From Star Stuff to the Stable

When Art Shapes Our Faith

A Sermon by
The Rev. David L. Hunting

The Historic Community Congregational Church
of Manitou Springs, Colorado

1 O Lord, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens.  2 Out of the mouths of babes and infants you have founded a bulwark because of your foes, to silence the enemy and the avenger. 3 When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have established; 4 what are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them?  5 Yet you have made them a little lower than God, and crowned them with glory and honor.  6 You have given them dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under their feet, 7 all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, 8 the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas.  9 O Lord, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth!

The late twentieth century Trappist monk and spiritual guide Thomas Merton once wrote; “Music and art and poetry attune the soul to God!”  I really appreciate those words.  “Music – and art – and poetry – attune the soul to God!”

Down through the centuries Christianity has celebrated and embraced that kind of thought.  From familiar and famous works of art like “The Last Supper” by Leonardo da Vinci, to George Frederic Handel’s inspiring music “The Messiah” art, music and poetry have always had a way of shaping our souls, as they have sought to describe the Divine!  “O Lord, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth!” 

Churches have traditionally been repositories for such talents and treasures.  Often their very architecture has mirrored the majesty of the art, music and poetry shared within their walls.  All around you today are examples of that.  The wonderful paintings that grace these church walls… the choir singing from above… a Bible upon the altar that continues to be the centerpiece for our common faith!  All leave us feeling full of something larger than ourselves.

Many of you have visited other churches around the world that reflect a reverence or art, music and poetry.  Just a year ago during the Holy Season of Lent while away on my sabbatical, I stood inside the sixth largest church in the world back at Washington D.C.’s National Cathedral.  There flying buttresses support towering Indiana Limestone walls which hold in place massive colored stained glass windows.  They often are likened to picture books telling the sacred stories of our faith!  I also spent some time down at a religious monastery out on the high deserts of New Mexico.  There I listened to the sounds of a simple fountain breaking the sacred silence in that spiritual place with running water splashing over old stones.   It was for me just as much like art, music and poetry for my spiritual soul!

Churches are good places to be moved and shaped by sacred sight and sound in ways that our modern society often misses.  Today it would seem we are becoming removed from one another.  Some communicate by constantly texting each other.  Many learn by way of always surfing the web.  We fix our eyes upon a digitize world that tells us what to see upon our high definition televisions.  So much of our so called popular music in my opinion, seems to have about as much depth as the CD’s they are burned upon or downloaded bandwidth!

Many places that pride themselves on providing so called “Christian praise and worship” in my way of thinking, are impoverished when it comes to art and music.  Wide screen plasma TV’s have now replaced stained glass windows, with the images of Jesus broadcast being so shallow and sanitized,  I fear He is seen by many as more a pop icon, than a timeless sacred treasure who can speak to our deeper souls in timeless and lasting ways.

Here in this church you will find none of that.  Here we still value what is traditional while allowing a freedom to discover the Divine in ways that are deeply personal.  In this church Jesus, is central to who we are and what we believe in.  But you will not find here an outdated dogma or rigid religious thinking that holds us captive to superstitions and fears that limit one’s growth with God.  As we are so fond of saying in this sacred place, “No matter who you are – or where you are on life’s journey – you are welcomed here!” 

To stand behind and support all of this, I think you are going to find this morning’s new work of art that has been added to our growing collection, an expression of faith that is traditional and timely, contemplative yet colorful, deeply faithful as well as wonderfully fanciful!  Those are the adjectives I’d use to describe what our faithful friend and good neighbor; Steven Morath has done with his mural that now graces the Fellowship Hall.  It’s a work of art that will make you smile.  It will make you think.  I believe it will attune your soul with God! 

Let me give you now a preview of what you will be seeing when we unveil this new art after church today.  You will immediately recognize this painting as a portrayal of the familiar “Nativity Story” so central to the Christian faith.  Steve Morath told me the other day, “You know the Bible is a book filled with stories that are just crying out to be illustrated!”  Steve you have answered that call in a very creative way today… thank you!

Last week, when I first took a morning to share some thoughts with Steve about his painting, the thought of “From Star Stuff to the Stable” came to mind.  Let me expand upon that thought a bit more with all of you.  When you first look at this art, which the Gospels of Matthew and Luke give some memory to, you will immediately recognize the likeness of Mary, Joseph and the baby Jesus.  Together they are surrounded by familiar stable animals; a donkey, a cow, a goat and bunny, there’s even a whimsical cat and mouse that are caught up in a playful moment at that holy time and sacred place.  What you will find different here from familiar and traditional images that have been attached to the Nativity by artists through the centuries, is something that will sweep your soul up – into the very act of Creation itself!

