Advent, an Empty Canvas and the One in Whom All the Fullness of God Was Pleased to Dwell.

Today I'm starting a new tapestry. At the moment it's undefined except I want to do a colour exegesis of Colossians 1.15-20. I want to do it as a representation in colour and allow the developing colours to define the form and pattern. I'm considering starting in the middle of the canvas and working outwards, and each time I pick it up, always to read the passage and then just get on with it! Now here's a theologically loaded question for aesthetics; or perhaps an aesthetically probing question for theology - What colour is pre-existent and incarnate Christology :)

All of this is of course radically subjective and there's the risk, perhaps even the likeliehood that I'll simply indulge and favour my favourite colours. Yet as a form of contemplation, a dwelling in the world of the text, there are some gains, and some safeguards. The first is a constant reading and re-reading of the text, each time before the needle returns to the canvas. The second is to dig into and around the text, keeping a journal of exegetical excavations, recording reflections and ideas, keeping a photographic record of its development. In this way the work of exegesis, the welcome discipline of faithful enquiry, the guiding of feeling in conversation with the text will I hope open imagination beyond the immediate and subjective. The third is to try to faithfully and honestly reflect on the text from the daily context of life as I live it, the world as it is, and my own inner climate as the text does its work of command and invitation to perspectives other than my own.

All of this is experimental, and as open ended as these things can be. The framed canvas without a stitch but with needle poised was the easy part! It's Advent, and Colossians 1.15-20 seems to me to be a text of hopefulness and expectation. To peace on earth and good will to all peoples, Colossians earths that hope on a Jerusalem dump where God in Christ is reconciling all things, making peace by the blood of the cross. 

Comments

[Graeme Clark]

The colours are an interesting question but for me how to imagine a depiction of the invisible being made visible (unless that is what the exercise itself is) perhaps is the greatest challenge. The tapestry canvas itself might be the best depiction of a creation in which "in him all things hold together".

[Mark Holt]

Hi Jim,
when I read your post to my wife, without even a moments hesitation she said "purple". :-) May this exercise be life-giving for you.
Mark