On Beauty

by Janne Vaje Nielsen

I have always been drawn towards beautiful things. To some extent or another it is like that with all of us I guess. I can stand gazing at a beautiful painting for hours without really “understanding” it. I may be able to tell you in what era it was painted, but I wouldn’t be able to tell you what kind of techniques the painter has used.

The same thing goes for classical music. I listen and I may be able to recognize the instruments, but I wouldn’t be able to tell you anything about the technical stuff. I’m simply drawn to the aesthetics, and my appreciation for what is beautiful does not necessary have anything to do with knowledge about it.

A couple of weeks ago I attended a Roman Catholic service. It is something I haven’t done too often in my life. As I entered the church, I was struck by how beautiful it all was. There was something new for all of my senses to take in. It smelled of incense, and the sunlight shone through the stained glass windows and left the floor spotted with colourful lights dancing around. The organ was playing loudly and the church was completely packed.

I had no idea what was going on in the service since we had entered the church part way through. But it didn’t really matter. We where taking part in a beautiful happening. We where worshiping together. During communion a boy soprano sang so beautifully it gave me goose bumps all over. I couldn’t make out the lyrics, but I enjoyed listening to his voice.

In the middle of the busy city of Toronto, someone has created this room of peace and beauty to honour God. It is an oasis, a sanctuary. As my friend and I left the service, both of us where soaring a little bit above ground. Our feet didn’t really touch the sidewalk as we stepped outside. We felt like we had just taken part in something holy, something beautiful.

We talked about worship and how God deserves our very best. We were both arguing that God deserves the most beautiful thing we can offer, our excellence. We talked about the presence of the Holy Spirit and how He never can be scheduled to show up and that He is above all denominational differences. We both agreed that He had been there inside that church.

As we soared up the street to another service we talked about this. About how we learn something new about God by every encounter with Him, and how He doesn’t care about denominations, but about hearts, and how beautiful it all was – the smell, the music and the art.

And I started to wonder about The Salvation Army. Have we lost something along the way? Have we lost the beauty? I think I am on safe ground when stating that we never have had a focus on art, stained glass windows, incense or beautiful music (I know some will disagree with me on that). Did the beauty get lost in our desire for people’s salvation and in our military metaphor? Did we miss an important part of what it means to worship God?

Entering our next service was a huge contrast. First of all, it was not the beautiful smell of incense that hit us on our way in…. This too was a packed service, but besides that, everything was different. The room is barely suitable for a congregation, and especially not for a traditional church service. The room had no art, no organ, no boy soprano and no stained glass windows. The only thing stained was the carpet on the floor. The tiny, rather odd shaped room was a chaotic mess of all kinds of different people, sitting on fold-up chairs and on the floor because it was so full.

But as the service started I realized we were worshipping together, and I was truly enjoying it. This too was something beautiful. I was amazed to see how the people took care of each other. There was no distance between the leaders and those in the pews. This was all about sharing. And as I looked around I saw the faces, and I saw compassion and I saw a woman putting her arm around a young girl’s shoulder. And I saw beauty. In that act of worship the Holy Spirit was present.

This kind of worship isn’t worth less, and it is not less beautiful. I just needed to focus my eyes to be able to appreciate the beauty in it. And this is the kind of worship The Salvation Army is called to: worship with compassion and serving.

Throughout my life, as I come to know God more and more, I find that my image of God breaks through the framework I set for it again and again. In retrospect I realize that I now have a wider or deeper understanding of who God is. I can never fully comprehend Him, but as I grow in life and experience, I also grow closer to Him and to an understanding of who He is. In this particular experience I learned something more about beauty and about worship.

That being said, I still enjoy different kinds of worship and I do believe that we are to worship God differently and that He truly deserves our best. I believe that art and beauty, even though we do not always “understand” them, are important in expressing our worship to our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

Writer: Janne Vaje Nielsen is 23-years-old and currently a part of the Ignite mission team connected with the 614 Corps Regent Park in Toronto, Canada. She grew up as an officer’s kid in The Salvation Army in Norway, and although she loves to travel and has done a lot of it, this is her first time living abroad. She loves a good discussion about almost any topic. She is also passionate about books and loves to read. The spring of 2008 she finished her bachelor’s degree in literary criticism from the university of Oslo.

1 Comment to On Beauty

1. There is something nostalgic about worshipping God in the middle of beautiful architecture and heavy incense - it brings to mind God’s plans for the old-testament temple & the New Jerusalem. I’m glad to worship in churches where budgets are spent on people rather than new carpets - but I think there is a place, even in the Army, for investing in art.

   Maybe instead of a carpet, we could make a beautiful mosaic of a floor, in order to tell a story or somehow explain God’s goodness through colour and shape and beauty. Hm.. it might be easier too clean, too!
Sharon Hann on January 9th, 2009

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