North Clerestory

These eight windows illustrate various parables told by Jesus.

49.The Parable of the Laborers in the Vineyard (1981):

This window illustrates the parable in Matthew 20:1-15 which compares the kingdom of heaven to a vineyard owner who hires workers early in the day to work for a denarius, an amount of money usually paid for a full day’s work.  He goes out again at noon and at three in the afternoon and hires workers offering them the same amount of money as those he hired earlier. He goes out at five o’clock and hires more workers to work the little that remains of the day.  In the right lancet, the owner offers a denarius to a worker in the left lancet while workers hired earlier in the day are at work in the background. The baskets of grapes show that others have been working, harvesting grapes from the arbors like the one behind the worker. At the end of the day, the owner pays all the workers a denarius. The other workers complain that they have not been paid more than those who were hired later. Jesus says to one of them, “didst not thou agree with me for a penny? Take that thine is, and go thy way: I will give unto this last, even as unto thee…So the last shall be first, and the first last; for many be called, but few chosen.” (Matt. 20:13-16)  The tracery light resembles #41.

Memorial: This window was given to the glory of God and in loving memory of Theodore Marion DuBose, Jr., m.d. (1886-1960) and Sally Hammond DuBose (1886-1976) by Dr. Hugh H. DuBose, their son.

50.The Parable of the Lost Sheep (1981):

This window illustrates the parable at Luke 15:3-7, in which Jesus asks the Pharisees, “What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it?” Unlike the other illustrations of the parables, this one depicts Jesus (identified by his triradiate nimbus) as the shepherd, pulling his lost sheep in the left lancet to safety with his crook.

The tracery light resembles #44.

Memorial: This window was given to the glory of God with great joy and thanksgiving by Mr. and Mrs. Christopher FitzSimons iii and their family.

51.The Parable of the Prodigal Son (1981):

This window illustrates the parable in Luke 15:11-32. The younger son asks his father to distribute his estate to him and his brother before the father dies. The father agrees. The

son wastes his share prodigiously in another town and facing starvation returns home offering to be one of his father’s servants. The father, however, greets him on the road home, and orders a fatted calf to be killed for a feast to celebrate his return. The elder son complains that he has behaved responsibly and honorably and has not even received a goat in return. The father replies that “It was meet that we should make merry, and be glad: for this thy brother was dead, and is alive again; and was lost and is found.” (Luke 15:32) In the left lancet, the rather poorly dressed son returns home as the industrious brother sits behind him with a spade. In the right lancet the father rushes to embrace his son with the fatted calf in the background. The tracery light contains a trident symbolizing the Trinity.

Memorial: This window was given to the glory of God with great joy and thanksgiving by the Clifford Poinsett Exum Family.

52.The Parable of the Unprepared Builder (1981):

This window illustrates the parable in Luke 14: 28-30, which describes a man who begins to build a tower but does not have the means to finish it and is ridiculed by those who see the abandoned foundation. The left lancet shows men on ladders building the tower while men in the foreground mix mortar. The right lancet shows a man sitting at a drawing board, or desk, with a moneybag at his feet, calculating the cost of the project, which he imagines in the bubble over his head. The tracery light resembles #47.

Memorial: This window was given to the glory of god in love and appreciation for their parents Charlotte Brown Lide (December 16, 1890-march 11,1988) and Claudius Murray Lide (May 27,1878-July 18,1946) by Charlotte Lide McCrady, Eliza Lide Robison, Mary Lide McArthur, and Claudius Murray Lide, Jr.

53.The Parable of the Good Samaritan (1978):

This window illustrates the parable in Luke 10:29-37, by which Jesus answers the question, “Who is my neighbor?” A man traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho was attacked by robbers, who stripped him, beat him, and left him for dead. The two robbers are shown at the top of the right lancet. Shortly after the robbers departed, a priest and then a Levite came by, shown in the background of the left lancet. Both crossed to the other side of the road and ignored the beaten man. Then a passing Samaritan bandaged the wounds of the stricken man and befriended him, as shown in the lower parts of both lancets. The tracery light resembles #41.

Memorial: This window was oven to the glory of God and in memory of helen purdy dehon (1894-i957) and Theodore Dehon, Jr., (1895-1974), by their daughter, Elizabeth M. Dehon.

54.The Parable of the Sower (1981):

This window illustrates the parable in Matthew 13:3-8, in which a sower scattered seeds on a pathway that were eaten by birds, and on stony ground, where their sprouts were scorched by the sun, and on thorns, which choked them. This is depicted in the right lancet. In the left lancet the sower casts seeds on fertile soil, which rewards him as much as a hundredfold. The window clearly illustrates the point of the parable—Christians must make themselves receptive ground for the gospel.

Memorial: This window was given to the glory of God and in loving memory of Elizabeth Nicholson Nelson (1912-1981) and Patrick Henry Nelson (1910-1964) by their children Nina Nelson Smith, Elizabeth Nelson Adams, and William Shannon Nelson II.

55.The Parable of the Publican and the Pharisee (1981):

This window illustrates the parable in Luke 18:10-14 in which a Pharisee and a tax collector went to a temple to pray. The Pharisee, shown in the left lancet, thanked God that he was not an extortionist, an unjust man or an adulterer like the publican. The publican, shown in the right lancet, lowers his head asking God only to be merciful to a sinner. Jesus says, “I tell you this man [the publican] went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one that ealteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted (Luke 18:14).

O. Memorial: This window was given to the glory of God and in memory of Henrietta McWillie Nelson Weston (1906 -1977) by her husband William Weston, Jr., m.d.

56.The Parable of the Talents (1981):

This window illustrates the parable in Matthew 25:14-30, in which a master, depicted in the left lancet, has returned from his travels and listens to the three servants to whom he had entrusted  money. The servant who received five talents has doubled his money and is shown to the master’s left. The servant standing in the right lancet was given two talents doubled his money also, but the servant kneeling with a shovel, buried his talent in the ground and had only the one talent he had been given. The master takes the talent and gives it to the servant with ten talents, saying, “For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath.” (Matt. 25:29)

Memorial: This window was given to the glory of God and in loving memory of Irvine Furman Belser (1890-1969) by the family of Irvine Furman Belser.