What do we think of, when hear the word beauty?
When you hear Paul’s words, in Philippians 4:8, – is anything good, is anything true, is anything beautiful? – and that you should THINK ON THESE THINGS. – what is it you that you think on?
Perhaps art. Perhaps music. Perhaps the face of a spouse, or the laughter of children. Perhaps the untamed wilderness of nature. Scripture itself speaks this way: “How beautiful you are, my love” (Song of Songs 4:1). The lilies of the field are clothed with a glory that even Solomon did not possess (Matthew 6:28–29). And this is usually what it is, for people, isn’t it? Usually, its things either of their loved ones, children or spouses. Saying, EVEN IN CONCORD with the words of scripture on the matter. how beautiful is my beloved. her eyes, her hair, so lovely, so attractive (like a flog of goats, or however Song of Solomon would say it).. so-… “beautiful.” Or of their children, – ah yes, the BEAUTIFUL children. so happy, so care free. Or perhaps its nature, the beauty of a mountain crowned with a snow capped peak. or a calm lake in the morning dawn. Or the dim lit woods of the deep OAK forests. This is – for most people – BEAUTY.
And yet, what is this? Mostly, aside from Familial or romantic sentiment: – its aesthetics. Something PLEASING TO THE EYE or, even, to the ear – in a person, in nature, in art, or whatever.
Perhaps you say, oh , well, NOT ME. and maybe that’s true. maybe NOT YOU. but most people , ye.s even Christians. Dont believe me? Just go onto you tube and look up sermon on beauty. or go through great many online Christian resources and look for the topic of beauty. what do you find? Church architecture. Christian paintings. Christian orchestral pieces.
and on what grounds are these things beautiful? Some will argue here, – it is the symetry of the shapes and lines. It is the relation and interplay between the colours. The proportion, the contrast, the harmony. and what is this? math. Friends this is little more than bakery. This amount of symetry. this amount of complexity. this amount of of interplay. Is beauty a percentage? a relation between two juxtaposed ingredients? come now. What is beauty? is it that? no.
And yet,- to many, THIS IS WHAT THEY THINK OF, when i say, – think of beauty. And granted, are they BEAUTI-FUL? the snowcapped moutnains, the rolling green hills and the dark forests? Well sure – they do CONTAIN beauty. – but they are not beauty. No. they are not beauty.
For there is HERE a difference. And what is that? the difference between BEING – and POSSESSING. Between GIVING , producing, sourcing, AND RECEIVING, – OR PARTICIPATING IN SOMETHIGN. Between BEING BEAUTY. and having beauty. The difference, – between God , and everything else. Mountains may possess beauty. Music may possess beauty. People may possess beauty. But none of these are beauty itself. Only God is.
And this is the thing – God. Now, whjat is that? Who is that? See we might think we know. Yes God? Father, Son , Holy Spirit. Yes, YHWH , – yes, He redeemed Israel from Slavery in Egpyt, yes He savd me from sin, from death and the deivl, He loves me, He creates me, He has done this and that and the other things for me, – YES. But- … what IS He?
Is He … Beautiful? How many of you believe that God is beautiful? – SEE I HOPE IN ONE SENSE ITS ALL OF YOU. but really, it SHOULD be none of you. Why? Not becuase God is ugly. Or less-than beautiful. No. He is not. – but because God is so much MORE THAN a being that possesses beauty. But He is THE ONE WHO IS BEING ITSELF. AsHe said to His prophet Moses on Mt. At the Burning bursh. I AM WHO I AM (Exodus 3:14)
He IS beauty itself. and the beauty of God – IS GOD HIMSELF. He is what all beautiful things imitate, and what they participate in, when they are indeed, BEAUTIFUL THINGS.
He is SUPREME. He is supremacy itself. – the greatest, the highest, the goodness. – and more. The source and ground and foundation of all that WHICH IS – in that it is good. As measured by its relation to He who whomself IS THE SOURCE AND RULING NORM of all that which is.
For all else that is, comes from Him, in Him, and through Him. For what does Genesis 1:1 say? In the beginning there was… NOTHING. Except God. For in the beginning – God (who alone, apart from anything else was. – CREATED ALL THINGS). And again, in Colossians 1:16-17, 1 Cor 8:6, Rom 11:46, and Hebrews 2:10, in Him all things were created, things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities. All things were created through Him and for Him. / He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. And – in Him we live, and move, and have our being. He is the being in whom, and through whom, all that is, has IS being. And so we call Him, not just CREATOR. But the GROUND and foundation of existence and being itself.
