Cire Perdue

Cire Perdue is the French word used to describe the process involved whereby a wax cast is constructed from the artist's original bronze or brass sculpture. Often the same process is used in statuary repair, heated wax can be dripped into a crack or flaw and through this cire perdue method a perfect replica is produced. As with all artwork, only the most trained/educated eye can detect the difference.

Such is the importance of outward beauty, beauty which any eye can see. It is inward beauty that is more difficult to detect. Looking at the great works of Michaelangelo such as David, alone at a great museum in Florence, the marble seems so real. It has been said that after Michaelangelo finished his famous statue of Moses, so real, so perfect, he hit statue with his hammer and said, “speak to me.” The great artist said that each large block of marble contains someone just waiting to come out. The artist does not produce ugliness, whether with the chisel and hammer or the artist's brush, he wants reality, but the reality of beauty, the customer does not pay his money for ugliness, in craftsmanship or reality. In art, as in life, one desires balance, style, class.

Religious history shows us that believers desired the best. Until this day, the greatest building ever built, Solomon's Temple, just to read of its dedication, the music involved, the sacrifices involved (22,000 oxen slain, sheep without number), or even St. Paul's in London, (one that you can still see to this day), we can understand why, as children, we wore our best clothing to church on Sunday. Even in the poorest eastern North Carolina town, the church house, with stained glass windows, carved woodwork, was pointed to with pride. Many of the attendees might have come from barren homes but they did not approach God's house in a casual way... modest dress, careful behavior, appropriate music. Everything showing honor to the Creator of the universe.

Can you even imagine going for a job interview, going to a wedding, a funeral, wearing casual clothes? God deserves, and expects our best. Everything we do, our dress, our behavior, our worship, is all for His glory. (1 Corinthians 10:31) I am told that some churches allow attendees to wear shorts, flip-flops, even let them bring drinks. I was told that in one black church in town, signs were on the vestibule door leading to the sanctuary that said, “no eating or drinking beyond this door”. One man told me of a church where a young man, wearing shorts and flip-flops was holding a dip cup in which he spat from tobacco. What is wrong with the men of this church, do they have a shoestring for a backbone?

One woman came to my house for a job, her husband was an assistant at a local megachurch. it was his job as one of 31 assistant pastors just to the lighting system in rhythm with the drums and brass of the church music. I said to her, “do you have an organ or piano, as do most old-fashioned churches?” She said, “no, we do not want a conventional church, we want music that will attract the younger set, music that they can move and dance by during the service.”

At the University Cathedral in Los Angeles where Dr. Gene Scott was pastor for so many years, if he saw one person whisper to another, or any unnecessary movement, he asked an usher to immediately escort the person out of the building. Children attended services in the main sanctuary only when they reached the age of twelve, from the age of twelve until marriage, they were required to sit with their parents. Those under the age of twelve had their own special service. God's Word was real and important to this preacher, church service was not a time of entertainment, a social gathering, it was a time for study, learning, harmony instead of cacophony.

Traveling the world, I attended many church services, many denominations. On Easter Island, Pacific Ocean five hundred miles off the coast of Chile, in the Catholic church on Sunday Morning, all the women were well-dressed, they all had flowers in their hair and over their outerwear, everything about the service was glorious.

Scripture talks much about longsuffering above everything else, our habits, our sins of omission and commission, our ungratefulness, our faithlessness. God is longsuffering in our attitude of worship to Him. A person as ugly as a fencepost can go to church clean, dressed in his best with a humble attitude of worshipfulness in living and in giving. The most important measure of our worship is our giving, returning to God a portion of that which has been given to us. The tithe is the Lord's whether we give it or not. 1/7 of our time is the Lord's whether we give it or not. Our longsuffering Lord expects us to remember Him as often as possible at His table. We can use cire perdue patchwork put on paint or other makeup, we can pretend and disguise but the inner man will always expose the outer man.