The Artistry of the Tabernacle: Art as Call, Window, and Means of Spiritual Formation

So recently, as you know, I had an opportunity to go to Massachusetts to meet with my Doctor of Ministry cohort. It was a wonderful time of learning, praying, and building community, but perhaps my favorite part of our time together was when we all had an opportunity to share our spiritual autobiographies, tracing God’s interactions with us over the course of our lives.  As many of us commented afterwards, it was a worshipful experience that pointed to the power, beauty, and faithfulness of God.  As our passage from last week that Charles exposited for us shows us, it is good to remember who God is and how He has led us and cared for us, even when some of our past has been difficult.  If you have never written out or shared your own spiritual autobiographies, I highly recommend it.  It will help you to see God with new fresh eyes

Well, one of the ways I was reminded of God’s goodness in sharing my own spiritual story weeks ago was remembering how God worked in my early years of life.  It was nothing exciting - it was simple, yet beautiful and profound.  I don’t remember anyone asking me per se to invite Jesus into my heart, but I can say that I began to follow Jesus as a wee little thing.  In fact, I don’t remember a time when I did not believe.  I always just had this sense of Jesus in my life from the time I was baptized in the church as an infant and then going forward.

How this happened, I don’t fully know for I don’t remember everything that went into my faith formation as a child.  That said, I do remember four distinct things that clearly shaped my faith as a child.  The first is that I went to church and Sunday school weekly.  The second was that I heard God’s story read each week as I heard from the Psalms, Old Testament, New Testament, and Gospels.  The third was I had a sense of purpose and a deep sense of community as I participated in the children’s choir and served with my church family in various ways.  And the fourth, which is the one I want to focus on today, was that I was instilled with a deep sense of awe and reverence for God by the beauty of my church building.

Now as for this last element, it may not seem that important, but I honestly cannot emphasize enough how personally significant this was to my early faith formation.  As a highly visual person and one who loved creating art from an early age, I was moved by what I saw as I entered the sanctuary.  High ceilings, a large cross at the front, stations of the cross on every wall, and colorful stained-glass windows animated by the ever-changing light that was shining through them spoke to me in a deep way. 

 The layout and beauty of the space communicated to me that this was a set-apart place for worship and that our God was a majestic God, and as my eyes were drawn to this beauty, I also was invited into a beautiful all-encompassing story.  In the stained-glass windows I found a story of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection; a story of Jesus’ first apostles; and a story of Christian heroes of the faith who continued to tell the story of Jesus in their own generations.  And this great story I saw week by week shaped me.  Whether I really understood the sermon on any given Sunday (which I probably did not as a small child) didn’t really matter.  For the Good News was right before my very eyes, and it drew me in and it changed me.

 Friends, will you pray with me.  Lord, thank you that you are an immensely creative God who creates good and beautiful things and calls your people to also create good and beautiful things.  As we meditate on our Scripture today, may we be inspired to create, and to glorify you and draw close to you through our creations.  Amen.

So today, we continue our sermon series entitled “Soundtrack”, which explores the art, music, and poetry of the Bible, showcasing how God’s people created art as a means to express their unique identity throughout the centuries and to walk in the footsteps of their Creator God.  Last week, we explored the music of the Israelites as they escaped the clutches of the Egyptians and found their freedom, and this week we look at a unique artistic creation of the Israelites during their wandering years on their way to the Promised Land.  And what was that artistic creation?  Well, none other than the Tabernacle – the portable tent that served as the dwelling place for God and created a space for the people to atone for their sins and draw close to God. 

Today, I would like us to specifically look at the artistry of the Tabernacle and uncover how it shows us that art can be a call and an act of worship, how art can be a sacrament and a window to eternal purposes and realities, and how art can be a means to spiritual formation.

So, let’s get started, first looking at how art can be a call and act of worship.  And actually, let’s begin by asking you a few questions.  When you think of the word “call”, what comes to mind?  Who does God call and for what purposes does He call them?  How about worship?  What does worship look like?  How do you personally worship God?

Now, I am hoping that when I asked these questions, a diversity of answers came to your minds, but I am also cognizant that for some of you, your upbringing may have given you a limited set of answers to these questions.  So, what is a call?  Well, according to a more limited definition, it is an invitation from the Lord to serve in ministry, as a pastor or missionary.  And what is worship?  Well, that is when we sing worship songs, partake in the sacraments, pray, and do other churchy things.

And no doubt, these answers are correct, but they do not reflect the fullness of what call is and what worship is, and I believe that our passage today helps us to grasp a fuller vision of call and worship. 

