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The Beauty of God
beauty of the Lord and meditate in his temple. Today’s WORSHIP QUOTE looks into this idea of the beauty of God. The author is Anglican author and theologian N. T. Wright. THE BEAUTY OF GOD I want to speak about worship; and that means I want to talk about God, and about the beauty of God. If we are to worship God truly, it is not enough to think of God’s greatness and majesty, his power and sovereignty, his holiness and absolute otherness. That’s all enormously important, as part of the story. But we wouldn’t ordinarily use the word "beauty" to refer to any of that. I want to suggest to you . . . that our ordinary experiences of beauty are given to us to provide a clue, a starting-point, a signpost, from which we move on to recognize, to glimpse, to be overwhelmed by, to adore, and so to worship, not just the majesty, but the beauty of God himself. And, just as we don’t often use the word "worship" in connection with beauty in the natur al world, so we don’t very often use the word "beauty" in connection with God. That is our loss, and I suggest we set about making it good. — N. T. Wright, FOR ALL GOD’S WORTH: TRUE WORSHIP AND THE CALLING OF THE CHURCH. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1997, p. 6. ISBN 0-8028-4319-0 [In contrast to this, it is interesting that the suffering Christ is described by the prophet (Isaiah 53:2) as having "no form or majesty that we should look at him, and NO BEAUTY that we should desire him." I suggest that this contrast (beauty/no beauty) helps us to understand the radical humiliation and love of the incarnation (Philippians 2:5-11). Thanks be to God! Amen!] Have a great week, Chip Stam Director, Institute for Christian Worship School of Church Music and Worship Southern Baptist Theological Seminary Louisville, Kentucky www.carlstam.org www.sbts.edu |