On Beauty

a sermon by Reverend Lynn Thomas Strauss

Unitarian Universalist Church of Rockville, October 22, 2006

One of the joys of ministry and leading worship is the opportunity to create beauty. This morning we have been blessed by the beauty of light…and color, the beauty of a handcrafted quilt…the beauty of flowers and green plants, the beauty of Mary’s playing and the choir singing…and of course the breath-taking beauty of Ling’s dance.

Sometimes UU’s ask what do we worship…my response is that we do not worship one thing…we celebrate life…and one most satisfying way of celebrating life is through creation and participation in beauty.

12th Century Christian Mystic, poet and composer, Hildegarde of Bingam said…”There is no creation that does not have a radiance.”

To define beauty is an exercise in futility…it is different things to different people…and it differs depending on context. But I agree with Hildegarde…there is no creation that does not have a radiance.

Radiance: a light, a glow, a warmth, an inspiration that touches us at a deep level. Beauty has the power to heal.

I hope you have all walked during these past two weeks…under the golden glow of autumn leaves…what is more healing than the canopy of natures most awesome colors. We are moved to remember. I remember when my children were small, I took many walks around the block with the stroller….there was one tree at the end of my walk…a beautiful huge maple. The color went from orange to yellow before the leaves fell. My walk was motivated, not only by the fussy child who needed to get outdoors, but by my desire to witness the glow of that one tree.

Singular beauty can be most arresting. A single voice, an aria by Mozart, can be almost chilling in its impact. One newborn baby, beautiful in its perfection can capture your gaze for hours on end. One dancer on a stage, can pull you in to a place of contemplation and feeling that you’ve never gone before.

So the first quality of beauty I would lift up today …is its power to heal. That power can be most apparent in times and places of suffering. Beauty depends and flows from context.

Even tragic events of human history can be the soil for beauty…in spite of the ugliness and suffering in which the beauty comes to life. There is a book and choral piece entitled “I Never saw Another Butterfly”…The title is taken from a poem written by a Jewish child interned at the Terezin concentration camp in Czechoslovakia during WWII. There is a book of poems and drawings made by the children in this camp over a two year period.

A Jewish teacher in the camp ws inspired to help the kids deal with their horrible situation through drawing and writing.

The Butterfly was written by Pavel Friedmann in June 1942

For seven weeks I’ve lived in here,
Penned up inside this ghetto.
But I have found what I love here.
The dandelions call to me
And the white chestnut branches in the court.
Only I never saw another butterfly.

The butterfly was the last one.
Butterflies don’t live in her.
In the ghetto.

Experiences of and creation of beauty can restore our humanity. Even in the darkest circumstances, beauty finds us, touches us, and makes us whole.

At times when people are hospitalized after a very difficult surgery, sometimes the most beautiful thing is to see them walk. In a hospital gown, with tubes still sticking out of arms and other places, slowly and with little energy or what we would call joy…we see a person walk…and that is a beautiful sight.

Did you see the movie about the life of singer, Johnny Cash- the scene that was beautiful to me, was when he played a concert at Folsom prison…the music of his electric guitar, and his singing touched the men in the prison cafeteria…and you could see their humanity being restored, if only for a few minutes by the gift, by the beauty of the music.

Yes, beauty can be found in the most unexpected places and in the darkest hour. Beauty can heal and restore our humanity.

That is because beauty is something we behold, not something we possess. We witness beauty, we behold it…and when we are touched by beauty, it brings out something wonderful and beautiful in us.

A beautiful creation whether made by nature, or by human artistry, brings out the good and true in us. It reminds us of our better nature and of the possibilities of human existence.

Beauty brings us to generosity, to expansiveness. German philosopher, Wittgenstein wrote; “you know something is beautiful when you want to replicate it.” How many of you wanted to get up and dance with Ling…how many would love to learn to move with such grace and beauty.

Have you ever seen a sunset that you didn’t want to share? How many times have you given someone a CD of a favorite piece of music because you wanted to give them the enjoyment, the beauty of it.

How many times have you wanted to write a poem about something that moved you? A starry night, a view from the mountaintop?

Part of the healing power of beauty is this desire to share it. The generosity it evokes in us.

Beauty creates beauty, which creates more beauty, which creates ever more beauty. This sanctuary is a perfect example…it is a space that invites beauty, a space that connects us to the beauty of the woods and the sky, a space that leaves room for creativity, it is a creation of radiance.

This radiance has a quality of the holy and the divine. Beauty is, I think, a part of holiness, a part of truth. Truth and beauty have often been spoken of together.

Like any thing of power, beauty can corrupt and be corrupted. Fairy tales and myth from Narcissus to Snow White warn us of the dangers of seduction by beauty.

The urge and desire toward beauty can be misguided, it can turn to greed, envy, possessiveness. The current standard of beauty in American culture and advertising has done enormous harm to women and girls and to men too. Seeking after beauty can be a perversion, an obsession…this happens when it is confused or defined as perfection. Or when it is grasping, or when it is intended as a vehicle toward profit.

The beauty in nature is not perfection, it is harmony. The beauty in human creation is also most affecting and meaningful when it is in balance…and pure in motivation. The purpose of true beauty is simple, it is a gift.

I love the Simone Weil quote: “Beauty requires us to give up our imaginary position as the center”. To experience beauty we must step aside, we must stand at the edge of the circle facing inward toward the center…and then in the center something of beauty will appear. If we keep ourselves in the center, either through ego, or anxiety or fear…we will miss the experience of beholding. We will not be free to move toward that which is beautiful in life. In order to have vision, to find meaning; we must step back. Moving ourselves out of center, also moves us toward ethics.

Beauty can move us toward ethics. When we hear beautiful music, or spend time in contemplation of nature…we find we want all people to experience such beauty.

The arts have long been a path toward peace and justice. As beauty heals the soul, we find the energy, the will to imagine a better world for all. It is not trivial to seek experiences of beauty in our lives, we need beauty as sustenance…we need bread and roses.

Just as the children in the concentration camp needed beauty in their lives. They needed beauty to keep them alive.

When we are de-centered by beauty, we willingly cede our ground to the beautiful thing before us. Beauty cases a radical de-centering of self. Beauty is un-self- interested. It is all about the rising moon, or the flowing steam, or the beautiful new baby. In the face of beauty, we forget ourselves.

Thus beauty teaches us, prepares us to do the work of justice, because we learn the value, the potential of putting someone, something else at the center. We learn to be a beholder instead of a possesser.

And we want to share the beauty, to share the music, the art, the poetry, the nourishment of creative action.

A vision of a just world, is a thing of beauty. For justice is a creation. Justice has a radiance. Justice is something to pass on, to share. Justice can arise out of suffering. Justice brings out the best in us.

Beauty prepares us to imagine justice. Appreciation of beauty can be a spiritual path leading to good works in the world. How can you look upon DeVinci’s “David” and not be moved to create more good, how can you listen to Mozart or Bach and not be moved to create more good, how can you watch Ling’s dance and not want to create connections across cultures.

George Santayana wrote: Beauty is a pledge of the possible conformity between the soul and nature and consequently a ground of faith in the supremacy of the good.

Beauty restores our faith in humanity, our faith in possibility, our faith in the good.

Beauty is within us…and beauty will bring it forth.

Let me conclude by asking you to mark the beauty in your lives…to say thank you whenever beauty touches you…for it is part of who you are, it is a way of living, it is a call to creation, a call to share the good with all people…be a beholder…

Shakespeare wrote;
“Give me your hand and let me feel your pulse.”

What a beautiful invitation.

Amen/Blessed Be