7th Genesis Sermon: Creativity Glorifies God

7th sermon: We reflect God’s glory by our creative behaviors 11/4
Central Idea: We reflect the image of God when we express our unique giftedness together.

The image of God/likeness of God is stamped within us all. Each person expresses that image, his likeness in unique ways.
The unique expression of the divine image…
1. God’s creativity is verbal and ours can be verbal.
a. And God said…
b. And Adam said…
c. David said…
d. Amos composed poetry.
e. Solomon collected Proverbs.
God’s creativity is verbal and ours can be verbal.
2. God’s creativity is musical and ours can be musical.
a. His creation sings and claps with delight.
i. The rivers “clap their hands”…
Psa. 98:8 Let the rivers clap their hands,
Let the mountains sing together for joy
Is. 55:12 “For you will go out with joy
And be led forth with peace;
The mountains and the hills will break forth into shouts of joy before you,
And all the trees of the field will clap their hands.

ii. The stars sang as he finished his work.
Job 38:4 ¶ “Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation?
Tell me, if you understand.
Job 38:5 Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know!
Who stretched a measuring line across it?
Job 38:6 On what were its footings set,
or who laid its cornerstone—
Job 38:7 while the morning stars sang together
and all the angels shouted for joy?


b. Psa. 96:1-4: “sing a new song…”
c. Eph. 5:18-20:
Eph. 5:18-20 And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord;
always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father;

God’s creativity is verbal and ours can be verbal.
God’s creativity is musical and ours can be musical.
3. God’s creativity is visual, as our can be.
Ex. 31:3

God’s creativity is verbal and ours can be verbal.
God’s creativity is musical and ours can be musical.
God’s creativity is visual, as our can be.
4. God’s creativity makes systems that work, and so can we.
a. God made ‘systems.’
i. Land/land animals
ii. Sea/creatures that swim
iii. Heavens/birds that fly
b. We make “systems” as engineers and managers, bringing order out of chaos.

All of God’s creativity highlights his own glory, as Father, Son, and Spirit work together; not one of us alone is adequate to fully reflect that glory.
5. We reflect God’s glory as our creativity blends with that of others.
a. God gave remarkable instructions to Israel for their place of worship, the Tabernacle.
i. Colours
1. Tradition tells us that each tribe of Israel moved together following a color-coded banner, which corresponded to the colors of the jewels on the high priest’s breastplate.
2. Exodus 25: the Tabernacle was to be decorated with
a. Gold
b. Silver
c. Bronze
d. Purple from a snail.
e. Scarlet from holly plant worms.
f. Blue from a shellfish extract.
g. Sea-green onyx
ii. Aromas
1. Olive oil for the lamps
2. Spices: cinnamon, myrrh, frankincense
iii. Textures
Exodus 25:
a. Fine linen
b. Goat hair
c. Ram skins
d. Acacia wood

b. Sounds…symphonies of instruments: stringed, etc.
c. Singing with voices solo [Pavorotti, Robert Goulet] and in harmony.

In May 1993, I stood in front of my first Kandinski, in L’Hermitage, St. Petersburg, Russia. I was wondering through the galleries, taking in as much as I could in the few hours I had there. Not wanting to miss anything, I moved quickly through the galleries, until I sidestepped into a back hallway, leading to a stairwell; hanging on that obscure wall was a brilliantly-coloured Kandinski.

Conclusion
Back in university, I had a hard time paying attention in class. I’ve never done well when told to “sit down here and read this”. I was greatly challenged by physics and calculus, by organic chemistry and molecular biology, but my greatest enjoyment came from debating the War in Vietnam on the streets of Boston and by rehearsing Bach and Stravinksy with the men’s Glee Club.
The school was mostly male, so our fifty voices were joined to fifty female voices from Smith College. We first met in their campus chapel—fifty men, fifty women. We ran through some of the difficult pieces, testing, sampling, seeking the resonance of harmonies we had never heard. It was stunning. The genius of Stravinksi, the sweetness of Ives, the passion of Poulenc.
The crowning glory was Bach. Not just a Bach chorale. Bach’s Funeral Cantata, that revolutionary funerary piece in a major key. Bach didn’t fear death, he embraced death as the gateway into the divine presence.
I began to understand his German phrasings…In himm leben, leben, und sind wir…so lange er will.
Away from home, I left my family’s faith behind. I dabbled in atheism, verbalized agnosticsm, struggled to find my own view of life and the world.
We sang that cantata in Mt. Holyoke Massachusetts in the chapel balcony, with a few dozen folk taking it in from the pews on the floor below. The sound in that small chapel of 100 voices, singing their pleasure, transfixed us all. It was a perfect moment. The awesome wonder of that music, the power of those words, touched my soul and changed my thought.
The words? For the funeral service: IN HIM WE HAVE LIFE!!

Johann Sebastian Bach’s creativity had brought me back to faith; now it was my faith.

We were made for this. Can you hear the music? Someone next to you is humming, waiting for you to join in.
What, you’re not creative? Not alone, you’re not. You were made for us. Together, we transform chaos into order; we can splash the canvas with colour, with life. Life lived together. True fellowship composes symphonies, blends sounds without losing a single voice, paints vivid images of wonder and beauty, sculpts forms that draw us into them, slings out words that form thoughts in the minds of a reader who dares not be left alone.
This creativity is life together, this is what it means to be made in the image and likeness of God.

Communion:
Taste and see that the Lord is good.