Beauty is Resistance: The World Will be Saved by Beauty

“Beauty is Resistance: The World Will Be Saved by Beauty”

(Sermon preached at Westmoreland Congregational United Church of Christ, Bethesda, MD – June  22, 2025)

Psalm 148; Matthew 6:25-29

The story is told of Moses encountering a burning bush out of which God speaks to him on his way to work tending his father in law’s sheep.  In the spirit of rabbinical Bible study, a group of rabbis pondered the question, “Why was the bush burning but not consumed?”  They argued about how such a miraculous event could happen and what it meant… until one of them spoke up, “The bush was burning, and kept burning, so that one day as he walked by, Moses would notice it.”  God is shouting God’s presence to us every moment of the day but often we walk by focusing on our cares and concerns and not God’s constant revelation of beauty and love.

Today’s readings proclaim a world of praise and beauty.  In Psalm 148, we are told that everything praises God: sun, moon, stars, ice, birds, fish, and even national leaders.  Jesus proclaims that the lilies of the field reveal the wonders of God’s love and are arrayed with beauty that excels the finest attire of Versace and Vera Wang and Brooks Brothers.  And, yet, we are consumed by our anxieties, not realizing that God who takes care of the lilies of the field and the birds of the air, will also take care of us, and that every day is a miracle for those who awaken to God’s presence.  As the hymn by Maltie Babcock proclaims,

This is my Father’s world,
And to my listening ears
All nature sings, and round me rings
The music of the spheres.
This is my Mother’s world:
I rest me in the thought
Of rocks and trees, of skies and seas–
God’s hand the wonders wrought.

Beauty’s Counter Narrative

It has been said that in our attempts to control the world by technology and our anxieties over the problems of the day, we experience both a beauty and ecstasy deficit.  We bury our heads in our problems, fixate on our screens, compete with one another over prestige, power, and property, when all around us God whispers, “Take off your shoes.  You stand on holy ground.” In the holiness of beauty, we experience a counter narrative to warmongers, prevaricating politicians, and manipulative materialists.

Opening our Eyes to Beauty

Remember the scene from Antoine de St. Exupery’s classic, The Little Prince in which the interstellar pilgrim encounters a businessman, sitting at his desk on his small planet, tabulating all the stars in the sky.  Intrigued by his seriousness, the Little Prince asks the businessman what he’s doing: annoyed at the interruption, he replies that he’s counting all the stars he owns and is going to put his results in his bank account.  Perplexed, the little prince realizes that the businessman has never truly seen a star, marveled at its beauty, or been astonished by the wonder of life itself.  All that matters to the businessman is ownership and the art of the deal, all of which someday will perish.

Think again about the encounter of Shug and Celie in Alice Walker’s The Color Purple. “Shug asserts: More than anything God love admiration.” To which Celie responds, “You saying God is vain?” Shug continues: “No, not vain, just wanting to share a good thing. I think it pisses God off when you walk by the colour purple in a field and don’t notice it.” Celie then  questions,  “You saying it just wanna be loved like it say in the bible?” “Yeah, Celie. Everything wanna be loved. Us sing and dance, and holla just wanting to be loved. Look at them trees. Notice how the trees do everything people do to get attention… except walk?”

Surely, all creation sings a melody of God’s love, as Psalm 19 proclaims:

The heavens are telling the glory of God,
and the firmament proclaims God’s handiwork.
Day to day pours forth speech,
and night to night declares knowledge.

The World will be Saved by Beauty

And yet, we dull our senses by scrolling for hours, much of it doom scrolling; immersing ourselves in repetitive news broadcasts; fixating on the future and neglecting the wonder of this precious moment.  We may even boast about building a resort in Gaza or a big, beautiful bill, and never see the face of a child, even our own children and grandchildren and those who will be harmed by bombs or legislation.

Fyodor Dostoevsky proclaims, “The world will be saved by beauty.”  That’s a bold claim, when dictators and demagogues seek to undermine democracy and diversity, erase history, punish opponents, and threaten the social safety net.  Seems totally unrealistic when politicians fixate on the quest to find fraud and enshrine ideological viewpoints that put endangered species and pristine forests at risk.

And, yet, what really matters, at the end of the day is the beauty and love and wonder of simply being alive.  For the Psalmist, we find fulfillment in claiming our place in God’s world of praise and embracing each moment with wonder and gratitude.  For Jesus, life’s fulfillment is found in trusting God and delighting in God’s creation.

