Vincent Van Gogh and Other Prophets

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."