This past Sunday, I taught at Ottumwa Bridge filling in for Pastor Marty Schmidt who was in Cambodia teaching… It was the second time I spoke at this particular church and I think it went well. That is, no major snafu’s on my part at least.
Below is the notes from my talk… rambled as they are. If you want the pdf — download here.
God is… Creative.
1. Genesis 1- 3 As read by the Bible Experience.
Okay, let’s rewind a bit and spend a few moments on God’s creative movements in Genesis 1.
Day One – At the sound of God’s voice not only was there creation, but there was a massive explosion, and the universe has been on the move ever since, with some scientists at NASA settling on an expansion rate of 73 km/sec.
Some of the beautiful pictures from the Hubble Telescope give us a picture of His ongoing creativity.
The Hourglass Nebula
A dying star 8,000 light-years away
The Sombrero Galaxy
28 million light-‐years away
50,000 light-‐years wide & trillions of miles thick
The Rosette Nebula
5,200 light–years away
We could go down the list on the 6 days of Creation and list picture after picture, fact after fact, weird after weird, and still be awed at the creativity of God. He is the author of creation, a painter, a poet, an masterful engineer and a beautiful designer.
Even David and Job attest to the wondrous nature of creation:
Psalm 19:1-6
1 The heavens declare the glory of God,
and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.
2 Day to day pours out speech,
and night to night reveals knowledge.
3 There is no speech, nor are there words,
whose voice is not heard.
4 Their voice goes out through all the earth,
and their words to the end of the world.
In them he has set a tent for the sun,
5 which comes out like a bridegroom leaving his chamber,
and, like a strong man, runs its course with joy.
6 Its rising is from the end of the heavens,
and its circuit to the end of them,
and there is nothing hidden from its heat.
Job 26:7-14
7 He stretches out the north over the void
and hangs the earth on nothing.
8 He binds up the waters in his thick clouds,
and the cloud is not split open under them.
9 He covers the face of the full moont
and spreads over it his cloud.
10 He has inscribed a circle on the face of the waters
at the boundary between light and darkness.
11 The pillars of heaven tremble
and are astounded at his rebuke.
12 By his power he stilled the sea;
by his understanding he shattered Rahab.
13 By his wind the heavens were made fair;
his hand pierced the fleeing serpent.
14 Behold, these are but the outskirts of his ways,
and how small a whisper do we hear of him!
But the thunder of his power who can understand?”
Job 36:26-33
26 Behold, God is great, and we know him not;
the number of his years is unsearchable.
27 For he draws up the drops of water;
they distill his mist in rain,
28 which the skies pour down
and drop on mankind abundantly.
29 Can anyone understand the spreading of the clouds,
the thunderings of his pavilion?
30 Behold, he scatters his lightning about him
and covers the roots of the sea.
31 For by these he judges peoples;
he gives food in abundance.
32 He covers his hands with the lightning
and commands it to strike the mark.
33 Its crashing declares his presence;t
the cattle also declare that he rises.
Can we all agree that one of God’s core characteristics is creativity?
Ok, but what does that mean for me? That doesn’t automatically mean I’m creative.
God is a lot of things that I don’t fully understand… he is omnipresent (everywhere), omnipotent (has all power), transcendent (far above us), infinite (never ending), immutable (he does not differ from himself), He is in a word — Incomprehensible.
And this incomprehensibility is what, I think, keeps us from seeing ourselves as “creators” in this world.
We see the things that are created, the vastness of the earth and it’s variable ecosystems and we look to the worlds outside of our own, warmed by other suns, to try and find the answers to the question of origin. We sometimes rely too much on scientific theory to explain truth that we forget God is unknowable.
Francis S. Collins in his book the Language of God tells a story that I think is telling of our time. Dr. Collins is the head of the Human Genome Project — Mapping of the DNA
Scientists have climbed the mountain enduring the elements and pouring over the evidence only to find theologians waiting for them at the top. The how may someday be proven, but it is the why that is unattainable without looking to God.
God is sometimes too INCOMPREHENSIBLE.
Too untouchable.
Too unreachable.
Too unavailable.
Too big to put our arms around.
Which is why, I believe in God’s plan, he gave us his son Jesus.
