November 23rd

In Praise of Beauty

What should a garden look like? It sounds like an abstract question. At some level, if someone wants to have a garden, they are free to grow whatever collection of plants in whatever arrangement they want. Still, most of us can’t live in that kind of chaos. We need some priorities or guiding principles. Some people try to build off local wisdom and choose native varieties. Some people experiment and try to come up with their own customized blends of plants they get from the store. Mostly, however, the rest of us will find ourselves on a spectrum from functional to beautiful.
 
I grew up among people who prioritized function. Families compared ideas of which crops grew best, which required the least fertilizers and pesticides, and which ones could actually grow enough food that they were worthwhile. The Mennonite Heritage Village in Steinbach has gardens organized like early pioneers would have grown them. On a recent visit, a guide explained to me that growing a few flowers was fine, but only if they also scared away bugs or returned some nutrients to the soil. Was there room in their gardens for beauty?
 
That same mindset is evident in our church buildings. We have decorations in our worship spaces, but only if they fit a seasonal, thematic, or scriptural purpose. What room is there in our church buildings for beauty?
 
Pastor Brian Zahnd tells the story of Prince Vladimir of Kiev. A thousand years ago, he set out to unify his nation around a religion. He was pagan himself, but he knew that the various people groups in his new country, some absorbed by military conquest and some by a process of negotiation and compromise, would function better with a joint set of beliefs and goals. So, he sent out ambassadors to investigate the religions of the world. A few were sent to the Byzantine Empire, to present day Turkey, to explore their form of Christianity. They joined worshippers at the Hagia Sofia and wrote in their report afterwards that in that building, they didn’t know if they were in heaven or on earth.
 
Their investigation predates the Mennonite movement by at least five hundred years, but I wonder how appealing our churches would be to their ambassadors. To different degrees, our churches have prioritized community values, a Jesus-centered reading of the Bible, peace, evangelism, and social justice. Is there room in our theology for beauty?
 
We can’t live off flowers. Pretty pictures won’t cover for bad theology. But maybe our churches can benefit from seeing more beauty in our sanctuaries, in our homes, and in our relationships.