Ben
Enwonwu’s 1974 masterpiece of the
Ife princess which I am failing to paste!
A MASTERPIECE
People have always been drawn by beauty. We have only to look at the
ancient temples of Cambodia or Mexico, the Parthenon of Greece, the Colosseum
of Rome or the citadel of Great Zimbabwe.
Beauty attracts the eye – and the spirit. A football game is made up of 79 minutes of manoeuvring
and one minute – or even one second - of glory. The goal is replayed on the TV over
and over from different angles.
Beauty takes many forms and this 1974 painting by the late
Nigerian artist Ben
Enwonwu of an Ife princess is considered
a masterpiece. It excites the heart and
broadens the mind. It asks many
questions; about society, about relationships, about womanhood, about God. It is indeed a masterpiece! But God also has his masterpieces and they
are wonderfully varied.
Take,
for instance, the life of John Bradburne of Mutemwa – a settlement for people
living with leprosy in Zimbabwe. In his
time many considered him an eccentric, crazy, a drop out. Others knew him as a delight, as kind and
totally dedicated to God and his most abandoned people.
Reading
his life[1] I am struck by the echoes
of the gospel. John was heroic during World War II and at the onset of peace he
searched – for twenty-four years - for where “I have to be”. His search ended in Mutemwa in 1969 and for
the next ten years he lived, first a honeymoon, echoing Jesus’ experience as
told, for instance, in the first chapters of Mark, then, like Jesus,
incomprehension, rejection and execution. At his graveside in 1979, Archbishop
Chakaipa actually said, “John reminds us so much of Jesus.”
John
was one of God’s masterpieces. But we
need to remind ourselves that we are all one of God’s “works in progress.” He
is the “master craftsman” (Proverbs 8:30) and he makes many masterpieces – many
of whom we meet in our life without knowing it.
At Pentecost the Spirit came in tongues of fire; “these separated and
came to rest of the head of each of them”. For each one the fire is different.
But each of us is a masterpiece in the making.
20 May 2018 Pentecost
Acts 2:1-11 1
Corinthians 12:3 … 13 John
20:19-23
No comments:
Post a Comment