2. What about Jesus… How was he creative?
Jesus, a teacher who flipped the Jewish paradigm, using relationships with twelve men and his adept storytelling to awe the crowds and infuriate the ruling elite.
If God is creative, Jesus, was his star pupil.
Luke 2:41 — 12 year old stays behind and impresses the teachers of the Law, to the extent that THEY are asking HIM questions about the text.
Jesus was carpenter, a craftsmen, and a storyteller. He told parables and stories with hidden meanings and backhanded metaphors.
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Jesus used Metaphors
Jesus seems to like metaphors and analogies, parables and stories… He used this phrase, “The Kingdom of God is like…” leading us to envision a world that is not our own. It is in these metaphors we can find the type of person we are to be, for the “Kingdom of God” is not meant to be an otherworldly place but a condition that resides in our hearts directing our hands and our feet.
The Lord’s Prayer in Matthew 6 sums this up when it says, “Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven.” This language prods us to take up the cause – to bring here to Earth the Kingdom of God, so that we may partake in the glory of God that resides in Heaven, in the present. It is a persuasive verb “Kingdom come and thy will be done”
This type of language should effect us – it should move us to action not apathy. In the Gospels Jesus uses multiple metaphors to help our mind wrap around the revolutionary call to be disciples of Christ – who in following Jesus, are Kingdom instigators and peace makers. Using metaphor, Jesus spins and flips the Messiah paradigm of the day – showing them a counter cultural way to establish Kingdom, not by force of hand, but by force of will.
John 10:1-18 — Good Shepherd
Mark 4:26-29 — Growing Seed
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Parables as Comedy
Jesus’ parables framed comedy as a communal exchange — as a shared relief at the passing of danger. In this sense, think of laughter as a coping mechanism allowing us to recognize the danger of life and yet not be paralyzed by it… Just as tears of sorrow are outward release of our inward pain, the joy of laughter liberates us from the tension in our gut and lightens our shared reality.
Jesus embraced the comedy of the life, not making light of tragedy, rather He fervently endorsed the truth of it. Jesus used stories of hope to point to the wellspring of laughter, He used accounts of extreme faith to show the expectation of the impossible and He also told parables of love as the root that binds us together. He used comedic elements of irony and humorous imagery, throughout his parables. Jesus was a comedian in the sense that He allowed us to see tragedy detached from reality, giving us hope in our pain and the realization that tears can bring us joy.
Luke 14:15-24 — Dinner Guests — Noone comes to a wealthy man’s feast, instead the invitees gave petty excuses why they could not come. So the Man invites the marginalized, the invalid, the homeless and the poor to the party. Ensuring a full house.
Luke 11:5-13 — Persistent Friend at Midnight — a persistent neighbor wakes you up at night for bread…
Parables as Fairy Tale
An observation: when we talk of God to the unbeliever we most times talk of a formula in which a relationship can be rationally deduced to a repeated prayer and a assigned text. Hear me, I am NOT under emphasizing the importance of the reading Bible and spending time in prayer, but I am pleading with the proponents of a linear gospel to stop preaching Christ as a solution to the problems of this world. Rather, Jesus invites us to be in relationship with him, a relationship that brings peace amidst the worries of today… In Fairy Tale’s Jesus begins recapture our imagination, using stories of relationship to invigorate the senses that have become rusty from inactivity… some of you haven’t allowed yourself to dream since childhood.
Jesus, who didn’t leave out the parts that seemed unreal or unbelievable. Tell of the darkness and decay that has overrun the beauty of our world, donʼt omit the mystery of winged gods that do battle for our souls in the invisible night, and he didn’t exclude the promise that we are prince and princesses with access to the majestic throne of grace. Proclaim that in a world of tribulation and adversity, there is joy to be found and a lasting hope that darkness will be overridden and the blood from our wars will water the flowers of the field and produce a harvest of souls that float on the wind like dandelion seeds into eternities bosom. Jesus spoke parables as fantasy and fairy tale:
Matthew 13:44-46 — Hidden Treasure
Matthew 13:45-46 — Pearl of Great Price
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Parables as Tragedy
Jesus also told parables that have tragic elements within – trace of affliction, death, calamity, and unfairness told in allegorical fashion. Through the telling of story as tragedy, Jesus identifies with those who have suffered loss, masking his meaning to those who have lived a comfortable life of “righteousness.” His parables confounded the Pharisees and spoke truth and life to the poor, the prostitute and the thief – who, in the grip of tragedy themselves could relate to the depravity found in the characters of Jesus’ politically charged parables.
