ART IS USELESS
By Paul LeFeber, Associate Director of Worship Arts

Many of us are familiar with the creation narrative of Genesis. Here we see God as artist, creating a good and perfect world; all is exactly as it should be. The created world provided for the needs of the first humans, but it was more than simply functional. It was a work of art.

The story takes a dark turn. The first humans think, “That tree isn’t just pretty – it can do something for me. It can make me wise. I can become like God.” And they turned that which is good into that which is merely useful. Still today, we reduce the goodness and beauty of God’s creation into a means to serve our own ends. The fall finds a home in the philosophies of this age that tell us religion, sex, art, music, generosity are not meaningful in a spiritual sense. They are merely useful.

And so it is no surprise that artists often end up on the fringes of society, and the fringes of our churches.

What is the use of a painting? What tangible end does it accomplish? What good is a poem when you could just say it plainly? Why write a novel about a pretend world? Don’t we have enough problems in the real world? Why choreograph a dance to communicate an emotion? Isn’t it easier to just talk? What’s the ultimate use of a beautiful melody, or a carefully crafted lyric? Sure, they inspire, but they don’t actually do anything.

And so art is pretty much useless.

Or at least unnecessary. It doesn’t offer a quick fix to our struggles, doesn’t necessarily accomplish anything. Art asks us to slow down, to read that poem five more times to understand what the poet is making, not just what he’s saying. Art asks us to break out of the hurriedness of our work and to reflect on a painting or listen to a song and – if even for a moment – to stop thinking about ourselves and find pleasure in God’s gifts. Art offers us an opportunity to play before God – free from the need to produce something useful, and free to enjoy God’s goodness and beauty.