church and art and stuff

Tonight I'm thinking a little bit about the church, churches, and about art in the church.  Fitting topic it seems for a Sunday evening.  Right now I feel a little between churches.  There was a bit of an emotional upheaval for me in the church I attend, and I have starting attending less regularly.  The church is the body of believers.  Churches are groups of these believers who meet on a regular basis.  In churches there ought to be love, community, camaraderie, family, uplifting of those who are down, weeping with those who weep, rejoicing with those who rejoice.  In the church, instead, I see a lot of disjointed people, perhaps a dysfunctional family at its best.  I remember in college one of my professors saying how important it was to make yourself a part of a church and to become involved in that church despite its imperfections, because churches are made up of people who are imperfect.

I don't know what I would look for in a church, but I think that being surrounded by people who know me, and choose to love me and lift me up, and who I can know, love, and lift up -- to be a part of a vibrant community is important.  I think humility in the leadership is important.  I think that embracing the young people along with the older people in the church is important.  I think it's important to give young people a place to serve and to grow and give in the church.  I think art and music, and worship are important in the church.  Our God is a creative God who created the world, who created us, and who created us to be creative.  Using talents God has given is such a natural form of worship.

I'm currently thinking back to my senior art show that was based on cathedral window imagery and I think about some of the things that influenced that show.  I was interning for Denise Weyhrich and Seeds Fine Art Exhibits at the time, and Denise showed me some Cathedral tiles that she was given from some Cathedral in Europe that she planned to make a part of a piece along with cast oil lamps and some ceramic relief tiles.  The patterning to me was beautiful.

I started looking at cathedral imagery, first at the floors, but was immediately drawn to the windows -- not to the stained glass storytelling but to the stone and ironwork that held the glass in place.  I was also mesmerized by the idea of all the light that would flood through those windows in various colors and glory.  When I was a little girl I attended a church that had a tall dome ceiling in the middle of the sanctuary.  I remember staring up at the ceiling and feeling somehow like I could stare in the heavens if I stared far and long enough.  Lifting my eyes up in worship and having light pouring down through windows in the ceiling always made me feel closer to God somehow, like light was the presence of God streaming in.  The windows I made for my show came from a place of brokenness and trying to put broken pieces back together again, to find wholeness in God and in his light.

I think the problem with the church is that we are a broken people, and so often it is difficult to humbly admit that.  Yes, God takes our brokenness and redeems us, uses us as vessels for his glory, but none, not one of us, is perfect.  And in this we need to learn to love and cherish one another and serve each other humbly.  We are all works in progress with room to learn and grow.