Beauty of God

Intro

How many of you took time off to visit someplace??These past few months have been exciting for many of you.  With the endless heat, many of you get away for a week or a a few days.  You dont go to algona/pacific… No, we are drawn to beauty. If we have a few days. Some you you went to the coast.  The feel of the water, the perfect ocean air. The evening sunsets. It makes you come alive. Its beautiful Others went to the mountains.  Nature, the trees, the view, Beauty everywhere. Some of you visited a museum The paintings, the sculptures,  Have you ever been in a place where you encountered the reality of Beauty?? Time tends to stop.  You wanna savor it.  PersonalWaves in crete Stars in sky foilage sushi Have some people shout out times where they were lost in beauty.. You remember it vividly. You can recall the smells, the sights, the feelings.  Its stays with you.  There are moments when you’re at home, bored. And you think to yourself.  If only I could relive that time, sight, sound.  Definition of beautySaint Thomas’ definition of beauty is well known (beautiful things are those which, when seen, please Thomas Dubay. (n.d.). The Evidential Power of Beauty. What is it about beauty that is so moving. It makes us alive. Makes us forget the pain of the present moment.  I think you would agree that Beauty is a powerful experience.  But there is another side to it that writers have been talking about for centuries. That beauty is tremendously fleeting.  Its here and then is gone. -The music ends, the sunset goes down. Youth is quickly gone.   instagram is dedicated to trying to preserve the memory, capture experience, remember the view. Or to rub it in to our friends.  What gives?? Why is that?? First lets look at the psalm. Transition to Psalm The psalmist, more than anyone has a deep appreciation for beauty,  They’re filled with wonder and awe. Over and over they marvel at the created world.  They’re smitten by beauty. Here The psalmist invites humans and all the earth to sing, tell, declare the wonders. The marvelous works among all people.  Now some of these marvelous works are easy to describe.  Couple in love cathedralWork of art The face of a baby (Mikey)In n out burger— animal style.  Marvelous But among the familiar, there are thousands of wonders that we are only starting to get an understanding of.  Psalm says to describe the beauty. Do my best to speak on the beautiful.  Im gonna run through the universe-  a light-year is the distance light travels moving at the rate of 186, 000 miles per second for one year. At this speed light would circle Earth at the equator (about 25, 000 miles) seven times in one second. - galaxy being from edge to edge approximately 100, 000 light-years across -To stretch our minds a bit further: our known universe is approximately 12 to 15 billion light-years to its edges, Each black dot in the image is a galaxy containing a hundred billion suns similar to ours Water - and then there is water, the most amazing substance known to science.  -over 50,000 books and articles written on water and scientist are still filled with mystery and wonder at it.  - colorless, clear, tasteless, odorless liquid, that can become a solid, that can become a gas.  - we cant survive without it, we swim in it. Around 100 different theories of how it behaves have been put together over the years, and none work very well-We would assume that the one oxygen atom and the two hydrogen atoms that form the water molecule are a fairly simple matter. Not so. They must so link that “an incredibly tiny but highly charged electrical system” results. “If two hydrogen atoms came to rest on opposite sides of an oxygen atom a water molecule would be electrically balanced, without poles. All of its properties would be different. Life would not existWatermelonthe watermelon seed. It has the power of drawing from the ground through itself 200, 000 times its weight. When you can tell me how it takes this material and from it colors an outside surface, and then forms inside of it a white rind and within that again a red heart, thickly inlaid with black seeds, each one of which is capable of drawing through itself 200, 000 times its weight: Thomas Dubay. (n.d.). The Evidential Power of Beauty. Hummingbird  A tiny hummingbird has been called a biological dynamo. “If a 170-pound man expended energy as rapidly as this dainty animal does while hovering, he would need 285 pounds of food a day and shed 100 pounds of perspiration per hour just to keep his skin below the boiling point.”cellThe living cell is mind boggling- smallest living organism in the human body.-A single cell contains more information content than all thirty volumes of the Encyclopaedia Britannica-we have not yet come close to the entirely complete automation that is standard procedure in a living cell.If we enlarged one, we would find-Around the surface of the cell we find millions of openings made to allow delivery of goods to flow in and out-We would see endless highly organized corridors and conduits branching in every direction It would be like a New York city.  It would be an object resembling an immense automated factory, a factory larger than a city and carrying out almost as many unique functions as all the manufacturing activities of man on earth.”Michael denton-Each of us has in his body approximately 100 trillion tiny but extremely complex cities You just woke up. Didn’t think about that.  