stopping to think

Remember Me when you do this.  
  
A sip of wine and the crunch of bread. These bring to mind the intimate involvement of my living Savior. The One who found me and makes my mind to know his wondrous activity every moment of every day in 2017.

His blood poured out for me from his physical death. His body nailed to wood till he died. His body entombed. His body brought to life to live on and on as all God and all Homo Sapien. He did this for me.

An artist is moved.
She is led to nail various sizes of hardware onto a burnt section of wood. Nails indicate where His feet were. Where His hands were. The nails remind her of people both past and present. She thinks about her own resistance. How easy it is to say no to God. This too is part of the story. What Jesus means to her. Why He came.

Other artists do the same -- they listen, they are moved, they plan a design, fingers and eyes move with precision. This kind of art draws minds to the Lord. Stopping to think about Jesus can be called prayer. It is worship. It is liturgical. We stop and think about what He is drawing us into. While I walk, while I sit, under a tree, in a yard, in a car, in a church, by myself, or with others. The One I love.

His ability to change hearts and minds. His ability to cancel debts. His ability to show mercy to me. His strength and kindness and intelligence. Instructions for amino acids to fold over in a specific sequence for each specific protein within every living cell. That I can know HIM. That is awesome!

wood - glass - formica - elmer's glue - joy - design - celebrate

The space for such creating once took place in the basement of Brommer Hall. It continues on in the basement of Jesse Hall. 

With funds from a donor the Center for Liturgical Arts now has its own new building at 540 North Columbia Avenue in Seward. Ground broke just four months ago. Already a building. What a wonder.

Three minutes. Concordia University president Brian Friedrich.

Actually the original vision happened about right here. Today, you long term Seward residents know: the house was green, almost the shade now covering the outside walls of the Center. In here lived for many years, Dorris and Reinhold Marxhausen and their children Karl and Paul.  Brian Friedrich

What the Greeks said to the disciple Phillip: "Sir, we want to see Jesus." John 12:21

Former Marxhausen family residence at 540 North Columbia in Seward.

 Harvey D. Lange, Associate Professor of Theology, 1972 yearbook, p. 86

Carol and Harvey Lange, Concordia Teachers College, 1976 yearbook, p.106

Reinhold on his studio deck working on welded sculpture piece 
for Hope Lutheran Church in Park Forest, Illinois, 1966

 New Forms for Worship item by Marxhausen, 1968.
Paint on Morrell ham lid.

 
Reinhold Pieper Marxhausen, Professor of Art, 
varnishing New Forms for Worship project 
in Art Annex basement, 1969

 

Professor Marxhausen design, July 1970, 
Lutheran Church Missouri Synod conference, Denver, Colorado

 

Those in attendance of building dedication September 22nd.

 
Seven minutes. Director Mark Anschutz shares two stories for the center.

Those two families, the Lange - Marxhausen family, started this marvelous idea of the Center. Now ideas take a while to start and to flourish. And that's what happened. It took years and we don't know exactly when things happened but the Spirit moves. You know the Spirit loves creation. It moved at Creation, and was in Creation, and I believe the Spirit moves over the Center. So, when I think about that moment, when these two men out on that deck were talking about THIS, they didn't know we would be in a building. They didn't know how we would reach across the ocean. They didn't know what God had planned for THIS, but they were MOVED BY THE SPIRIT. And the Spirit also led me here.      Mark Anschutz

 

Mark Anschutz oversaw the new property to keep portions of the Marxhausen inspired landscape. Such as the path to the Reinhold and Dorris Marxhausen studio. He matched the exterior color to the green that was on the Marxhausen front porch. Various trees started by Dorris Marxhausen continue to flourish, a couple a persimmon trees, and a marvelous giant ponderosa pine along the Lincoln Street side.

 

Thank you Mark for your love and dedication. He preserved and showcased the original front door, next. Which my father glued piece by piece, then burned portions with a torch, then wire-brushed, and at the end waxed down. It has a loud metal doorbell which rings loud when you pull the porcelain knob.

 
Six minutes. Harvey and Carol Lange

A six year program with funding for each of those years. Sufficient to hire a part-time worker who would design a proposal for congregations to enhance their sanctuary for Christmas or for Easter. And this person would take this design to teacher conferences or pastor conferences. And would also talk about the potential for liturgical art --- The first hired person was Mark Anschutz. Here we are fifteen years later. Would you believe that this proposal would lead to fabricating a 72 pane glass stained glass wall. 20 feet tall and 80 feet across. And all those pieces of glass fabricated here in Seward. And then packed and shipped to Hong Kong, where they are put in place. Harvey Lange

 

  
One minute. With gratitude to the Lord.

 
News spot on Channel 10 of new center

Photos and videos of dedication by Karl Marxhausen
Additional photos courtesy of Mark Anschutz, director of the Center for the Liturgical Art.

**********

prepared site

One Saturday I met a man who had known my father. He and my dad became friends and colleagues while teaching at Concordia University in Seward. But before they ever met --- Harvey Lange was impressed by the mural Reinhold Marxhausen painted on the east wall of the Brommer Dining Hall. (Drawing sketch, next. Estate photo, an excerpt from The Witness, January 1953. Golden Embers 1953 yearbook photo, page 62)

Marxy, as he was known on campus, had depicted "God's majestic hand," Lange told the Alumni Gathering on Homecoming weekend. The Aid Association for Lutherans printed the color image of the mural for its 1953 calendar. Double click to enlarge images.

