Apostles Church

SERMON TEXT: Matthew 20:29-34
    
    There's great power and immense joy in beauty seen - when we see beauty. "Seeing" is the Bible's premier metaphor for perceiving, understanding, and responding to Beauty/beauty.   The Bible affirms that Beauty is an inherent attribute of God.  Beauty belongs to God's very Being. In His essence, God is Beauty.  And as such, God is true and perfect, full and complete Beauty.  This understanding of God-as-Beauty stands at the heart of the Judeo-Christian Faith for millennia.  But even the pagan philosophers and artists of classical antiquity affirmed that Beauty, along with Truth and Goodness, is part of the trifecta of God's essential and perfect Being.  In other words, God Himself alone is pure and eternal Beauty.  And as the Creator-of-All, the Divine Artist, all beauty in Creation radiates from Him. 

    So who then truly sees Beauty? And how can they genuinely see this Beauty? And when they do authentically see such Beauty, who and what, then, do they see? And upon really seeing Beauty, how should they respond? Let's seek the answers these for questions by conversing our way through today's Scripture, Matthew 20:29-34.

    "What do you want Me to do for you?" says Jesus.  And it is the same question He asks of us today: "What do you want Me to do for you?" Even though there is this one question from Jesus, there are as many varied answers as there are different people who give them.

    But while the content of our answers several, the kinds of answers we give are few - literally just three:  First and most commonly, we may completely turn away from Jesus' question in total, obstinate unbelief.  We may be rebelliously indifferent to Him and His question. Second and very often, we may half turn towards Jesus in a doubting, uncertain, skeptical perversion of belief Third and finally - rarely but truly - we may fully turn towards Jesus, opening our minds, our hearts, our mouths, our very selves to Him in a desperately courageous faith.
   
    Which response of non-faith, half-faith, or full faith do you identify with today? How do you answer Jesus' question to you, "What do you want for Me to do for you?" Don't we need to see with both physical and spiritual eyes what is True, Good, and Beautiful? Don't we want to see as Jesus sees?   Don't we want to see who and what Jesus sees?  Just imagine yourself seeing the Beauty of our God and of our world ...

    "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God."  This is the promise of the Gospel.  To see Jesus already, now - "as in a mirror dimly," as the Apostles Paul says.  But the Gospel promise is also to see Jesus later, then - in Glory, whether in Heaven or upon the New Earth.  This seeing of Jesus is the "beatific vision" - the ultimate consummation of our salvation and the great reward of our faith.   Isn't this what we want - to see Jesus now and then?  And aren't all of our experiences of beauty in this world shadows and echoes of His Beauty?  And don't all of the old memories and new longings forged and roused by such experiences of beauty ultimately reveal of deep need and desperate want to see Jesus?

    Just imagine we all of us, as a church, seeing together the Beauty of God:  the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, along with all of the people, places, things, and ideas in our city ...  Isn't this why we need the artists and their arts? Isn't this why artists need patrons to invest in them and participants to enjoy their arts?