pleasure; you have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter. You have condemned, you have killed the righteous man.”

What, according to Jesus, should be our proper attitude towards wealth: “Do not be anxious about your life, what you shall eat, nor about your body, what you shall put on . . . Instead, seek the kingdom and these things will be yours as well . . . Sell your possessions and give alms. . . for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” There is more, of course in Luke 12: 22-34’

We must presume our rich fool has, moreover, “gathered as the partridge a brood she did not hatch, getting riches but not by right.” (Jeremiah 17:11) Then, too, is not man’s ambition all vanity: “Surely man goes about as a shadow, surely for naught are they in turmoil; man heaps up and knows not who will gather.” (Psalm 39:6). This all doubtlessly seems strange and antithetical today; certainly it is seldom preached. But Jesus, the son of God preached it.

Richard Serrin

Reflections of Richard Serrin on painting, Christ Encountering the Rich Young Ruler, Mark 10: 17-22

The rich young ruler proudly proclaims for himself all the qualities of righteousness – save one: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength. He is undone by the wealth he cannot abandon to follow the First Commandment - and Jesus.

Great wealth cannot be accrued but by mocking God and imposing our world upon His - one of ugliness, disease, and violence, of spiritual emptiness and moral confusion. Such a world has grown possessions, blotting out beauty from the landscape and truth from the soul.

“It is easier,” said Jesus, “for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.” “Who then can be saved?”, cried the disciples. And Jesus answered, “What is impossible with man is possible with God.” Should this give comfort to the very rich? Who can know the meaning of such an enigmatic claim; but there are millions in the Western world as wealthy as the rich young ruler; those of them that are Christians should give pause, however.

Richard Serrin

Reflections of Richard Serrin on painting, Christ Appears to the Disciples After the Resurrection, John 21: 4-19

“Do you love me more than these?” Jesus asks Peter. Surely he does not mean the men with whom Peter fishes, for Peter should love all unqualifiedly. Nor would Jesus ask a question that seems to have no rational reply.

Jesus has by a miracle just filled the empty net of the futile fishing expedition to overabundance. On the shore he cooks the dawn breakfast using the fish. It can be but to the fish that he refers. The miracle catch is a snare, an enticement the implications of which Peter must resist if he is to be worthy of teaching the disciples when Jesus has departed. It is not with a miraculous catch that Peter is to feed his sheep, but with the miraculous words of God, that we may live in peace with man and nature.

How many Christians, how many churches, have been caught in this snare for the covetous heart by which Christ will test us all?

Richard Serrin