June 5 & 12 A Season of New Creation

June 5 & 12         A Season of New Creation

We are headed toward the culmination of this series exploring creativity as a spiritual discipline.  As I will be gone this next week, we are glad to have Brad Wishon’s assistance and leadership. He’ll be sitting in with worship team this Wednesday and joining in on the Studio fun Sunday morning.

June 5 - Art Makes the World New

Isaiah 65:17-25

For I am about to create new heavens

   and a new earth;

the former things shall not be remembered

   or come to mind.

But be glad and rejoice for ever

   in what I am creating;

for I am about to create Jerusalem as a joy,

   and its people as a delight.

I will rejoice in Jerusalem,

   and delight in my people;

no more shall the sound of weeping be heard in it,

   or the cry of distress.

No more shall there be in it

   an infant that lives but a few days,

   or an old person who does not live out a lifetime;

for one who dies at a hundred years will be considered a youth,

   and one who falls short of a hundred will be considered accursed.

They shall build houses and inhabit them;

   they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit.

They shall not build and another inhabit;

   they shall not plant and another eat;

for like the days of a tree shall the days of my people be,

   and my chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands.

They shall not labor in vain,

   or bear children for calamity;

for they shall be offspring blessed by God—

   and their descendants as well.

Before they call I will answer,

   while they are yet speaking I will hear.

The wolf and the lamb shall feed together,

   the lion shall eat straw like the ox;

   but the serpent—its food shall be dust!

They shall not hurt or destroy

   on all my holy mountain,

says our God.

I’m offering these thoughts in general terms as I have thought about the entire series. I realize that as the worship team and Brad work on constructing the service they may take things in different directions.

Isaiah tells us that our Artist God is working on re-creating the world. This ancient hymn sings of us as participants in that new heavens and earth. This new work of art will be radically different from the world we now are a part of. It will be a place where predators and prey will live peaceably together. If ours is a world hell-bent on calamity, the work of art God yearns to create with us is one adamant on life and well-being. The new earth we are invited to create calls us to nurture our peaceable selves, and wean from us our predatory ways.  I see what Chris Brown is doing is a way of working on building, creating that new earth. They are speaking wholeness and healing into the world by offering an opportunity for hurting people to tell their stories.

Good News: God is still creating.

Subject:  We are divine artists when help God recreate the earth.

Experiential Field: We connect with divine energy when we create healing and peace.

June 12 –Pentecost Sunday    Art Fest!

Acts 2:1-4

When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.

I want us to celebrate the divine fire of creativity! Everyone is given the gift of fire, of Spirit, of inspiration!  All those “breath” words that have to do with the way the Spirit works: inspire, expire, conspire, and respire. They all have to do with taking the Spirit in and out of us. I especially like “conspire” which means “to breathe with.” Our artfest  is a conspiracy! We conspire with the divine Spirit to make art, make a new world, make love and peace and justice.

Worship this day should really be a big party. Can we find some Fire Dancers? Not real fire, but liturgical dance with streamers and flames of fabric. Hot music, we need hot music!  Maybe we can conga-dance from worship into the festival!

I wondered a few weeks ago if we could have the Studio in Bond Hall, but I am not absolutely committed to that idea. My thought was to be able to seamlessly transition from worship into the festival, but with issues of setting up food (hopefully the displays themselves will be able to be set up on Saturday), and such it is probably simpler not to.

Good News: We are given the gift of Holy Spirit.

Subject: Pentecost happens all the time, whenever we engage our creativity.

Experiential Field: Creativity is joy, because it connects us with God, our Creator and partner.