"The Blues is Just a Bad Dream," to both have a little fun and open the door to the power and importance of our songs of lament. I totally rewrote the ending of my message, too, emphasizing that in addition to learning to FEEL the blues, the best blues artists demand that you don't WASTE them. As one writer recently said, "The wisdom and gravitas that comes from working through our wounds often produce a scar that has beauty - but there's NOTHING attractive about an open sore." Man, that is so right...Later that day - after a great hike out in the woods of an emerging springtime - we headed back to lead Taize worship. It knocked me out - especially ending with the haunting, "Stay with Me" that is destine to close out our Good Friday, "Songs of Solace" worship.
In a few hours I will be leading our second, "Teach Us to Pray" workshop at church - this week with an emphasis on how the Myers-Briggs tools can help us discern new ways into our spiritual journey. Two books - Who We Are is How We Pray by Dr. Charles J. Keating and Prayer and Temperament by Chester Michael and Marie Norrisey - are crucial. After a gentle and modified liturgy of evening prayer, we'll explore four key types of being prayerful - born of the experience of Augustine, Francis, Ignatius and Thomas - and see how this shakes out. We'll be doing some body prayers and yoga in our following session, too.
So many blessings swimming around as I try to collect my thought
s after the IAM Encounters 10 gathering in NYC last week. Some of you may really appreciate this podcast from IAM Conversations with Christy Tennant @ www.internationalartsmovement.org/podcasts/IAMglobal/episodes/631-maes-jacob-marshallvement.org/podcasts/IAMglobal/episodes/631-maes-jacob-marshallI am really loving an essay by the evangelical author, Andy Couch, in a volume I bought over the weekend called: For the Beauty of the Church. In his opening piece, Couch talks about how art is a gift, a calling and an obedience - and he is very insightful. At another time I will explore his insights more deeply but there are three ideas that I am totally loving:
+ First, that the whole notion of "culture making" is part of our Judeo-Christ
ian foundation as articulated in the second creation story of Genesis 2. Unlike the first story (which is the later one historically - from the captivity period in Babylon) this is not creatio ex nihilo but rather creatio ex creatis - creation out of what was created. The garden of the story is not just a vegetable garden, it is also a place of beauty.
ian foundation as articulated in the second creation story of Genesis 2. Unlike the first story (which is the later one historically - from the captivity period in Babylon) this is not creatio ex nihilo but rather creatio ex creatis - creation out of what was created. The garden of the story is not just a vegetable garden, it is also a place of beauty.+Second, within this more than utilitarian creation, are things hidden from the eye like gold and onyx - resources that demand human touch before they become beautiful - and this too is part of the plan. In fact, "these are substances whose only real value IS their beauty." And as Makoto Fujimura has noted, these things of beauty are hidden - latent - "lying below the surface... so that their potential for beauty is only fully realized when it is cultivated."
+ And third, in addition to the manipulation of creation for selfish purposes, the story doesn't end with sin but... the grace of God. Crouch makes the point that in addition to the fig leaves and leather and the murder there is "also the mark of mercy... the Creator continues to create e
x creatis and stays in the story." At one point even entering in a way that takes bread and wine and makes them holy. "Bread and wine - not wheat and grapes - but culture not nature."
x creatis and stays in the story." At one point even entering in a way that takes bread and wine and makes them holy. "Bread and wine - not wheat and grapes - but culture not nature."Some of us have been wrestling with the overly utilitarian nature in much of what passes for religion in our lives - we celebrate culture when it serves our purposes - but disdain and dismiss it when it simply seeks beauty. Which leaves the artists among us confused and discouraged - often shamed by guilt - for trying to live into our sacred calling. Crouch writes: "our response to art... is the truest diagnostic test of our underlying beliefs about culture." In other words, is culture utilitarian - a function of getting the job done - or is culture how God created the world - as a gift not a function? Those are very different polarities, to be sure, and I know I certainly come out on the side of grace.
+ It is ALL about grace - nothing is fundamentally about usefulnes
s - it is ALL a gift. A feast. A celebration.
s - it is ALL a gift. A feast. A celebration.+ We are not in the "business" of persuading sinners but living in gratitude for God. Pointing to that old Protestant hymn, "For the Beauty of the Earth," Crouch replaces "earth" with "church" and sings: For the joy of ear and eye, for the heart and mind's delight, for the mystic harmony, linking sense to sound and sight; Lord of all, to thee we raise this our hymn of grateful praise."
Finally he asks, if we in the church - souls born of grace freely shared - fail to recall and embody God's extravagance, then "who will be the people who can play gracefully and unusefully in the world? Who will be the people who turn unafraid toward pain... still believing in the beauty without being afraid of brokenness? Who will be the people who champion that which is not useful?" This has aesthetic and ethical implications of great magnitude that touch me deeply and evoke my calling as an artist working in a pastor's gig... more to come.
credits: JT, Christy Tennant at IAM, Gustave Klimt, communion bread, Holy Water
Art let back into a church setting, and kitsch being shown the door. I can't wait!!
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