Looking without seeing

[We’re sorry it’s been so long since we posted something new – it was a very busy spring! We hope you’ve been enjoying your summer so far…]

So, those of you who know me well have been wondering just how long it would take before I went on a rant. Here we go….

My husband and I have enjoyed visiting Washington, DC twice in the last two years. It’s cheap and easy to get to from NYC, you don’t need a car to get around, and the museums are free (relatively speaking – they are directly supported by our taxes). A year ago when we visited DC for the first time since childhood, we were disappointed that what we remembered as one of our favorite museums, the National Museum of American History, was closed for renovations. So, when we went this spring, we were eager to visit that museum and the Museum of Natural History, which we had also skipped a year ago because we were frustrated by massive numbers of school groups. (Okay, so neither of these are art museums…but bear with me for a few minutes, I’ll be making a point that applies to art.)

We were first shocked to find that American History Museum no longer actually displays artifacts – at least, not many. What we both loved about the museum as children was the sheer quantity of really cool stuff. Now, one or two objects might be displayed alongside large displays of “context” – signage with photographs and text, an interactive video, etc. – telling you about the importance of the artifact, suggesting how to think about it, and encouraging you to have a personal interaction with it. Although (according to their website), “The Museum has more than 3 million artifacts in its collection,” I’d be surprised if even 300 are actually on display today in the new, re-envisioned museum which is finding “new ways to present the objects of our nation's past.” Um…was there a problem with the old way?

Then we went to the Museum of Natural History. We failed in our effort to time our visit around the swarming schoolchildren and teenagers, so we stepped over and through them to get to the exhibitions we wanted to see. I remembered being gobsmacked, as our British friends would say, by the Hope Diamond as a child, and the rest of the gemstone collection, so we visited it.

The gems were incredible – but I was amazed to see that, instead of actually looking at the pieces, the schoolchildren (and their adult chaperones!) were instead compulsively photographing them, one after another, rushing as quickly as possible through the exhibition to be sure they got to see everything.

We had noticed this on our previous trip, too, at the amazing Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial, which is made up of numerous statues and other creative interpretations of FDR’s presidency. A group of pre-teens – with T-shirts from a Christian school, no less – raced through the memorial, posing with the statues for photographs, and never actually took time to see the pieces and be affected by their meaning.

Imagine yourself here…sitting on FDR’s knee…or petting the nice doggie….

To have an experience of anything – whether it is a historical artifact, a beautiful piece of human craftsmanship, or a tribute to a great man – requires attention. Attention, in turn, requires an absence of distractions (like multiple layers of “context”), plenty of time (which might require being selective), and focused sensory engagement (looking, listening, touching, tasting, smelling, or moving).

Has life started to move so fast that we are afraid we’ll miss something if we pay attention? Does interacting with something, inserting ourselves into it, make it “ours”? Are we so fearful that another beautiful experience will never come again, that we feel the need to capture and hold onto it, even if only in a photograph?

1 Corinthians 13:12: “For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.”

Perhaps, really attending to what we have here – even if it is only as a digital photo of the Hope Diamond is to the real thing – can lead us to a greater eagerness and hope and joy now about what we will experience then.
--Luann

The Drama of Believing

What greater drama is there than the Christian narrative? The Bible starts with toe-tapping rhythmic ordering and ends with the show stopping, coming down from heaven, glittery gemstone city. It’s as if our world held a concealed secret reality to be discovered only in the sweetest of dreams. In between these scenes we see humanity’s struggle to love God more than their desire to play God. God’s faithfulness, always present, brings the drama to a climax with the incarnation, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

The coming of Christ is epiphany. By knowing Jesus, humanity gains access to its own humanness, putting off its need to be God and growing in its need for God. Indeed, the Christian “actor” puts down the mask and picks up the rhythms of life in order to flesh out true character. Christian incarnation eliminates disguise. The actor no longer needs the mask as he leads those who willingly follow him into life’s tragedies and comedies.

Theater itself is a large collaborative effort. Here is an earthly paradigm for the rich interrelationships of which the Bible speaks. Theater, just as in Christianity, depends on a rapport between text and the writer of that text. The director, crew, and cast must all connect and relate to the same script. All parts work together to incarnate these words connected by speech and gestures. What actors say and what they do reflects what is written.

On Sunday mornings when we gather together to worship, we too enact a drama based on a text. We sing songs, make speeches, and perform gestures that embody the Scripture stories. We work Scripture into our own beings every week through the body of Christ, the gathered church. We practice now a bit of what we will be doing together forever. And, art and beauty—the songs, symbols, and settings of the scripture—is now and always will be a part of our corporate activity. What an exciting drama we behold and God unfolds.
--Maria

Affordable Art

Can you experience great art in NYC at prices you can afford? Yes! If you know where to look and can plan ahead and be flexible.

[Do you have tips for affordable arts experiences? Share them as a comment below!]

