Destruction as Creation

-Every act of creation is first an act of destruction.

Pablo Picasso

-For when we are interested in the beauty of a thing, the oftener we can see it the better…”

John Ruskin, On the Condition of Modern Art, lecture (1867)

-What we think, or what we know, or what we believe is, in the end, of little consequence. The only consequence is what we do.

John Ruskin, The Crown of Wild Olive, lecture IV: The Future of England, section 151 (1866)

This entry is challenging to write. I am tempted to rail against the behemoth of the state and the evangelical church functioning as a devouring hydra toward all who refuse its power. The emboldened spectacle is digging trenches and mounting barbed wire within the church to say “worship this and in this way or bear our hostility.” Whether it be my hostility or another’s, it can only die if left on the cross. Recently, a friend and I met in a cabin in the woods to pray. When I prayed with my friend, I was in the Presence of Jesus who invited me into His Kingdom- to walk with Him in His way. Posturing to receive Him and His upside-down Kingdom is the only way to see Jesus. Like Jesus on the road to Emmaus, Jesus did not spear me to the wall, but drew my heart by His loving Presence. The revelation of Jesus and the call to follow Him is a call to ascend with Him, through Him, to the throne of God.

The Bible is a cyclical story of creation and destruction, tov and ra. Genesis 50 provides the theme: “what man intended for evil, God intends for good.” God creates a good world. Man grabs for His power in response to the whisper of the snake- coveting God. They are exiled, but not abandoned. Exile is a form of mercy; they are not obliterated, but given a chance at recreation. The world fills with violence. God sends the flood- again, not obliterated, but recreated. The Tower of Babel story tells of a world filled with violence and man reaching for God’s throne of power once again. God smashes their efforts to ascend His hill and scatters the people to specific areas. The scattering, however, is like the scattering of seed. It is not annihilation, but recreation. God never gives up. His love for us will not quit.

So, who can approach God and how? If He is recreating a people to be in His Presence, how can we ascend His holy hill? It won’t be through violence and devouring one another. It will be on a cross.

Who may ascend the hill of the LORD?

Who may stand in His holy place?

He who has clean hands and a pure heart,

who does not lift up his soul to an idol

or swear deceitfully.

He shall receive blessing from the LORD,

and vindication from the God of his salvation.

Such is the generation of those who seek Him,

who seek Your face, O God of Jacob.

Psalm 24:3-6

Being clean and pure, these are themes of Leviticus. The point of Leviticus is distinction of the people of YHWH so that they may approach the Presence of God. This is the function of a priest. Jesus people have Jesus as a priest. Otherwise, His holiness and power is overwhelming to those of us being recreated. We approach God and each other through Him (as my friend and I did in the prayer cabin). We return to the Garden Life, on God’s hill in this way- on our knees in humility, in serving, and in prayer.

We cannot approach Him through violence. Pride will be cast down. We cannot lift up our souls to idols (“worthless” things in Hebrew, things “destined for destruction”). Our allegiance belongs to YHWH alone. The blessing He provides us is Jesus. We find YHWH in Jesus. All other allegiances will be destroyed. He is recreating His Presence in the world and inviting all who trust Jesus and follow His upside-down ways to ascend.

HuffPost, 10/17/2019, released ‘American Christians See A Rapid Decline in Numbers Over Past Decade: Study.” Pew Research Center shows 65% of Americans identify as Christian, down 12% over the decade. The religiously unaffiliated now make up 26%, up from 17% over the decade. The church does not seem to provide the answers people seek. Perhaps the church (the religious construct) prevents people from seeing Jesus. I mean, who didn't like Jesus…oh, wait. The article does not explain the reason for the decline. However, the elements that are useless and false do not invite people to ascend the hill. Maybe it is time for a destruction of all that is not Jesus ; perhaps it is time for the Holy Spirit to breathe new life into His people.

Destroying what is useless opens the door for creation and clarity. Les Desmoiselles d’Agnon was an experimental piece (though he would likely not call it that , “I do not seek, I find”) painted by Pablo Picasso in 1907 (and possibly 1906 as the painting developed in two phases). He composed hundreds of sketches revising and honing his vision. The title of this piece changed as well. Originally it was called Le Bordel d'Avignon. The name change irritated Picasso, but French art critic Andre Salmon did so in 1916 to circumvent scandal. The painting was considered ugly by art critics and other painters at the time. Georges Braque and Henri Matisse were very critical of the painting. It was shocking in its incongruent style and complete break from accepted standards of beauty. It was pictorial violence. Yet it is considered beautiful and powerful today.

