I have a love-hate relationship with FaceBook. It’s the one social media site that I probably spend too much time on. Yes, it is addictive – drawing you in with its photos and stories and updates from all of your friends. I love seeing what people are doing and keeping up with their lives. You see the best of their lives – their birthdays, their successes, their accomplishments, their shiny cleaned up families and their stunning photos. I love the little banter and humour and affirming comments. I love that I feel part of a larger community. And yes, I kind of love posting myself – my kids would say I do that way too much! I want to share my family photos and especially my photos of nature in all its hiking and canoeing and kayaking glory. It feels like creative space. But I also recognize its addictive qualities. I can keep on clicking down, from post to post to post, endlessly, usually on my cell phone. There is that Fear of Missing Out if I skip a few days. You can start to measure your value based on how many likes you received or how many FaceBook friends you have. Do I even know 580 people?!? It’s so much about comparison. FaceBook becomes a measure of self-worth, a way to try to impress others and magnify your own image. People start to stage their photos rather than simply being natural. You hear stories of people getting depressed or harming themselves because they do not see their lives measuring up to the perfect imagined lives they are clicking on. There are some bad politics, mis-information and trolling that go on. There are cases of people being bullied over FaceBook or other social media platforms. Social media can start to define your identity, to become an empty source of value and worth – a false image you try to put on and wear and display to the watching world. So I still use Facebook, but try to hold it lightly.
It does feel very different than the inviting call we heard from Colossians 3 – a different set of clothing to put on. Dress up in the wardrobe God picked out for you: compassion, kindness, humility, quiet strength, discipline. Be even tempered, content with second place!, quick to forgive. Wear love, your basic all-purpose garment, cultivating thankfulness and giving the Word of Christ run of the house. Let every detail in your lives – words, actions, whatever – be done in the name of the Master Jesus, thanking God the Father every step of the way, or as the NRSV states that last verse – ‘And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.’ I want to wear this kind of clothing rather than FaceBook fashion.
Our whole summer worship theme has been ‘Igniting our God-given Creativity.’ We have tried to cultivate in our lives a creative spirit that is encouraging, life-giving and up-lifting to others – a creativity that wears love. We have explored all sorts of ways of being creative that open us up to the spirit of God, the source of inspiration. It is creativity that puts on the wardrobe of Colossians. It assumes that creativity comes from God, that we are co-creators with God, and that in its best form, it gives glory and honour back to God. Our theme phrase on this final Sunday of the summer is ‘An Audience of One,’ a phrase taken from April Yamasaki’s devotional booklet that helped shape our whole theme. God is the audience of One for all of our creativity. We express our creativity for God. She writes ‘For creative success, the most important audience is the audience of One…From my own experience I know that making comparisons or placing too much weight on the opinions of others leads inevitably to discouragement and feelings of failure… We explore another way… (She then quotes the Colossians passage about whatever you do, do everything in the name of Jesus. She continues). In Paul’s view, God is the main audience … for the whole church, and I’m sure he would affirm that for us today. Our creative efforts are part of the “everything” that Paul addresses, so we might well paraphrase his teaching: whatever you do with your creativity, do it for God’s glory – excel in it not out of pride or for financial gain, but because you serve the Lord.’ (April Yamasaki, Spark – Igniting Your God-Given Creativity, MennoMedia, Kitchener, 2015, p.47-49)
An audience of One has to do with our basic attitude and disposition in our creativity. It doesn’t mean that others are not around or that we can’t share our creativity for others to enjoy. But it is asking questions like – ‘Does this give me joy? Does this connect me with God? Am I doing this to impress or to bring joy and life to the world?’ As April Yamasaki says, do it for God’s glory, not for pride or financial gain.
One of my favourite CBC radio shows is ‘Under the Influence,’ with Terry O-Reilly. (https://www.cbc.ca/radio/undertheinfluence) It is a show about the history of advertizing and is full of all sorts of examples of creativity in marketing. I am drawn into the stories of how all sorts of products began and strokes of luck and genius or even messing up as people find their way to share their products and make a name for themselves. Often there is a small start and a family business or new idea is able to thrive and grow out of some wonderful creativity, that builds up the product and the community. But then you also see some of the end results, as everything gets bigger and more commercial, and how advertizing becomes aggressive or manipulative or greedy or cutthroat for the sake of market share. Creativity becomes monetized and used for financial gain and I find myself recoiling from the very creativity itself. Maybe that gets at some of the difference? What motivates and undergirds our creativity?
