In this series we are reprinting Spokesman articles by early leaders in the CLC. Pastor Emeritus James Albrecht is the curator of the series. Professor John Lau (1926-2015) was a leader in the formation of the CLC. As a pastor he served parishes in Minnesota, Illinois and Wisconsin, and later joined the faculty of Immanuel Lutheran College. This article is from the Lutheran Spokesman of May 1965. Scripture quotations are from the King James Version.
There is no report that anyone was particularly startled, upon entering the recently opened Los Angeles County Museum of Art, to see that a sculpture formed of crumpled automobile parts occupied a central place. With its gaudy colors and tortured shapes, it does not, apparently, seem out of place situated in close proximity to various abstract paintings.
Classic sculpture, especially in monuments, has always concerned itself with great events of history that have affected the lives and deaths of many. We think, for example, of the many statues of warriors astride their magnificent steeds; the battlefield at Gettysburg has its many cannons standing as monuments to the memory of soldiers from both sides who laid down their lives there; the famous Iwo Jima sculpture portrays embattled Marines setting up the American flag in battle. And these are but carrying on in the traditions held for centuries in Europe.
Perhaps, then, it is fitting that a monument to our modern American society should consist of a sculptured car. The automobile has become an almost indispensable part of our lives today. Our cities have become so large and complex that public transportation is no longer as convenient as in former times. Then, too, the car is symbolic in our lives. To become old enough to obtain one’s driver’s license has replaced all previous tribal ceremonies of coming of age. To have one’s own car is one of the foremost goals of every American youth. And such feelings are not limited to the young. Many adults feel very isolated and provincial if they do not have two cars for the family use.
But the automobile is also the means by which more of our citizens lose their lives than by any cannons, guns, bombs, or any other device of war so honored in earlier monuments. And that explains why a sculpture of a crumpled car does not seem at all out of place in a museum of art. It is symbolic of bruised and broken bodies, wasted lives, mourning parents, grieving children.
The Christian knows that this modern sculpture will not be any more successful in changing the depraved nature of man than have all previous monuments been in deterring war and bloodshed. On the contrary, many times it appears as though man revels in his own folly.
There is only one monument which, when rightly used, will change the heart of man. The Cross of Calvary, memorializing the one perfect sacrifice of the Son of God for the sins of the world, draws all men to it and points the way. The Gospel of God’s love is sweet and sure, announcing forgiveness to all through the death and resurrection of Christ. The cross portrays that love to the world.
“God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ!” (Galatians 6:14)
– 1926-2015