This painting is considered the first Cubist painting. But why did Picasso paint this way? It breaks with 500 years of traditions of defined ideas of beauty, composition, tools, and techniques. It breaks with the traditions of the West and incorporates art from other cultures, notably Africa. Linear perspective is gone, the sole vantage point to which all things must bow. Cubism represents multiple vantage points. Chiaroscuro is abandoned. Light is no longer modulated with traditional gradation, thick opaque paint, or hard edges of light juxtaposed against the thin softness of shadow. Light and shadow are not the determinants of form. Why break from this? Why destroy it?

The formalism of art was no longer sufficient. The Renaissance approached the marriage of the Ideal and the Real, but culture changed; what was Real clashed with the Ideal. French colonialism was overtaking Africa. Primitive people were subjugated to the overpowering force of the West. Les Demoiselles depicts the subjugation of women in prostitution. In the original sketches, a medical student was present. He was detached and analytical, wanting to study the women, but his desire for knowledge subjugated them as objects nonetheless. There was a sailor with different intent. Whether for pleasure or knowledge, those without power yielded their bodies to those with power. The continent of Africa was the brothel of the West. Colonialism aspired to exploit the resources (and the people) to satisfy its knowledge and desires. A world rapt with this reality needed language to call out the blindness of the West’s formalism. The Real in Western art and its culture diverged from the Ideal. To recapture the Ideal, the language of the Real needed to be recreated.

What does this have to do with our faith walk in these times? Picasso discovered the beauty found in the artists of Africa and their masks. Jean-Jacques Rousseau did the same in primitive societies, coining the term “noble savage.” He saw a nobility in their social contract and simplicity of need that he thought admirable. Paul did this in the Areopagus in regards to the religious people of Athens. He knew they were a searching people and quoted from their poets to reveal the Jesus they longed to know. Picasso exhibited what he discovered. He presented no false constructs or illusions. He did not deny the flatness of the plane. He did not shirk from the closeness of the subjects or allow the viewer a place to hide. He cast off the formalism as oppressive rules which are in themselves lies. As John Ruskin, an art critic who preceded Picasso’s time by a few decades, wrote, “Art is not a study of positive reality, it is the seeking for ideal truth.” Finding the Real, seeing it as it is without falseness, and seeing the Ideal within it is a starting point of reconciliation. It is looking up the hill to see Jesus.

Our walk with Jesus in these times can learn from Picasso. Something new is being created, but some destruction is needed. However, we are not to be discouraged. There is violence in the air, yes. The factions forged by politics spliced with religion are destroying trust in the church for those who see such things and know them to be false. Religion also subjugates for self-satisfaction. Like the medical student, a faith without sensibilities toward others centers on death (the medical student was holding a skull in some sketches). Like the sailor, a faith without death (mortality) is overrun with self-serving sensuality. What people need to see in our faith is the powerlessness of death and the emptiness of self-serving. What needs to be destroyed is all that will not be resurrected. Let dying things die.

Perhaps it is time to deconstruct our faith from the formalism that fails to reconcile the Ideal and the Real. What institutional elements obscure Jesus? Do we not see Jesus as one of the prostitutes in this piece? Did He not subjugate Himself that we may be free from the powers and fear; free to be like Him? What is the faith we present to those who no longer have confidence in the formalism in the church of the West, yet long to know Jesus? I am not disparaging the beauty of liturgy. It is worth preserving. The multi-ethnic family of people united under the lordship of Jesus and Jesus alone, as you recall, is the city on the hill. All the rules of distinction, the national boundaries, the denominational lines, the ethnic barriers, norms of social status…all of these have been destroyed by Jesus. We all exist on the same plane. We are all on display with nowhere to hide. We are vulnerable and have been polluted. But Jesus offers us His clean hands and His pure heart. No more worthless religious formalism. No more false allegiances. He is recreating us in His image. This is shema.

My friend and I ascended the hill to pray. We talked, we confessed, we gave thanks, and we prayed for His will to be done on earth as in heaven. We prayed for our families and our friends. We forgave and asked forgiveness. It was cleansing and restoring. Coming off that hill, our hope was for Jesus to be seen more clearly. May our weakness and struggles, the ugly things, reveal Jesus all the more. It won’t be all the things the church is against or the church buildings or showmanship that will satisfy the hunger of the hungry. They are still hungry. And many won’t come to the church. It is in humility of those touched by Jesus, in the serving of those who need Jesus, and in the prayer to be conformed to Jesus. He is eager to be known by us, eager for us to join Him on His holy hill- to show us that all that we ever longed for is found in Him.

*****
-And thus, in full, there are four classes: the men who feel nothing, and therefore see truly; the men who feel strongly, think weakly, and see untruly (second order of poets); the men who feel strongly, think strongly, and see truly (first order of poets); and the men who, strong as human creatures can be, are yet submitted to influences stronger than they, and see in a sort untruly, because what they see is inconceivably above them. This last is the usual condition of prophetic inspiration.

John Ruskin, Modern Painters, Volume III, part IV, chapter XII (1856)