Difference between revisions of "Sermon for August 9th, 2015"

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The first great act of creativity was in the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth.  God created the universe ex nihilo--out of nothing.  Most creative types generally begin with primitive or limited resources:  The artist with a blank canvas, the poet with blank page, the gourmet chef with flour, water, and seasoning, the community organizer with unorganized people, the builder with stone, wood, and steel.   
 
The first great act of creativity was in the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth.  God created the universe ex nihilo--out of nothing.  Most creative types generally begin with primitive or limited resources:  The artist with a blank canvas, the poet with blank page, the gourmet chef with flour, water, and seasoning, the community organizer with unorganized people, the builder with stone, wood, and steel.   
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Creativity has been with us since the beginning of civilization--from the earliest cave drawings and epic poems to ancient pyramids and palaces, there is not culture that doesn't make creative and beautiful things--sometimes functional, but more often just for the sake of making them: Music, dance, drama, sculpture, art, architecture, and poetry...these things represent the pinnacle of creativity in every society.  In fact, some sociologists believe they are the very things that define an advanced society.
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Unfortunately, the creative arts are also among the more fragile aspects of society, and so when the great Roman Empire was in decline, under attack from invaders on all sides, many of its creative works were destroyed; its creative class lost, its people struggling just to survive.  This is one reason why the period after the fall of the Roman Empire has been called the "Dark Ages." 
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But, as we have seen, not all was dark.  In the remote island of Ireland, there was a relative peace, and a happy marriage between the Celtic peoples, who were naturally predisposed to song, dance, storytelling, and design, and the Celtic Monasteries, where literacy, and much Greek and Roman literature, philosophy and poetry survived, preserved by Christian scribes copying and caring for manuscripts.  Of course, they didn't just copy the manuscripts.  They illuminated them. 
  
  

Revision as of 20:57, 8 August 2015

John 6:1-21

1After this Jesus went to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, also called the Sea of Tiberias. 2A large crowd kept following him, because they saw the signs that he was doing for the sick. 3Jesus went up the mountain and sat down there with his disciples. 4Now the Passover, the festival of the Jews, was near.

5When he looked up and saw a large crowd coming toward him, Jesus said to Philip, “Where are we to buy bread for these people to eat?” 6He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he was going to do. 7Philip answered him, “Six months’ wages would not buy enough bread for each of them to get a little.” 8One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him, 9“There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish. But what are they among so many people?” 10Jesus said, “Make the people sit down.” Now there was a great deal of grass in the place; so they sat down, about five thousand in all. 11Then Jesus took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated; so also the fish, as much as they wanted. 12When they were satisfied, he told his disciples, “Gather up the fragments left over, so that nothing may be lost.” 13So they gathered them up, and from the fragments of the five barley loaves, left by those who had eaten, they filled twelve baskets. 14When the people saw the sign that he had done, they began to say, “This is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world.” 15When Jesus realized that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, he withdrew again to the mountain by himself.

16When evening came, his disciples went down to the sea, 17got into a boat, and started across the sea to Capernaum. It was now dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them. 18The sea became rough because a strong wind was blowing. 19When they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and coming near the boat, and they were terrified. 20But he said to them, “It is I; do not be afraid.” 21Then they wanted to take him into the boat, and immediately the boat reached the land toward which they were going.

Celtic Christianity: The Spark of Creativity

In the center of most small towns in Ireland, pubs and shops of all kinds line the narrow streets. One day, a shopkeeper was dismayed when a store opened up right next door to him with a huge sign that said, BEST DEALS!”

To make things worse, a few days later, yet another store opened on the other side with a huge sign reading “LOWEST PRICES!” He began to panick. But Irish shopkeepers are nothing if not clever and creative. So the next day, the shopkeeper put up his own sign, bigger that the other two, that simply read, “MAIN ENTRANCE.”

Today in our series on Celtic Christianity, we'll be talking about the divine spark of creativity. But what exactly is creativity? It's related to the word create: To make something, to bring something into existence. But it's possible to make something by accident...like a mess, or a problem. We don't usually consider that creativity. It's also possible to make something that someone else has already made, to replicate something, but we don't usually consider that creativity, either.

True creativity then, as I see it, requires two things: It requires the imagination to envision something that does not exist, and it requires the skill to turn that vision into something real and tangible--something that can be seen or heard, touched or tasted.

The first great act of creativity was in the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth. God created the universe ex nihilo--out of nothing. Most creative types generally begin with primitive or limited resources: The artist with a blank canvas, the poet with blank page, the gourmet chef with flour, water, and seasoning, the community organizer with unorganized people, the builder with stone, wood, and steel.

Creativity has been with us since the beginning of civilization--from the earliest cave drawings and epic poems to ancient pyramids and palaces, there is not culture that doesn't make creative and beautiful things--sometimes functional, but more often just for the sake of making them: Music, dance, drama, sculpture, art, architecture, and poetry...these things represent the pinnacle of creativity in every society. In fact, some sociologists believe they are the very things that define an advanced society.

Unfortunately, the creative arts are also among the more fragile aspects of society, and so when the great Roman Empire was in decline, under attack from invaders on all sides, many of its creative works were destroyed; its creative class lost, its people struggling just to survive. This is one reason why the period after the fall of the Roman Empire has been called the "Dark Ages."

But, as we have seen, not all was dark. In the remote island of Ireland, there was a relative peace, and a happy marriage between the Celtic peoples, who were naturally predisposed to song, dance, storytelling, and design, and the Celtic Monasteries, where literacy, and much Greek and Roman literature, philosophy and poetry survived, preserved by Christian scribes copying and caring for manuscripts. Of course, they didn't just copy the manuscripts. They illuminated them.



I'm going to switch gears now, and move from the ancient to the present time. The arts--dance, music, poetry, painting,