Daily Devotion for Tuesday 29th April 2025
Information
My son helped me stretch this canvas on an old window frame. As he helped, he told me of his friend, Tancred who had passed a road accident on the way to school one day and, in the course of that day, was told that his mother had died in it. His family fell apart and Tancred became homeless. The church where I ministered gathered around, found him a home, helped him furnish it and cared practically with no demand to confess a faith.
Galatians 3:25-29
But now that faith has come, we are no longer subject to a disciplinarian, for in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith. As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is no longer Jew or Greek; there is no longer slave or free; there is no longer male and female, for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to the promise.
Reflection
This is Nativity Tancred, the longer story of which is here (which includes my reason for the painting’s name) I thought of life emerging from life, light shocking the darkness and of fire, which does not destroy. I thought of the vine which courses life through us all. Jesus’ face arrived with me, no pictures copied for him. He gave me that penetrating stare from an intensely alive person on a cross, seeing through all and still deepening friendship with those caught in that sight. We read that his body is the Temple of God, and in this image, people of all hues and types stream, welcome, into that locus of Love. The title is Nativity (Tancred) reminding us that the Nativity revealed the presence of God in humanity, who grew to an adult (not stuck in the ‘sweet’ Nativity narrative) and who as he grew, welcomed all to the temple and to the eternal place of God. There are none stuck on the outside in this temple.
If you want to see Nativity Tancred, you are welcome to see him where he lives at St Bride’s Church, Liverpool, the home of the Open Table Network. Because of his message of absolute inclusion, Nativity Tancred was gifted to the Church as a reminder to everyone of the inclusion felt by the giver because of both the church and the Open Table Network. We may read of Jesus’ open invitation, of the early Christ followers’ work of inclusion, of the theological demand to include all. What this painting does is help us see that, as compared to imagine it. One viewer said, “You mean…Jesus loves everyone?” Well, yes. Sometimes we need to see things to believe them.
Prayer
O God of everyone, whether it makes sense to me or not,
help us all to see what you truly mean by inclusive love.
Give us courage to do the hard work of putting that into practice.
Let us look each stranger in the face and honestly say, “I’ll try.”