Artist in Residence 2019, Lancelot Schaubert
Tell me, you who want to be under the law, are you not aware of what the law says? For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and the other by the free woman. His son by the slave woman was born according to the flesh, but his son by the free woman was born as the result of a divine promise.
These things are being taken figuratively: The women represent two covenants. One covenant is from Mount Sinai and bears children who are to be slaves: This is Hagar. Now Hagar stands for Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present city of Jerusalem, because she is in slavery with her children. But the Jerusalem that is above is free, and she is our mother. For it is written:
“Be glad, barren woman,
you who never bore a child;
shout for joy and cry aloud,
you who were never in labor;
because more are the children of the desolate woman
than of her who has a husband.”
Now you, brothers and sisters, like Isaac, are children of promise. At that time the son born according to the flesh persecuted the son born by the power of the Spirit. It is the same now. But what does Scripture say? “Get rid of the slave woman and her son, for the slave woman’s son will never share in the inheritance with the free woman’s son.” Therefore, brothers and sisters, we are not children of the slave woman, but of the free woman.
It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. (NIV)
July 1, 2019
Continuing with the son of heaven, son of earth themes, we’re showing how they get magic here and introducing The Good Lord as a character who, instead of using the word prayer, simply dialogs with characters in the books. In this section, we tee up some ideas that will come into play later and give some call backs to the previous book. Hopefully by the time we do the fourth part of the commission, I can tie it all together neatly as a self-contained unit for the commission itself. For now, it’s functioning as what it is: a piece of a novel at the end of a trilogy. But it’s self-contained, I think, in its own charming way.
The important part is the sort of biblical mythology as a magic system for these characters and how that will shape their journeys to come, specifically with how they will use their powers for good and evil a la the verse.
Read “Glittering Eyes” by Lancelot Schaubert
Note: These stories contain strong language and may not be suitable for all audiences.
Read Lancelot’s first or third post to follow the development of his 2019 Artist in Residence project.
All materials are copyrighted by the artist and used here by permission.