Rogation Sunday
“I am the vine, you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.”
This is "Iisus Hristos – Viţa de vie" -- "Jesus Christ the Grapevine,” also known as the “Mystic Winepress.” It is a Eucharistic icon, particularly popular in Romania. We see Jesus seated, a vine grows out of his side — evoking the imagery of Eve, taken from the side of Adam — and the vine bears clusters of grapes. The trellis over which it grows is a cross, and it arches down so that Jesus’s hands might squeeze a bunch of grapes into a chalice.
Christ gives us this Eucharistic wine, his blood covers our sins. And yet, he is also the winepress. We ourselves are the ones who are crushed and poured out by our suffering and every anguish of this life. Our little sufferings are nothing compared to his great anguish on the Cross: our blood is shed justly as the price for our mortality, if not our sins; but his blood covers our sins. And yet, the sweet and intimate relationship and identity between his suffering and ours is gently explored in this subtle, silent motion.
This example, as many instances of this icon are icoane pe sticla — “icons on glass.” You can find a wonderful meditation on this and a whole host of Christ the Vine iconographic traditions from the Christian East over at the Russian Icons wordpress blog.
Christ suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God.
— The Holy Apostle Peter (1Pe 3:18a)
Sixth Sunday of Easter (Rogation)
Texts for Today
Prayer
O God, you have prepared for those who love you such good things as surpass our understanding: Pour into our hearts such love towards you, that we, loving you in all things and above all things, may obtain your promises, which exceed all that we can desire; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
Earth sings her refrain
The Porter's Gate Worship Project is undoubtedly among the most interesting things happening in contemporary Christian music. Ecumenical in scope, eclectic in style — though biased towards acoustic and folksy sounds — and thoughtful in content, their albums invite new imaginations and possibilities for praise.
This song — from their “Climate Vigil” collection — is very much appropriate for Rogationtide. It is a song of praise from the perspective of the earth. Reduced to a song, what might it sound like — the praise of our planet, in all her bewildering beauty, her deep antiquity, and the diversity of her created scope? Much like our own — in fact — insofar as we humans are, as has been observed from ancient times, something of a "microcosmos," containing the same patterns and the same multitudes that project out throughout the created order.
This is the earth that our Lord blesses on the eve of his leavetaking; this is the people that he blesses as he ascends. It is the earth on which will send his Spirit to renew the face of the earth; it is the people into which he will send his Spirit to renew all things with his reconciling love.
