What was the last beautiful thing you encountered? Maybe it as a sound? Perhaps the swell of an orchestra, the laughter of a child, or the wind rustling through the prairie grass? Maybe it was something you saw? Artwork at an art museum, a craft a friend or loved one made with you in mind, or that sunset on Friday the 24th? A touch of a loved one or a friend? The way the air is perfumed this time of the year? A cup of tea, asparagus grown in your backyard?
The Soul Matters theme for June 2019 is Beauty. I’ll be addressing it from different perspectives in worship where I’ll share my thoughts about the future of religion (June 2), and on aging (June 9). We’ll then reprise the question Box service on (June 16), where I will attempt to answer any questions theological, spiritual, or congregational. Personal “get-to-know-you” questions are fine, but the questions that demand a deeper response will get turned into sermons during the 2019-2020 worship year. The Social Justice Team leads their Justice Sunday service on the 23rd. And one of your own returns on the 30th when the Rev. Jordinn Nelson Long guest preaches. It’s bound to be a great June at 11am.
As I think about beauty, three quotes come to mind. Each offers a slightly different perspective on beauty. The first is from a Canadian Indie Rock band known as The Weakerthans. A song from their 2003 album Reconstruction Site includes the line: “Beauty's just another word I'm never certain how to spell.” In this way, I think that the songwriter or the narrator in the song has given up on a beauty. They take it for granted. It’s just another word. I think about the times in my life where I took beauty for granted - the year my daily commuted included an ocean drive, pieces of art I glanced at too quickly.
The second quote is attributed to Rumi. Though I think it’s more accurately Coleman Barks. “Let the beauty we love, be what we do. There are hundred ways to kneel and kiss the ground.” I appreciate this perspective because beauty becomes active. It’s a way to show devotion to something greater than ourselves. It also asks us to consider the question are my actions beautiful? Do they add something to this rich tapestry of the world?
The final quote comes Lady Bird Johnson’s diary. On January 27, 1965 she wrote “Getting on the subject of beautification is like picking up a tangled skein of wool. All the threads are interwoven -- recreation and pollution and mental health, and the crime rate, and rapid transit, and highway beautification, and the war on poverty, and parks -- national, state and local. It is hard to hitch the conversation into one straight line, because everything leads to something else.” Having been a Texan for three years, there is a soft spot in my heart for Lady Bird Johnson. While her plans for beautification partially involved planting wildflowers along highways, it also changed rules around advertising. You can also read in her words echos of our seventh principle which references the independent web of all existence of which we are apart.
As I wrap up - I wonder again - when was the last time you noticed something beautiful? Are your actions generally ones that add a little bit of beauty to our world? Would you commit to that, if you knew that it could rebuild the brokenness that exists in this beautiful world?