Interview: Physical Theatre & Worship
What is physical theatre?
Physical theatre is a highly visual form of theatre. It is used to describe any form of theatre that pursues storytelling using primarily visual, rather than verbal, means. My work falls into this category because often no words are spoken, yet it is still storytelling. I used to call my work "performance art" because, at least in America, no one has heard of physical theatre, but that's not technically what I do. Performance art isn't really a storytelling medium. It's more about unscripted, non-repeatable acts as art. Serious performance artists have done things such as publicly mutilate themselves, eviscerate dead animals and smear blood on each other, appear naked and interact with the audience, vomit on stage, have themselves shot in the arm on stage, roll around on broken glass, etc. I'll leave all that for the angst-ridden post-modern artists.
You perform mostly in churches. Do you find this limiting?
I love performing in churches for a number of reasons. One big, practical reason is that I want to have a part in creating and supporting a humane, relational culture where all human beings are valued. In order to work toward this with any fervor I need to have a rational basis for believing that all human beings have intrinsic, objective value; that we are more than mere animals. The only rational basis I can find for such a belief is the idea stated in the Torah and affirmed in the New Testament scriptures that male and female were created in the image of God.
A belief in a vague, anonymous deity doesn't get me there. Nor will a fervent belief in a false deity. For example, the Koran clearly states that Allah created men superior to women (Surah 4:34,) so we can rule out Islam as providing a basis for equality for all human beings. Nor does an evolutionary framework provide a basis for objectively valuing all human beings (or anything else for that matter) if the cosmos only exists by accident. It has to be YHWH, and it has to be the Torah. If anyone can point me to another basis for believing that all people have intrinsic value, please email me, I'd like to see it. I honestly wish there were more compelling philosophical bases for valuing all people, all around the world.
So I believe the church, to the extent that it holds a Biblical worldview, provides the world with the only solid basis for compassion, justice and equality, regardless of disability, age, color, religion, or other differences we could name.
Meanwhile, the secular culture holds up the same predictable, gagged and neutered ideal: irrational universalist spirituality, "compassion" that is cruel, McSex, censored science, revised history, technology in the service of nothing, entertainment that exploits people's baser instincts and leads them to unhealthy addictions, and so on.
There may be certain limitations in a church which would not exist in a secular setting, but what I’m doing is different from what many performance artists are doing in the secular arena. My intent is different, and my relationship to the audience is different. I am a part of the “body of Christ”, and so as an artist I am sympathetic to the rest of the body, whereas the majority of performance artists would be enthusiastically antagonistic to the audience in my situation.
I like the fact that many. if not most of the church people who see my work have probably never set foot in an art gallery. Part of my desire is to bring something creative, authentic, and transcendent to an audience that may have been fed a steady diet of weak or cheesy artistic expression. Evangelical church culture has often become an aesthetic wasteland, or even worse, a festival of nostalgia. Perhaps this has happened in part because many serious artists have left the church. I never left, and I live in the art world as well.
Why do you say your intent is different?
My intent is different because of the spirit behind my work. There is a spirit of nihilism* which pervades the art world, and with which I don’t agree. I am not post-modern. I don’t believe that life is meaningless. I think some things are sacred. I believe there is objective Truth. I believe God has made Himself knowable, and I believe that I know Him, at least in part. I believe the message proclaimed and demonstrated by Jesus – the arrival of the Kingdom of God – is as relevant today as ever. Art can be prophetic. Art can lead people into worship. Ultimately, that is my desire - to lead people into a deeper love for God, and to see Him voluntarily, passionately, and universally worshipped.
It's an OK thing for a congregation to sit passively and watch an inspired artistic expression that magnifies our Creator, but how much better it would be for that congregation to engage in expressive worship themselves. Some of my favorite performance events have ended with Mollie leading the audience in congregational dance as an act of corporate worship.
*Nihilism; 1a : a viewpoint that traditional values and beliefs are unfounded and that existence is senseless and useless. b : a doctrine that denies any objective ground of truth and esp. of moral truths.
What is the relationship between art and worship for you?
"Transcendence" is a key idea for me, and by that I simply mean "beyond the usual limits of ordinary experience". All of the arts are transcendent in this sense: dance is transcendent movement, poetry is transcendent speech, music is sound that is orchestrated into a whole that is above and beyond the everyday noise that surrounds us. This is one of the things that I love most about the arts - an artist begins with a motionless body, a silent instrument, a blank canvas, a still voice, and transforms it into something profound and moving. Art has the potential to engage the heart and stir the passions. It's only fitting that the arts be used in the service of our Creator and His Truth. It just doesn't get any better than that. Certainly in scripture we see all of these transcendent art forms - poetry, music, dance, 2-dimensional art and design, and sculpture - used in the service of God.
For me the connection between art and worship is that worship is also transcendent. Or at least it should be. And so art speaks the language of worship. In one sense, I don't agree with the "worship as a lifestyle" idea.
