September 27, 2007
Prior to entering seminary I taught “Theatre Arts” at Arkansas State University . In one of my classes, “Scenic Design,” I used as one of the textbooks The Dramatic Imagination by Robert Edmund Jones. He wrote, “Keep in your souls some images of magnificence. . . .Truth stands above and beyond mere accuracy to fact. . .unless life is turned into art it stops being alive and goes dead . . . . the secret flame that burns in the hearts of all the great artists is that they seem so much more aware than we are, and so much more awake, and so much more alive that they make us feel that what we call living is not living at all, but a kind of sleep.” I believe that everything Robert Jones wrote about theatre arts can be said about the art of the living church and the art of living the Christian life. I deeply believe that Jesus' teachings and the way he lived His life among us was an art and we need to capture that vision of magnificence every day.
As I watched some football games on television this past weekend, the announcers constantly used the cliché that certain teams were playing not to win the game but not to lose it. The team that had used all kinds of creative and innovative plays in the first part of the game that helped them be a score or so ahead, had dropped back another part of the game to play it “smart” – out of fear of losing – and eventually lost the game or just barely squeaked out a victory. I believe that this can be said of the church as well.
Having been in this church business for a while it did not surprise me to learn that 92 percent of ALL churches claim to be experiencing some kind of financial crunch. We at St. Theodore's are a part of the 92 percent. We have our financial struggles as well as a mortgage that saps over $3,000 per month out of our potential financial visions. The difficulty with long term mortgages for churches is that once the money is used to build a facility, the memory of the mortgage fades quickly, especially if you are in the building only an hour a week.
One of the wisest of our Episcopal stewardship visionaries is The Rev. Hugh Magers. In his workshops he challenged us to be visionaries and to expect magnificence in the same way Jesus expected his disciples to live creative and innovative lives. However, out of fear we only operate out of a survival mode of stewardship, especially during the annual pledge campaign. We just hope and pray to keep up with inflation and plan as if there will be no financial surprises during the coming year such as an air conditioner failing.
We cannot live just to die but we must die to our past survival giving habits and see the magnificence we can be at St. Theodore's as a Christian witness to our whole community. We can only do this through innovative and exciting visions such as Vision 2012.
To truly live with Jesus Christ is to sit at the feet of the great artist and to live passionately each and every day. True Christian living is about hope, dreams, and action, with God's help. As we say our prayers and begin thinking seriously about our financial commitments to St. Theodore's, remember Jesus said, “Where your treasure is, there is your heart also.”
“Be not afraid.”
Fr. Ken †
