This is a talk I have been working on for the last week or so and which I gave as part of a small service at a sheltered housing complex in Aberdeen today. The core issue is one I have been considering for some time and being asked to do this talk seemed to be a good opportunity to solidify my thoughts and seek the Lord on the topic. I hope that it is, in some way at least, edifying.
Job 38: 4-7
Exodus 31: 1-11
There has been something bothering me about the Christian community for a while now, an issue I cannot fully make sense of, a question that I gnaw at from time to time, hoping to find a satisfactory answer. To my shame, or perhaps to our shame, I haven’t found one yet.
It is a question that comes up every time a well-meaning friend recommends another Christian band or novel and I find out they are no more to my taste than any of the others. It is a question which arises every time I read the works of C S Lewis, or see a spiritual painting by one of the masters in a gallery, yet see no analogue in modern Christian life. It is a question cowering within me every time the world tells us that Christians are boring and that God is irrelevant.
What is the question?
In the simplest form I can muster it would be this: Why aren’t Christians today more creative?
As part of our life and worship we are supposed to become more like God every day, to reflect his image outwards into a world that doesn’t know him as it should. We know that God is loving and merciful and so individuals seek to help those they can and Christian charities lead the way in many areas of humanitarian work. We reveal the loving character of God in our practical Christian lives. We also know that God judges the world with righteousness, and as Christians we are certainly very good at appearing judgemental, even if that’s not actually the same thing, or to be commended in any way.
We were made to reflect the image of God and whether we give a pure reflection or not, how we behave, how we react to situations and how we express ourselves will always help the world to form an opinion of our Heavenly Father. We know this! We strive to live better lives and to present an outward image of godly living that can serve as a witness to the world. It takes up hours of sermon time, of bible studies and commentaries, and this is as it should be, but it is far, far less often that we will be spurred on to acts of creativity, or hear encouragement for the creative Christian.
We worship the God of the universe – the most creative, imaginative person in existence, who has ever existed and ever will exist. This is the God who made stars and solar systems by the billion, dusting space with nebulae and galaxies over distances it is impossible for the human mind to comprehend, who created the awesome diversity, complexity and beauty of every living thing, from blue whales to amoebae, buttercups to redwoods. This is the God who sculpted the Himalayas, the Rockies and the Andes and gave the birds their song.
In the passage from Job we see just this aspect of God at work, explained to us in terms we can understand and which, it seems, God himself relates to: God as craftsman, a master builder perfecting his art. Whilst God was making a different point entirely to Job, the description of his creative work is also a significant insight into God’s attitude towards creativity. God does not consider creation a simple, one-off act of thought, but a work of care and attention and, as verse 7 clearly suggests to us, of great beauty.
God’s Creation is Art with a capital A. It was made to be seen, enjoyed, investigated and debated. It was made to have meaning found in it and it was made to transcend all meaning. And, like all art, it is at times controversial. If you’re not convinced try asking a group of Christians for their opinion on spiders, or Brussels sprouts...
My point is this: God is the ultimate artist and creativity is a fundamental part of who he is and how he acts, and yet I do not see all that much creativity at work in the Christian community today.
I do not deny that there is creativity, but if we are to be emulating God in this, being his representatives in this world, our art should be the most beautiful and diverse art after Creation itself. We seem to get stuck in a rut, or think that only a very few media, styles or genres are really acceptable. We shoot ourselves in the foot.
If we look at the Exodus passage, then, we can see the importance God puts on creativity within his people.
Firstly he chooses Bezalel. As Christians we understand the significance of being chosen for God by any task, but the Hebrew is a bit more specific and many older translations reflect this. The KJV, for example, says ‘I have called by name Bezalel’. This turn of phrase denotes God choosing Bezalel for a specific and, above all, important task. It is an extremely high honour.
Secondly God fills Bezalel with his Spirit. This is in fact the first instance in the Bible where someone is specifically mentioned as having been filled with God’s spirit and whereas we might assume God might anoint someone in this way for a role as a great political, spiritual or martial leader, God’s aim here is quite different. This is God commissioning an artist, but unlike any other patron in the history of art God not only provides the goals to be met and the means to meet it, but the very skills to be used on the way – ‘skill, knowledge and ability in all kinds of craftsmanship’. As in all other good things, God sets the ultimate example.
Has God called any of us by name? Has God filled us with the Spirit?
As Christians we are all called to use our different gifts and talents, and whilst none of us is likely to be asked to make a new tabernacle, we have all been commissioned by Christ to go out into the world and make disciples of all men. As long as the world is inspired and encouraged by great art and music and literature it is part of that mission to see that at least some of that art glorifies the God who made it all possible.
We are not all Michelangelo, we cannot all write like Shakespeare, or compose like Handel; we might not have the design talent of William Morris, or the directorial talent of Hitchcock and, if I can expand our ideas of creativity a little further, we won’t all be able to program video games like Warren Spector or Peter Molyneaux, but somewhere in the Church there is a Christian who will.
So, two things:
Firstly, as Christians we should reflect the beauty of the world and of our God in our creativity, whatever form, large or small that takes, to inspire others and glorify God in all his creative genius. That creativity doesn’t always have to be overtly Christian, any more than the work we do might be, or the conversations we have each day, but in that same way it must be done with him in mind and for his glory.
Secondly, we should encourage others whose gifts lie firmly in this area to use them and to exercise their God-given talent along with their Christ-won freedom to show the world that God still inspires, he still commissions, he is still endlessly imaginative and he is still the most beautiful, the most complex and the most meaningful of all.