Steven through his art has brought the very heavens above down to the center of this sacred story from scripture.  Over the centuries Christian art has sometimes envisioned the so called Star of Bethlehem shining above the nativity of Jesus.  In this work of art however, you will see much – much more!  There above Mary, Joseph and the Christ Child are colorful planets, bright stars, swirling galaxies and new moons that have all surrendered themselves to that sacred moment – when very the universe itself seems attuned with God.  It’s as if – star stuff – has been brought – into the stable!

I’ve given some prayerful thought to this artful image.  I have found myself both lifted up and nourished by it.  I remember that indeed our very nature – “the stuff” of which you and I are made – comes from the very stars themselves!  A brief review of physics and chemistry at this point in the Sunday sermon might be helpful. You are all a bright and intelligent congregation who has gathered here, so I am fairly certain you may know and recall that science suggests all life, and all matter… for that matter… can trace origins back to distant stars.  Star stuff that was created shortly after the moment of the “Big Bang”… what I believe was God’s original – Creative Act!

When stars first switch on their atomic furnaces, they begin to burn off the lightest of the “Periodic Elements.”   If you think back to your high school chemistry days, you’ll remember that would be atoms like hydrogen, helium and later heavier elements like carbon.  Billions and billions of years later, when those stars came to the end of their natural life, they exploded under their own compressed gravity going super-nova!  They spewed out all those elements into the cosmic wind, which became the very building blocks of life! There in the deep darkness of space all that matter cooled, and eventually came back together as planets and future suns.  Their warmth and position sparked new life to come into being.  God’s creation continued!

That’s a pretty mind boggling view of how everything that is came into being.  It’s hard to   understand; indeed it’s only partially understood today.  In my way of thinking it makes sense not only on a scientific level – but also upon a deeply spiritual one!  And so – to help tell this stellar story in a very personal and private way; where God is not removed from Creation but found squarely at the center of it… we come to a Christmas Crèche.  Star stuff finds its way to a stable!  And it is here – that I find it quite remarkable , all these elements come together in such a memorable way — in the birth of a baby we recognize at Jesus!                        

Here in a simple stable the miracle of life itself stands still.  It is life surrounded by a sacred sense of wonder found in the image of two new parents.  Mary and Joseph share that same space with simple animals that are as well the product of God’s great creation.  All these characters from our Christian faith stand still and in rapt awe – of the miracle of Creation found in the heavens overhead and a new born baby wrapped up in a simple blanket. 

When you look at this interpretation of that sacred moment, as Steve Morath has captured it – I’d invite you to pay special attention to the way he used the image of human hands.  Joseph’s right hand is held close to his chest in such a way as to suggest that this – this is a breathless moment – that has left him feeling wondered-filled!  It’s a feeling that I think any father can relate to.  That singular moment when a child is born leaving one overwhelmed with a sense that something spiritual has just past through the soul!  The same spirit is present in the hands of Mary.  When you see the mural, take notice of her left hand.  It is gently caressing the left cheek of the infant Jesus in such a tender and touching way.  There is such a sacred gaze that Mary, the mother of Jesus, is sharing with her new born child.  Her soul is attuned – with God!

It’s a breath taking work of art that captures all this and more for our church   and wider community today!  There is both the familiar and fanciful to catch your eye and capture the imagination…  a smiling donkey, a big old cow, a Billy goat and bunny, a playful cat and mouse, a wide eyed owl who is watching over that Holy Night!  Down through the centuries Christian art has depicted the Nativity in different ways and with varying themes.  Sometimes Mary is wearing a royal blue tunic, while at others she is adorned in the rich fabric of Renaissance brocade.  Joseph in classic Christian art is often shown as being somewhat removed and disinterested from the events of that holy time, almost a second place character to the Christmas crèche.  But not so here – as I think you will see!

There are some wonderful liberties taken in this interpretation of the Nativity of Jesus we have up in the Fellowship Hall.  Like all good art, they are meant to make us think, perhaps even smile, and be – in wonder!  I hope you will be as pleased and excited about this new art in your church, as I am.  I pray that it might even generate some good theological discussion amongst us about what we do or don’t believe in.  Remember, this is the kind of church where we don’t check our brains at the door.  We are not afraid to ask questions around here.  We do not fear any Divine judgment for doing so.  We understand that here – God wants us to grow and change – as Creation has and always will!

A wise soul once said, “Religion is the everlasting dialogue between humanity and God. Art is its soliloquy.”  What that means is this… art has always had a means of speaking to our souls in ways we would otherwise find difficult to put into words!  And if religion is the ongoing dialogue we have with God – then art helps us understand that – which we need to be listening to!

I hope that you will find in this wonderful work of art that now finds its home here in this good church, a voice that still speaks to you in much the same way the scripture of old has – O Lord, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth!  You have set your glory above the heavens… even here on earth by way of the birth of a baby named Jesus! 

It is a life we remember through these days of Lent that point us to Easter.  It is a life remembered even unto death that sweeps the soul up – to the stars above – and in the symbol of sacred hands… holds us still… feeling attuned – to God!