Psalm 19:1
The heavens are telling the glory of God,
and all creation is shouting in praise.
This is week Five in our “Imagine a World with More ...” series and today we are imagining a world with more Beauty.
I’ve mentioned in the past couple of weeks that it seems as if every week the topic becomes just a little harder to define clearly. Community, our #1 subject, was pretty easy to imagine “more” within our context. The same with Compassion, our # 2. It’s not too hard to imagine ways to grow the amount of either Community or Compassion in our world, and Hope (#3) while a little more complex, wasn’t too hard to imagine either.
Then last week we got to Justice, and that one seemed more complex yet. How do we go about growing the amount of justice in the world when there are so many different forms of in-justice wherever we look? While we did come up with some good ideas in our discussion time, they seemed so very small compared to the size of the world’s needs.
Today’s topic, Beauty, seems at the same time both more complex and yet easier to envision. Our scripture starts us out with an easy and obvious way to see beauty in our world. The heavens are telling the glory of God... The beauty of a sunrise or sunset, the awe inspiring lights of the Milky Way strewn across the nighttime sky, rainbows after the rain--the heavens cover us with beauty day after day, night after night.
And we live in the midst of God’s beauty everywhere...the ever-changing ocean, majestic mountains, green and growing things, the limitless variety of creatures—walking, flying, crawling. This beauty is everywhere and we are—or certainly should be—grateful for all of it.
But this physical, visual beauty is not the only kind in our world. If instead of the one verse of Psalm 19 we read at the beginning, we read verses one through four this is what we get:
“Day to day pours forth speech.” Words. Words spoken and words only implied. Imagine if you can, how many times in any given 24-hour period the words “I love you” are spoken – around the world with its almost 8 billion people. We know how beautiful those words are when spoken to us. Imagine how beautiful they are to the ears of God when coming from 8 billion hearts and lips.
I care -- How can I help? -- I’m sorry -- Let’s work together on this – such beautiful words. Have you ever thought how beautiful words can be? Consider the world we’ve built because we have words. We can communicate with each other. Sometimes we do a pretty terrible job of communicating properly but more times, I believe, we at least get close to sharing what we actually want to share. Words are so common (until we truly begin to recognize just how extraordinary they are) and yet, we toss them around so casually, often causing grievous harm--rarely considering their immense value.
What other ways to we add to the Beauty in the world? Consider music. Did you know that the psalms we read as prayers were actually written to be sung? Not just words to share a concept but music to lift the heart.
Just among my own circle of friends I number quite a few musicians—singers and instrumentalists--and their music brings me joy. Think then of world renown musicians such as Yo-Yo Ma and his cello, for instance. His music can reduce me to tears of awe. I could listen to him all day. Is that not beauty? Is that not holy? Can we not recognize and honor this beauty?
I have a friend who dances hula—not casual touristy stuff but the real thing. She truly tells stories through her movements—and she is beautiful when she does it. All eyes stay glued to her graceful gestures and the expression of joyful creation on her face. Or again, think of some of the well-known greats—the young Baryshnikov and his flyer leaps or Misty Copeland and her strength and grace--each showing us so clearly that the human body is capable of beauty.
The human heart contains so much beauty; how often do we recognize and acknowledge it out loud? Do we allow people—especially our children—to sing and dance exuberantly in their joy and in their grief? In their pain and in their praise?
Are the hymns we sing in church dirges of suffering and sin or songs of joy and gratitude and love? Do we support the various arts in school programs? Do we look down on those who sing or dance differently than we do?
Do we give, with our presence and our votes, civic support for arts venues such as galleries and concert spaces? Do we equally support national and regional parks and conservation issues where the natural beauty of God’s creation is protected and made available to all?
Is the “forward march” of commercial progress our highest value in life—even if some of God’s beautiful creation is destroyed for being in the way?
And finally, do we recognize and honor and treasure every size, shape, and color of human beauty? Every one being as valuable and delightful as any other? Every one beloved and treasured by God—even if our culture or our politics tries to say it’s not worth much. Remember, Jesus saw beauty in a beggar beside the city gates and an outcast leper and a tax collector—and even a despised Samaritan.
Beauty is everywhere if we have the heart and wisdom to look for it. To imagine a world with more beauty...and help bring that world into reality...we must be ready to see things and people and all life with new eyes, and we must be ready to fight for them when others try to destroy. This is God’s world--but it is ours to nurture and protect—and enjoy.
Amen.
