CREATOR,
CREATED, CREATE - Sunday Message at Four Winds Mission
When Father Brad asked me to speak today. I said yes without hesitation. He suggested I talk about what I'm passionate about,
beauty and art. I quickly
agreed. As I prayed and studied I
realized that to talk about the importance of beauty and artistic expession I
needed to start at the beginning, Our Creator.
I was watching
a movie at home last week, Words and Pictures with Clive Owen and Juliette
Binoche. The story follows a
writer and painter who teach at a private prep school. The writer is convinced of the supremacy and power of words, and the
painter tells her students “don’t
trust the words, the words are lies”. They spend much of the film trying to convince their
students and each other that either words or pictures are the preeminent form
of communication. They both
assert that when skill-full creativity is infused with truth it has the
potential to move hearts, to reach beyond the mind to the soul.
Is that true
and if so why is that?
Let’s look to
the beginning. The Creator. His
creation.
Genesis
1:1
In the
beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
John 1:1-5
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with
God, and the Word was God.2 He was in the
beginning with God. 3 All things were made
through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4 In him was life, and
the life was the light of men. 5 The light
shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
From Genesis
1:1 to John 1 God is the creator. And it is through the person of Jesus that
creation was made.
Jesus
is the word, with God from the beginning, God himself. This is a mystery man
has wrestled with through out history.
"The Jews believed in,YHWH, “the One Who
Is,” the Sovereign One, was not simply the objectification of forces and drives
within the world, but was the maker of all that exists.
The theme is summed up in the Jewish
daily prayer, the Shema: “YHWH our God, YHWH is one!...
Classic Jewish monotheism, then, believed
that
(a) there was one God, who created heaven
and earth and who remained in close and dynamic relation with his creation; and
that
(b) this God had called Israel to be his
special people. ...This God was both other than the world and continually
active within it."
JESUS AND THE IDENTITY OF GOD by NT WRIGHT
JESUS AND THE IDENTITY OF GOD by NT WRIGHT
In 1
Corinthians 8:6, Paul adapts the Shema itself, placing Jesus within it:
yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all
things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all
things and through whom we exist.
When we recite the Nicene
Creed we confess:
WE BELIEVE in one God,
the
Father, the Almighty,
maker of
heaven and earth,
of all
that is, seen and unseen.
We
believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ,
the only
Son of God,
eternally
begotten of the Father,
God from
God, Light from Light,
true God
from true God,
begotten,
not made,
of one
Being with the Father.
Through
him all things were made.
John
1:9 - 16
9 The
true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and the world was made
through him, yet the world did not know him. 11 He
came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. 12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in
his name, he gave the right to become children of God,13
who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will
of man, but of God. 14 And the Word became
flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son
from the Father, full of grace and truth. 15 John
bore witness about him, and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who
comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me." 16 For from his fullness we have all received,
grace upon grace.
The
creator of the Universe, amazingly decided to make man in his image and chose
to become like us, flesh and blood.
When the reality of that sinks into our hearts it is like an atomic
blast of light, that changes everything.
It changes our identity, our perspective, our hopes and desires, down to
our very soul. And we see Him
everywhere. His glory
and grace are evident in the beauty of creation. And we cannot keep silent. We too, like John, must bear witness to the light.
The
beauty of creation inspires awe in all hearts, even in the hearts of those who
do not know the creator. There is
a deep silent awakening that moves our heart to worship and long for the creator.
-KENYA
In 2007 Joe and
I had the opportunity to go to Kenya with Compassion to meet our sponsor child,
Darwin. From the moment
we landed in Nairobi I knew we were in a place like no other. A land full of contrasts. Where else can you set down a modern
jet on runways surrounded by giraffes.
The fingerprints of God seemed even more obvious in this land of stark contrasts. Breath taking beauty alongside unimaginable poverty and suffering. But from the plains of the serengeti to the slums of Kibera there was beauty.
After 2 days in Nairobi we flew to Masai Mara in the Rift Valley for safari. What an amazing gift to be able to see elephants, and cheetah, giraffes and lions in their natural habitat.
The morning we
left to fly back to Nairobi we drove from the camp to the airfield. As we crested the ridge to drive into
the valley I was flooded with sorrow to have to leave behind such beauty. In that moment, overwhelmed by the
majesty, the glory, the grace, with tears streaming down my face, I wondered if this emotion was a shadow of how Adam and Eve felt as they were sent from the garden. To leave such beauty was heartbreaking.
Our hearts
cannot help but to respond to God’s creation. It strips away our distractions, our worries, our idols, and
we come face to face with God.
When we arrived
back in Nairobi we were taken to Kibera to tour a compassion project
there. Kibera is the
largest urban slum in Africa, one of the largest in the world. It’s home to
anywhere form 300,000 to 1 million residents. Our drivers let us out on railroad tracks
high up a hill overlooking the slum below. The filth and extreme poverty were
unlike anything I had ever experienced.
