Art in Uncertain Times

Three men essentially created the foundation for what we know as English church music: two Germans, Johann Sebastian Bach and George Frederic Handel; and one Englishman, Henry Purcell. George Frederic Handel became a British citizen in the mid-1600’s, in essence adopting England as his adult country and from there writing the Messiah.

We thank God for all three. They were artists who freely adapted scripture, who wrote in the vernacular as opposed to in Latin, and who felt (particularly when they wrote Christian music) that their responsibility as composers was to communicate biblical truth.

Uncertain Times
That’s the legacy we inherited. In some ways, the major transition in church music from the fifteenth to the sixteenth century came through these men: fewer settings of Latin masses, more communication of biblical stories and Christian truth through song. But they did more than that. They gave us an enduring example of producing art that glorifies God in the midst of disturbing, even chaotic times.

You see, Bach, Handel, and Purcell lived in a world that was both similar and dissimilar to our own. It was a time of extraordinary tumult: religious upheavals around and aftermath of the Reformation, including heretics burned at the stake; political turmoil with all its intrigue, torture, and grisly beheadings.

This hard and difficult era in some ways sounds much like ours. But something these men had that we often lack was their attitude (communicated so much in their music) of extraordinary optimism about the future. Even in the midst of all the religious and political evil, they had a deep, inherent belief in God’s reign over all. Their outlook was something like, “God’s on his throne, and even though we’re living through these terrible times of difficulty, he is working out his purpose, whether or not we can see it right away.”

Therefore, the music they wrote for the church communicated that kind of profound faith in both God’s sovereignty and in his present power. And those are the very things Psalm 150 calls us to proclaim: “Praise him for his mighty deeds, praise Him according to his surpassing greatness” (Ps. 150:2). In other words, we praise him for his good and loving omnipotence.

Our world, however, does not have that kind of sunny outlook. We feel as though we live in a world in chaos, where the future is extraordinarily uncertain, and even all of the best kind of cheerleading about people choosing to make a difference in the world feels somewhat hollow in the face of the ever-changing landscape. How much change can an individual actually create, especially if “the machine” (however you define that) is against you?

Certain Faith
That means it takes real courage to be able to live with the kind of clarity in your faith that, in the midst of a world that feels like chaos, allows you to reflect mercy, grace, justice, and all the qualities God works in us. And especially if you’re an artist of any kind, to have a faith that allows that kind of grace and charity to flow through your works in a way that speaks true encouragement, not just to the people of God, but to the surrounding world.

That’s what these men saw as their responsibility. Now, that’s easy to do if you’re in Solomon’s court and the glory of the Lord has come down in your midst. The temple is dedicated, and Solomon is seen as God’s regent to carry out the will of the Almighty. Then, it’s easy to pronounce, “We’ll praise God because we see his acts.”

But it’s something else again to offer that same praise with that same clarity in the midst of a congregation that doesn’t always share that sense of vibrancy and hope. Either at the personal level or, much less, at the national or international level. And yet that is a profound part of what it means to be the light of the world, the salt of the earth.

How does that happen unless we as individuals and as Christian communities begin to wrestle seriously with what does it mean to take Paul’s admonition in Colossians, to be “rooted . . . in Him” (Col. 2:7b), in Christ Jesus, how do we do that? How do we live that out? In a corporate way, how do we express that kind of power, prayer, charity, and servanthood toward one another? And, how do we as individuals, orient our own devotional life, our relationships with other Christians, so that we actually get the nourishment and spiritual growth that we need to live with that kind of clarity?

Because unless we do that, we will not have in our day the caliber of Christian artists that they had in theirs. Instead, our artists will only reflect the sense of emptiness that pervades our world. Go to any museum of modern art on the planet and that’s exactly what you see: nihilism on a canvas.

Rooted in Christ
If we want to see great art come from the people of our day, we must first create the kind of environment within our churches that inspires a different vison. An environment that nurtures and raises up the vulnerable heart of the artist to speak with that kind of grace and courage. An environment that doesn’t settle for what I call “Jesus Junk” that merely passes as art but is only another reflection of our own culture’s debasement. Contemporary music will not have the same kind of shelf life, for example, as The Messiah. It will be lucky to pass a generation.

I would say to you that the caliber of the vision actually drives the caliber of the art. And if we want great art, great artists, that takes a great vision, one that comes from being rooted in Christ in the face of the chaos we know only so well.

May we be rooted deeply as a community and as individuals in Christ Jesus in a way that sets the artists free to communicate both to us and to the world a vision of God’s greatness and his steadfast love.

What art have you experienced that reveals a vision rooted in Christ? Share this blog and your response on Twitter. Please include my username, @revgregbrewer.

(This post is an adaption of Bishop Brewer’s sermon on July 28, 2016, in the Bishop’s Oratory of the Diocesan Office, Orlando.)

Unless otherwise noted, scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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