Posts Tagged ‘Circle of Friends’
Origins: humanity, the art and insight
Sermon on January 10 was about humanity. Philip was our artist. He is a senior at the high school and works with Circle of Friends. He’s a very soft-spoken young man.
I think there are two opposite and incorrect extremes in understanding humanity. The first is seeing us as the center of the universe, the focal point. Refusing to acknowledge that we are broken in some way. In essence, making ourselves our own god.
But I think the opposite extreme is also wrong – thinking that mankind is so totally depraved and wrong of being of any value at all. The mere fact we are made in the image of God gives every human value and dignity, regardless of station in life.
We are beautiful, deep, broken, repairable, redeemable creations.
There are some subtleties in these paintings that if you are in a hurry, you will miss. The first is how every color in the palette is used to make Adam and Eve. Philip said, “I really don’t know what color they were so I used them all.”
The second thing to notice is the serpent. He’s there. He’s not overbearing, he’s not dominant. He’s subtle, like a whisper. Can you find him? I love this depiction of the serpent. He’s not offensive or overbearing, you can miss him. But once you recognize him for what he really is, you’ll never miss him again.
More Thoughts On Origins:Sin
What a Sunday. You can listen to the service here. Rick – once again – hit it out of the park with his acoustic version of Gravedigger. I’m going to go back and do a quick overview of each week with the artwork and a quick bio of the artist.
Spencer was this week’s artist. He is a high school student that has autism. Normally he works with chalk, dealing in very bright and vibrant colors. These were here interpretations of sin.
His work stirred two very profound insights for me. First, there is a layer of darkness over the entire painting. Sin darkens everything it touches. Something innocent dies with sin. Always. Completely. The effects of sin are overwhelming, overarching. Fatal. Inescapable.
Second, it’s still possible to see the good through the darkness. As horrible and horrific as sin is and its effects, God’s grace is bigger, brighter, and better. It takes a greater good to beat sin and God is that greater good. Grace trumps all. The real philosophical insight isn’t – why do good things happen to bad people but rather, why isn’t worse than what it is? Why is it in every tragedy, there is still hope? Light? Yes, sometimes it is hard to see. Sometimes our perspective and where we sit in the middle of the darkness makes it almost impossible to see. But it is still there.
Very grateful to Spencer for his insight and his art.
Origins: earth
And it was good…
All good theology starts with Genesis 1. That is, I think all good theology starts with the concept that God existed before the beginning and He created and what He created was good. Why?
Because God is good and the creation has His fingerprints all over it. It is creative, diverse, wonderful, complex, beautiful, full of folly, complicated, simple and….good. Because if it isn’t good, it isn’t worth redeeming which makes the rest of scripture pointless.
These particular paintings were done by Jenny who has Williams Syndrome. WS is a rare neurodevelopmental disorder but Jenny has a very sunny, fun disposition in spite of this. You can probably see this in her artwork. It made her the perfect choice to be the artist for this topic.
Another aspect about Jenny came out in the artwork. She loves to help people. That’s part of God’s good creation – people, the ability to help and receive help from others. Jenny recently graduated from Washburn Rural and started her own business JennyLu Designs.
Art, ORIGINS, and Circle of Friends
I had this crazy idea one day last November while visiting Washburn Rural High School. The backstory: I’m a bit of an art geek. Yes, it’s true. The Denver Art Museum was a haven for me. In fact, last month I took the kids to the Kemper Contemporary in Kansas City. They like it as well – at least the older two.
There is something that happens to the human spirit when it observes good art. I’m not sure if it’s completely fair to call it worship but I don’t think that’s all that far off either. So I’ve had this desire to include art any time it’s possible in the context of worship.
Back to my crazy idea – I knew we were going to do this series on ORIGINS and I wanted to have dramatic art pieces that went along with each of the stories. But who can paint 12 different paintings, 6 different themes with the first one just a few weeks away? That’s when I saw the painting at WRHS. So I asked around to see who painted it – turns out I knew him and his mom worked at the school.
That’s when I first heard about Circle of Friends. I walked into the mom’s office and there was even more artwork. Most of it done by disabled kids. Circle of Friends paired disabled kids with ‘abled’ kids for the purpose of creating a ‘normal’ high school experience. Lunch buddies, class buddies, peer tutors and art are just some of the ways this club is bringing healing to these students.
I asked about the possibility of these kids in this club painting the stories of Genesis – no rules or direction other than read the story first. What could they come up with? Would they even be interested in doing something like this?
The answer was an overwhelming yes. All of a sudden this whole project kind of generated a life of its own. Hobby Lobby sold us the canvases at an incredible discount. The idea of selling of them to benefit Circle of Friends turned into an auction, turned into an auction on the Topeka’s First Friday Night Artwalk February 5. Warehouse 414 stepped up and said they’d sponsor it for us.
All of this is great and there is no telling how all this will play out but I’m struck by a couple of observations.
I’m hearing from some of the students that are painting that this is the first time they’ve ever read these stories in Genesis. For some, it’s the first time they’ve ever read a Bible at all.
When the pieces are revealed, there has been this pause…this holy silence of wonder. Then applause. I think the art for some is ministering to a place in their soul they didn’t know existed. And they’re liking it.
It’s another avenue to connect and serve the community around us. With budget cuts, the arts are going to suffer the most. And when the arts are left out of a kids education, we all suffer from it in the long. I think beauty and the appreciation of beauty is part of what makes humanity very different from every other being alive. When we lose this, we lose a part of what it means to be human.
What an opportunity for us..to provide a context for artists to experiment with these stories, our stories. A chance for some to hear God’s story for the first time. A chance for us to see God’s story through a different lens.
If you haven’t seen these paintings, you need to come by and spend some time in our worship center. For those who are out of town…I’ll try to upload some pictures later.