Column on Beauty 10/19

A 91 year old saint of our church, Betty Emmons, took the time to write a hand-written note of appreciation to our choir. She was a stalwart of the choir once, and she told us how much she missed that. She told us how the opening music prepared her for worship and how some of the selections brought tears to her eyes. It reminded me of the great American theologian Jonathan Edwards who spoke of the beauty of God and God’s creation a good deal. He thought the most beautiful way to express the concord of two minds was through music. Last Saturday I went to the official honoring of Jeanie Cousley’s child-oriented mural for the new farmer’s market location. I even had some prayer note sin my back pocket, just in case, I would be asked to lead a prayer. (I still have not gotten used to be the expected praying leader at gatherings). I was going to praise concrete as a canvas, the need for color in our lives, and how childlike simplicity has a beauty all of its own. Both of these women have a signal sense of the role of beauty in the life of the spirit. Yes, I realize that we live in a time when aesthetic standards are ins dispute, that beauty is an individual conception. Yet, many would agree on something or someone beautiful. I know when I encounter beauty, as I have the sudden urge to want to make time stand still, to be able to freeze a moment and keep it safe. We have a group of clergy who get together about every 6 weeks to discuss a piece from theology today or Interpretation. One session was devoted to an article on beauty. It was difficult for us, in part, because the church does not speak of beauty all that often. Right away, we move to either physical beauty or the tedious example of a sunset. H.G. Wells, I think, said that beauty is in the heart of the beholder. An insightful woman said something similar recently. She said that love means we look past physical beauty, but at the same time, she warned men not to say your are beautiful too me, as she took it as an insult to her looks. Beauty does oscillate between a private pleasure and public aspect. Augustine said that as love grows, beauty grows, for love is the beauty of the soul. In a marriage, then, as time passes, one could say that you grow more beautiful with each passing day. We look at a love not only through physical eyes, but with the eyes of love. Maybe I would go so far as to say we begin to regard each other through the eyes of Christ. On occasion, I will hear someone say, you’ve done a beautiful thing. The very excellence or quality of a deed can evoke the same pleasure as a sensory beauty. The Scottish enlightenment spoke of a moral sense that reacted to acts of benevolence in a similar way to the sight or sound of beauty. After 9/11, I choke up at America the Beautiful, at the line: “thine alabaster cities gleam/undimmed by human tears.” America is beautiful not only for its natural wonders, but for the countless beautiful acts that made this country an emblem of liberty. the statue of liberty is beautiful, not only for its grandeur, but for the countless beautiful acts of liberty, the countless beautiful hopes and dreams that came to these shores embodied in beautiful people. My payer is that we seek the beauty in each other this week. I pray that we really try to do a beautiful thing every day this week.