This week, we will continue to examine the importance for the Christian artist of “understanding the times,” a concept drawn from the example of the Sons of Issachar mentioned in 1 Chr 12:32, which states that these were men “. . .who understood the times and knew what Israel should do. . .” (NIV).  This verse shows that they knew God’s Word and how to apply it effectively to their historical and cultural situations, exampling to their contemporaries (and thus to us, cf. 1 Cor 10:11) that the way to proceed in a godly fashion as God’s people must include intimate understanding of both Holy Scripture and our historical setting.  Last week, we considered some of the implications of half of this vital model’s insistence that we “understand the times,” and explored the necessity of knowing our society’s cultural history in order to effectively engage it with our art.

We turn now from last week’s more “theoretical” to a more “practical” applications of the meaning of “understanding the times.”  Those called to artistry (of whatever stripe) must work hard to develop their crafts (Mt 25; 1 Cor 4:2; Prov 22:29).  This requires artists to master the “vocabulary,” “tools” or “moves” (e.g., the artistic components) of their various vocations.  Thus, if the artist is a lyricist, he must learn the language, in its uses, well.  He must study its structure and the way it works in different applications.  If the artist is an instrumentalist, he must practice hard to master his instrument to the extremes of his possible proficiency.  If he is a songwriter, both of them apply.  If he is a performer, he must learn the intricacies of movement (or vocal technique, or whatever is proper to his calling), preparing himself physically, mentally and spiritually to accomplish his goals to the utmost of ability!  In other words, the artist must study what his artistic task means, and how to work it out.  To be able to do this, the artist requires a context for his art.  As we will see (Lord willing) in future weeks, part of the artist’s context is provided by Scripture.  The other part of his context, though, is provided in our experience of history.  It was pointed out last week, we do not make art in a vacuum, but, rather, we do our part within the continuum of time, which allows us the perspective of gradual experience, allowing us critical perspective on our growth as artists.

This means that we must pay attention to the “T” word:  Tradition (a very scary word for most Americans, especially those of us who are Protestant).  Tradition embraces the past (history), and the sum of the past to date (the present).  This presents a God-given opportunity to the artist, that of looking to, and studying, the past of his tradition.  We are to learn to critically examine the past works of art (whether from the last four years or the last four thousand) that defined our artistic tradition, and thus shaped and influenced our approach to our own art, and our opinion of what defines beauty and artistic good.

We must remember that God controls history (it really is His story), and as such, it is His gift to His people.  Do not despise it.  Study and seek to emulate through your own gifts and talents the beauty and presence of God communicated through those past works of art. 

The great lie of modern non-Christian art is that art’s meaning comes from the individual artist alone, and that art must have no reference to the past and its influence (as though either of those things were even remotely possible).  Scripture, though, teaches apprenticeship, learning from those who are more skilled than oneself.  The past (even the distant past) can accomplish this by its art instructing us in the present.  We can learn by seeking to live up to the standards of beauty and skill achieved by past artists whose works of art still inspire us today.  As Hippocrates said (long ago), “Life is short, but Art is long.”

We can also take advantage of tradition by apprenticing ourselves to someone more skilled at our craft than we are in the present, someone who has contributed his own work to our artistic tradition, and who has become more proficient than we are by benefitting longer than have we from study of that tradition (e.g., someone who is more skilled than we are at songwriting, dancing, acting, playing instruments, etc., and thus can teach us new licks, moves, or other components of our craft, can introduce us to past works that we’ve missed, and (very importantly) hold us accountable to develop by assessing our own work at present from a more informed perspective. 

Apprenticeships require the humility to admit that someone else is more developed in their talent than we are, and that we need help to develop as an artist.  If ever we think that our art cannot improve, we fall into a trap, and will be kept by our pride from developing to the potential God demands from us.  We must work hard learning tradition and apprenticing.

 In order to understand our times effectively, we must know the roots of our past from which the tree of our present has grown.  In order to effectively communicate our art to our culture, we must understand how our craft has developed in relationship to that culture, and how the development of that tradition of our artistic calling has effected our artistic task today.  We must be responsible to develop our God-given artistic task to be a bridge of glory, both to our darkened contemporary culture, and to those artists God will one day in the future call to carry that artistic vocation forward into an understanding of their own time to come.  If we fail to do these things well, we will have failed both to understand our times and to follow the example of the godly Sons of Issachar.