ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT 02 - Foundations

based on Landa Cope ‘Old Testament Template – Arts’

Different expressions of Art

Architecture, Accoustics, Composition, Design, Handicraft, Taste, Fragrance, Fashion, Contrast, Tension, Painting, Parks, Gardens, Songs, Sounds, Music, Instruments, Rhythm, Mime, Theater, Drama, Sports, Movement, Balance, Exercise, Dance,  Harmony, Strength, Expression.

Some basic thoughts

Eccl 3:11             “He has made everything beautiful in its time.”
Psa 27:4             “One thing I asked of the LORD, that will I seek after: to live in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD and to inquire in his temple.”

  • Everything God created is beautiful. Nothing has been created without color, shape and texture.
  • He turns ashes into beauty (Isa 61:3). He is the ‘Song of songs’. He is the Potter. He is the God of beauty. He is beautiful.
  • The arts reveal the Creator through music, words, color, design, balance, movement, harmony, rhythm. David said that the starts sing the glory of the Lord (Psa 19:1, Psa 148:3) and there are physicists today who think it is completely possible that the planets do vibrate in perfect harmonic chords.
  • On the seventh day of creation, God rested (Gen 2:2-3). We should not think of this rest in terms of tiredness, because God does not suffer fatigue. We should think of this rest as taking time to contemplate the beauty of creation, a savoring of the goodness of all that He has made.
  • God’s attributes revealed in the arts are beauty, rest and celebration. God’s purpose for this domain is to renew and restore us and give us joy from our labor.
  • Beauty gives us rest and relaxation. Beauty enhances health. Beauty comforts in grief (why do we put flowers on graves?).
  • For example humans literally can’t live without rhythm (medically speaking our heart beat and various body functions are rhythms). We love rhythm, create rhythm and resonate with rhythm.

Am I a Christian artist or an artist who is a Christian?

  • Christian artists today have a terrible conflict in understanding the purpose of their gift: If their work does not talk about Jesus directly, does it still have value? Can they work on productions with non-Christians?
  • When some see a magnificent building, painting, play or hear a wonderful performance, they are tempted to ask, “Was it produced created and performed by Christians? As though that would validate the beauty.
  • But beauty, in and of itself, is an attribute of God. Putting a Jesus sticker on it does not necessarily preach an additional message. We may have art and beauty in the church, but art does not have to relate directly to the church in order to reveal God.
  • Anything, including forms of music, notes or instruments can be used for good or evil. There is no such thing as demonic notes, rhythms, or instruments. Satan does not own these any more than he owns the moon or mushrooms or color. All these things are an extension of God’s creation.
  • Anything that God made may be used to worship Satan, but it can also be also be used to reveal God.
  • We tend to think of old music as godly music; anything really new is suspect, if not evil. Of course, this has more to do with personal taste than with God. We happily listen to the beautiful Lutheran hymns, content that this music reveals spiritual virtue. What most of us don’t know is that Luther put Christian words to the beer garden favorites of the day. I wonder how German Christians of his day responded to those popular songs being used in church?

Scripture reveals three themes in music

  • In the study of the arts and music in Scripture, three kinds of musical themes are recorded:
    • worship
    • national or political music
    • love songs
  • One love song gets and entire book (Song of Solomon).
  • Today, worship, hymns, praise and psalms are all important, but we have lost the importance of celebrating human love and love of nation.
    • If you look at the national anthems around the world you will find that the vast majority of those written before 1970 mention God and his blessing. Until last century, it was understood that God is involved in the political life of a nation.
    • In the last century, some nations have sought to remove these references to God. Is that because of the secularization of the country or the church’s loss of the understanding of God in the political arena? Where are the love songs?
  • Our airways are crammed with a message of love that is demeaning or lewd at best. But today, when a musician who is Christian writes and performs a beautiful celebration of human love, we accuse him or being “secular” or not loyal to his faith and not presenting Jesus.
  • Scripture celebrates all these themes of music and used them to reveal God.
  • If we define opera as a story put to music, then Moses gives us a very early, if not the first, opera in Deuteronomy 32. It is amazing to think that this national, political leader so understood the importance of music in the life of a nation that, at the end of his life, he would compose a work containing important principles for the people to remember. “And Moses recited the words of this song from beginning ot end in the hearing of the whole assembly of Israel” (Deu 32:30).

The Disciplines of the Arts

  • Like science, God rules the arts by laws that govern each discipline, laws of aesthetics, harmony, rhythm, dissonance, color, form, design, positive and negative space.
  • Whether dance, sculpture, painting writing or composing, every artist and performer understands that there are principles upon which their discipline is built. Mastering those fundamentals is foundational to their skill.
  • Genius, then, is making those same fundamentals disappear in artistic expression.
  • Un-redeemed people create beautiful things because they are created in the image of God. They just do not realize the source of their talent or discipline or their love of beauty. They do not know the gift-giver, but their gift still celebrates God. They are unaware of whom to be grateful to. Whether or not they know God does not make their creation more of less beautiful. Nor do Jewish lyrics make it more beautiful.
  • Beauty has intrinsic vale as an extension of God’s character and nature.

Lukewarm

  • So much of what is called Christian music and art today is mediocre at best.
  • Perhaps this is because we think the only thing that matters is whether it talks about God. It is important to present the message of Christ.
  • However, it is not only absurd, it is dangerous to think that the only thing important about a surgeon is his love of God, that his technical skill in surgery is unimportant.
  • The heart of the individual and the discipline of a craft are two different things and Jesus id Lord of them both. As one who believes in the Creator God, you and I are to value skill as well as right standing with God.
  • We are to celebrate beauty for beauty’s sake because He is the Lord of Beauty, the Creator of all skill, and we are to seek the artist’s right relationship to Christ, the creator of his gift.
  • There are no tribes, nations, or cultures without art, music and sport.
  • Beauty, song and celebration are all pre-human. They were expressed in God before we existed and they still reveal Him.
  • We don’t have to justify the love of sport or art by turning into an opportunity to talk to the person next to us in the stands about God. We may or may not find that appropriate.
  • It is okay to enjoy talent and God-given gifting for their innate value. It is worship for the Creator, the gift-giver and a celebration of who He is.

Summary

Art reveals                           God the Potter, God the Song, God the Artist
God’s attribute revealed    God is beautiful
Art functions as                  an influence
Art operates by                   The laws of aesthetics

So … love beauty! Enjoy beauty! Create beauty!

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT