Sunday, February 21, 2010

An Eye-Opener

I’ve always been a little bit ambivalent about art.  On the one hand, I have always enjoyed the performing arts, especially theater.  But I can’t carry a tune in a bucket.  My Dad’s skill in drawing and painting must have skipped a generation (maybe Davey Will will get it?).  And there’s a whole lot of stuff out there that passes for “art” that is offensive or at least bothersome and troubling.  You can’t even do a search for Biblical art without running across all sorts of nude women, for example.

 

But sometimes you run across an “eye-opener” that makes you think art is worth a second look.

 

I was getting ready for a “project” of sorts for the class I’ve been teaching about the mission of the church.  I wanted our class to experience a new format of worship gathering, one that was more multi-sensory and experiential than the typical Sunday morning worship service.  I put a lot of thought into it, and the theme for the gathering was going to be prayer.  Among numerous other things, I wanted to set up a small “station” where people could read some passages from Genesis about the story of Hagar, and how God both heard and saw Hagar’s situation of need.  I wanted this to lead the participants into a reflection on the marginalized in their own society, and set aside some time to pray for them to the God who hears and sees.

 

I thought it might be good to include a painting of the story at this little station, so I searched for a painting online, specifically one that dealt with the desperate situation of Hagar and Ishmael.  I did find one that was suitable, but in the process I also ran across a painting by Adriaen van der Werff entitled “Sarah Presenting Hagar to Abraham.”  The scene is in a bedroom, and Hagar is partially undressed and looking shy and nervous.  Seeing that picture made me recognize – in a fresh way – the story for what is actually was:  a case of sexual exploitation.  Sure, the whole point was that Abraham needed an heir, and Hagar’s fertility provided a means to this end.  But that doesn’t diminish the fact that the means to that end involved a slave-owner taking her slave girl and forcing her to have sex with the master.  That’s sexual exploitation, and that’s what happened.

 

The picture, with its sexually suggestive air, captures an element of the story I never really paid much attention to.

 

I am used to using lexicons and grammars to exegete the text.  But never art.  That made this one an eye-opener!

 

(You can see the picture yourself here).