Earlier this Fall, I wrote a blog entry for the Art House America blog on the relationship between Worship and Justice.  The piece was part of a longer bit I wrote about the triad of Art, Worship and Justice. If you’ve not yet read the initial posting at Art House America, you can do so here. Below is the continuation of that thought.

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In his book “The Dangerous Act of Worship” Mark Labberton writes

“The perception that issues of justice and issues of worship are separate or sequential or easily distinguishable shows the inadequacy of our theology: both of worship and of justice”
-The Dangerous Act of Worship, Intervarsity Press

I believe that artists are uniquely and particularly positioned to invite and challenge their people to this work of Worship and Justice.  This is so because of the nature of the artistic gift and the authority that gift grants an artist culturally.

The Nature of the Artist’s Gift

Creation was (and is) of value to God because He made it; not because of it’s usefulness.  According the the Genesis account of creation, God created light and immediately called the light “good.”  This despite the fact that, in the creation sequence, much the physical had yet to be created.  Light, the function of which is to make things see-able, was “good”  not because of it’s usefulness but simply because God made it.

It seems to me that the Genesis account of creation establishes a basis for the worth of all things that runs much deeper than utility.  Creation was (and is) of value to God because He made it; it is His,… The innate value of all things rests in their relationship to the Creator.

Similarly, the nature of art proclaims this same value relationship between Creator and creation.  To a songwriter, for instance, a song’s worth is not established by it’s success in the marketplace. Nor does failure in the marketplace detract from that same song’s worth.  Intrinsically, that song’s worth is established in it’s relationship to its artist.  Because of this truth regarding the nature of art, I believe every time an artist makes a piece or writes a story etc… the Creator-creation value relationship is proclaimed.  It is this value-relationship that provides the most consistent foundation for advocacy: The elderly, the poor, the developmentally disabled and the unborn have their worth equally established and maintained in their relationship to the God who made them.  Their inability to contribute to the Market’s bottom line does nothing to detract from their value.

The Authority of Art

Furthermore, art opens doors in the hearts of those who engage it.  The artists behind this work (or in it as the case may be) are granted a peculiar authority to walk through those doors and make suggestions as to how listeners or viewers perceive and interact with reality.  Perhaps because of its much wider cultural accessibility, this is most clearly exemplified in the case of music wherein the fashion of young women can often be directly traced to a particular artist or (on a brighter note) concern for a region of the world can become somewhat fashionable due to the poetic call of another artist or band.   This authority begs the question “how will you use it?”  The other way to ask the same question is to ask “What are you calling your people to?”  I would hope (in fact I would suggest) that

Conclusion

Having an intentional knowledge of both the Nature and Authority of their gift, artists can enter the conversation about art’s role (particularly music’s role) in worship more completely; knowing that music, as form of art, tells a key part of the Story by its very nature; that the authority art gives an artist must be handled with wisdom and that embracing his role as an artist among people means knowingly leading that people in worship that truly transforms their lives and the world in which those lives are led. A worship indistinguishable from the practice of Justice.

A few years ago I was invited to lead music at a conference in Santa Cruz, CA. I learned a bit about about the group and what kind of music they were used to so that I could prepare a song-list they’d find familiar and singable. Upon arrival, I noticed the poster advertising both the speaker and myself. The poster read “The Reverend Speaker VonSpeakenstein (not his real name) will be delivering the Word and Justin McRoberts will bring the worship.”

Read the entire post at Soul-Audio.