J AN U AR Y 2 0 1 6
The SPIRE Mt. Pleasant United Methodist Church
The Art and the Artist Francis Schaeffer used the description 'glorious ruin' to describe the condition of humans in this world. He used an old metaphor of an old soiled painting. No one was certain who the artist had been, but so much about the painting seemed to indicate that it was done by a great master, someone with superb gifts, someone who poured a lot of themselves into their art, someone with a profound message to share. The masterpiece, though terribly marred and discoloured still had hints of the brilliance that was hidden beneath layers of neglect. It was eventually taken to an expert who lifted the stains, lifted and repaired the canvas, examined distinctive brush strokes, analysed the style, discovered the time period and so on. After careful scrutiny, he was able to declare who the artist was beyond any doubt, even though the work was now badly broken and in ruins. So, too, when we think carefully about the unique qualities of this creature we call ‘human beings’, we can find ample evidence of the handiwork of some great Artist. But who was it and why was it created? The Bible is the amazing story of what this Artist has done, not only in designing and bringing to life the original painting, but what he has done in order to restore the painting to its full beauty in which the character of the Artist will be admired by all who share in the restoration. When we understand the basis of the painting, we will begin to experience the heart of the Artist and what the Artist was trying to give the world. In the coming year, I would like for you to join us in re-discovering this great Artist, find the masterpiece in your life that you were created to be and the message the Artist is trying to convey. Mark Twain once said that the two most important days in a person’s life were the day they were born and the day they asked why? “Sometimes I feel as though I were born in a circus, came out of my mother’s womb like a man shot from a cannon, pitched toward the ceiling of the tent, all the doctors and nurses clapping in delight from the grandstand, the band going great guns in trombones and drums. I unfolded and find flight hundreds of feet above the center ring, the smell of popcorn, the clowns gathered below in utter amazement at my grace, all the people chanting my name as my arms come out like wings and move swanlike toward the apex where I draw them in, collapse my torso to my legs, roll over in perfection, then slowly give in to gravity, my body falling back toward the earth, the ground coming up so quick I can see the center ring growing beneath my weight. Falling faster, ever faster. And this is precisely when it occurs to me there is no net. And I wonder what is the use of a circus, and why a man should bother to be shot out of a cannon, and how fleeting the applause of the crowd, and ... who is going to rescue me?” Donald Miller in Searching for God Knows What. Come, Join the Journey with us,
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