Psalm 76 - Fear/Awe/Wonder/Reverence/_________
Most stunning statement of the day you will read...
I love photography.
Shocking, right? Lol.
Actually more like the most obvious statement of the day.
You can find plenty of other reflections about why photography is so central to my life and faith practice (including in my book!) but in my love of the art and practice, I also recognize the limitations of photography. No matter how big the panorama is (and I photographed one in Acadia National Park last October that was the largest photograph - pixel-wise - that I have ever done), a photograph cannot come close to the actual experience of how we see a space with our eyes. It cannot replicate the feel of the breeze on the top of a high peak with an incredible vista and it cannot express the aroma or the sounds of a beach. It can bring us closer to the experience but nowhere near the fullness. Even all the VR options out there today cannot do the same (and I hope that technology never gets to the point that it ever does fully replicate these things - take a read of this short story called The Veldt by Ray Bradbury for a cautionary tale).
Psalm 76 is a Psalm that tries to express God’s “over-ness” over everything. The NRSV gives it a title of “Israel’s God - Judge of All the Earth.” Honestly, I’m not a big fan of that title - as I feel the Psalm speaks more of God being over all things rather than just a “judge.” The Psalm shares of God’s power to “break the flashing arrows, the shield, the sword, and the weapons of war” and that at God’s rebuke “both horse and rider lay stunned.” It speaks of God above nature - “Glorious are you, more majestic than the everlasting mountains.” Individual rulers and leaders are also in this - “From the heavens you uttered judgment; the earth feared and was still” and how God “cuts off the spirit of princes [and[ inspires fear in the kings of the earth.” While judgment is spoken of, it is far from the central theme and that judgment is tied to justice for the oppressed in verse 9. “God rose up to establish judgment, to save all the oppressed of the earth.” It isn’t just an arbitrary judging but tied to care for the most vulnerable and it rooted in a deep love.
But that line - “the earth feared and was still” resonates powerfully for me. It reminds me of the feeling I had several weeks ago when I first walked into La Sagrada Familia Cathedral in Barcelona, Spain. I have never been in a human-created space as awe-inspiring, beautiful, and wondrous. Not only was it architecturally powerful, but the depth of meaning that Antoni Gaudí and the architects that followed him have infused into it reflected what I heard in Psalm 76 as I’ve been re-reading it the last few days.
Once Gaudí came onto the project after the original architect, he shifted from it being a “traditional” cathedral to instead effectively turning the traditional cathedral inside out. The vast majority of the statues and sculptures are on the outside of the cathedral rather than within so that anyone at any time can receive the story of Jesus, from his birth to his death, to his glory. Receiving this story was no longer tied to being within the walls but just being near. And he brought the outside in as the interior pillars are crafted to look like trees reaching from earth to the heavens. They also do not stand perfectly straight but instead each have a bit of a cant to them just as trees do in a forest. The colors of the stained glass on the morning/birth side are the cool blues and greens of a morning and then shift to the warmer oranges and red on the Passion/crucifixion side on the west. As one stands in the cathedral and turns a gaze up to the ceiling, the colors gradually fade to where the glass at the ceiling is clear as if one is moving from the earth to the heavens.
But maybe most of all, what spoke to me in the design was that, when the final spire is completed (The Christ Spire), it will make La Sagrada Familia the tallest Christian structure in the world. But it will still be one meter shorter than the highest natual point in the Barcelona area. This was intentional because Gaudí didn’t believe that any human made creation should be greater than what God has already created. (Quite a contrast to the story of the Tower of Babel in Genesis).
There is so much more of the meaning and depth to the design that I could share but all of it point to the deep sense of awe/reverence/wonder/fear/_________1 that Gaudí held and remains in the ongoing work. In fact, there is already a movement to move Gaudí toward sainthood in the Catholic church (Link) because of his work.
I wrote and shared more photos of the cathedral at this link but these four below express a sense of what I have shared here. The clear windows at the ceiling letting in the light of heaven. The cool colors of the nativity side and the warm/hot colors of the passion side. But also the intentional unfocusing of those western and eastern stained glass windows give a sense of the mystery/awe/wonder/fear/________ of God. It is something that we cannot fully express but can only experience.
Also just a heads up that this Wednesday at 1:30 ET,
and i will be doing our second "Pop Culture Pastors’ Hour” live here on Substack. We will be discussing episodes 4-6 of season 2 of the Star Wars show Andor. So spoilers will abound but we will be digging into the powerfully relevant themes of the show to the present day but also playing with some theological themes from our Christian traditions as well. In the spirit of that, here’s how I led our services on Sunday…
Grace, Peace, Love, and Joy,
Ed
PS - Scout looking up at our dinner with Fear/Awe/Wonder/Reverence/_________
I put this last part in as a big of the wordlessness of expressing this concept