Art and Shalom

What attracted me to the Anabaptist church was a theology rooted in discipleship. It was the conviction that God is "more concerned with us living a Christian life, than in speculating about it." It was living as a radical follower of Jesus- in simplicity, in poverty, in solidarity- so that we might better bring justice and restoration to the world. The commitment to peace, the subversive quality of the church, the idea of bearing Christian witness rather than yelling about it, the Socialist leaning- all these reasons are why I morphed into a Mennonite.

And yet I find that in many ways my soul is dying in the Mennonite world. I've lost creativity and passion. I've lost both the joy and sorrow of being a part of this beautiful and difficult world. And more so, I'm finding that all the reasons I joined the Mennonite church are causing me this anxiety. Ironically enough for a church committed to living peacefully, I find that in the quest for justice we've missed glimpses of shalom.

I'm reminded of the story where Jesus gets all sorts of expensive perfume poured on his feet and makes the rather disturbing statement that "the poor will always be with you." It's the passage I often ignore. It always sounds like Jesus is talking like some rich, white evangelical who is justifying their million dollar home and brand new Hummer.

But what if instead of this passage being about Jesus ignoring the poor, it rather has to do with Jesus embracing glimpses of shalom. Maybe this passage speaks to us "simple" Christians who view all of life through the economic lens. Maybe this speaks to us radical Christians who embrace such extreme frugality that they've lost the capacity to enjoy. This is exactly why we have such trouble with this passage- we are such economically minded Christians who have lost the capacity to embrace the good.

Afterall, most sweet things in life are entirely opposed to economics. Love, art, novels, poems, music- none of these things make much economical sense with a world starving and at war. Yet, I become ever more convinced that if music was silenced, if poetry became obsolete, and if romance became impractical- the world would fall off its axis. The world cannot exist without these things, for they are glimpses of shalom, glimpses of hope, glimpses of the kingdom; and they bear witness to a greater reality than the current reality of hunger, sickness, poverty, and war. To deny the arts is to deny salvation.