Da Vinci -- Decoded

I found this picture on the web which was allegedly taken on the grounds of Roslyn Chapel (DVC readers will readily recognize that site), and I just had to share it. Needing some content to post with it here, and not wanting to spend time writing a new piece, I thought I might provide some links to my articles on DaVinci Decoded over on my other blog.












My initial posting, summarizing DaVinci Code and pointing out the historical problems with it, is found at: http://russreaves.blogspot.com/2006/03/davinci-decoded-defending-faith.html

My second posting, "Was Jesus Married with Children?" is found here:
http://russreaves.blogspot.com/2006/03/davinci-decoded-part-2-was-jesus.html

The third posting, "Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary," is found at:
http://russreaves.blogspot.com/2006/03/mary-mary-quite-contrary-davinvi.html

The fourth, entitled, "The Emperor's New Clothes," deals with Constantine and can be found at:
http://russreaves.blogspot.com/2006/04/emperors-new-clothes-constantine-and.html

I also want to acknowledge the blog put together by Carl Olson and Sandra Miesel, authors of "The Da Vinci Hoax." Of all the books to come out, I think this one has been the best. It is written from a Catholic perspective, so Evangelicals will not agree with everything they write, but they have really done a better job with tackling the issues at hand. I recommend their book and their blog, which is found at http://insightscoop.typepad.com/davincihoax/2006/03/dan_browns_stat.html

Carl Olson has written a piece answering the question, "Why make such a big fuss over a work of fiction?". Find it here: http://www.ignatiusinsight.com/features2005/colson_justfiction1_mar05.asp

O Brother! Where Art Thou?

I’ve not read Homer’s Odyssey, so I do not know what Homer intended to convey in the story. However, I enjoyed the movie, O Brother! Where Art Thou?, which was intended to parallel Homer’s Odyssey. The movie is not set in Homer’s ancient Greece; rather, the setting is Louisiana during the Great Depression. Things are not as they seem and before the final scene Ulysses, the main character, inadvertently receives the thing of which he needed the most... restoration.

Ulysses, Pete, and Delmar escape from the chain-gang because Ulysses supposedly has stolen money from a robbery still hidden on his property. Because the three are chained together, Ulysses tells Pete and Delmar about the money and offers them a share of the loot if they will escape together. Unfortunately, Ulysses property is just a few days away from being completely submerged under water because of a dam that has been built in the river nearby to create a new lake. This fact heightens the urgency of which the three convicts must escape and return quickly to Ulysses' home.

Ulysses is clearly vain and self-centered. He constantly worries about his appearance specifically his hair. I laughed each time in the movie when Ulysses woke from sleep thinking that something terrible had happened to his hair. This was comical because nightmares supposedly reveal our worst fears, and for Ulysses his greatest worry was his hair.

Pete and Delmar eventually learn the truth about Ulysses desire to escape from the chain-gain. There is no money; in fact, Ulysses was never even arrested for robbery. Although Ulysses property is a few days away from being flooded, his estranged wife is a few days from remarrying as well. It is this marriage that Ulysses hopes to prevent which was the real motive for his escape. Again, Pete and Delmar had to be tricked into coming along because the three had been shackled together.

Before the truth is revealed and while the three convicts are on the run, they experience a number of adventures. One scene finds them down by the river where a local church is baptizing its new converts. Sensing their own need for restoration and repentance, Pete and Delmar do not delay; they run down to the rivers edge, break in line, and make their way out into the water to the preacher and ask to be baptized. But Ulysses rejects the notion of repentance and salvation and seems to have a measure of contempt for Pete and Delmar for doing such a thing.

Ulysses, Pete, and Delmar have already wondered into a radio station that was doing a promotional stunt by allowing people to come by and make a record. The three convicts make a recording that is eventually played on radio stations throughout Louisiana. The three are referred to as the Soggy Bottom Boys, and they become the most popular singing group in the state. Yet, because they are on the run, they are unaware of their popularity. When their identity is revealed, the incumbent governor who’s running for reelection gives them a full pardon knowing that such a move would benefit his campaign due to their popularity.

Because the man to whom Ulysses wife was to marry worked for the other candidate and because the other candidate became unpopular, Ulysses has, at least for the moment, won back his wife. But has he found restoration?

Ulysses returns to his house (shack) and property to retrieve a ring for his wife so that they can be remarried. However, he walks into an ambush set by those who had been tracking the three fugitives. Ulysses, Pete, and Delmar try to explain that they had been pardoned and that the news of their pardon had even been reported on the radio. But those who had been tracking the three remind them that they have no radio. Thus the ropes are draped over the tree branch in order to hang the three and the graves have already been dug.

Certain death seems to be coming, but wait! Ulysses notices a trickle of water flowing across the ground. He then hears a roar. As he looks up, he sees a wall of water rushing from behind his shack; the day in which Ulysses property was to be submerged under the new lake has arrived, and Ulysses, Pete, and Delmar are swept away to safety by the onslaught of water.

