I think I get it now. I’ve been seduced by a church building.
Years ago, I visited a church sanctuary in suburban New York with several large Chagall windows as well as a small Matisse window – which honestly did nothing for me. But those Chagall windows. If I regularly worshiped in that space I would never need beautiful music or even the most stirring of sermons. Sitting in total quiet and staring into the handiwork of Marc Chagall would be enough to move me. And if I intentionally reflected on God as I stared into the windows, my spiritual life would also be nourished. What kind of God do we have who could gift an artist with such unspeakable, glorious talent? It would take that intentionality – at least for me – to remember that this was about God and not about me (and what I like) or Marc Chagall or the wealthy patrons who commissioned the windows. It was all about God.
How easy it is to worship beautiful things rather than the God who sparked the creativity to make them, the generosity to pay for them, and the devotion to care for them. How easy it is to make our buildings idols. I get it. There are some extraordinary houses of worship that take our breath away.
The artistic value of such worship spaces can bring us closer to God or they can seduce us in a way that takes us away from God. I was talking to a woman just today who attended a memorial service in one such gorgeous sanctuary and she admitted to distraction: “I listened to about half the service. I couldn’t take my eyes off of the building.”
I know what she means. But – whether our worship space is an eye-popping feast of sculptures and paintings or somebody’s living room – we must be intentional about what or who we are worshiping. Glorious windows or icons or statues can be tools for focusing on God especially when we enter a time of worship with our brains full of distractions. Or they can be objects of worship themselves. They can be so very seductive.
A Church for Starving Artists 