All together in one place – 28 May 2018

A busy community is gathering together. A wide range of ages, gifts and tasks are represented in the picture. There is time for socialising, eating and working together. All of these build community. One man is just arriving, and other people will follow, as the door is left open. It is the women who have been here for some time preparing the room and the food. The table is set, and, as is common at many large meals, mismatching chairs are drawn up for seating.

The picture is called ‘The Quilting Bee’ (1950). Above the table at which this diverse community will gather to eat there is another table or quilting frame at which women are seated. The quilt is made of many different pieces, the women sewing them together to make a whole. When the quilt is finished it will cover a bed and keep someone warm (maybe the couple in the lower right, where there is a hint of romance!).

The picture is by Anna Mary Robinson, commonly known as ‘Grandma Moses’, one of the most famous folk artists of the twentieth century. She began painting at the age of 78 when she was no longer able to sew and embroider, choosing a naïve/realistic style to depict the rural communities in which she had always lived. She died in 1961 at the age of 101.

Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many.

1 Corinthians 12:12-14

Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.

1 John 4:7

For everyone born, a place at the table,
for everyone born, clean water and bread,
a shelter, a space, a safe place for growing,
for everyone born, a star overhead,

Shirley Erena Murray