disruptive grace

Celebrating the in breaking of new creation in to our time and space this Sunday with the following tunes:

Track 11 was supposed to be Louis Armstrong’s Wonderful World, maybe for this Easter week play list.

I’m not sure what an arts pastor is, but David Taylor is apparently one. I really like him, and not just for his great sideburns. This video will make it all clear. The subject is close to my heart — art — but the implications are wide ranging.

David Taylor-In His Own Words on Vimeo.

I know only one place and group of people doing what David describes in this video — a café-bar in the center of our city, run by friends of mine — local hero’s who get no fanfare or round of applause, and often misunderstood by many well intentioned believers. But, they are living ordinary lives of creative goodness for the sake of others, particularly the creative community.

I found this video encouraging, stimulating and provoking. Now, I must go now and do some drawing.

There is a great deal to lament as we look around the world, with conflicts all around: from the small places with in ourselves and the communities around us to the more tragic and dramatic unrest in the middle east and further to Sudan, the Congo and Zimbabwe. It can leave us feeling overwhelmed and unsure on how to respond.

Seeing this video [below] gave me hope today. There’s something about the beauty of the music and particularly watching the dexterity of the musician that speaks of the goodness of God, and holds out for a future where God puts the world to rights. Beauty in truth and truth in beauty. “Let justice roll on like a river, and righteousness like a never-failing stream” [Amos].

In my former blog Theophilus, I wrote randomly on art, culture, technology, and anything that came to mind. I recently moved and relaunched that blog — analogueboy — now an outlet for random sketches: some profound, some absurd, some beautiful, some a combination of the three. The RSS feed is here.

I wrote the following reflection for a the lead up to the lord’s supper at the harvest event we had last night.

We sow seeds, but we did not create them.
We plant them in the ground; a soil we did not form.
The rain nourishes it, with waters we did not produce.
The sun shines, but we are not the source of its light.
The plants grow, whilst we watch.
At harvest time we get to reap this goodness,
And are sustained by it as we eat.

These are all gifts.
All grace.
This is the Economy of God,
Inviting our participation,
but providing us more than we ever give.

We took these crops and created a dough
Which rises without our intervention,
but from the inherent goodness of the yeast.
And with it we celebrate a salvation we did not earn:
The Lord’s supper, where Jesus plays host,
Offering us his very self, that we might live.

We celebrate this together
In a community formed not in our own name, but his.
And, as we share the bread and wine with one another,
We share him, the creator and sustainer;
The author and perfector.

This Image is a visual response to the fantastic images created by Paul at Instamatic Theology

“Why is our world beautiful, and what are we as Christians to do about the fact that our world is beautiful? Why is our world ugly, and what are we as Christians to do about the fact that our world is ugly?” N.T. Wright

I mentioned a while back that I wanted to take the ‘mission and pain’ and prophetic imagination thoughts off in a few directions, and I hinted that I would explore some of N.T. Wrights thinking on the role of the imagination for a follower of Jesus, and particularly the artist walking this path. One of my favorite pieces on this who issues on this the transcript of a talk at Seattle Pacific University by Wright entitled: ‘The Bible and Christian Imagination’ (there is a corresponding MP3 online at iTunes U). I risk quoting the whole article, because I’ve personally found it so helpful, but I’ll try and avoid that and add my own comments and thoughts along the way,

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I want to continue the thought explored in the last post on ‘Mission and Pain’. There’s a few directions I’d like to explore, so I’m going to have to come back to some of these, including: some of Tom Wright’s stuff exploring this issues, on following in the way of Jesus, and on the role artist; also the aspects of Bruggeman’s talk on the prophetic imagination in regards to grief and hope.

However, now I want to think about lived examples. I love hearing real stories of real people, and I believe these stories free us to imagine how our lives could be. Recently I’ve become aware of a number of local friends who are ‘being’ in places of pain, I’ll use pseudonyms so not to not cause embarrassment. The following is a brief description of three of these.

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