Matthew 25:1-13 — Ten Virgins — 5 of the ten miss out on celebrating with the bridegroom.
Luke 10:25-37 — Good Samaritan — Beat up and bleeding, a priest and a levite pass him by, but a samaritan stops.
Jesus, was creative. And in his creativity he invites you to join him, using you giftings, the imprint of God to go and create yourselves.
Creating Culture not copying it…. What does good stewardship of our gifting’s look like?
Let’s look at one of these parables and dig out somethings together, and see if Jesus, being the creative type he is, is calling us to do the same.
Matthew 25:14-30 — Ten Talents
He has given you a talent, he has made you for a reason, he has carried you through life’s messiness and is asking that you join Him, in telling your story, creating through your giftings, not for fame or fortune but for the Glory of God.
He created YOU! He made you for a reason, for a purpose.
Psalm 139:13-16
13 For you formed my inward parts;
you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.
14 I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Wonderful are your works;
my soul knows it very well.
15 My frame was not hidden from you,
when I was being made in secret,
intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
16 Your eyes saw my unformed substance;
in your book were written, every one of them,
the days that were formed for me,
when as yet there was none of them.
Psalm 8:3-9
3 When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,
4 what is man that you are mindful of him,
and the son of man that you care for him?
5 Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings
and crowned him with glory and honor.
6 You have given him dominion over the works of your hands;
you have put all things under his feet,
7 all sheep and oxen,
and also the beasts of the field,
8 the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea,
whatever passes along the paths of the seas.
9 O Lord, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
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Dominion — Hold Sway — Hebrew: Radah — it suggests an absolute or even fierce exercise of mastery.
We are called to be masters of our talents, whether that is on our farms, in our homes, at our jobs, or in our creative activities. Radah! Hold Sway. Master your craft!
Why this responsibility?
Because upon us the weight of Kingdom expansion lies.
Kingdom Come, Will be Done
“Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
and forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.”
Matthew 6:9-13
And how is this done? How do we bring Kingdom Living to the here and now? Well, remember what Jesus says?
Matthew 13:44-46 — Hidden Treasure — A man sells all that he has to buy a field which holds a hidden treasure.
Matthew 13:45-46 — Pearl of Great Price — A merchant in search of fine pearls finds one of great value and sells all he has to buy the pear.
Matthew 13:31-32 — The Mustard Seed — something small God uses and grows into something larger than ever imagined.
Matthew 13:33 — Leaven — a picture of yeast that is a small inconsequential ingredient, until it is worked into the bread, and left to infiltrate and inspire.
In Conclusion
How would you finish this sentence? What would you say?
I think an artist is…
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notes and unused portions:
1. NASA pictures — http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html
2. Parables as Metaphor
3. Parables as Comedy
4. Parables as Fairy Tale
5. Parables as Tragedy
As A.W. Towzer puts it in “The Knowledge of the Holy”
“We do know that man possesses a body, as soul, and a spirit; we know that he has memory, reason, will, intelligence, sensation, and we know that to give these meanings he has the wondrous gift of consciousness. We know, too, that these, together with various qualities of temperament, compose his total human self. These are gifts from God arranged by infinite wisdom, nots that make up the score of creation’s loftiest symphony, threads that compose the master tapestry of the universe.” pg 15
“A man is the sum of his parts and his character the sum of the traits that compose it.” pg 14
Univers Expansion Source: http://wmap.gsfc.nasa.gov/universe/uni_expansion.html
**Parables as Tragedy, Comedy, Fairy Tale and Metaphor concept is borrowed from Frederick Buechner’s book, Telling the Truth: The Gospel as Tragedy, Comedy, and Fairy Tale, but used in relation to Parables, all words and cites are original material.
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3 Comments on "God is… Creative."
Sam, what a tremendous article.
I’ve read a lot of words before about people describing a creative God, but not in the way you did.
I definitely never thought of parables as comedy.
Great points, that make sense.
Thank you.
Cool. Thanks Andre… Had to at least be little creative when talking about creativity
NICE… Thanks for this excellent devotional…