Word and Sacrament

Word and Sacrament, 2008 (Acrylic on Canvas)

This painting is simple and I hope that the message of it is as well. God's Word is one that is embodied as a promise to you and me in the preached Word and the administered Sacraments (Sacraments, by the way, are by the mandate of Jesus and offer what they promise, the forgiveness of sins). Yet, how often are we so eager to look for God everywhere but don't always recognize the places where He promises to be. Yes, He is Lord of the whole world and is even at work in ways that we do not fully understand, but where does He promise to be? Where does He promise to offer adoption into His family? Where does He promise to make us dead to sin and alive to Christ? Where does He promise forgiveness? Where does He promise a foretaste of the feast to come? Where does He promise His victory? Where does He promise hope to get through the next day? Where does He promise communion with Him and each other? Where does He promise Life? Where does He promise Jesus? For the Christian, though many other questions remain unanswerable, the answer to these questions ought to be black and white.