Worship Notes: The Power of The Visual Arts in Worship - March 2021

Last time I wrote, I talked about the power of music, and how it can form us (or not) in worship. I know far less about this week’s topic: The Power of the Visual Arts. But the course I took at Calvin Seminary last fall touched on all the different arts (poetry, theatre, narrative, kinetic) including the visual arts, so I know a little bit more now than I did before then. While I am not a visual artist myself (at all!) I love how colour and texture and image can move us “beyond words.”

At the heart of our celebration of all the arts in worship is our creative God. He has gifted humanity (God’s image-bearers) with the capacity to make art, to compose songs, to dance, to tell stories, to write poetry. In architecture and the visual arts, people “make stuff” with God’s stuff: fabric, metal, iron, concrete, brick, wood, glass, stone, leather, fiber, water, and light. 

One very specific power of the visual arts (as I recently learned) is it’s permanence and fixedness in time. We can go back to a piece of art day after day, and it remains un-changed. We may change how we view it, but the image, the colour, the art itself remains fixed. A stained-glass window can be viewed each week, un-changed. A musical performance, by contrast, is done once, “in time” and never again exactly that way. A drama on the stage can be performed again and again, but always with different nuance and actors; it’s a performance “in time.”

Briefly, the power of the visual arts comes through:  colour, texture, line, space, perspective, balance, contrast, and movement. The particular combination of these elements in a visual artwork (just as the particular combination of notes, tempo, and dynamics in music) can form us and move us.   

In worship, the visual arts can serve a number of different purposes:
·       Aesthetic (decorate)

·       Teaching (a stained-glass window depicting a story from the Bible)

·       Devotional (inspirational banners, for instance)

·       Liturgical function (purple cloth during Lent; Christ candle)

·       Missional (What does our church’s architecture tell our neighbours about our vision/mission for the world?)

I will most often lean towards the “liturgical function” of the visual arts, especially in the church seasons, but also for specific sermon series asking myself this question:  How can we worship “visually” through the theme? Which brings me to a request for your visual arts for the Easter service. I would love for you to illustrate parts of the Easter story:  with children’s drawings (or any age of course) that depict the empty tomb, or Mary in the garden, or Peter running to the tomb; with photographs that capture the story; with any of your artwork that shows “life after death.” Read through the resurrection story and then send me a photo/scan of your artwork to share on the screen while we read the story of Jesus’ resurrection in Easter Sunday worship. 

It would be good if I had this by next Thursday, April 1st. (I do apologize for the late notice). Please email me the pic of your art ruthanns@mountainviewcrc.org. Thank you in advance for sharing your vision of Easter in art, your gifts and your inspiration.

Ruth Ann