On this day of celebrating the arts, I want to start with the broadest possible definition of art. I'm going to say that any time we express our truest selves with excellence or with flair, on whatever canvas God gives us in whatever medium for which God gifts us - that can be art.

Obviously, when we talk about the arts, we first think of graphic arts, music, dance, sculpture, poetry. But some of you know that in the marketplace, closing a deal can be a work of art. Invention can be a work of art. Innovation can be art. System and function can be art. Management can be art.

We talk about the art of friendship and the art of teaching and the art of parenting. We talk about the art of negotiation and the art of persuasion. There is art in almost any worthy occupation.

Using broad terms, I'm willing to call it art anytime our passions, our gifts flow out in vulnerable, often risky self-expression that serves as a display or an exhibit, of the unique person God had made. While we're often prone to separate the sacred and the secular, scriptures like Colossians 3 invite us into a sanctified whole - an integration of our faith life, our vocations, our talents, our interests, our hobbies, until we learn the art of doing "all things as unto the Lord" and until our words and deeds find expression in the name of Jesus Christ, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.

God forgive us, God forgive me for the insinuation that the best and most spiritual activities all happen at church. Dick Halverson used to say that the truly defining elements of our devotion happen between Monday and Saturday. I believe it.

Who was the great preacher of the 19th century who, when asked by a cobbler who'd come to Christ, "Now! How do I honor Christ?" said, "make the very best shoes you can with the talent and resources you have."

So, I'm suggesting that the essence of art, in the broad sense, is being the best, most authentic, expressive and courageous you that you can be. Make your life into a studio to express and exercise your God-given talents. And do it all, say it all, as unto the Lord and in the name of Christ. What does that mean? God is our audience…put the signature of Christ in the corner. That's not only art - it's worship.

Now, in the more specific sense, it's awful what the church has so often done to the arts. As I've said in regard to many issues, the church has such a hard time driving down the healthy, middle of the road. Instead, we bounce around from curb to curb, reacting and overreacting. In some seasons and centuries of church life, the arts have been hyper extended and overvalued until the veneration of objects (the paintings or sculptures) smacks of idolatry. Then, to purge and cleanse ourselves of idolatry, brilliant, priceless, inspiring art has been torn off the walls and burned in a pile in favor of a bland, simple, reasonable, totally left-brain, stripped down kind of religion that only engages a few of the senses. In our day, some try to compete with godless notions of music and run the risk of smacking too much of the world, while others fear the world so much that the church becomes a bastion of mediocrity - where doing things unto the Lord too often means doing them badly and hoping no one notices.

Not that all art has to be good by some human standard or judgment. All of us can express and experiment and give hearty efforts in mediums where we don't necessarily excel. Still, His Excellency obviously loves and deserves excellence and while excellence isn't the primary goal in life, it's a worthy one.

What I hope for in this church is freedom to experiment and freedom to excel. I hope for an environment that is both gracious and discriminating, approving of hearty efforts that fall short of excellence even as we're hungry for the very best, the most beautiful, the truly inspired.

I also hope for a place risk is honored; a place where people aren't afraid to say, "This isn't easy to say out loud, or sing in front of people, or to hang on the wall for all to see, but this is the honest expression of my love for Christ and the deeper part of me. I will not keep it to myself.

Those, of course, represent both our favorite sin and our most-perplexing blemish. Hording and fearing. God help us. God help us to share and not horde. God help us to risk and not fear.

Surely

- Keith Potter, 1981