And all that which posesses its being through Him, or possesses a share in His beauty by His grace, – is DERIVATIVE. It is beautiful by PARTICIPATION. But God –He is that through which all else is.
For God does not merely possess goodness; “no one is good except God alone” (Mark 10:18). God does not merely have love; “God is love” (1 John 4:8).
and so then, when the Psalmist wrtites in Psalm 27, that His longing is to look upon, and peer into, and GAZE at the BEAUTY OF THE LORD. He is not saying that He wishes to perceive some kind of symetry, harmony, or aesthetical porpotionality in God’s face. – BUT TO SEE GOD, HIMSELF. GOD IN HIS VERY BEING. God – as God. – AND THAT… ALONE… THAT… IS BEAUTY ITSELF.
So then, – this is what beauty is. not a what, but a who. and all else that IS beautiful, is likened to Him. existing in Him, – having its being through Him. and what does this mean then? – to discuss beauty? it means to discuss God. and then it becomes for us, far more defined.
What is it to be beautiful? To possesses to a limited extent that which God infinitely is: – Goodness, justice, love, peace, patience, existence.
When THINGS (whcih are not God) are reffered to as being that which God alone TRULY IS , in the simplicity of His own being, – it is understood throguh the form of participation.
For Dr. Luther was indeed wise. But only to the extent of His limited participation in God’s infinite wisdom. Mother Theresa was indeed kind. But only to the extent of her limited participation in God’s infinite kindness. And finally – whatever you think is beautiful : (your wife, your children, your lakeshore cottage, Mozart or the Mona Lisa – whatever,) IT IS ONLY BEAUTIFUL, to the limited extent of its participation in what God Himself, alone, fully, and infinitely, IS. For while all things participate in what He is to a limited extent, having wisdom, being beautiful, possessing love, He Himself alone IS Wisdom, HE IS love, and He alone IS – BEAUTY.
and so, we come to this topic of beauty. and what? am i to sidetrack you and speak of the greenness of the trees? Of the blueness of the seas? – PLEASE. I wont do it.
If I want to show you beauty, I am going to throw you directly into the source. directly into the substance. – directly into the Lord and the God , and the ground, – and the foundation of beauty itself. – the one who IS – all that which He has, in supremacy over all that which through Him IS: God Himself
and yet this is the great Gospel news of today’s message of reality for us. That this BEAUTY in God is not some ethereal, unseeable, unfindable, untouchable, intangible, IDEA that exist only in the abstract, – only come into contact with THROUGH CREATED things which ONLY MIRROR HIM, ONLY REFLECT HIM. No. He has given us Himself, substantially. He has given us Himself. – Not in indea or abstraction, but in flesh and blood – in this SACRAMENTAL ACTION of the Holy and most blessed Eucharist.
and this is where we PARTICIPATE IN BEAUTY to the chief extent. When we, as St. Peter says, PARTAKE OF THE DIVINE NATURE. – and feast upon that beauty. taking into ourselves, THE INFINITUDE which we could not contain, yet which is nevertheless has its fullness held, BODILY, in the FLESH of Christ Jesus, which we partake of, through this Holy Supper of impossibility. The impassible God – become consumable.
And just so has our Psalm today proclaimed to us as we sang it. – I will dwell in the house of the Lord, to dwell at His feet, to gaze at His face, to perceive His beauty, – the beauty that is Him, – the Beauty that is of Him, – the beauty that comes from Him. An attribute, which is one with HIs essence. The Divinely simple. The beauty impassible. The splendor unimaginable, – MADE MINE. where? IN THE HOUSE OFT HE LORD. In THE FLESH THAT IS THE HOUSE OF MY GOD. In the body of Jesus Christ my King. My God – and my all.
Where? in the Word and the Water. WHERE? in the Bread and the wine. There, – Christ is mine. The source and the author of all creation. The font of all beauty. The one in whom,, and through whom, and from whom, – is all good.
So what shall we say? GOD IS NOT BEAUTIFUL. but those who feast on His flesh are. For they are full of God. and He – IS – beauty. and so we say friends – God is not beautiful. – God… IS… beauty.
AND THAT, that means that YOU – are BEAUTY-FULL. Glory be to God forever, amen. F,S,HS.
SOS 5:16 – His mouth is sweetness itself, He is altogether lovely. this is my beloved.
