LET YOUR LIGHT SHINE

 

Celebration of the Fine Arts

This is a week that a group of Bethel people who are passionate about art and crafts has been waiting for: Ever since 2011, Bethel has had an annual Art Fair.  For the first time in those 6 years, the art fair will be expanded to a 2-day Celebration of the Fine Arts (spanning Friday evening and Sunday morning).  In addition to the visual arts, we will have the opportunity to enjoy the gifts of writers, poets, and musicians in our midst.  The art fair committee has invited writers and musicians of all ages to entertain us with their work. 

Additionally, our communal art project for the year will be on display on campus.  This year’s project will be outdoor lanterns, made from recycled 2-liter soda bottles.

This “Celebration of the Fine Arts” will continue on Sunday morning with the art gallery in the Fireside Room.  If you have not yet made plans to add your artwork(s) to the gallery, please consider doing so.  There still is time to contact Sue Jacobus (giantswin1@aol.com) and make arrangements to enter your work(s).

Preaching & Worship Leadership as Art

As I am contemplating which piece(s) to bring to the art gallery, I am also reflecting on how both preaching and worship leadership involve the arts.

I am NOT talking about adding little pictures here and there as sermon illustrations or to put together a PowerPoint presentation to help the audience follow the main ideas of a sermon.  While all of these may be helpful, I am rather thinking along the lines of Jesus’ own storytelling.

Jesus’ Parables as Art Form

Jesus, as we all know, told stories in the form of parables. Jesus’ parables are little literary gems that harvest their material from the everyday life of common people – farmers, merchants, homemakers, fishermen, day laborers, landowners, business managers, travelers, and fathers and sons.

Jesus crafted his parables that they hit people over the head and made them see their lives in a completely new way.  What if God’s kingdom is present with us already in the here and now? What if God’s kingdom causes me to give up anything that's precious to me just so that I might obtain it? What if my neighbors actually included also those whom I look down at, like Samaritans? What if God really loved me and asked me to return  to him, even though I squandered everything that he ever gave me? What if everyone is truly equal in God’s kingdom? 

Jesus told these little literary gems, and people’s eyes were opened.  They could see God and God’s kingdom at work where they had previously only seen hardship, toil, and life as usual.

If that’s not art, then I don’t know what is.  

The role of artists is, in my mind, to help us see our lives in new and challenging and life-giving ways.  In Jesus’ case, that message was, at its core, “the Kingdom of God is at hand – God calls you to get on board. Everyone’s life matters.”

Preaching & Worship Leadership as Art

I aim at doing the same in my preaching and worship leadership. Through both, I hope to break open some of the preconceptions and norms around which we have organized our lives (such as survival of the fittest, winner takes all, you only live once, put yourself first, etc.). Whether in preaching or designing meaningful worship services, I hope to create cracks through which God’s light might shine into our darkness.

Sometimes, this involves PowerPoint slides. At other times, it involves dramatic readings, storytelling, play acting, history lessons, prayer stations, hands-on projects in the middle of the worship services, such as getting up and adding your own pebble to a water-filled vase to make it overflow. Those are not merely little gimmicks. No. With all these things I hope to do what I have been called and ordained to do: to serve as minister of Word and Sacrament and tell of the good news of forgiveness, salvation, and new life in Christ.

Celebration of the Fine Arts

Please consider participating in out 2-day Celebration of the Fine Arts and thank the members of the art fair committee for their dedicated service.  Remember, there’s still time to harvest your home for entries for the Sunday Morning art gallery.

CELEBRATE EARTH-KEEPING SUNDAY AT BETHEL ON APRIL 24

I am going to use this week’s blog post to help publicize an exciting set of worship services on April 24. 

Some time ago, I was approached by some among our congregation to focus an entire worship service on the care for the environment. After all, we believe that the earth and all that exists in it are God’s gifts to us.  We also believe that God has entrusted us with the awesome responsibility of taking care of God’s creation:

²⁶ Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”

²⁷ So God created mankind in his own image,
    in the image of God he created them;
    male and female he created them.

²⁸ God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”

²⁹ Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. ³⁰ And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds in the sky and all the creatures that move along the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food.” And it was so.

³¹ God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day. (Genesis 1:26-31)

The unfortunate fact is that we haven’t done a great job at taking care of God’s gift to us.  In fact, our environment has been degraded; mind-boggling numbers of plant and animal species have gone extinct because of humanity; our planet’s atmosphere, rivers, lakes, and oceans are polluted, rain forests are cut down to make room for cash crops and cattle growing; people have very uneven access to the beautiful resources which God has given to us, and so forth.

On April 24, two days after our nation observes Earth Day, we at Bethel will be celebrating our first Earth-Keeping Sunday. All aspects of both worship services (confession, prayers, litanies, readings, music, offering, visuals) will be creation-themed. 

In addition, I am also using this day to plan one last interactive set of prayer stations which will be available smack in the middle of both services.  Each service will feature 18 prayer stations, spread out over the sanctuary, narthex, Music & Ed Room, and Fireside Room. 

There will be stations for all ages and abilities. Some of the prayer stations allow or quieter, meditative prayer, other will have opportunities for artistic endeavors and playful ways of praying. 

To wet your appetite a bit, I am attaching the list of prayer stations and a map.  

April 24 would be the perfect Sunday to invite all your biking, hiking, nature-loving, child-loving, pro-environment-activist, and/or creative friends.  We would love to welcome them among us. With them, we will start from the inside-out, from what is most significant to us – that is, worship – and hope to be equipped to take better care of God’s gift of creation.