The Side B-atitudes
Finding Beauty in the Mess
The Beautiful Mess — Daniel Bonnell | 2009-10
As we lead up to our 2024 Revoice Conference with its “masterpiece” theme, I am enjoying a deeper reflection on works of art that have shaped and inspired me. Daniel Bonnell is my favorite contemporary sacred artist. And if you pressed me to pick a favorite painting, I think his masterpiece would be "The Beautiful Mess" (2009-10).
I love the way Bonnell paints light emanating onto and from the horror of the Cross, bleeding out into the murky, swirling darkness. He doesn't diminish the pain Jesus is experiencing—he is still on the Cross—but we can already glimpse beauty leaking out, even before the Resurrection.
But it's really the title I love the most: The Beautiful Mess. There is no Easter without Good Friday, no salvation without the Cross. And in this life, beauty is never far from the mess sin has made of things. Feels like a contradiction.
I've been thinking a lot about what Revoice’s Executive Director Michelle Sanchez wrote last month in the Conference Newsletter, especially the "contradictions" in the Sermon on the Mount. I keep wondering, "How might Jesus preach his Beatitudes of Matthew 5 to our Revoice community?" The word beatitudes means blessed or even “the good life,” and it makes me wonder, how is the “Side B” community uniquely blessed by Jesus?
If you'll indulge some imagination, maybe the "Side B-atitudes" would sound like this:
Blessed are you who feel broken, for in my Kingdom, I am making you whole.
Blessed are you who cry from the loneliness because I am right there with you.
Blessed are you who aren't feminine or masculine or straight enough for others because I have something better for you than cultural expectations.
Blessed are you when the world doesn't understand or affirm the faithful ways you are following me because I made you hungry for righteousness, and I will fill you up.
Blessed are you when you're doing your best to explain what you experience in your body and your words don't pass someone else's language test. Trust me, I know everything you've gone through.
Blessed are you when my people reject you, for they rejected me too, and so I stand outside with you, wherever you are.
Blessed are you when you don't fit in at family gatherings or at church or when they keep trying to marry you off. Let me introduce you to my Chosen Family.
Blessed are you when you know you have to leave a space because it's no longer safe enough for you to exist there. And blessed are you when you decide to stay a little longer so we can make it safer for someone else.
Blessed are you when people accuse you of doing or being something you’re not, or when they manage you like a threat, or accuse you of identifying with your sin, or when they post something unkind or untrue about you or queer people in general, or when they insist you don’t have beautiful gifts to offer my broken Body. They’re missing out on you, but I’m sure not.
…and blessed are you when you forgive them and try to make peace. Whenever you offer them grace, your heart reflects mine, and that matters forever.
Rejoice and be glad—not because of your pain but because of me and because I love you. And I have fabulous things in store for you…
A list of messy contradictions? Sure. But also, Jesus promising to be with us and for us, no matter what mess we make or what mess we're in. And that is beautiful.