The water I believe is significant to the story. Ulysses rejects baptism along with notion of repentance earlier, but in the end, Ulysses is overwhelmed by water... a baptism of sorts. I believe the scene is comparable to irresistible grace. Ulysses’ baptism was coming and he would not escape it.

In the final scene, Ulysses is not preoccupied with his hair. His pride and self-centeredness have vanished, and his only concern seems to be for his wife and her happiness as he follows her down the street. The final scene reminds me of Ephesians 5:25... Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.

Ulysses has found restoration and sanctification. People may miss the beauty of how this movie ends with Ulysses following his wife down the street. He is not preoccupied with whether his wife his doing her job as a wife and being obedient; in fact, she doesn’t stop nagging him about that ring. But to be occupied with whether she is fulfilling her role is to be occupied with whether she is fulfilling his needs. But Ulysses has stopped worrying about his needs. He’s stopped worrying about his hair. He’s no longer the center of his own universe.

So what do we see? We see the once proud Ulysses loving his wife sacrificially as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her. This is restoration; this is the way it’s suppose to be; Ulysses follows his wife down the street... the screen fades to black... the end.


I Am A Man Of Constant Sorrow
By Norman Blake
(Performed by the fictional trio the Soggy Bottom Boys)
(Originally performed by the Stanley Brothers)

(In constant sorrow through his days )

I am a man of constant sorrow
I've seen trouble all my day.
I bid farewell to old Kentucky
The place where I was born and raised.

(chorus) The place where he was born and raised

For six long years I've been in trouble
No pleasures here on earth I found
For in this world I'm bound to ramble
I have no friends to help me now.

(chorus) He has no friends to help him now

It's fare thee well my old lover
I never expect to see you again
For I'm bound to ride that northern railroad
Perhaps I'll die upon this train.

(chorus) Perhaps he'll die upon this train.

You can bury me in some deep valley
For many years where I may lay
Then you may learn to love another
While I am sleeping in my grave.

(chorus) While he is sleeping in his grave.

Maybe your friends think I'm just a stranger
My face you'll never see no more.
But there is one promise that is given
I'll meet you on God's golden shore.

(chorus) He'll meet you on God's golden shore.

Vincent van Gogh

This blog site seems to be a more appropriate place for my Van Gogh article which by now was buried deep in the archives at billybelk.blogspot.com , so I decided to move it here...

A few years ago my wife, Linda, and I were browsing through a store, and I found prints of four paintings by Vincent van Gogh. Being a fan of Van Gogh, I attempted to talk Linda into allowing me to purchase the four prints. Unfortunately, my taste in home décor varies a bit from Linda’s, so she was not about to allow me to hang Van Gogh prints in our living room. I must say that my appreciation (or perhaps fascination) for Van Gogh transcends his artwork. Van Gogh’s life was/is an example of a great universal need known as “redemption”.

Vincent van Gogh was born in the town of Groot-Zundert, Holland, in 1853. Van Gogh was a brilliant artist, but unfortunately, he was mentally unstable. As an adult, Vincent moved to Paris hoping to find success as an artist. After spending two years with his brother, Theo, himself an art dealer in Paris, Vincent traveled to the city of Arles where he worked alongside painter, Paul Gauguin. However, the two artists often quarreled, and, in the aftermath of one very intense argument, Van Gogh, being as unstable as he was, cut off a portion of his ear and had it delivered to a prostitute. Realizing that his own instability had gotten out of hand, Vincent van Gogh committed himself to an asylum where he continued to work at his painting. During that difficult time Van Gogh continued to receive sympathetic encouragement from his brother. Nevertheless, Vincent van Gogh shot himself to death in 1890.

I was thinking about Vincent van Gogh earlier in the week when one of his paintings made headlines. It turns out that one of the paintings that Van Gogh created while in the asylum may bring well over 40 million dollars when it’s auctioned off this May. The painting is called: “L'Arlesienne, Madame Ginoux” and its subject is the person who was Van Gogh’s landlord at the time he cut off his ear.

There are two dimensions to Van Gogh’s story; one is the art and the other is the artist himself. Here is the irony between the two: The artwork seems to have found something that eluded the artist his entire life... redemption! After all, if something is worth 40 million dollars, it has become rather valuable to say the least. But as valuable as the artwork has become, is it really worth more than the artist or any human being for that matter? Consider Psalm 49, verses 7-8... Truly no man can ransom another, or give to God the price of his life, for the ransom of their life is costly and can never suffice.

Being a fan of his artwork, I’m glad that Van Gogh’s art continues to increase in value, but my heart breaks for the artist who never understood the value of his own life. Van Gogh’s story has reminded me again that people are far more valuable than the objects we seem to covet. May the hearts of all evangelical Christians break at the thought of redemption eluding our neighbors, and may such heartbreak stir us to action. And if we are ever tempted to question the value of man-kind, I would challenge us all to look again to the Cross and understand the price paid for the redemption that is ours in Christ alone.