Creating Beauty, Consuming Beauty

The challenge is always that in surrounding ourselves with more and more beautiful and pleasurable things, we will find ourselves drawn into their pursuit more and more. This pursuit drives us further and further away from encountering God, receiving His grace and love and turning around and giving it where it is needed. In these cases, the ‘beauty of the house’ detracts from the preparation of the banquet and the process of extending the banquet to the streets.

One might say that a person who lives according to the gospel and communes in a full relationship with Christ takes what they receive and CREATES BEAUTY. A person who lives according to the flesh, seeking out what is pleasurable and noble to their own sensibilities is CONSUMING BEAUTY.

When these two groups are equal in a parish setting, the offset equilibrium accommodates the existence of both – I speculate that most parishes fit into this category:

• They offer guests hospitality and provide adequate services for their own population.
• They may bicker during meetings, which impedes their ideals but eventually they do come to mediocre compromises that do marginal good.
• They have stable finances but don’t see any real growth or redistribution – occasionally ruts are dug up and reformatted but many are happy with the status quo.

When those who create beauty outnumber those who consume, ministry grows by leaps and bounds:

• They manifest the wealth that they have to those in need
• They are amply able to provide for themselves and those who call on them – and the Lord multiplies their abundance in ways they do not expect
• They assume roles of responsibility and are recognized by those outside the community as being remarkable stewards of their community and a powerful Christian witness
• They increase in membership

When those who consume beauty outnumber those who create it, a community becomes cannibalistic and ultimately implodes:

• They fear outsiders, paying lip service to guests but offering no real substantial relationship opportunities
• They are never able to come up with the funding they need for the projects that they have – and many projects do not serve any clear purpose
• They have high turnover in volunteers and often the priests/pastors suffer major burnouts
• They rarely are able to come to conclusive decisions on ministry projects and what the mission and purpose of their community is – as a result they lack consistent records, traditions and infrastructure.
• They shrink, either through fragmentation, disillusionment or apathy.

What can be done with a community that exists in this last category? The pastor must strive – must fight if necessary – to put the primacy of knowledge and application of the gospel to the forefront of his ministry. There is no other way to break the addiction to pleasure, and there are many who will not be broken, but in many cases those who refuse to read or listen to the gospel are often the same who are marginally satisfied with church anyway – they derive greater pleasures for less cost elsewhere.

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