Reinventing Water

While preparing for the sermon I preached this morning, I was considering the nature of circumcision, and in turn baptism and the Lord's Supper. In all three cases, God is taking something that is not uncommon and giving it a sanctified purpose.

The Israelites were not the only ones in the ancient Near East who practiced circumcision. Even the Egyptians, the polytheists, were known to practice circumcision. It was not the physical act that was unique to Israel, but the significance applied to it.

So also with baptism, it is hardly the only time in the life of a Christian where one gets wet. And there are washing rituals in various cultures. But baptism is given a unique symbolic meaning wherein the believer is lowered into death and raised out of the tomb with Christ. And the Lord's Supper is not the only time we eat bread—although for Baptists it may be their only wine.

Jeremiah 9:25-26 makes clear that circumcision itself is of not of value, but the covenant and faith is represents is. Further, it is important that these symbols have all been established specifically by God as symbols of particular things.

The implications of this I have been considering are for Christian artists. Take, for example, a lyricist such as Sufjan Stevens. To the discerning ear, his lyrics are full of Scriptural and theological allusions. At the same time, he seems to delight in lyrical abstractions, often making it difficult to understand exactly what he is saying. If you interpret his lyrics through sound theology, it is quite delightful and edifying.

But there is a danger in allowing the lyrics to create a world of imaginative symbolism on their own. While the new modes of expressing old truths can bring fresh life to the ideas, it is important to judge whether the new perspective is in fact true to what is revealed in Scripture. God's imaginitive symbolsim is authoritative and perfect in application. The same does not apply for our reinvention of imagery.

Art should bring fresh light to eternal theological truths, but it cannot change them.