This sermon was preached at Glebe-St. James United Church on July 8, 2012. Right now, at the National Gallery of Canada is an amazing exhibition called Van Gogh: Up Close. When I went to see it, I had no idea that Van Gogh actually wanted to be a minister. His paintings pushed me to learn more about him, the Christian. What I learned inspired this sermon.
“Van Gogh and Other Prophets” Mark 6: 1-13
by Rev. Dr. Christine Johnson
In June, I went to see the Van Gogh: Up Close exhibition at
the National Gallery of Canada.
I was expecting to see some amazing art made by an under-appreciated artist in his own time.
I did see that, but I also found out about Van Gogh, the
Christian,
a
prophet who was rejected by his own brother Christians of the day.
I was struck to the core of my being with the spirituality
of Van Gogh’s paintings.
And this revelation led me to learn more about Vincent Van
Gogh the person.
It’s amazing how Van Gogh’s story relates to the story of Jesus
sending out his disciples,
but in
a sad kind of way.
Jesus, after teaching and leading his followers,
sends
the disciples out to do what Jesus knows they can do.
He wants them to travel lightly and to lean on the care of
others.
The story says Jesus “gave them authority to cast out
unclean spirits.”
And further, he gives them their marching orders.
“Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave the
place. If any place will not welcome you and they refuse to hear you, as you
leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them.”
There’s no retaliation, no retribution – there’s simply a
letting go,
and an acknowledgement their message is not
welcome here.
By shaking off the dust of an unwelcome place,
the
dust does not cling, making them resentful or sullen.
So they go out and proclaim that all should repent.
They are able to do as Jesus did.
They cast out many demons, and anoint with oil many who are
sick and cure them.
Jesus does not keep his divine power to himself but shares
it,
and
expects his disciples to share it as well.
At the exhibition, I learned that Van Gogh was a PK,
which
is a short form for Preacher’s Kid.
His father was a pastor in the Dutch Reformed Church,
and
Vincent grew up feeling a call to ministry.
After three years of working for a Dutch art dealer,
he writes these words to his
brother Theo:
“God has sent
me to preach the Gospel to the poor.”
For the next three years van Gogh single-mindedly pursues
his calling to the ministry,
first as a student of theology
and then as a missionary to the coal miners in
the Belgian Borinage.
Deeply moved by the poverty surrounding him, van Gogh gives
all his possessions,
including most of his clothing, to the miners.
An inspector of the Evangelization Council of the Dutch
Reformed Church
comes to the conclusion that the
missionary’s excessive zeal borders on the scandalous,
and he reports van Gogh’s
behavior to church authorities.
Although van Gogh is successful in his ministry,
the hierarchy of the Dutch Reformed Church
reject him,
and at the end of 1879 he leaves
the church, embittered and impoverished.
So here’s the twist.
Van Gogh is rejected by the religious authorities of his day
for
doing the very thing Jesus tells his disciples to do.
However, history tells us it is not so easy for Van Gogh to
shake the dust off his feet.
According to Kathleen Powers Erickson,
who
wrote the book, “At Eternity’s Gate: The
Spiritual Vision of Vincent Van Gogh”
many
art historians and critics say that at this point Van Gogh rejects all things
religious.
She, however, disagrees.
Van Gogh, after a time of deep distress,
answers
another call – that of pursuing his artistic gifts.
He writes to his brother:
“"Even
in that deep misery I felt my energy revive, and I said to myself, in spite of
everything I shall rise again: I will take up my pencil, which I had forsaken
in my discouragement, and I will go on with my drawing. From that moment
everything has seemed transformed for me."
Kathleen Edwards has this to say about his conversion from
religion to art:
“Although most of van Gogh’s biographers view this
transition as a rejection of religion, in fact art rather than preaching became
van Gogh’s chief form of religious expression. His faith in God and eternity as
well as his respect for unadorned piety and the word of God remained firm.”
In discovering and pursuing his artistic path, Van Gogh finally
succeeds in shaking the dust off his feet.
And God finds another way to use his incredible talent to
express what Van Gogh called
“the white
ray of light.”
For van Gogh, belief in God did not mean believing all the
sermons of the clergy
or in his words "the arguments of the
bigoted, genteel prudes,"
but rather there was a God,
"not dead or stuffed, but alive, urging
us to love, with irresistible force."
Thus, Van Gogh pursued his art with his former religious
zeal and mission, claiming,
"Our purpose is self-reform
by means of a handicraft and of intercourse with Nature
-- our aim is walking with God."
As I looked at the artworks that were in the exhibition at
the National Gallery,
I was
struck by the energy, the light, the sheer genius of the way he used his
brushstrokes.
The paintings drew me in, and I felt like I could look at
them for hours.
The artist in me wants to know how.
How did he do it? How did he choose his colours? How did he
choose his inspiration? How did he lay
down the sketch and then the colours?
The Christian in me wants to know why.
Why did he frame the painting that way? What is he trying to communicate? What is God
trying to say through the art of Vincent Van Gogh?
We know a lot about the life of Vincent because he wrote a
lot of letters to his brother, Theo.
And so art historians have a lot of information about where
he was, and what he was doing,
and the
mental illness that led him to a time in an asylum.
But all that information sometimes distracts us from simply
allowing the art to speak for the artist.
When I stand in front of a Van Gogh painting,
the
world seems to vibrate with power and possibility.
Van Gogh captures the light of God reflected in the minutiae
of nature,
in the
flowers, the trees, the fields, the gardens.
The light shines forth and the darkness does not overcome
it.
He reaches deep into his soul and addressed the darkness of
existence,
as he
does in the painting “The Potato Eaters.”
He’s willing to tell the truth, and to sketch the injustices
of the world,
and to
express his deepest fears,
but he
also stands in awe of the great beauty and wonder that is at our fingertips,
IF ONLY WE CAN SEE IT.
Repressive Christian piety hurt him greatly
but in the process of that
disappointment, he finds another, more liberating way.
His paintings, his artwork, are simply about trying to find
a way to “walk with God.”
I believe there is more God in one painting of Vincent Van
Gogh,
then
there is in a thousand sermons.
Yes, the church rejects him
but
that doesn’t matter in the slightest to God.
God uses his talent and abilities to profoundly impact the
way we see the world.
To me, Vincent Van Gogh is another prophet in a long line of
God’s prophets.
In the moment of their ministry, prophets are rejected by
the people who are closest to them,
who know them, and live with them
in their hometown.
But like Jesus, like the disciples, like all the prophets
before Jesus,
this
rejection doesn’t stop Vincent Van Gogh.
It isn’t easy, and he struggles greatly,
even,
some say, to the point of taking his own life.
But like the prophets who use persuasive words,
Van Gogh uses his art to express
his relationship with God,
and
his deep respect and compassion for all those around him.
His art says, as he says himself,
there is a God “not dead or
stuffed, but alive, urging us to love, with irresistible force."