I have very much been enjoying the children’s story videos each Sunday, as families and individuals share what kinds of creative activities they love to do. We’ve seen everything from aerial silk to bubble art to speed skating to batik to messy shaving cream art to house deconstruction and reclamation. We have watched pure joy as children and adults share their creative passions. There is something both authentic and vulnerable in sharing creativity. When you take away the pressure to try to impress others you are free to simply enjoy and share that joy, that creative spark from God. When I think about my own creative vulnerabilities, I think about Art. It has never been a strong point or particular interest. I cringed or hid in grade school Art class. I have a hard time drawing passable stick figures. For several years when I was the MCEC Student and Young Adult Minister, I helped lead groups of young adults on First Nations Learning Tours each Spring to Northern Ontario with MCC, often Timmins based. Each year had a focus – residential schools, the Indian Act, logging and natural resources, Colonization, Spirituality, etc. One year, to my dismay, the focus was on Art and how that helps us see the world through Indigenous Eyes. We were hosted by painter Richard Kamalatisit. He had us doing carving and drawing and painting. We had no choice but to participate. He told us that to carve a chipmunk, just slice away everything that was not chipmunk. I cut my finger carving and needed stitches. He gave us birch bark and water colours and his gentle presence and encouragement was so inspiring that I somehow managed to paint a vaguely recognizable goose. I started to enjoy myself. It was not about the end product but the process itself. It was Art for the pure fun and joy of it, an audience of One, not for the results. At the end of the week he gifted me with an original signed print of loons that still hangs in my office and I remember his giftedness and his laugh and huge generous smile that drew us all in. I figured that was the beginning and end of my venture into painting, but just last week, at a provincial park evening program overlooking the lake, the excellent creative park staff handed us all little blank canvases, paintbrushes and water colours and step by step guided us through painting a colourful sunset. Most were children. I didn’t worry about anyone watching me or judging what I came up with – I just started to mix colours, sketch out ideas, follow directions and create. It was so much fun, and you can even tell it is a sunset.
Music and worship have been the places where I have more naturally thrived and found my creative place. It is where we come together as a congregation before God. Worship is where we express our gratitude and adoration to God and wear our love of God. It is not a performance or show for others or to somehow impress, but rather an authentic expression of devotion to God, an audience of One. It doesn’t mean we don’t try to do things well and offer our best, but that we do so because of our love and worship of God. It is where the Word of Christ is given plenty of room in our lives. This gives us lots of permission to be creative in worship, something we love to do at St Jacobs, with participation and sharing of gifts by lots of people. Music is this collective creative activity we do together as a big part of worship. It too focuses our attention on God. And sing, sing your hearts out for God! I think about my favourite composer, JS. Bach, who dedicated so much of his professional life to the music of the church. In most of his music, he hand-wrote the phrase in his manuscript ‘Soli Deo Gloria – to the Glory of God alone’ – his creative work was produced for the sake of praising God. In the margins of 2 Chronicles 5:13 in his Bible he scribbled ‘Where there is devotional music, God with His grace is always present.’ (https://www.wfmt.com/2017/10/06/video-was-j-s-bach-truly-religious-his-bible-may-have-clues/) Singing together becomes a creative and participatory act of devotion to God. Now here at St Jacobs, our song leaders have been a big part of leading and shaping our congregational singing culture. They do that well and with musicality, and intention and with good tempos and conducting patterns. They bring their best. Even as they stand at the front, and we all watch them for direction, they are doing their role for the sake of God, for an audience of One that we are all drawn into.
There have been many song leaders a part of this collective effort, but this morning I do want to name the role that Laverne Brubacher has taken so ably and so humbly. After over 63 years of song leading here at SJMC, Laverne is retiring from the regular song leading schedule, even as he may occasionally still lead and offer his gifts. He began when he was only 15 and shaped so much of how we sing as a congregation. He did so for the Glory of God alone. Later, in our sharing time, we will honour Laverne’s contribution to our worship. One of the traditions from early in his song leading career was that the song of response to the sermon of the morning was not chosen beforehand or a number printed in the bulletin. Laverne would listen carefully to the sermon and the moving of the Spirit in worship and page through the hymnal and choose the song most appropriate to the moment. That takes a spirit of creativity and a trust in the Spirit. He said that sometimes he would have some ideas lined up but then have to improvise at the last minute when the sermon took a different unexpected turn. You will notice that there is no hymn of response listed in the bulletin for this morning, and we trust what he will come up with. He also chose most of the other hymns this morning – a morning of 4 part singing.
I want to end this morning by sharing about a recent experience of the creativity of God on a recent camping experience, where I was truly reminded of the Audience of One. Rachel and I camped together last week up at Samuel de Champlain Provincial Park. As part of that, I left Rachel to enjoy the quiet of the tent trailer while I ventured on a 2 day interior 50 kilometre solo kayak trip, starting in North Bay at Trout Lake and travelling the Mattawa River and Lake system to Blanchard’s Landing at the end of Lake Talon. Yes, Extrovert Mark spending 2 days totally on his own, other than the occasional hi to a passing boat. It was perfect weather with the kayak mostly cutting through glassy water. By mid afternoon I had found a campsite on the South East corner of Turtle Lake. I had a gorgeous view of 5 little rock islands in front of me, and as the evening progressed, about a 2 hour sunset as the sky slowly changed from blue to pink to oranges and red before finally disappearing on the horizon – each scene more stunning than the next. It was God the Artist painting the sky in front of me – my little water colour a poor imitation. The campfire was glowing, the loons were calling, and the stars were out. The heavens declare the glory of God. I was the audience of the One who created all things. The next morning I headed into the more wilderness windy creek, portagey, part of the trip. I was totally alone. It was a Sunday and while some of you were worshipping in the sanctuary, I started singing hymns out to the universe around me, totally at peace and knowing that I was clothed with the love of God. It was picture perfect…an Audience of One… And when I came home I posted sunset photos on Facebook. O Lord, hear my prayers. Thanks be to God! Amen.
