First Congregational Church, United Church of Christ
Creativity...
Back Porch Fundamentalist
In the afternoon
he chose the corner in the sun.
Then he set his porch rocker
facing the mimosa
where gold wires
of light tapped
the leaves, and he, himself,
by a simple act of seeing
observed a miracle.
If anything is, he said,
them pods
on this tree is the keys
of the kingdom.
--Maura Eichner
"The problem with cliches is not that they contain false ideas, but rather that they are superficial articulations of very good ones. They insulate us from expressing our deepest emotions. They lead to the substitution of conventional feelings for real ones." --Marcel Proust
Christianity is a matter of learning to see the world differently--learning to hear new voices, learning to discern new patterns as we seek the work of resurrection. In Matthew's Gospel, Jesus compares a faithful scribe to a householder who brings out of his treasure not only what is old, but also what is new. Paul reminds us to "not be conformed to this world, but to be transformed by the renewing of your minds so that you may discern what is the will of God...." (Romans 12.2)
Theology isn't just something that we "have". It's something that we "do"! It's something that happens in our midst as we allow the Spirit of God to speak to us.
That's the story of the Church. Paul dreamed of a church where Jews and Gentiles came together;
where men and women could live together in equality. That dream flew in the face of old traditions. The prophets who had endured exile in Babylon speak in a different voice than those who lived before the Temple was destroyed.
One of the great insights of Pilgrim tradition, from which the Congregational church comes, is a belief that God continues to speak to us. "There is yet more light and truth to come forth from God's word", John Robinson told his congregation. We believe that God is creative, that truth is revealed through the work of poets, prophets, scholars, artists and scientists. There is a truth that sings through creation, and spirituality is a creative process of opening ourselves to this revelation.
We think it's important to create together--to sing together, to dance together, to paint and to sculpt together. Art is one of the ways that we break through what theologian Elizabeth Johnson referred to as "skotosis"--a hardening of the mind and heart against God's process of conversion and transformation.