So, in today’s passage, we are told that God called Bezalel to oversee the construction of the Tabernacle, along with Oholiab, who God had also appointed, along with a whole set of workers who God had given ability in a wide range of artistic endeavors – including metalworking, masonry, woodworking, textiles, and more.  And, actually the original Hebrew says that God called Bezalel by name, so God set apart Bezalel for a very specific artistic endeavor and there is even this sense that God did not just give him natural abilities for this work, but that God gave him supernatural abilities, as well.  In fact, there is this interesting line in today’s passage where God told Moses that he had filled Bezalel with the Spirit of God to do this work.  This is significant because there are only two other times in the Bible prior to this passage where we see this phrase, Ruach Elohim, the Spirit of God.  The first one is at the creation of the world when the Spirit was hovering over the waters and the second one is when Pharoah recognized that God was at work in Joseph in his administrative skills.

What this therefore shows us is that God’s call on people can be as diverse as administrating a nation to engaging in various kinds of handicrafts, and also that the same creative genius that was present for the creation of the world is available to those whom God calls.  Call is not limited to what we know as specifically religious tasks, and the fact that the first two mentions in the Bible of the Spirit of God after the creation story entail “marketplace work” demonstrates this to us. 

God’s call on people is all encompassing – the only common denominator here is that God’s call somehow involves creating order and beauty, bringing God our best efforts, glorifying God in whatever task He gives us, and carrying out God’s purposes.  And we most definitely see these aspects of call playing out in the building of the Tabernacle.  Though the Tabernacle was a portable tent, we should not be fooled about the amount of artistry that went into it, for the truth is that it involved the most detailed and exquisite craftmanship.  In fact, the Bible starts describing all that would go into its construction in Chapter 25 and finishes it up in Chapter 40.  The Tabernacle was indeed a masterpiece that involved people giving glory to God.  Indeed, for those who built it, their artistry was an act of worship itself as they obediently followed the instructions God gave them, all while giving God their best efforts and best materials. 

And when the Tabernacle was completed, it was not just a beautiful artistic masterpiece to gaze upon and enjoy, but it was also a means for the Israelites to come into God’s presence, and this brings us to the next aspect of art that the Tabernacle demonstrates, and that is that art can be a sacrament and window to God.  When it comes to the artistic masterpiece that was the Tabernacle, it was most importantly a means for people to see into God’s heart, to be with the Lord, and to see where they have been and where they are going.   It was God’s chosen place of dwelling among His people for that period of time - what the Bible Project guys call a “hotspot of God’s presence” and a “portable Eden”. 

You see God’s heart has always been to dwell among His people.  Think back to how Adam and Eve walked with God in the Garden.  This closeness, this relationship, was God’s desire for His people.  And when Adam and Eve mistrusted God and disobeyed him, this relationship was broken.  And yet, God’s desire for His people did not end there.  So, in due time, after calling Abraham and his offspring and rescuing the Israelites from Egypt, God instructed the Israelites to build the Tabernacle, a place where He could permanently dwell and deal with their sins that separated them from Him.  The Tabernacle was the ultimate expression of God’s desire to be with his People at all times and in all places and it was the ultimate Sacrament at the time – a means for sinful humanity to experience the Lord’s presence .

So that was the prime purpose for the Tabernacle, but there was another very much related and important purpose, as well.    The Tabernacle served as a window to the past and to the future.  As for the past, it pointed back to Eden.  In fact, everything in the tabernacle pointed to the Garden.  Its jewels and gold, its 7-branched lampstand that looked like the tree of life, the Law housed in the ark that pointed back to the Tree of Knowledge, and its East-facing entrance guarded by cherubim all evoked the Garden of Eden.  It however did not just look to the past, it also pointed forward.  Though the Israelites wouldn’t know this at the time, it was a pointer to Jesus who we are told in John 1:14 dwelt (literally in the Hebrew, “pitched his tent” or “tabernacled”) among us.  God in the flesh, who came close to us and became the ultimate sacrifice to deal with sin and to draw people to Himself.

Thus, what we see is that through their various artistry, the Israelite craftsmen involved in the construction of the Tabernacle created a place for people to encounter God and to see into a greater reality beyond what they could just see in the day-in and day-out details of their desert wanderings.  And this was important because the Israelites needed reminding of who God was and who they were. 

And this brings us to the last aspect of art that the Tabernacle teaches us and that art can be a means of formation.  And boy o boy, did the Israelites need to open themselves up to God’s formational touch.   