Visual art: Some major museums have "free nights." The Museum of Modern Art is free on Friday evenings from 4-8pm, and Brooklyn Museum has a great "First Saturdays" event (coming up on March 6!) that is free and includes live music, dancing and other programs. Both would be great to attend with a group of friends!

The Metropolitan Museum of Art and The Cloisters (in Washington Heights) are always "pay what you wish" (check the fine print - it's a "suggested donation"). The Frick Collection - a great "unknown treasure" - is "pay what you wish" on Sundays from 11am-1pm, the Guggenheim on Saturdays from 5:45-7:45pm, and the Whitney on Fridays from 6-9pm (regular admission is only $8 at the Whitney through February 24!). Don't feel guilty - the museum would rather have you come for what you can afford than not visit at all! The staff won't hassle you. (If it would make you feel better, go to the museum three times in a year, and split your "suggested donation" into three installments.)

Check the Visitor Information page for other museums to see what they offer. Art galleries are always free and NYC has the best galleries in the world, featuring the most cutting-edge contemporary art.

Performances: A number of discount programs offer tickets to theater, dance and music performances for affordable prices. Theatre Development Fund, which also runs the TKTS booths, has a membership program that features tickets to all kinds of performances, between $9-$37, up to a month in advance of the performance. Annual membership is $30/year and is open to students, artists, teachers, those working in non-profits, retirees, and more. Click here for details.

Other ticket discount programs like Audience Extras and Play-by-Play have a higher annual fee, but only a small service charge for day-of-show tickets to a wide range of performances, including Broadway.

Many of the major venues also offer inexpensive tickets to their regular performances, including New York City Ballet ($15/ticket plus $20 annual membership), Metropolitan Opera ($20), New York Philharmonic ($31+) and more. Yes, you have to plan well ahead to get these tickets. And, no, you won't be on the front row. But let's face it, how big are the people on your TV set at home?

Some performances offer discounted day-of-performance "rush" tickets. Check the website of the organizations you're interested in for more details.

You also might consider ushering - it's a great way to serve the people and arts organizations of our city, and see some shows for free! Contact your favorite venue for more information.

Redeemer also offers group-priced tickets through our "Culture Club" program, which attends an arts event each month. Sign up for the email newsletter here to receive announcements about these events. Most Culture Club outings are not also announced in the worship service bulletin or elsewhere.

Enjoy some great art!
--Luann

The Good of Art

Jonathan Edwards poetically expressed how the creation of the world came into being as an overflow of the relational love dynamically expressed among the persons of the Trinity. The material world is the manifestation of the active love present within God’s own triune being. Is it any wonder, then, that God consecrates his creative outcome in Genesis 1 as good? In a similar manner Colin Gunton understands God as the ultimate artist creating for love’s sake. He believes, “creation is a project, something God wills for its own sake and not because he has need of it” (The Cambridge Companion to Christine Doctrine, p.142). Creation then is intrinsically good in and of itself as an outpouring of God’s own love and beauty. Therefore, Richard Viladesau is correct to exclaim, “To experience beauty is to experience a deep-seated ‘yes’ to being” (Theology and the Arts, p.42).

One beautiful aspect of art is its ability to operate on many levels. Art reveals, inspires, and heals. It facilitates in a sensory way mediation of the world and our experiences in it. Art also reserves the power to elevate, motivate, and touch us in deep and meaningful ways that mere communication of facts cannot produce. Most importantly, art reminds us what it means to be human while at the same time discloses the divine and the transcendent—what is beyond us, what we hope for. But to continue to list the human benefits of art becomes a bit of an apologetic appeal. In our rationalistic society, pragmatism tends to rule and there is little room for art. We must therefore take the paradigm of God creating the world in and through love, not because he needed to, but because the constitution of love is generative and giving. Love and beauty beg for regeneration. Art is a gift to be given away, to inspire more works of art and to provide hope and meaning.

If it is true that art is self-expression as well as a reflection of the community it comes from, is it not likely that our work, our artistic creations as those who have a relationship with God, also contains the aroma of Christ? Despite the troubles and tribulations of our lives (that may also be evident in our art) Christ leads us in “triumphal procession,” and according to 2 Corinthians 3:14 distributes through us a fragrance—a sensory knowledge of himself. The love of God is so active it pours over us and inundates us with a scent. A scent, though not seen, is physically present—sometimes even discerned by taste. This presence clings to us, latches onto our work. Christians, therefore, should continue to participate in artistic actions not because they are necessary, but because love bids them to do so.
--Maria

NYC Church architecture

In our Arts Month devotional series, debuting today at www.faithandwork.org/artsdevotional, we talk about "beauty" - that God cares about beauty, and experiencing beauty brings us closer to Him.

