Twenty-nine years ago a handful of community-minded members of a fledgling Christian congregation decided to host an art show. Its beginnings were modest: the first show included a few artists, including our own Albert Landeros. They brought their pieces to a neighborhood living room. The whole event was more of a family affair, quiet and sweet, yet the joy it engendered for artists and guests alike served as a sort of miracle with a catchy title, “Art, for Heaven’s Sake!” That title was the brainchild of Albert’s queenly wife, Dorothy, and, like Albert’s beautiful artwork, the miracle of the show stuck. That was 1980.
Six years ago, in 2002, the congregation (having moved from fledgling to all grown up), was still hosting “Art, for Heaven’s Sake!” The annual weekend art show had expanded to include around 50 artists. Over the years, the show had moved from the neighborhood living room to the hospital’s medical center and had finally nestled itself in the beautiful building and grounds that surround us here today.
In the early fall of 2002, as the pre-art show energy rose to its fevered pitch, parishioners tried to explain to their new pastor—me—what “Art, for Heaven’s Sake!” was all about. I didn’t get it…at all… Now mind you, it wasn’t that I was dense or uncultured, although growing up in Hemet didn’t help those matters! I was just limited in my vision by all the other church bazaars I’d attended with their woven potholders and macaroni pictures of Jesus calming the storm and macramé plant hangers and felt banners with every trite scripture quote and, well, you get the picture!
So when I was heartily invited to the Friday night reception, I dressed the part of happy pastor, drug along my husband in suit and tie, and promised him he would never have to return to what I thought would be an event festooned with all of the above “artwork.” Well, were we ever surprised! The panorama that met us here that night several years ago infused us both with the Art Show spirit! The place had been transformed with twinkling lighted pathways, festive banners, a plethora of art mediums from beautiful watercolors and oils to handmade jewelry to detailed pottery sculptures to colorful shapely glass bowls to outdoor garden decorations. In a word…it was magical!
I was so enthralled by this art show—like the proverbial small-town kid in a big city—that I returned the next day and the next and haven’t missed one day since, and hope not to miss any in the future. I look forward to this weekend each year not only because it is fun, but also because it is a vibrant ministry of this creative congregation… Yes, I said “ministry.” “Art, for Heaven’s Sake!” is a ministry of hospitality as we invite and host the entire community—some 2,000 or more people each year… “Art, for Heaven’s Sake!” is a ministry of the aesthetic as we seek to offer vibrancy and color and texture to enliven people’s home and work environments… “Art, for Heaven’s Sake!” is a ministry of service in providing a pleasant and welcoming space for local artists to offer their gifts and in using the proceeds to make a positive difference in the world. “Art, for Heaven’s Sake!” is a ministry of theology…“God talk”…for, through this multi-faceted art, we know and experience the truth that God created all people in the divine image, and breathed into each one sacred creativity. If just one person’s spirit can somehow be lifted by all that surrounds us on Art Show weekend, then the title Dorothy imagined all those years ago is realized magically yet again, as this experience truly becomes “Art, for Heaven’s Sake!”
This year as Art Show weekend approached, and with the benefit of refreshing sabbatical time which allowed me time for reflection on all-things-having-to-do-with-ministry, I found myself asking the question, “Why, for Heaven’s Sake?” Why do dozens of people donate countless hours to preparing the grounds, cleaning the building, organizing, writing, cooking, baking, serving food, greeting guests, cashiering, counting money, compiling reports, attending committee meetings, not to mention all the time you wonderful artists spend envisioning and creating your beautiful works of art, perfecting your skills and learning new techniques? Why do hundreds of guests take time out of busy schedules to stroll and sit and listen and visit and purchase on this one much-anticipated weekend each year? Why indeed?
Perhaps we can find an answer to that question in the avocational work of Charles Hartshorne, pre-eminent 20th century philosopher. Hartshorne’s “day job” was as professor of religion and metaphysics and as co-originator of a particular stream of liberal theology known as process thought, which sees all life as interconnected and interdependent, and accepts a radically loving God as co-creating with us humans every moment.
While Hartshorne excelled in the field of religion, at an early age, 14-year old Charles was introduced to the field of ornithology, the scientific study of birds. Thus began a lifelong love affair with birds, a love that gave birth to his avocation as a professionally-recognized ornithologist. Legend has it that Hartshorne would show up as featured speaker for some or other theology or philosophy group, and if any ornithologists were in the vicinity, they would scurry him away to their meeting as well!
Hartshorne loved to bird watch. He thrived in listening to birdsongs. In fact, Charles Hartshorne shares with Aristotle the distinction of being the only other known person who is an expert in both metaphysics and ornithology.
Hartshorne’s love of birds led to joyful study of them, as he sought answers to two questions posed by the animal behaviorists. Namely, why do birds sing outside of the mating season, and why do birds sing outside of their territory being threatened? After years of study, and countless experiences of acute observation, Charles Hartshorne concluded that sometimes, some birds sing just for fun…because they like to sing! For these birds and in these times, their song has nothing to do with territory or procreation or warning or advertising where the best food may be found. They sing for the pure aesthetic pleasure of the experience. These findings, supported by extensive data, were published in Hartshorne’s book in 1973 titled, Born to Sing: An Interpretation and World Survey of Bird Song.
Why, for Heaven’s Sake? Hartshorne suggests to us that it is for the pure joy of the experience… A man named Jesus, who taught in the first-century of the Common Era on a little piece of real estate known then as Palestine, would concur. We heard words attributed to him read this morning. To a group of well-educated religious leaders, Jesus once explained, "I came that they might have life and have it abundantly…” To his own best friends, he confided, “I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete…” To the second generation of followers, another of this man’s friends wrote encouragingly, “I was overjoyed to find some of your children walking in the truth, just as we have been commanded by God…But now, dear lady, I ask you, not as though I were writing you a new commandment, but one we have had from the beginning, let us love one another. And this is love, that we walk according to his commandments; this is the commandment just as you have heard it from the beginning—you must walk in it.”
Life abundant…joy…love…in these teachings of the Christ we see and hear the essence of why we do what we do here this weekend…for the joy and life and love of it all—both potentially and realized. As you stroll through the many booths of artwork, be attentive to the ways that your life is abundant. As you ponder the meanings of a particular piece of art for your own life, and reflect on its beauty mirroring your own, listen to your heart sing with joy and see the ways your spirit overflows with the kind of abundant joy of which Jesus spoke. Finally, as you visit with old friends and new, as you take time to share and hear life stories, stand apart and notice also that in that moment you are in the business—the Christ business—of loving as he loved.
I asked earlier, “Why, for Heaven’s Sake?” And I imagine that if we were to total all the human hours encompassed by this 3-day Art Show, we would be more than amazed. Recalls to mind the familiar words of 20th-century anthropologist Margaret Mead, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”
Siblings in faith, today we are nudged to be filled with joy and love and abundant life, but the work, the ministry of the Art Show does not stop with our own spirits being filled. “Art, for Heaven’s Sake!” challenges each one of us to go out from here and to change the world, one beautiful piece of work, one aesthetic creation, one loving thought, one abundant act of courage, one joy-filled action, just one at a time. And when we do God will say to us, just as God delightedly blurted after each day of creation, “this is good…this is very good…!”