But even in the
midst of it was the of small faces filled with hopeful
eyes, big smiles, greeting us with the only english they knew “How are you?”
Men dressed in work clothes, some even in suits returning from work. Children walking home from school,
Mothers buying food for their families at the meager market, neighbors visiting
with neighbors. So many similarities to my daily routine.
I was
reminded that all of us long for love and grace and beauty. We long for Jesus, the one who created
us, the one who pursues us, the one who’s very exisitence is clearly seen in
His creation, his beauty. And we long to
manifest that beauty in our communities, our homes, no matter how primitive or
impoverished our shelter, we strive to make it beautiful. In Kibera that was a tin can planter filled with life, shreds of fabric
adorning the doorway.
Why do we long
for beauty, why do we desire to create?
Genesis
1:27
So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.
Because we are
made in God’s image we too are
creative. Our response to beauty flows out of our longing for him. Our desire for the beauty around us, beauty
created through us, is to remind us of the grace and glory of God. It is a retelling of the gospel. It is a practice of worship. Worship of our creator, not the
creation.
In Exodus Belazel and other craftsman
were called together to create a beautiful environment where God would be
worshiped. The daily worship of God to be worked out by his people. The
tabernacle was ornate in a way that was not practical or pragmatic but in such
a way that the beauty reflects God's glory and inspires man's heart to worship.
"The first 34
chapters of Exodus narrate the defining actions of salvation and
revelation. The final six chapters
narrate the preparations for the continuing worship that would assimilate that
salvation and revelation into the fabric of their common life week after week,
month after month, year after year after year, for another thousand years, at
which time Jesus would bring it all to a new beginning.
The story of
the Red Sea and Sinai, with Moses playing a leading role, defined the life of
God’s people. Telling retelling
that story in a place of worship would keep their identity alive. With Bezalel playing a leading role,
the account of planning, designing and constructing a building for worship provided a form for rehearsing and
practicing their identity in the materials and circumstances of their lives for
as long as they lived."
Eugene Peterson
in For the Beauty of the Church
As Jesus renews and restores us we not only begin to see the
world through his perspective. We
see Him in the world, we see him in the rising sun cutting through the morning
fog, we see him in the vulnerable fragile gaze of a newborn, we see him in the
tedious bumper to bumper commute, we see him as we embrace the last moments of
our loved ones life.
To artists God give the ability to see what is not yet
there. Michelangelo is quoted as
saying in reference to his magnificent work, David:
In every block of marble I see a statue as plain as though
it stood before me, shaped and perfect in attitude and action. I have only to
hew away the rough walls that imprison the lovely apparition to reveal it to
the other eyes as mine see it.’—Michelangelo
EVERY work of art is an act of faith.
Makoto Fujimura is an artist and founder of - International Arts Movement in
NYC. International Arts Movement
is a community of artists and creative catalysts gathered to wrestle with the
deep questions of art, faith, and humanity. His beautiful work is unique in
that it marries the Japanese tradition of Nihonga painting with abstract expressionism.
He said in
Refractions...
“In other words, the language of the arts translates the
universal longing for peace into the tangible experience of the desire for
peace. The arts provide us with
language for mediating the broken relational and cultural divides: the arts can
model for us how we need to value each person as created in the image of
God.”
He goes on to say;
He goes on to say;
“Create we must, and respond to this dark hour. The world needs artists who dedicate
themselves to communicate the images of Shalom. Jesus is the shalom.
Shalom is not just the absence of war, but wholeness, healing and joy of
fullness of humanity. We need to
collaborate within our communities, to respond individually to give to the
world our Shalom Vision. “
In the beginning creation was good. With the
fall, the fullness of creation was lost. Sin brought darkness. Jesus came in the form of the man bringing
light into the darkness and the darkness can't overcome it. But sometimes it doesn’t feel that way.
We don’t have to go to Africa or India to
experience the depths of brokenness in our world. There is sickness and death, poverty and injustice, all
kinds of brokeness around us in our families and neighborhoods. Although our world is fallen,
corrupted by sin, the light of
Jesus shines through in the beauty
of creation and the
beauty of what man creates. It reveals the grace and glory of Jesus
Each of us feels a longing to create. To be
the source of a reflection of the beauty of Jesus. To be a conduit of the light
that brings the life. So we create. For some of us that means painting a
beautiful painting, for others it's composing a beautiful melody. But more
often than not our creation takes the more ordinary form of a delicious nutritious meal, a freshly painted wall in
our home, or decorating for a holiday.
In each of these the grace of Jesus can be seen. Beauty can cause our defenses to drop down and the Holy Spirit has his way with our hearts.