Both Harvey and his wife Carol were very struck by that painting. As of yet they had not met Marxhausen. Lange wrote to Marxy and paid him 100 dollars to do a Christmas painting.

The work measured 36 by 24 inches. It consisted of a blazing flame in the shape of the Holy Spirit, a shaft of light which pierced through a night sky of blue. The earth below was black. Marxy told Lange the swirling figures within the light were based on figures Van Gogh had done. In the foreground one could make out the little town of Bethlehem. Marxy called the piece "a radiant hallelujah chorus."

Marxy told Harvey Lange that the painting was not on canvas but on hard masonite. He painted it with auto lacquer. Which made the work child proof. Nothing would mess up the painted surface.

From the same photos --- that the Concordia repository now has on Reinhold Marxhausen --- I recognize the white garage behind my father, the sidewalk that had been recently poured, the same one Dad had us boys draw in. There were cars in the background, across the street in the gravel parking lot, that years later would become the Campus Center. Our address was 199 College Avenue. The yard where my brother Paul and I played. My dad painted the hallelujah chorus around 1960. Later, when our family moved over to Columbia and Lincoln, that white house and the white garage would become the first Art Annex for the college in 1965. Still later, the same building was torn down to make way for the Dorcas dorm.

In 1964 Harvey and Carol Lange moved to Seward, Nebraska. They lived at 2nd and Moffitt. Harvey taught Religion classes at Concordia.

During the early 60's Dad built a studio behind our house on Columbia, in order to assemble the mosaic murals for the Nebraska State Capitol.

 
In 1977 Marxy gave Lange a welded sculpture he had made called "Victory." It depicted a germinating seed pushing through clods of earth. A motif Marxhausen used to represent Christ's resurrection from the dead. Marxy had created the piece when he was at Mills College in 1962. He only asked that the work be always available for any exhibit that came up.

When his illness had taken hold of Marxy, his wife Dorris told Harvey not to expect much conversation from him. Determined, Lange brought up the subject with Marxy. What he got instead was a conversation about the need for visual arts within the church. Congregations have a minister of music. They should consider having a minister of art.

Lange conferred with collegue Chuck Dull. Dull had started the Director of Christian Education (DCE) program at Concordia University. At one time this ministry did not exist. Then the program became established at Concordia and it continues to this day to send out qualified workers to serve congregations.

Lange foresaw a foundation for Concordia Teachers College. A liturgical art faculty. He had seen the what Arlen Meyer had done over the years for the St. John Church in Seward - visually celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ. Marxy had created sculptures for the church narthex, which corresponded with the pastor's sermon. Lange could see a program established to foster liturgical art. Lange said it was paramount to get input from churches and then design a means for carrying it out.

Lange asked Arlen Meyer to bring this idea before the Art Department. To hire a part-time person. The reply was that their hands were already full. After much consideration the Board of Regents approved it.

It turns out that Harvey Lange, the man I have now met, has greatly helped to fund the Center for the Liturgical Arts for the past twelve years. The Center began in 2003 under Ken Schmidt. It continued under Mike Strand and now Mark Anschutz.  Who knew? I had not. But I know now.

Harvey Lange acknowledges the hand of the Lord.

Yes yes yes yes. That is to say, some One is leading. The hand of the Lord is leading. I believe Marxy was led to Seward. And he followed. The Lord led him toward each project. The Brommer mural, the State Capitol murals, stardust on the David Letterman show --- Marxy, being both a teacher and a learner himself. The creating process as a believer and as an artist is about listening, honoring, being led, and giving thanks to that Hand of God - For He IS ABLE.

Soon ground will be broken on what once was the Marxhausen property. It was gifted to the university by the family. A new facility for the Center. Impossible things have become possible. It is the activity of our engaged Lord.

Harvey Lange is correct. What is going on it truly miraculous!!!!!

Three minutes. In 2013 the house where my brother and I grew up was still standing at 540 North Columbia in Seward, Nebraska. My mother Dorris still lived at the Arbors in Lincoln. My father was laid to rest in 2011. His grand daughter, my niece, Anne Marxhausen resided at the house and took care of the property. This was how the yard and studio looked back then. Anne had her own projects going on in the studio. You can see the landscaping and greenery my mother had planted. Aspens tall and seedlings from the Poconos in Jersey.

Three minutes. In 2016 the Marxhausen property was given to Concordia University in Seward, Nebraska. The former house was taken down and the lot prepared as the future site of the Center for Liturgical Arts. Plans have been drawn up to include the existing Reinhold Marxhausen studio, and to build additional studios on the same lot.  

Actual drawings of the planned center (photos by Paul Marxhausen)

X-ray view, side elevations, note the echo of the existing studio, 

 floor plan

site plan, smaller square is existing studio.

The front door will be what Marxy did for the 540 North Columbia house, gorgeous in satin polyurethane.

administrative desk in the basement of Jesse Hall.

Worship song. Karl Marxhausen (1989) Four minutes.

"Celebration is more heart than head, more faith than sight, more confession than consumption as we live under God's promise in Christ. We are the Lord's. Here is the Celebration."  Harvey Lange     (1971 Tower yearbook, page 86)Lange

Right photo, "Harvey Lange was making an intense point to my brother Karl.  It was great to talk with Harvey and Carol and understand the depth of their commitment to the CLA project."    Paul Marxhausen


Karl Marxhausen interview with Harvey Lange, Saturday, October 8th, 2016. Phone conversation, October 20th, 2016.