Comments on: B is for Beauty

By: Joe Schafer

Joe Schafer — Sun, 25 May 2014 11:40:53 +0000

I have discovered that if we really want learn about Christian community, we have to go to Bonhoeffer, Nouwen, Vanier and other sources outside the evangelical world. For the last century, evangelicals have emphasized individual models of evangelism and discipleship so much — along with the message of penal substitution and hyper-individualized concepts of sin — that they really have lost sight of the community dimensions of the gospel.

By: Joe Schafer

Joe Schafer — Sun, 25 May 2014 11:23:51 +0000

That’s good enough for me.

By: Ben Toh

Ben Toh — Sun, 25 May 2014 11:02:30 +0000

I didn’t think of Cookie, a good one! My options for C were Confession, Christ, Church, Creation, Conflict Resolution and Cutie. I settled for: http://westloop-church.org/index.php/messages/old-testament/11-psalms-messages/365-c-is-for-community

By: Joe Schafer

Joe Schafer — Sun, 25 May 2014 10:37:43 +0000

Ben, are you preaching today? C is for Cookie.

By: Ben Toh

Ben Toh — Sun, 25 May 2014 10:17:52 +0000

You do sound quite exquisitely Lewisian! Though I love and appreciate it, I am probably not familiar nor eloquent nor poetic enough to express beauty in such richly and textured metaphorical ways!

By: c

Mon, 19 May 2014 22:25:38 +0000

Hi Ben, I find this to be a very fascinating topic. Your reference to Ps 27:4, gazing on beauty, brought to mind a verse from Keats’ poem Ode on a Grecian Urn, “Beauty is truth, truth beauty,—that is all / Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.” It is interesting that, as you mentioned, the deception in the garden involved what was pleasing to the eye. It was beautiful to them, but the beauty they saw didn’t carry inherent value that they should follow after it. It just was what it was, pleasing to the eye. Yet Isaiah 53:2 speaks of the suffering servant as having no beauty to attract us to him that we should desire him, though Jesus, who fulfills Isaiah’s vision of the suffering servant, is the very one we should desire and follow.

This brings me back to my college days, when I went through so many courses on the topics of beauty and truth in literature. One course compared the Romantic / Grecian view of beauty to the Hebraic view of beauty (what is holy is beautiful). The Jews gave a lot of attention to beautify holy things. Though I do see a common element from both point of views in that beauty is found in what is lasting. Here’s a link to an interesting article on a contemporary Jewish perspective of the ancient conflict between Jews and Greeks, especially regarding beauty.

When I was 17, I found beauty in Christ, being attracted to his words which spoke the truth to me about God and his people, from Matthew 9:12-13.

By: big bear

big bear — Mon, 19 May 2014 15:41:10 +0000

True beauty in Christ love…it is through His love that all things reflect His beauty and we see beauty….this is why God people must learn to love people not agendas, church rules and look down on other churches and believers….it is impossible to see beauty outside love…it does not please God to be religious…

By: forestsfailyou

forestsfailyou — Mon, 19 May 2014 13:27:48 +0000

When are we meeting BK?
On the topic of the article, when I think of beauty what comes to mind for me (and I suspect others) are two things; first physical attractiveness, and secondly some scenic landscape or tranquil pond. They are both natural properties, they come from nature. We must be careful when talking about nature because nature does not teach us anything about God or salvation. It simply gives us images to clothe our own ideas and morals in. Nature will only teach you what you want to know, which is another way of saying it does not teach anything at all.

As Christians beauty, as is with nature, a creation of God. Beauty is product of his creation in its perfect finished form.

I think you can go father in your explanations Ben.

When you say we are wired for beauty you are correct, but I might go farther and just say “we are created beautiful”. When you say we are deceived by beauty you are right, but we can say that our beauty being an image of God was taken for the thing itself and became a destroyer. When you say we are restored through beauty you are correct, but I might go farther with a metaphor, which came to me from Athanasius. He said that when you have a portrait and it becomes dirty and stained you cannot simply try to clean it. It will never become beautiful again. Instead you must bring the person back in and repaint the portrait. In the same way God could not just try to “clean up mankind” they would fall again. So he became a man, a perfect man, as an example to us. The original image of the creator of beauty itself.

By: BK

BK — Mon, 19 May 2014 10:38:27 +0000

Ben, it was refreshing to hear this sermon yesterday. Your worship service at WL was peaceful, Christ-honoring and enjoyable. I was happy to think about beauty without pressure to “accept truth”. And I always look forward to Henry’s benediction, which gives a sense of royalty to your service– a reminder that we are under the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

I really enjoyed talking with MJ in person as well as Rhoel and Michael and everyone. It is also commendable that Rhoel and WL people are willing to worship with such a “bitter, evil, anti-christ” ex-ubfer like me! I appreciate the transformation at WL more than any of you could ever imagine. God-speed and God bless!

By: redeemed1

redeemed1 — Sat, 17 May 2014 18:51:45 +0000

Wow! So great to hear that your church has been “knit together in love” where this kind of accountability between members can happen. That sounds like beauty to me.

About beauty, I would say that if we are not restored through beauty we grow to hate it, because it alone can never fulfill the longings of our hearts. Joseph’s brothers hated him because he was beautiful to his father. Jesus’ beautiful love for children and the poor and for his Father made people hate him. To be restored through the beauty of Christ and his life and death and resurrection, one must first recognize and admit to his beauty.