[release]

'pragmatism, legalism, and greed cannot comprehend the power
of ephemeral beauty. the opposite of beauty is not ugliness;
the opposite of beauty is legalism. legalism is hard to
determinism that slowly strangles the soul. legalism inures
by giving pragmatic answers to our suffering. legalism takes
away life by forbidding the nard to be be spilled onto our
feet. artists, like mary [when she perfumed jesus's feet],
can intuitively give generatively and break open the
oppression. often, in the church and in the world,
pragmatism and legalism stand in the way.
artists need jesus's tears to create. they need to relate
to jesus's tears.
artists know the poor, and they do not need to be told by
a legalist to give to the poor. jesus knows that those who
truly give cheerfully are merely responding to an
extravagant God. what we deem to be extravagant and
wasteful, jesus calls the most necessary. the problem is not
that we do not respond extravagantly to the poor; the
problem is that we do not believe in an extravagant God.'
makoto fujimura