 Despite being miraculously rescued out of Egypt by God and despite having songs of remembrance to sing like Charles spoke about last week, the Israelites were still prone to forget who God was and who they were.  They had too much Egypt imbedded into their thought patterns and habits, and instead of being thankful for their freedom, they grumbled about their circumstances in the Wilderness and in Chapter 32, the passage following today’s, the Israelites even lost patience with Moses who was up on the mountain receiving the Law, and they built a golden calf.  Thus, the Israelites needed constant reminding of God’s identity and their identity.  Before they would get to the Promised Land, they needed to be formed into the people of God, and the artistry of the Tabernacle kept on pointing them back to Eden and the calling them to atone for their sins and be restored to God now, and for those who were truly open to God, they were slowly changed more and more into the people God had always called them to be.

So truly for the Israelites, the artistry of the Tabernacle was a call and an act of worship for the artists; and a sacrament, window into God’s heart, and a means of formation for the people.  So now, I would ever so briefly like to explore what this all means for our lives. 

So, as I read this passage today and as I reflect on last week’s passage, as well, what I see here is a reminder of the importance of sacred visual art and music in the life of faith.  In fact, both have been extremely important in the history of the church since its beginnings, and both have been a means for people to encounter the Good News of the Gospel and to be shaped by it.  Especially before the printing press and mass literacy, art and music were two of the prime ways the Church communicated the Gospel.  For example, icons of Jesus and the saints, especially popular among those in the East, were created so that those looking upon them could have a glimpse into eternity.  Similarly, Medieval Gothic cathedrals were built so that when people stepped inside, they could walk into heaven.  The unique way light came into the cathedral communicated this was a sacred space and pointed to Jesus the light of the world; and the visuals of angels, archangels, and the ascended Jesus on the ceilings and walls invited them into the Kingdom of Heaven. And for those who had eyes to see – what we call Visio Divina or divine seeing - they were slowly and gradually transformed more and more into Kingdom people.

Now as with everything, sacred art and music doesn’t automatically transform people, but it can be an aid to spiritual growth, and we should not forget that.  Unfortunately for many in the Western Protestant world over the recent past, we have flattened out our worship experience, especially when it comes to the visual arts, thinking that our physical spaces and visuals are not as important as the content of our music and sermons.  And when we do delve into the artistic realm, it sadly seems it is often more for consumeristic reasons and thus our offerings are not the best. 

But especially as our modern culture consumes more and more visual content, it is important that we as the church create beautiful sacred art and spaces that tells another story, a better story – a story that allows us to encounter the Living God and to be shaped by Him.  Now, this does not mean we have to return to building gothic cathedrals in our day and age, but it does mean recognizing that visual beauty and order in our worship spaces does matter.  We are not to set up our spaces haphazardly for we are formed by what we see. 

Charles and I were talking about this just last week.  I was saying that it is not an accident, for example, that our Communion Table is at the center of our worship space and that when we preach or read Scripture, we are not in front of the Table.  The Eucharist, which commemorates Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection, is at the very center of our liturgy and worship and thus the Eucharistic Table is also to remain the focal visual point throughout our worship. What we see matters. 

Now, sacred art, of course, is not just limited to our worship spaces.  And in our cultural moment, we have such a great opportunity to create beautiful works of art that communicate Truth to a non-believing world.  Some folks, who I think, are doing a great job with this at the moment are the folks creating the show “The Chosen.”  The truth is that when we truly give our best in our artistic creations, when we communicate beautiful and true stories through our creations, people respond in a positive manner.  Now, whether they ultimately come to believe or not, that is not up to us. We can do our part and then let the Holy Spirit do the rest.

And so, Mission Cincinnati, as we ponder the Scripture today about the Tabernacle, I invite us to consider several things.  First, I ask, how we as a church can seek out and support those gifted and called in the Visual Arts, so they are empowered to create beautiful art that speaks truth in our worship spaces and in the world?  Second, I ask how all of us can, no matter what level of artistic skill we have, imitate our immensely creative God and bring Him glory by creating beauty and order in our worship spaces and the world.  And then finally, I ask how we as followers of Christ can engage in Visio Divina – divine seeing – so that whether we are looking upon the Creation or gazing upon a stain glass window or a painting of Jesus, we are attentive to God’s presence, encountering Him, seeing glimpses of a truer story and a truer world, and remembering who we are in Christ and allowing ourselves to be formed into a Kingdom people. 

Friends, God has truly given His people a great gift - the ability to create beautiful art and the ability to meet Him through it, so let us fully embrace this gift.  In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit