Matthew 13:31-34, Luke 20:20-26
First born of Mary, provocative preacher, itinerant teacher, outsider’s choice; Jesus inspires and disarms and confuses, whoever he chooses to hear his voice. (Sing the Story #37)
When our eldest son Micah lined up for school on his first day of Grade 5, his teacher was walking around the Sheppard schoolyard amidst the mass of students and parents in a full head to toe cow costume. It was striking and odd. He acted as if this was totally normal as he welcomed his own class and asked about their summer and the start of school. Why a cow costume? The first unit in school that year was about dreams and as a kid he had always dreamed about being a cow, so that’s what he dressed up as. His ridiculous and creative cow costume had already launched his class into the dream unit before the first school bell had even rung. That teacher was Phil Martin and Micah had the privilege of having one of the most creative and unconventional teachers I know. Creativity helps us listen, learn and pay attention, and can give us a different way to view the world. I texted Micah to see what he all still remembered from that year. His striking memories prove the effectiveness of all that creativity. To learn about Terry Fox, and secretly promote a healthy lifestyle, the class ran the border of the school yard every single day, rain or shine, and tracked their collective distance on a map of Canada. When they crossed each province they had a celebration and learned about that province, including a Newfoundland stew dinner made by the janitor who had grown up there. They each created their own commercials for jobs some of their parents did and without even realizing it learned about writing, editing, directing, but also about different techniques commercials use to get people to buy things. I would love to have seen how Micah made his commercial about being a pastor, but I checked with him and their group chose the parent who managed LegoLand at the Outlet Mall – probably more fun! They each researched a different bird to present before an outdoor education trip, of which there were many – both birds and outdoor learning settings. Every student had to research a song by the Beetles, Phil’s favourite band, and make a song report, instead of a book report – and one evening parents and students all gathered in the gym to hear each song report and have a little makeshift band play and sing all 21 of those Beetles songs. Micah laughs now that with his Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds song he learned about hippies and hallucinogens. Phil was not afraid of tackling tough topics, even if accidentally. Phil took this creativity to the full school. Every few years, he initiated an all school drama musical where groups of students researched, wrote, edited, directed and acted in a Sheppard original production with every single student in the school somehow involved. Micah’s year was about the delisting of Pluto as a planet. One of my best memories was being a parent volunteer for all 3 of my kids for a 3 day Grade 5 camping trip to Paradise Lake. In his own creative and subversive way, without religious language, Phil introduced the practice, the ‘spiritual discipline’ really, of each student spending 30-45 minutes in quiet contemplation at their own nature spot in the woods, and then on the final night, a 1 hour totally silent and dark night hike through the forest, each student carefully following the next, with an amazing sharing time afterwards. I was stunned at how profound and moving that night hike was as I brought up the rear and listened later to the student’s observations. Phil was a teacher who so naturally used creativity to challenge societal norms and help his students listen, learn and pay attention.
I was reminded of Phil Martin and his creative way of teaching when Pauline and I were looking at this Sunday’s Scriptures and reflecting on the creative ministry of Jesus. It must have been amazing, and confusing and disorienting, and inspiring and provocative to have been one of the disciples around Jesus and seen and heard how he taught and shared the good news. Our Scripture readings today are but 2 of so many examples, and as Pauline shared in her opening words, there was already a long Biblical history of how God works in creative and surprising ways in our world. April Yamasaki, whose Study Guide on Creativity formed the inspiration for this summer worship series, names Jesus as an artist. She writes ‘Jesus proclaimed the good news of God’s kingdom in creative ways: telling stories, answering questions with wit and humour, forming a community of disciples. He imagined the kingdom of God like a mustard seed and yeast. He described himself as a farmer scattering seed and his hearers as different types of soil. When a lawyer asked him ‘Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?’ he sidestepped the trap and responded with a two-part commandment to love God and neighbour, and so summarized the entire law. Jesus’ creative and compelling call to God’s kingdom appealed to fishermen, tax collectors, prostitutes, household servants, widows, poor people and women of means, people struggling with mental and physical illness, a military man, a Samaritan woman, and many more. Who but a Master Artist could envision their potential? Who but a Master Artist could take an apparently random group of disciples and transform them into passionate and compassionate witnesses?’ (April Yamasaki, Spark: Igniting Your God-Given Creativity, p.27)
We could add many examples to this list of the Creative Ministry of Jesus. He walked on water, he fed 5000 with a bit of fish and bread, he plucked grain on the Sabbath to challenge its misuse, he drew in the sand with his finger and asked anyone without sin to cast the first stone, he spat on the ground and made mud with his saliva to spread over the eyes of the man born blind to provide healing, he called up a child as a humble example of the greatest in the kingdom of heaven, he overturned the tables and cleanses the Temple, he cursed a fig tree, he welcomed sinners and outcasts and ate with them, he shared the Beatitudes – Blessed are those least expected… and The Sermon on the Mount – You have heard it said, but I say, and we could go on. Do you notice how with each of these, the audience, the crowd, the disciples, even us reading now, have to re-think assumptions, the way the world works. Things are turned upside down. The systems of our world are challenged. People are caught off guard, their defences fall around them. People learn and listen and pay attention in new ways. The creative actions and words of Jesus open up the possibility of transformation. This is the work of a Master Artist.
We see this in the story from Luke of Jesus being sent spies to try to trap him by what he said. They ask Jesus if it is lawful to pay taxes to the Emperor or not. The trap has been set – a lose/lose proposition. Affirm and it is religious heresy – support for this hated tax was regarded by some Jews as irreconcilable with loyalty to God. Deny and he commits political treason and provides a specific accusation that could be used to arrest him before the Romans. (background research from Interpretation: Luke (Fred Craddock, John Knox Press, 1990, p.235-236 and The Narrative Unity of Luke-Acts, Volume one: Luke (Robert Tannehill, Fortress Press, 1986, p. 190) Jesus does neither in his creative response. ‘Show me a denarius… Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.’ ‘They were not able in the presence of the people to trap him by what he said; and being amazed by his answer, they became silent.’ Yes, on one hand his answer is crafty, astute and avoids the trap. But the answer also makes you think. It is not straightforward. We all have to keep asking ourselves what is of Caesar and what is of God, and where is there conflict, or overlap or alignment, or how does one prioritize in what situation. It makes us identify the systems we are a part of. It is more complex than it first appears and this rendering requires ongoing discernment.
And then there are the parables, the most common manner, and truly creative manner, in which Jesus teaches. As our passage from Matthew said ‘Jesus told the crowds all these things in parables; without a parable he told them nothing.’ (Matthew 13:34) Tom Yoder Neufeld writes about the parables ‘Jesus is looking for the kinds of persons who have a “sense of the kingdom”, that is, who are nimble enough to catch on to the surprising ways the reign of God manifests itself and who are on the lookout for the surprise.’ (Thomas R. Yoder Neufeld, Recovering Jesus, Brazos Press, 2007, p.160). The parables are ‘riddle-like’ (Ibid, p. 166). It is hard to catch their meaning. There was a period in scholarship where it was assumed that if we really examined the parables, we could discern their one and only true meaning. Yoder Neufeld would rather us explore a whole range of interpretation and see what creative meaning might meet the listener for their time and place and situation. So it might be an allegorical interpretation (p.163), or asking what element you notice in the story or who you identify with (p.166) Maybe it is how the parable alerts us to conditions of injustice or oppression in our world (p.166) or noticing the unexpected grace and generosity of God (p.168) or God’s urgency and even judgement (p 171) or listening, as he says, with ‘furrowed brow’ (p.170) to what confuses and confounds us. He concludes ‘The parables [are] a device with which to pry loose people’s assumptions about that kingdom… In the process of truly hearing the parables … Jesus’ listeners become the kind of people who bring the kingdom about… all the while alert to discover the treasure buried in unsuspecting places and persons and to give up everything for the sake of their treasure. These are the kind of people the parables are meant to both find and create.’ (p. 182)
So to take one of today’s Matthew parables, the mustard seed, it can open us to all sorts of creative understandings and responses. Is it about how something small, like a mustard seed, can grow into something big and great, something we can do too, the powerless lifted up? Or do we wonder at why a mustard tree, which is more of a short shrub, than one of the real grand and tall trees like an oak or pine or sycamore? Or that a mustard plant can spread like a weed and pop up persistently here and there and everywhere where it is least expected? Or is this about the hospitality and shelter and new life given by the tree to the birds? Or about the healing powers of mustard, like that mustard suave or pack? Are we the mustard seed or are we the sower, or maybe are we the birds that receive the protection of the branches? Might this parable be asking us about what we value in life, about the inherent value of even the smallest person, and questioning those most powerful? There are all sorts of creative possibilities for how the kingdom is like a mustard seed – let alone like yeast, a pearl, a treasure, a seed, a net and so on. Are we nimble enough to catch the surprising ways God might be speaking to us for this time and place?
So we have established that Jesus was steeped in creative forms of ministry and teaching and actions that challenge and confound all his followers and lead us to examine and live out our faith in creative and responsive ways. But this goes even deeper into the very nature of Jesus himself. At the heart of Christian faith is the claim that God sent Jesus, God’s Son, into this world, to be born as a human to live and teach and ultimately to die for the sake of the world, for the gift of salvation, to show us what it means to live fully into the image of God. We call this the Incarnation – God becoming flesh, taking on human form. Fully human and fully divine. You could say that Incarnation is the ultimate creative act! It comes as total surprise. Why would an all powerful, omnipotent divine being humble themselves and take on the form and body of a human, with all its weaknesses, and take that journey right to death on a cross. As Philippians says, ‘let the same mind be in your that was in Jesus Christ, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking on the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death – even death on a cross.’ (Philippians 2:5-8). This is the ultimate creative Act of the God of Love for the sake of our world.
On Tuesday night, I joined local Mennonites at First Mennonite Church in Kitchener to watch the opening Mennonite World Conference worship service from Indonesia. The preacher was Timothy Geddert , Professor at Fresno Pacific University. He pointed to this very thing – the human and divine nature of God and the mystery of the Incarnation. He said ‘The Incarnation is the greatest barrier-crossing event in the history of the universe.’ It breaks barriers across time and across the barrier of Creator and Creation itself. It makes a real difference! Jesus goes on to break the barriers of rich and poor, powerful and powerless, male and female, sacred and secular, clean and unclean, Jew and Gentile. Jesus as fully divine shows us through his life what God is like, and this Jesus as fully human shows us what it means for us to be human (in the image of God). This is the ultimate form of Creativity – as Geddert says, ‘The Great Barrier Crossing Event.’ The rest of the World Conference week was really a playing out of the Assembly theme – ‘Following Jesus Across Barriers’ – living out as a global and absolutely diverse community the creative unity of faith found in following Jesus, the Incarnation of God.
We follow a Creating and Creative God through the example of Jesus and the strength of the Holy Spirit. It allows us to cross unbelievable barriers and to live out our faith in countless creative ways. For some it might be as a kind of subversive, creative teacher like I shared about with Phil Martin. But it can be within any profession or walk of life. It can be how we interact with our neighbours, within our families, with those in our community most different than us. It can be in creative acts of ministry within our communities, with creative acts of solidarity with those on the margins, with challenging the current systems of our world. It can be in how we are church together – we have recognized the many creative ways we have needed to adapt and change to be church together these last few years. These all call us to be nimble and responsive to the moving of the Spirit. It calls us to look to the Master Artist who can transform us into passionate and compassionate witnesses. Jesus is that provocative preacher, itinerant teacher, outsider’s choice, that can inspire and disarm and confuse us, and yet still choose us. Jesus is that Ultimate Creative Act of God’s Incarnation that can break and cross any barrier. Give us ears to hear his voice! Give us strength and wisdom and the creativity to follow. Amen.