A re-run, drug up from the achieves because I was using it for something else today and discovered I still like it.
aesthetic: adjective 1 : of, relating to, or dealing with the beautiful
God is the creator of beauty and a connoisseur of all that is truly beautiful. God is an artist and His canvass is creation. Beauty is an attribute of the divine like wisdom or holiness. Beauty has intrinsic value and needs no other justification than it is beautiful. In an age given over to the cult of pragmatism this may seem an extravagant claim, but it is true: Art needs no other justification other than it is beautiful. Does a flower have to justify its existence by being practical? Here's what Ralph Waldo Emerson says about that in his poem
The Rhodora.
Who has believed our report?
To whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
He grew up before him like a tender young plant
Like a root out of dry ground
He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him
Nothing in his appearance made us desire him
He is despised and rejected
A man of sorrows
Acquainted with grief
Like one from whom men hide their faces
He was despised
And we esteemed him not
Surely he has borne our griefs
And carried our sorrows
Yet we considered him stricken
Smitten by God and afflicted
But he was wounded for our transgressions
He was bruised for our iniquities
The chastisement for our peace was upon him
And by his stripes we are healed
Isaiah 53
It was four below zero this morning. A perfect day for a roaring fire in the stove. I was stacking wood and listening to Christmas music when I heard
Away In a Manger. One of the verses goes like this:
Hendrick Avercamp, Marc Chagall, Emily Dickinson, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Bob Dylan, Francis of Assisi, Wassily Kandinsky, Phil Keaggy, Kierkegaard, T. S. Eliot, Leonardo da Vinci, C.S. Lewis, Dave Matthews, George McDonald, Herman Melville, Michelangelo, Milton, Monet, Ezra Pound, Solomon Raj, Rodin, Salman Rushdie, Evgeniy Shibanov, John Steinbeck, Leo Tolstoy, U2, Jason Upton, Van Gogh, Walt Whitman, Wilco, Neil Young, Warren Zevon
These are a few of my favorite artists. They have nothing more in common other than in my opinion they are very good at their art. Art. That's what I'm thinking about on my thinking day. What is art? Some define art as one of the humanities. And what are the humanities? The humanities might be understood as branches of learning and expression that investigate and reflect human concerns. Humans are interested in art; animals are not.
Since art is part of what makes us uniquely human, art is connected with God,
because you cannot define what it means to be human apart from God. I'll show you what I mean. Look up the
Merriam-Webster definition of human and you get this:
So this is Christmas...
And I'm thinking about the Immanuel mystery of the Incarnation. The greatest of all the holy mysteries.
Immanuel.
God with us.
With us in our humanity.
God who has become one of us.
What if God were one of us?
In Christ he is.
In the Incarnation we can rightly speak of the humanity of God.
O holy mystery!
Don't be casual with this mystery.
Let it take your breath away.
Blessed are you who are poor
For yours is the kingdom of God
Blessed are you who are hungry now
For you shall be satisfied
Blessed are you who weep now
For you shall laugh
Monday I spoke at the 25th anniversary of a church in the St. Louis area. I've known the leaders of this church for 30 years -- since I was 19. Instead of flying, I decided to drive. Less stressful, with plenty of time to think on my Thinking Day. During the five and half hour drive I listened to a series of lectures on Early Christianity by
Luke Timothy Johnson.
It got me to thinking.
by Blindman at the Gate
In our journey through the holy script
We’ve not yet reached THE END
Turn the page
All that is to be said has not yet been said
Turn the page
Long ago the writers finished the text
But the players have not yet said it all
There are heroes yet to take stage
There are dramas yet to be resolved
Turn the page
Every few centuries Christianity must undergo a new reformation. By which I mean it must
re-form itself. Re-formation is necessary to live in the tension of biblical authenticity and contemporary particularity. Re-formation is required if we are to embrace a synthesis of rootedness and relevance. Every few centuries Christianity must undergo a kind of reformational metamorphosis to regain its counterculture character.This is not something that happens often. I'm not referring to the periodic infusions of spiritual vigor or the cultural adaptations that are common to every generation. I'm speaking of something rare and seismic.
But I will dare to state that we live in such a time. I'm emphatic about this. We are living in a time of real reformation. It will do you little good to think of it as a throwback to some historic revival from the past three hundred years. That is rejuvenation and that's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about a real reformation. A radical rethinking of the nature of salvation and what it means to be a Christian. A radical reassessment of assumed paradigms leading to a re-formation of Christianity as we have known it.
Because I was speaking to a gathering of pastors yesterday my Thinking Day is making an unusual Tuesday appearance. Perhaps I can think a little bit online.
Saturday morning I saw some Christian television (I was on my way to ESPN College Game Day and came across it. Strange how I feel the need to qualify why I was watching Christian television). Anyway, the star of the show was promoting a new sermon series, "You Can Have It All." Included in the package was a book entitled,
How To Be A Millionaire God's Way. Whatever.
A little bit later I remarked to Peri, "Did you know you can have it all?"
She replied, "What, my empire of dirt?"
A village church in Orissa, India
HINDUSTAN TIMES -- New Delhi
Christians Still Afraid To Return Home
Orissa Christians made an offer they can’t refuse
October 10, 2008
Kandhamal -- Days after he fled his home, there was something that stood between Hari Chand Digal and his home, his paddy field, two cows and 15 goats.
He had to give up his faith if he wanted his home.
