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Dear San Marco Church Family and Friends: I have made a deliberate choice not to make the anniversary of September 11 the topic of this week’s blog. While I certainly want to honor the memory of all who lost their lives that day, I have just felt led in a different direction for this article. Recently, I learned a few things I did not know about the artist Vincent Van Gogh. Colleen and I had the opportunity last year to visit a museum in France located near the place he lived his last days. As you may know, Van Gogh completed most of his art in the last decade of his life. Prior to that time, he pursued his interests in pastoral ministry and mission work, but he struggled in both areas. It seems that the rigid, rules-based understanding of faith did not give him joy or freedom. This may explain the darkness of the church in his famous painting “Starry Night.” The church was not depicted as the beacon that God intends it to be. Vincent Van Gogh wrote many letters to his younger brother Theo throughout his life. In one such letter, which he composed at the age of twenty, he writes, “Find things beautiful as much as you can, most people find too little beautiful.” Despite a troubled life that ended in an act of suicide, Van Gogh had moments of insight in which he did see the beauty in the world. He wrote about long walks that he took and how he marveled at the beauty of the natural world all around him. For him, finding the beautiful was how he connected with the divine, with God whose love is apparent in a beautiful world. One writer has commented, regarding St. Francis of Assisi, that he “pursued God everywhere, through the divine traces impressed on things.” May we all pursue God in this way, taking Van Gogh’s advice and offering thanks for this world as a beautiful gift. This Sunday, September 13, I will begin a new series entitled “The Altogether Christian.” This topic is based upon John Wesley’s historic sermon “The Almost Christian” and we will explore obstacles and incentives to a healthy faith life. The scripture for Sunday will be Ezekiel 36: 23-28. I look forward to seeing you Sunday in worship! Steve Hart
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