The rock band Switchfoot have a song
called ‘Meant to Live’ which articulates the sense which, I suggest, we all
have that there must be more to life than we are experiencing now. They sing:
‘We were meant to live for so much more
Have we lost ourselves?
Somewhere we live inside
Have we lost ourselves?
Somewhere we live inside
Maybe we've been livin' with our eyes
half open
Maybe we're bent and broken
Maybe we're bent and broken
We want more than this world's got to
offer
We want more than this world's got to offer
We want more than the wars of our fathers
And everything inside screams for second life’
We want more than this world's got to offer
We want more than the wars of our fathers
And everything inside screams for second life’
The singer-songwriter Bruce Cockburn expresses the same
sense in a song called ‘More not More’ when he sings:
‘There must be more...
More songs, more warmth
More love, more life
More songs, more warmth
More love, more life
More current, more spark
More touch, deep in the heart
More touch, deep in the heart
More growth, more truth
More chains, more loose’
More chains, more loose’
Christianity is about the something more
of life. We believe that there is more to life than the material, more to life
than just the visible and we express this through signs and symbols. So, bread
and wine is not simply wheat and grapes or food and drink but is also the body
and blood of Jesus Christ. Jesus himself was a physical being – a human who
could be touched and felt – but was also more by being, at one and the same
time, divine; the Son of God.
One of the ways in which we express this
sense of there being something more to life is through the Arts. When we make
art – whether that is literature, performing arts or visual arts – we are essentially
following what Jesus did when he made bread and wine into a symbol of his life
and death; we are using something known to us to make the invisible visible.
This happens most powerfully when the symbol connects us to something real; if
Jesus had broken bread and shared wine with his disciples and said this is my
body and blood but had not then died, we would not celebrate communion today.
We celebrate using the symbols of bread and wine because they connect us with
the reality of Christ’s death and resurrection and all that that opens out to
us. When something visible and tangible connects us to the invisible reality of
the divine that is what we call a sacrament and, at its best, that is what art
can do.
During my sabbatical I heard Rev. Sam Wells, Vicar of St Martin-in-the-Fields talk about the way his church using the
Arts. He used a description of Jesus as prophet, priest and King, which he took
from the writings of John Calvin, to illustrate how the Arts reveal the
something more of life. Prophetic art holds a mirror up to society
and asks, ‘Are you proud of what you see?’ This kind of art can create a vision
of what society could be (the kingdom of God) and then brings home to us the
painful gap between this possibility and our present reality. As a result, prophets
and prophetic acts are often shocking.
Priestly art takes the opposite approach. The poet George Herbert wrote that when we look at glass we can either see ourselves reflected
(like a mirror) or we can look through it to see the heavens. Priestly art gets
us seeing beyond the stars. Through priestly art the ordinary stuff of life
speaks or sings of the divine.
Kingly art, Wells suggested, is about glory; the glory of
God and, through that, the glory of human beings reaching their full potential
in God. Kingly art is art which stretches us by showing what humanity can be
when we reach our full potential.
The art made for churches often succeeds in doing all
these things and that is why it can impact and change our lives. However, there
have been periods in the life of the Church when the Arts haven’t been fully
appreciated and understood and when artists have felt disconnected from and
disillusioned with the Church.
The beginning of the twentieth century was just such a
time. Modern art looked, sounded and felt very different from the art that had
traditionally been made for the Church, meaning that the Church avoided using
modern art while many modern artists were excitedly exploring new ways of
creating art and couldn’t see any connection between what they were doing and
the styles of art which the Church continued to use. As a result, there was a
whole segment of society – artists and art lovers – that were not being
impacted by Christianity.
Fortunately, there were some visionaries both in the
Church and among modern artists who made it their life’s work to reconnect the
Church with modern and contemporary art. The visits I have made during my
sabbatical have been to places where they worked or had an influence.
My concern in making this story the
focus of my sabbatical has been to encourage the Church to value, learn from
and tell the story of what these people did. In my ordained ministry,
particularly through commission4mission, I have seen the value of promoting and
publicising the artworks which churches have commissioned. Art competitions,
exhibitions, festivals, talks, trails, walks and workshops all bring new
contacts to the churches that use them and build relationships between those
churches and local artists/arts organisations.
Telling more fully the story of the engagement
which the Church has had with modern and contemporary art, as I am trying to do
using my sabbatical, can impact people in these ways and contribute to the wider
mission of the Church. Ultimately, though, it brings me and others into contact
with art which speaks powerfully and movingly of the Christian faith and informs
the spirituality of those who see.
Next Sunday I will be leading an
Evening Service at St Peter’s Chapel in Bradwell which will be a celebration of
the Arts and during September I will share some of the artwork and other
resources that I have found during my sabbatical in the Evening Services at St John's Seven Kings.
As we use the signs and symbols of the
Arts to reflect in this way on the something more which Christianity reveals to
us – the divine in the human, the invisible in the visible – we have the
opportunity to become walking, talking, living works of art ourselves. Through
the way we live and act we can be signs and symbols of the divine. As the
singer-songwriter Keith Green sang:
“We
are like windows, stained with colours of the rainbow,
Set
in a darkened room, till the bridegroom comes to shining through,
Then
the colours fall around our feet, over those we meet,
Covering
all the grey that we see,
Rainbow
colours of assorted hues, come exchange your blues,
For
His love that you see shining through me.”
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Keith Green - Stained Glass.
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