I finished working over this painting last night. I started it before December 1, before Advent, along with some others that were just underpaintings, but this one developed early on with some interesting textures that I moved along into a desert landscape with the Sphinx and one of the pyramids.

Now you may be wondering what this has to do with advent? Good question!  My point is that the stories around the nativity are all present to us even as we are slowly unveiling them in some kind of sequence in the lectionary, a daily devotional, or through Sunday readings. So we already know that at the end of the story, after the birth, after the Magi's departure, the Gospel of Matthew tell us the family fled into Egypt, fled for their lives from King Herod. Interestingly, they were returning to the place from whence Moses and the people of Israel fled a thousand years or so before!  Egypt is therefore displayed for us in the gospel era as an extinct civilization, one that is no longer powerful or a threat to God's people (though it was a huge part of the previous story). However, the current threat to the family is now from Rome, is Rome, and from Herod the great and his sons who are the Imperial rulers of the nation on behalf of the Roman Empire.

I've been looking at this painting almost every day and have been intrigued by the desolation and destruction of the great Sphinx sculpture, which is still the world's largest monolithic sculpture. It seemed to me to be a good symbol for this holiday season as we are talking about God with us. Obviously, this is a image of what one culture thought was God in the flesh, a half man /half animal visage of power in a pose that still commands worldwide attention even though the image of a former pharaoh has been stripped and deformed by erosion and the hands of zealots and thieves.And my nocturne shows it completely abandoned, no one camping by it, nobody home!

Another interesting aspect of the Sphinx is the mythological side. Greek mythology has it as a winged figure with the head of a woman and the body of a lion, that was sent to protect or insulate the city of Thebes and she inquired of travelers coming into the city the answer to her riddle. We've all probably heard that riddle of what it is that it starts on four legs and then two and ends up with three? It seems like an easy riddle as we realize this is a picture of a human being who crawls as a child then stands as a youth and then lastly as an older adult supports his or her weight on two feet with a cane, an expression of the progress of life and aging.

Sunday, Advent 1, of the great domed image of heaven. So the Sphinx asks a question --a riddle, and the answer is it is about us! --everyone of us, if we live long enough! The Thebian Sphinx would strangle those who got the answer wrong, those who were oblivious to the movement of life, in essence. And there are always those among us who live in a strangled sort of way, likewise oblivious to what is going on around them and what their life is or could be leading toward, even though they are on a journey! The coming of the Christ is for illumination!  He is not a riddle, though many make him out to be one. The Christ, God with us, Immanuel --is for our lives to unravel the mystery and reveal that we are loved and are to be like him and not live in any hope of a defunct civilization or reigning power! We are to recognize our unique opportunity with God and for the world. The poor Egyptian slaves labored under their god, the Pharaoh, --they were just grist for the mill with no thought of interest in their lives or hope of God ever caring for them. What a striking difference that is lost on most people!
 
So between the riddle, the image of a distant dead empire, and the connection to Moses and the people of Israel, this image above prepares us for something about the coming of the Christ child, who is not a demigod like in the Greek and Roman myths and other mythologies, where a god-man or woman is engendered by a promiscuous deity who cares nothing for humanity except the satiation of their lust and urges! Even the family of Caesar has this kind of mythological beginning. No! This Christ who comes to us as the baby is not a demigod but God with us, for us, and against the empire, whatever empire that would be. For all empires are all the same, and God's way is not the way of the world --not the world that was, or is. This is great difference might be a good thing for us to think about in this wonderful but crazy season. The future world could be different, could be God's Kingdom --perhaps, but part of that difference is up to us.

I think there's a need for people to get rescued from the holiday madness. Some need to be brought out of their modern slavery. Some need to recognize the affront these beautiful seasonal narratives make plain against Rome and therefore against any culture as well, including the holiday culture which has become such a commercial ingredient for success for so many businesses and individuals. 

There is a very beautiful Christmas image of Mary with baby Jesus resting in the arms of a Sphinx --not this one, but a smaller Sphinx which seems to have a smile on its face. I plan to do another Egyptian landscape when we're closer to Epiphany to show the holy family camping out near this great Sphinx, as a representation of their necessary flight into Egypt, for what more could you do to distinctly represent Egypt than the Sphinx and the pyramids?  This is part of our story!  

--Pastor Jack