The world is charged,” said Gerard Manley Hopkins, “with the grandeur of God Now, what was your response?? Most of you reacted differently. some of you weren’t paying attention Others heard, but you’re indifferent Some had a feeling of joy sweep over you. Others were trying to fight back tears. The reality is everyone reacts differently to beauty. John Newman would weep with delight as he would play the violin Others are annoyed. Some would pay hundreds of dollars to hear a piece by Mozart or Beethoven. Others find it utterly boring and uninspiring  Some hike for miles to see a sunset Others are fine with the pixels on their screen. What is going on?  Numberless Varieties- if there was only one tulip in the world.. people would come from the ends of the earth to behold its splendor. But because there are millions. It doesn't move us.  WE HAVE LOST WONDER IN OUR LIVES.  Benjamin Zander  he teaches them how to listen to the music. They learn to identify impulses and chord progressions. He trains their ears in music theory. Many in the audience haven’t loved classical music because they were unable to hear the layers of beauty within it. Zander unfolds these layers for them. He shows them the transformative power of classical music.  MATT PLAYING animal farm AS WE WERE PASSING A SHIP IN THE OCEAN.  Thomas Merton urges us, “One of the most important—and most neglected—elements in the beginnings of the interior life is the ability to respond to reality, to see the value and the beauty in ordinary things, to come alive to the splendor that is all around us.”4 Jesus was alive to the beauty around him  Consider the lilies. They dont labor or spin but not even Solomon in all his glory was arrayed as one of these. Even Jesus marveled at the beauty surrounding him. “Look at the wildflowers. They never primp or shop, but have you ever seen color and design quite like it? The ten best-dressed men and women in the country look shabby alongside them” (, The Message). How are you guys doing?  I wanna stop here for a moment.  Why do we live in a world of so much beauty?  And because the news feeds us that which is negative, ugly, deformed.  Many of us think that is the default  But we do encounter it. And most of us do it daily. Our secular age doesnt have an satisfactory answer for the reality of beauty around us.  Many just boil it down to certain chemicals that trigger that reaction and nothing more.  How have the theologians and the church fathers viewed, spoken and thought about beauty? One word. Beauty is penultimate. — second to the last. Beauty is amazing, shapes us, makes us wanna weep, allows us to come alive. Makes life joyous.  But beauty was never intended to be ultimate. That wave, that symphony, that art piece isn’t supreme. Isn’t The last word on beauty,  That would make it an idol.  Its not an end in itself But a means to an end. Beauty is more of a pointer. A signpost, a foretaste. An echo Of what?? The ultimate — namely God. Beauty of God Which leads us to God. God is the most beautiful being in all of Reality.  -Let that sink in. Some of you might object.  You main reference for beauty is botox and some mascara.  Can we speak like that of God?? Where do they get the idea?? Start with Creation Think of the things, places, sounds that are beautiful.. God experiences all of that at any given moment.  And he designed and created it. Every beauty has a particularized beauty,  The splendor of an  oak tree is limited to its oak-ness Duck to its ducknessWave to its waveness They cant possess the beauty of any other thing.  But in God, there is no limit.  Every beauty who have seen and encountered is found in the God head. He is the super beautiful.  Take this orchid…how many variations could you imagine. Create?? 30000 orchids — how many variations could you come up with? The  cell The endless universe before us,The millions of animal species  All of the beauty we see was envisioned by the mind of God. as an architect has a house in his mind  The psalmist echo the beauty of God on multiple accusations. Thus in the OT the concept of beauty had a deeper meaning than simply physical attractiveness. It became a theological concept affirming God’s essential glory.). Beauty. In Baker encyclopedia of the Bible In the making of the tabernacle (), the concepts of glory and beauty are joined. There is evidence that the goodness of the Lord that Moses saw (33:19) could also be translated as beauty. Hence God’s glory is his beauty. Ramm, B. L. (1988). Glorification. In Baker encyclopedia of the Bible (Vol. 1, p. 869). Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House. Gods glory is about his beauty and presence- Moses and seeing the glory of God "One thing I desire.. to gaze at the beauty of the Lord." Bible Ends with new creation We will see the beauty of God face to face  We do not want merely to see beauty, though God knows, even that is bounty enough. We want something else which can hardly be put into words—to be united with the beauty we see, to pass into it, to receive it into ourselves, to bathe in it, to become part of it (The Weight of Glory). Mitchell, L. J. (1989). The God Who Is Beauty. (R. F. Ingram, Ed.)Tabletalk Magazine, September 1989: Grace & Beauty, 7. I believe we will encounter and experience beauty in thousands of unique ways. Without the taint of sin. the world is renewed New creation happens.  All that pails to the greater beauty,   the deepest revelation of beauty is that we will immersed into the fountain head of which all beauty flows.  