Praying with Icons


First, I wish you all a Belated St. Barnabas Day!  Our Patron Saint’s Feast Day is June 11th, and this year it fell between 2 major Sunday Feasts – Pentecost and Trinity Sunday – so we could not transfer our commemoration to the closest Sunday like we usually do.  However, we do give thanks for the life and example of Barnabas, who ENCOURAGES us to give abundantly of ourselves in our life in Christ.   

On Pentecost, I offered the teaser that my blog this week would be help you understand my sermon on Trinity Sunday more deeply.  In an effort to offer the congregation an internalized spiritual experience, the sermon will be a meditation on the icon of “The Trinity”, written by Andrei Rublev. Yes, icons are “written” rather than “painted.”  As PBS anchor, Bob Abernathy, states, “In the Orthodox Christian tradition, icons are said to be written, not painted. The Orthodox consider making icons more a form of prayer than art, and they believe the iconographer’s hand is guided by God.”
There are several “Orthodox” traditions (i.e. Greek, Russian, Armenian, etc.).  As a group, the Orthodox churches are thought of as the “Eastern” tradition, and the Roman Catholic Church and its descendants (i.e. the Protestant churches) are considered the “Western” tradition. The Eastern churches take decorating their worship spaces to the next level – the more, the better!  It is thought that no matter how magnificent the decoration, God’s realm is even more amazing, and that God deserves the very best.  Similarly, the Orthodox are very dedicated in their prayers beyond corporate worship and have a long tradition of using icons.
While icons are not unheard of in the Western church tradition, they are not used as often and there is some (misguided) sentiment that they are idolatrous.  Please note, we DO NOT pray TO icons, we pray WITH icons. Icons offer us a glorious way to connect with the divine, but they are not divine.  They are sacred objects as they written in prayer and invite the faithful and searching to participate with the divine.
One of the most famous icons is Rublev’s “The Trinity.” Andrei Rublev (1360s-late 1420s) is considered to be one of the greatest medieval Russian painters of Orthodox icons and frescos. (Fun Fact: The liturgical calendar of the Episcopal Church remembers Rublev on January 29!) He wrote the icon in 1425 in memory of great Russian saint, Serguis, and gave it to a monastery 40 miles north-east of Moscow, where (I believe) the original icon is housed.  The icon has degraded, so many depictions of it are “enhanced” (like the version we will use on Sunday), but some versions are more accurate than others, specifically in reference to the colors Rublev used, which are very symbolic.

The icon depicts the three angels who visited Abraham by the oaks of Mamre (Genesis 18:1–8), but the icon is full of symbolism and is interpreted as an icon of the Holy Trinity. At the time of Rublev, the Holy Trinity was the embodiment of spiritual unity, peace, harmony, mutual love and humility. It is important to note that it was Rublev’s choice to connect the theological understanding of the Holy Trinity to the three mysterious messengers in this story rather than rely solely on the biblical text.  From our Christian context, this association almost seems obvious, but it is not explicitly stated in the Hebrew Scripture.  Recognizing Rublev’s inspirations is important to our own use of icons in prayer so that they can deepen the understanding of our faith, or even question exactly what we believe.
I hope this short introduction will help with your experience on Sunday.  If you have other questions about icons or praying with icons, please let me know!
In Christ,
Rev. Valerie+

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