Our Church Flags: 4. Brazil

Some flags are easy to draw.  This is emphatically not true of the Brazilian flag - I pity the elementary school child trying to reproduce it:

The representation of the night sky has stars for each state - not so unusual - but the number of states (27) and their representation as actual southern hemisphere constellations produce a flag that makes the United States or Australian/New Zealand starry flags a doddle to draw by comparison.

On the flag the night sky replaces the Imperial insignia that was on the flag when the Empire of Brazil was a colony of Portugal.  It represents the declaration of a new start one night!

So at Christmas it reminds us of the Christmas night sky from which the angels brought the message of a new Ruler who would bless humankind with true peace.

The Fine Art of Christmas - Starry Night over the Rhone

Atmospherically this is certainly Christmassy.

It might look good on the card but  Christmas wasn't in Van Gogh's mind when he painted this night scene of the River Rhone in September 1888.  He was fascinated by the colours of night and the challenge of painting them.

To fit the painting on the card, a devastating transaction has happened however.  Here is the original painting:

Leaving aside the colour differences we can see that the original has Ursa Major (the Great Bear) constellation with great prominence.  Van Gogh's intention was to make the stars the star over against the gas lighting.  Instead, the card has left in the lovers at the expense of the stars.

Every Christmas we are prone to cut out a little or a lot of heavenly glory to keep humans in the centre of the picture.

Lamping Out

The Harvest season comes to an end and the dark evenings are upon us.  But London doesn't easily sleep.

Although London has long had all-night buses it now has all night underground trains.  As well as being helpful to people who must travel at night, it certainly doesn't make hectic London any more restful.

And although there are currently only a few lines on two nights it threatens the unique moment - unknown to all but a handful of Londoners - of lamping out.

I thought about this the other day when I hurried down a passageway only for the doors on the train to shut in my face.  It is not a rare thing for London travellers.  Except on one train.

The exact exception to this common experience takes place nightly when the last train runs.  A member of staff stands on the platform, another in the entry upstairs.  On the platform the train does not leave until anyone counted into the station has boarded the train, whereupon it is lamped out.  Instead of the passenger being held up by the leaving train, the passenger becomes the focus, the pivotal crux of the leaving train.  

And I thought about it again when I heard the harvest hymn about 'all is safely gathered in'.  The story of harvest but the metaphor of salvation.  For not one of God's elect will be missing; for every believer a place, for every place a believer.  Continuation of the current universe is because there are still sheep that are lost, still prodigals in a far country who must come home.