We will immersed in the Trinitarian life of God. Father, son , Holy Spirit.Endlessly beholding the beauty of the lord The beatific vision IS this how you have envisioned God?What view of God do you have?? Many struggle with God because the view handed down to them is anything but beautiful. It cant move them, excite them. -Some of you grew up with Checklist — rules and checklists. Disciplinarian -some of you grew up with the idea of god as an angry tyrant that is looking to for the moments when you step out of line so he can put you in place.God as useful. — knowing the right priniciples will unlock will provide me the golden key. God as insurance His plan to restore his creation was not to send a list of rules and rituals to follow (LIFE UNDER GOD), nor was it the implementation of useful principles (LIFE OVER GOD). He did not send a genie to grant us our desires (LIFE FROM GOD), nor did he give us a task to accomplish (LIFE FOR GOD). Skye Jethani. (n.d.). With . Come to God or you will burn in hell — stories of people never committing a sin and god sends them off to hell.You can imagine struggling with a God like that.  The problem is that in this way, we control god.. its purely individualist. Im the center of reality. It starts with me. And it proves unbearably difficult to live out..  Never once did I hear that God is ultimate beauty.  That everything good, true and beautiful is found in him.  And I get to delight in knowing, loving and worshipping him.  I can lose everything, but as long as I have him.  religious person finds God useful, but the real Christian finds God beautiful. Keller, T. J. (2013). Some of you struggle with God as the most beautiful... The beauty of God has been perfectly witnessed in the face of Jesus Christ.  -God is hard for people to understand… Jesus is that perfect image,Christ as Perfect beauty And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth . (). Wheaton: Standard Bible Society. John is ripping all this language out of Exodus—“tabernacle” and “glory” and “love and faithfulness”—as a way of retelling the Sinai story around Jesus. He’s making the point that in Jesus, we see the Creator God’s glory—his presence and beauty—like never before. In Jesus, Yahweh becomes a human being. Jesus is the glory of God — the beauty among us.Jesus tells us stories of a father throwing parties at the return of lost sons.Of a master hosting a banquet and says, you’re invited.  In Isaiah there was a rumor that the messiah will turn -Beauty from ashes. God is the most beautiful being in all reality and its most clearly seen in his self-emptying love Re-uniting us back to the source of all good, true, beautiful. This beauty is so profound that he takes the  Jesus makes the cross beautiful.  Today we’re reminded of this beauty in the bread and the cup.  Application  Celebrate beauty- carry beauty. Individuals God gave us beauty for delight and good cheer. John Calvin  The artist help us see and notice that.  They bring us to the reality of beauty. If you’re an artist,  We are Gods poem — created for good works. Gods work of art. — created to carry on.  True saints become, themselves, a work of art by showing forth the presence of the Divine Artist, the One who is Beauty, living within them. Mitchell, L. J. (1989). The God Who Is Beauty. (R. F. Ingram, Ed.)Tabletalk Magazine, September 1989: Grace & Beauty, 11. Our role is to be “agents” of this new creation in all that we do – “in symphonies and family life, in restorative justice and poetry, in holiness and service to the poor, in politics and painting” (p. 202) -Some of you are like, im going to the salon tomorrow..  Christians that hold signs and you’re going to hell.  Tim Keller -in a world with much ugliness. We must cultivate beauty  Makato and his wife buying flowers. Christian artist Makoto Fujimura  When he and his wife married, they were poor, struggling students who could barely scrape together enough money to cover their monthly expenses. Financial concerns hung over their lives like a permanent cloud. Makoto shares, “One evening, I was sitting alone, waiting for Judy to come home to our small apartment, worried about how we were going to afford the rent and pay for necessities over the weekend. Our refrigerator was empty and I had no cash left. Then Judy walked in, and she had brought home a bouquet of flowers.  I got really upset. ‘How could you think of buying flowers if we can’t even eat!’ I remember saying, frustrated.  Judy’s reply has been etched in my heart for over thirty years now. ‘We need to feed our souls, too.’ ”6 As a church 1000 years ago , vladimier the great, prince of Kiev was looking for a new faith that would bring unity to the slavs. He sent out envoys to experience the great faiths of the world.They came back and reported faiths that were austere, and abstract But at the same time there was a faith that was so transencant .. then they led us to Constantinople After they had attended services in the great Church of Holy Wisdom, the envoys told their master: “We know not whether we were in Heaven or on earth, for surely there is no such splendor or beauty anywhere upon earth. We cannot describe it to you; only we know that God dwells there among men, and that their service surpasses the worship of all other places. For we cannot forget that beauty.”

“Late have I loved you, beauty so old and so new: late have I loved you. And see, you were within and I was in the external world and sought you there, and in my unlovely state I plunged into those lovely created things which you made. You were with me, and I was not with you. The lovely things kept me far from you, though if they did not have their existence in you, they had no existence at all. You called and cried out loud and shattered my deafness. You were radiant and resplendent, you put to flight my blindness. You were fragrant, and I drew in my breath and now pant after you. I tasted you, and I feel but hunger and thirst for you. You touched me, and I am set on fire to attain the peace which is yours.”

You might be avoiding god. May you come to see the beauty of god. May you enjoy, cherish, delight in the beauty you encounter  But yet may this push you into a relationship with the most beautiful being in all of reality.  The domino effect: beauty, wonder, praise, prayer