All of us have creative expression within
us. Some of us have been given specific artistic talents for the good works God
has created us to do. But In our culture finding our place as an artist is
difficult. When we are young
every drawing we do, every song we sing is praised and encouraged. But as we get older we are told that
our works aren’t good enough, someone else is better, more talented. That creating art is a waste of
time. Work and practical
responsibilities are more important.
We need to encourage one another. The world wants to diminish our
creativity, it tells us that there is nothing special in our works of beauty.
I think I knew by the age of 5 that I was an
artist. A calling encouraged by my godfather, our family priest, with the gift of a handcrafted drawing box. Much of my childhood was spent with
graphite stained fingers. That was up until the moment when I felt like the
world told me my gift was not good enough. Jesus does bring restoration, and can resurrect the dreams
of our childhood. But it is still
a struggle. There are questions
that plague the artist.
Am I truly an artist?
What is the purpose of art?
Does art glorify God?
Is creating art a worthwhile use of my time?
Does the world need art?
What am I called to create?
What will other artists think of me and my work?
We desire relationships with other artists so that we can wrestle
with these questions together, learn from each other, walk the creative
journey together and in the process worship and glorify God.
These questions and desires birthed:
Creative Communion
Illuminate/Engage/Birth
Illuminate - The glory of God
revealed in and through artistic expression.
Engage - With God, our communities,
and the mediums we create in.
Birth - Incarnations of beauty,
truth and love, the Kingdom on earth.
We need to create together and be patrons of
the works of beauty from those around us.
We are most fully alive when we are living out
what we are created to be and do.
I was reminded of this recently when I was shooting a short film this
summer with my oldest son.
I
was spending a few moments with a friend of his who was there to take still
photos. She and her husband have
know Joey for several years. I told her how much
fun I was having working with him. It was a delight to watch him create this film with the amazing group of artists he brought together. She then commented that “ Joey is so fully
alive, smiling, laughing, full of joy”. This was after several long days of grueling work in 90 degree
temperatures, fighting to bring his vision to life, with the most minimal of
resources. His joy was full
in that moment because he was living out the creative calling of God. We all are most fully alive when we are walking in our calling.
Joey couldn’t do it alone. We can’t do it alone. Friends gave hours of work as a
gift. People in our body fed
us so we could keep working the long days it took to finish the project. Kevin gave us use of his space and
donation of materials so that we could create the set we shot in. But most importantly, Jesus was with us
throughout the process of seeking to tell us story exploring loss and
grief and humanity in the face of technology and our own finite nature. A story that can speak to our
contemporary culture.
Tolstoy said
“The destiny of art in our time is to transmit from the realm of reason to the
realm of feeling the truth.”
"In other words,
the language of the arts translates the universal longing for peace into the
tangible experience of the desire for peace. The arts provide us with language for mediating the broken
relational and cultural divides: the arts can model for us how we need to value
each person as created in the image of God." Makoto Fujimura - Refractions
On November 29th we are hosting:
Out of the Darkness, Into the Light
Physical expressions in visual art, film,
dance, word and song of the coming of Christ - Advent
A Celebration of Advent Thru the Arts
Through this celebration we offer our community
an opportunity to experience a tangible representation of what Advent is and
can be. In preparation artists will be inspired to be intentional in their
approach to Advent and process it through their medium.
Advent is a fitting time to enter into the
fullness of our calling as an artistic community:
"Advent is one of the
greatest and most mysterious seasons of the Christian calendar. Advent
celebrates the incarnation, the mind-blowing reality of the God of the universe
becoming a man: living, breathing, walking on earth as we do. But even as it
celebrates Christ's arrival on earth and his rescue of it, Advent also looks
patiently to the future return of Christ to bring all wrongs to right, once and
for all. Advent accepts the tension of the already and the not yet. It welcomes
waiting. It is merriment and melancholy together, beauty so sublime that, like
the best art, it simultaneously comforts and rocks us to the core.
It is perhaps not
surprising, then, that the mystery and magnitude of Advent lends itself so well
to artistic exploration. Like Advent, the arts also accept tension and welcome
waiting. The incarnation itself lends dignity to artistic and cultural
pursuits. Christ didn't come as a cerebral concept or an ethereal force. He
came as a physical man; a man who worked with his hands as a carpenter; a man
who enjoyed eating and drinking with friends; a Jewish man who told stories and
interacted with the cultural rituals, traditions, tropes and expressions all
around him."
— Barry H. Corey, President,
Biola University Center for Christianity, Culture and the Arts.
Within our body there is an abundance of
creativity. Gifted musicians and
singers, visual artists and writers.
Creativity flows from our youngest, to those of us who aren’t so young anymore. I believe that God has brought us
together in this place at this time to be an artistic community that brings
light into the darkness of Spring Hill and beyond.
Every gift we’ve been given from prayer to
encouragement to hospitality to artistic expression, can be used to bear
witness to the light. Our light
and life, Jesus Christ. For the
glory of God.