I’ve mentioned in the past couple of weeks that it seems as if every week the topic becomes just a little harder to define clearly. Community, our #1 subject, was pretty easy to imagine “more” within our context. The same with Compassion, our # 2. It’s not too hard to imagine ways to grow the amount of either Community or Compassion in our world, and Hope (#3) while a little more complex, wasn’t too hard to imagine either.
Then last week we got to Justice, and that one seemed more complex yet. How do we go about growing the amount of justice in the world when there are so many different forms of in-justice wherever we look? While we did come up with some good ideas in our discussion time, they seemed so very small compared to the size of the world’s needs.
Today’s topic, Beauty, seems at the same time both more complex and yet easier to envision. Our scripture starts us out with an easy and obvious way to see beauty in our world. The heavens are telling the glory of God... The beauty of a sunrise or sunset, the awe inspiring lights of the Milky Way strewn across the nighttime sky, rainbows after the rain--the heavens cover us with beauty day after day, night after night.
And we live in the midst of God’s beauty everywhere...the ever-changing ocean, majestic mountains, green and growing things, the limitless variety of creatures—walking, flying, crawling. This beauty is everywhere and we are—or certainly should be—grateful for all of it.
But this physical, visual beauty is not the only kind in our world. If instead of the one verse of Psalm 19 we read at the beginning, we read verses one through four this is what we get:
- The heavens are telling the glory of God,
and all creation is shouting in praise. - Day to day pours forth speech,
and night to night declares knowledge. - There is no speech, nor are there words;
- their voice is not heard;
Yet their voice goes out through all the earth
and their words to the end of the world.
“Day to day pours forth speech.” Words. Words spoken and words only implied. Imagine if you can, how many times in any given 24-hour period the words “I love you” are spoken – around the world with its almost 8 billion people. We know how beautiful those words are when spoken to us. Imagine how beautiful they are to the ears of God when coming from 8 billion hearts and lips.
I care -- How can I help? -- I’m sorry -- Let’s work together on this – such beautiful words. Have you ever thought how beautiful words can be? Consider the world we’ve built because we have words. We can communicate with each other. Sometimes we do a pretty terrible job of communicating properly but more times, I believe, we at least get close to sharing what we actually want to share. Words are so common (until we truly begin to recognize just how extraordinary they are) and yet, we toss them around so casually, often causing grievous harm--rarely considering their immense value.
What other ways to we add to the Beauty in the world? Consider music. Did you know that the psalms we read as prayers were actually written to be sung? Not just words to share a concept but music to lift the heart.
Just among my own circle of friends I number quite a few musicians—singers and instrumentalists--and their music brings me joy. Think then of world renown musicians such as Yo-Yo Ma and his cello, for instance. His music can reduce me to tears of awe. I could listen to him all day. Is that not beauty? Is that not holy? Can we not recognize and honor this beauty?
I have a friend who dances hula—not casual touristy stuff but the real thing. She truly tells stories through her movements—and she is beautiful when she does it. All eyes stay glued to her graceful gestures and the expression of joyful creation on her face. Or again, think of some of the well-known greats—the young Baryshnikov and his flyer leaps or Misty Copeland and her strength and grace--each showing us so clearly that the human body is capable of beauty.
The human heart contains so much beauty; how often do we recognize and acknowledge it out loud? Do we allow people—especially our children—to sing and dance exuberantly in their joy and in their grief? In their pain and in their praise?
Are the hymns we sing in church dirges of suffering and sin or songs of joy and gratitude and love? Do we support the various arts in school programs? Do we look down on those who sing or dance differently than we do?
Do we give, with our presence and our votes, civic support for arts venues such as galleries and concert spaces? Do we equally support national and regional parks and conservation issues where the natural beauty of God’s creation is protected and made available to all?
Is the “forward march” of commercial progress our highest value in life—even if some of God’s beautiful creation is destroyed for being in the way?
And finally, do we recognize and honor and treasure every size, shape, and color of human beauty? Every one being as valuable and delightful as any other? Every one beloved and treasured by God—even if our culture or our politics tries to say it’s not worth much. Remember, Jesus saw beauty in a beggar beside the city gates and an outcast leper and a tax collector—and even a despised Samaritan.
Beauty is everywhere if we have the heart and wisdom to look for it. To imagine a world with more beauty...and help bring that world into reality...we must be ready to see things and people and all life with new eyes, and we must be ready to fight for them when others try to destroy. This is God’s world--but it is ours to nurture and protect—and enjoy.
Amen.
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