“The world is charged with the grandeur of God,” as Gerald Manley Hopkins says, and even in Auschwitz, songs are sung, and poetry is written. Even in the Birmingham Jail, Martin Luther King writes about social justice.  Even in prison in Philippi, Paul and Silas sing and the gates of the prison open wide. Praise defies imprisonment.  Beauty has the last word. Love endures forever.  As long as you have a song in your heart, potentates and power-hungry politicians cannot control your spirit.

When you see a sunset, admire the face of a child, marvel at an elder’s visage proclaiming a well-lived life, or pause to notice the color purple or the flowers on the altar or in the church garden, your spirit is free, and you are part of a world of praise that outlasts all the evils that humans plot.

The philosopher Alfred North Whitehead asserts that the aim of the universe, God’s aim, is at the production of beauty, and we can see this in Hubble and Webb telescopes, in a brightly colored flower, in the face of our beloveds, and a dog racing across an open field.

Beauty as Resistance

For those whose eyes are open, with beauty all around us we walk, so says the Navajo blessing.  I believe that the experience of beauty can be cultivated.  My friend and fellow pastor-theologian Patricia Adams Farmer invites us to take a beauty break.  Throughout the day, stop and open to the beauty around you.  Even now…pause and notice…let your senses be filled with the beauty and holiness of this place.

Then take a longer time for beauty each day or week – experiencing beauty that neither toils nor spins.  In such moments, as poet William Blake asserts, the doors of perception open and we see everything as it is – infinite.  And, I might add, everything grounded in God’s creative wisdom and love.

There is an ethic of beauty.  Mother (Saint) Teresa says, “Do something beautiful for God?” In a world in which the ocean temperatures are rising, the planet reaching the 1.5 degrees temperature increasing the regularity of extreme weather, and bombs are falling in Gaza and Iran, and famine driving people to leave their homes, we must still speak on behalf of beauty.   We can claim beauty in our relationships one act at a time.  We can pray, “God show me how I can bring beauty to the world?”  We can challenge legislation that puts profit ahead of the environment; we can protest wars that destroy lives and decimate beautiful villages; we can bring laughter to a child; comfort a weary elder; welcome an immigrant; smile at the checkout clerk; and speak words of kindness.

We are the hands and feet of God, as Teresa of Avila says.  We are also the gardeners of creation: for the earth is intended to be a garden, not a garbage dump, and a forest and meadow not a cesspool.  We can advocate for beauty by beautiful acts, bring beauty to our neighborhoods, and make our church and nation beautiful one moment at a time.  We can join with creation following the counsel of the last words of the Psalms, “let everything that breathes, praise God.”

So as we consider the lilies and the birds of the air, and breaching whales and crashing waves, and a baby’s face…let us conclude with the Dine/Navajo prayer which I have regularly recited for over a decade.

Beauty in front of me, Beauty behind me,
Beauty above me, Beauty below me,
Beauty all around me,
I walk in Beauty…..
In the house of long life, there I wander.
In the house of happiness, there I wander.
Beauty before me,
Beauty behind me,
Beauty above me ,
Beauty below me,
Beauty all around me,
In old age traveling, with it I wander.
On the beautiful trail, with beauty I wander.
In beauty, it is begun,
In beauty, it is finished.

And let the people say, “Amen.”

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Bruce Epperly is Theologian in Residence at Westmoreland Congregational United Church of Christ, Bethesda, MD (https://www.westmorelanducc.org/) and a professor in theology and spirituality at Wesley Theological Seminary. He is the author of over 80 books including: “Homegrown Mystics: Restoring the Soul of Our Nation through the Healing Wisdom of America’s Mystics” (Amazon.com: Homegrown Mystics: Restoring Our Nation with the Healing Wisdom of America’s Visionaries: 9781625249142: Epperly, Bruce: Books) “Jesus: Mystic, Healer, and Prophet “(Jesus: Mystic, Healer, and Prophet: Epperly, Bruce: 9781625248732: Amazon.com: Books), Saving Progressive Christianity to Save the Planet”( Saving Progressive Christianity to Save the Planet: Epperly, Bruce G: 9781631999215: Amazon.com: Books), and his most recent book, “God of the Growing Edge: Whitehead and Thurman on Theology, Spirituality and Social Change.” (The God of the Growing Edge: Whitehead and Thurman on Theology, Spirituality, and Social Change: Epperly, Bruce G: 9781631999291: Amazon.com: Books The God of the Growing Edge: Whitehead and Thurman on Theology, Spirituality, and Social Change: Epperly, Bruce G: 9781631999291: Amazon.com: Books)  His latest book is “A New Pentecost for Progressive Christians.” (A New Pentecost for Progressive Christians: Epperly, Bruce G: 9781631999413: Amazon.com: Books)