One of our suggested activities is to visit a church that is "beautiful" in its architecture and decoration. We suggested "the usual suspects" - St Bart's, St Patrick's, St John the Divine (sensing a theme here?) - but we'd like to know what other beautiful churches you've found in NYC. Let us know in a comment below and we'll add it to the list when we move these devotionals to their permanent location on the website.

Thanks!
--Luann

Don't Go It Alone

One of the most glaring realities facing artists in the city is a sense of sheer isolation: a feeling of not being known or truly knowing others. In an increasingly post-Christian, urban, social context, the need for Christian community in the lives of artists is greater than ever. This growing reality presents a prime opportunity for reconciliation between artists in the city and the urban church.

As artists who belong to Christ, we are also meant to belong to mutually nurturing, Christ-centered community sharing fellowship, accountability and discipleship. We cannot realize God’s calling on our lives living autonomously, outside of the community of faith. Because our expression is divinely inspired, artistic growth is intrinsically tied to our spiritual growth and maturity. In reality, there is no separation between vocational life and devotional life. Reality is, however, easiest to avoid while living outside of Gospel-centered community. The Holy Spirit works wherever He wants, but He works especially through community to grow and change us as we pursue faithfulness in our vocational callings. This process is enabled as we commit ourselves to group of Christians with whom we can share the journey, knowing and being known by them, understanding that our best and worst cannot make us right with God or each other, only dependence on Christ and a deep sense of God’s love for us because of Christ.

Reborn artists in the city often find a natural camaraderie in their professional and collaborative circles (or in some cases, at their night job) which becomes their primary source of community and, consequently, their identity. As a result of this, many of these artists find themselves adapting the pluralistic ideologies of secular humanism instead of integrating a biblical worldview into their lives through a gospel-conversant community of believers. This life construct offers them little or no concept of how, or even why, they might explore deeper inflections of the gospel in their vocational lives. Though it is true that few, if any, Christian communities can claim to be experts on how to biblically and thoughtfully inflect the Christian worldview in vocational artistic practice, a helpful dialogue may be sustained in community which will lead to shared insights, practices, and ways of thinking, doing and being in the arts. Without being linked to the gospel narrative through a community of believers, even the most gifted and thoughtful Christian artist may be tempted to imagine that the gospel is somehow automatically infused into their vocational lives without exposure to the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit through intentional Christian community. These may have a view of sin, that of the world and in themselves, which is unrealistically light and narrow.

The church is certainly not the only community in the city offering a brand of righteousness to its members. It’s very possible to find one’s identity and justification in other communities. This poses a serious threat to the spiritual health of Christian artists in the city in particular. In very few places in the world can one find the variety of scenarios in which to justify oneself and discover alternative brands of righteousness, than can be found in the city. To navigate this, a reborn artist must be living in mutually transparent, gospel-centered community, finding herself in the story of the narrative which begins and ends with Christ.

So we see that this problem of isolation and autonomy may perpetuate a general atrophy of spiritual growth and theological soundness, causing many artist’s lives to be increasingly dualistic and making an integrated approach to Christian life nearly impossible. As I once heard a theater agent say, “If you live a cut-off [dualistic] life, then you will be a cut-off actor!” The reborn artist cannot thrive or effectively pursue her calling in a vacuum. An artist’s life and expression are meant to be shared and upheld in community.
-Kenyon

The Dancing Life

We named our dance performance project Perichoresis. Even though no one could pronounce it, we thought it was a really great name. Maria – our resident theologian (she’ll correct me and say “seminarian”) – used the term one day, and I had no idea what it meant. But I like playing with where words come from and how that influences the nuances of their meaning. So, I started looking:

peri- means “around,” as in peri-meter, peri-scope, etc.
chor- means “dance,” as in chor-eography, from the Greek chorea, which also gives us “chorus,” reminding us that, in Greek theater, the chorus danced as well as chanted or sang.
-esis, is a suffix that makes a word about action or process.

The word perichoresis means, in Greek, “to dance around.”

But the really interesting use of “perichoresis” is theological – it’s used to describe the relationship of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Wikipedia says it “refers to the mutual inter-penetration and indwelling within the threefold nature of the Trinity” – but I much prefer the image of God, Jesus, and the Spirit dancing around all day. Their enjoyment of one another is expressed through movement, and rhythm, and harmony; and their presence in our world and in our lives grows out of that creative act. [Note: some scholars state that the theological term "perichoresis" relates to a different Greek root word that emphasizes the "unity" of the Trinity, and doesn't relate to dancing. I think that's boring and choose to disregard it. :-) -lj]

I think we have an image of God the Creator as a sculptor (he created us from clay) or as a director (he sets situations in motion and shapes them as they unfold). But maybe he’s also a choreographer and, in making us in his image, wants us dancing too.

Isn’t life in community a dance? We have to rehearse a lot to get everyone in the right place and on the same steps. We bump into each other and step on toes. But, when we get it right…it’s gorgeous.

Shall we dance?
--Luann