I think the heart of worship is that it is a set-apart time of focus on God. It should be intentional. By definition worship is set-apart from the everyday ordinariness of life. I believe many of us as believers may not be giving God the undivided focus in worship He deserves because we have been told that "everything we do is worship". We think we're worshipping at work, or while we're doing the laundry, or driving.
Wait a minute... Did you just say worship cannot be a lifestyle? Isn't that heretical?
Well...it does feel a bit heretical since I've heard about a million worship leaders, authors, conference speakers, and pastors say worship is a lifestyle; all of whom I have great respect for, by the way. For instance, Rick Warren devotes an entire section to the idea in "The Purpose-Driven Life". And I do get the point that all of these brothers and sisters are trying to make. They're imploring the body of Christ to make room for and be aware of God in every area of life, not just when they're singing songs on Sunday morning. Rick Warren and Brother Lawrence call it "practicing the presence of God". With all of this I completely agree. It's just that it's a teensy bit sloppy to call this worship. Words have meaning. Practicing the presence of God is practicing the presence of God. That's a great thing. I practice this myself. It's just that worship is something more and different. The reason I don't think it's heretical to say this is because I don't see worship described this way in scripture. It says pray without ceasing. It doesn't say worship without ceasing.
"Worship as a lifestyle" is a man-made phrase.
What about Romans 12:1 - "present your bodies as a living sacrifice...which is your spiritual service of worship"?
Yep. That's pretty much the verse everyone uses to support the worship as a lifestyle idea. However, the Greek word translated as "worship" in this verse is actually latreia, the word for service. This is the word used to describe the ritualistic duties of the Hebrew priests in the temple, (see for example Hebrews 9:1&6.) And I think we can say that any work of service we perform with a heart for God, He receives as worship, (for example working in your church's childrens' ministry.) So service (latreia) is one form of worship. However, Romans 12:1 is not talking about worship in the usual sense. It's talking about service rendered to God, and that's not what most of us have in mind when we speak of worship, corporate worship, or of having a worship event.
There is another Greek word, proskuneo, that is often paired with latreia throughout the Bible, as in, "You shall worship (proskuneo) the Lord your God, and serve (latreia) Him only." (Matt 4:10.) Over and over in the Old Testament we find the exhortation, "You shall not worship or serve them" with reference to the false gods surrounding the nation of Israel. I believe the worship as a lifestyle idea is a result of confusing these two words worship (proskuneo), and serve (latreia).
Proskuneo is usually translated as "worship", or oftentimes as "bow down". Proskuneo literally means
"to kiss toward". 'See the difference? This is the word used in scripture whenever someone is worshipping Jesus, or even an angel, a man, an idol, or the beast in Revelation. It is the word used in John 4 where Jesus says to the Samaritan woman, "God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth". It is the word used to describe what the living creatures do before the throne of God in the book of Revelation. I think this is what most of us have in mind when we speak of worship. There is certainly overlap between the words worship and serve. They support each other, but they are not completely synonymous.
So how would you define worship then?
For a few years now my favorite definition of worship has been this: Worship is a physical expression of one's heartfelt love for God. ('Props to Randall Bane of David's House.) I like this defintion because it speaks of physically expressing what is in the heart. I don't see any examples in the Bible of people "bowing in their hearts". I don't see King David sitting on his butt drinking a latte while worshipping. I don't see any references of churches saying, "come worship with us in a casual atmosphere". I see worshippers lifting hands, singing, dancing, bowing, and falling on their faces - giving God their awe-struck, undivided attention, and expressing their adoration in some physical way. Proskuneo worship is expressed and completed by acts of worship. Obviously it is not possible for this kind of worship to be a 24/7 lifestyle because our attention is necessarilly divided throughout much of our day. I'm not saying we can't worship to some extent while driving the car or cleaning the house, but if that is the extent of it, then I believe our worship falls short of what God deserves from His bride.
My marriage has been enormously instructive to me in this regard. My wife informed me early in our marriage that running errands with her does not count as a date. Yet, many of us are "running errands with God" and calling it worship. Worship should include romance, and the very essence of romance is focussed attention, and transcendence. Think of any romantic expression of one lover toward another and you will find transcendence. White tablecloths, candlelight, poetry, flowers, dance, music, formal dress - all of these things are attempts to create an experience that is set apart from the mundane. These things say, "You are special to me. You are worthy of my affection amd attention". And, again, we find these same "romantic" expressions used in worship in scripture! So it helps me to think of worship as romance, and the arts can help to make worship transcendent and "romantic".
As a younger man I used to think of "religious trappings" - candles, incense, lifting hands - as attempts to conjure up God; as artificial contrivances. This will always remain a danger, but as I've become more Hebrew and "pre-Catholic" in my thinking, I can now see these things as expressions of my love for God - like setting the table for a romantic evening with my lover. Yahweh God is, and always has been, interested in relationship, not religion.
|
