Art and Worship

Art and Worship

Many Christians have grappled with being artists in
genres such as comics, film, games, and animation. It
all boils down to their definition of art. What we
must first ask is what is the unbeliever's viewpoint
to art? We already know of their meaningless approach
to humanity, art to them is a creation of meaning for
them. Art that involves high-end storytelling
especially celebrates this passion that mankind for
however long, can create their own reality. Yet we
Christians already have meaning-God's grace and
truth-that we base our lifestyle on. So does art have
any value to us, if there is no more meaning to
recreate. Hardly, we as Christians participate in the
highest form of art-that is worship. The expression of
our gratitude, our love and devotion and adoration to
our creator is indeed the most passionate and most
creative forms of art known to us. It's part of our
very creation; our spirits are suited for it. It
involves so many aspects to our lives- prayer,
fasting, it can even carry to the lesser mediums of
art: in music, and literature. It goes into depicting
our awe and thankfulness of the earth God made for us
on canvas. To the complex anatomical studies in
sculpture and portraits; such depictions so hard to
render, yet God made us this way using just dirt and a
ribcage. The next question is then is there another
art than worship to a Christian? It's not likely. If
any form of artistic endeavor seeks to bring out what
we feel is truth that is not God's than it falls back
into "worldly" art. That doesn't mean Christians
cannot suppress and hide their feelings from God or
their art, at least not until God recreates heaven and
earth to where there are no tears to shed anymore. Yet
in our expression we should not remove Gods meaning
for our lives. We can clearly see worship in its
strongest in our music and our literature, but what
about the other forms? Several Christians today who go
into the media arts and other more culturally favored
arts have fallen into the humanitarian trap of
self-expression. They become like unbelieving artists
becoming "worshippers of self," by claiming reality as
theirs instead of God's, and go into many perversions
that make their works successful in the world's
viewpoint. It's a very tragic thing, but the genre of
film, comics, and animation, is not lost to those who
follow Christ. Art is the only way human beings can
communicate to each other spiritually. Art then is as
powerful a tool, as praying to God is, even more
powerful, as we can change other people's hearts and
minds through it. Then in theory we can worship with
art even with its one-way fellowship with other
believers; we can also bring out the Truth and the
gospel with it. The crux of the problem is not a
cultural difference but a mechanical complexity that
makes this form of art hard for Christians to
accomplish. Non-Believers art conveys it's meaning in
subtly; it's not to be understood in a reasoning way,
it's for the "spirit" to interpret. What the spirit
concludes from that unbeliever's art is how it's
appreciated-if the message is received properly in
their form of thinking. Christians however have
struggled greatly in how to worship or teach to
Brothers and other humans in subtle ways. Christ
himself left no subtly out in his teachings. It wasn't
possible to do so in order to explain heaven and
salvation to people dead set in their ways. The
kingdom of heaven was beyond human comprehension
already, so Christ placed it in more obvious terms.
The modern world however is more open to thinking
about such things. They are more active in searching
for truth and purpose. Today we have more freedom to
be more subtle and we should, for then even if they do
get what we are saying, they will still be opened up a
little for our to further explain the truth to them.
Take the "Humpty Dupmpty" rhyme for example. Some
theologians explain this song to pertain to the fall
of Adam, which is a more far-fetched one than what
they try to decipher from modern-made stories. However
it shows the freedom Christians does have to express
themselves through their art to Bothers and
Unbelievers alike. Art may soon be one of the
strongest tools in getting a unbeliever willing to
talk to you about Christ and God's world. The
challenge is in thinking of something more creative
than Humpty Dupmpty.