“Black Sheep” (2020) by Sammi Lawson
by Michael Winters
The above image stuck with me this week. Sammi, who regularly participates in arts feedback group, made it and showed it to me. Do you ever feel like a black sheep?
Artists often do. Artists often skirt the edges of groups, not totally jumping on anyone band’s wagon. Makoto Fujimura calls this border-stalking:
“Artists are instinctively uncomfortable in homogenous groups and in ‘border-stalking’ we have a role that both addresses the reality of fragmentation and offers a fitting means to help people from all our many and divided cultural tribes learn to appreciate the margins, lower barriers to understanding and communication, and start to defuse the culture wars. Artists on the margins of various groups can be deputized (not conscripted) to represent tribal identities while still being messengers of hope and reconciliation to a divided culture.” - Makoto Fujimura in Culture Care, p. 58
This border-stalking is an important and powerful role. Our divided country and world needs artists who are able to act as peacemakers and justice-seekers. I want to quickly suggest two additional ways among many others that artists can do this.
Reveal commonly held values.
The recent fights over monuments have revealed that many of our public monuments don’t fairly represent the values of the surrounding populations. I believe it’s now clear that many monuments around the country should come down. It’s not as clear what should replace them. What can we, as Louisvillians, or Americans, collectively value and esteem? What is the true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent (Philippians 4:8) that we can collectively affirm? This is serious work when on a grand public scale, but the same issues are at play when it comes to what is put on the walls of our local coffee shops and galleries.
Imagine a better world.
Artists themselves must be able to imagine a better world, act accordingly, and invite others into that world. We pray as Jesus taught us to pray: “May your kingdom come. May your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” We’re constantly confronted with what’s wrong in the world. The problems facing humans today are legion. It’s tempting to spend all our energy on staring down the problems at hand and reading others’ comments on these problems. Grounded in reality, we must reserve energy to imagine the world that could be, act accordingly, and invite others into that vision.
If we’re not careful, being an artist-peacemaker can be a lonely role, and we can find ourselves feeling like we don’t fit in anywhere. In other words, we can feel like a black sheep.
What I especially like about Sammi’s drawing though, is this: It’s okay to be a black sheep if you are Jesus’ black sheep. Jesus knows all about your struggles. He was a border-stalker, too. He was a prophet unaccepted in His own hometown. He was a Jew in a Roman-occupied territory. He was a brilliant teacher, but clearly did not fit in with the other teachers. Multiple times He started to have crowds rally, but they wanted signs and wonders and free food more than God’s kingdom revolution. He had the disciples, but they constantly misunderstood Him. Jesus wasn’t a sheep trying to fit into a group though. He’s the Good Shepherd over all humanity and He can take care of you. Psalm 23 is not only fitting for funerals; it’s a fitting Psalm to meditate on in the present moment:
The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures.
He leads me beside still waters.
He restores my soul.
He leads me in paths of righteousness
for his name's sake.Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
they comfort me.You prepare a table before me
in the presence of my enemies;
you anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
all the days of my life,
and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord
forever.
May God comfort you, lead you, and empower you to imagine His Kingdom.