Creativity & The Kingdom of God (pt. 3)
Creativity & the Artist
I want to consider the work of creativity and the artist first before we look at Christian and theologian. Colossians 3:16 states,
Let the message about the Messiah dwell richly among you, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, and singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, with gratitude in your hearts to God.
Now, why doesn’t it say, “Let the message be taught among you?”
The idea of “dwell richly” means to let something enter into and take complete residence in your heart and community. It means that the message of Jesus would fill every crack and crevice of our lives.
When God communicated, he did not just teach, He dramatized with the prophets, He cooked up heavenly manna, He spoke in parables and other literary genres, He made the longest book a music book, He concluded the Law with two poems, He had Moses sing a song after He parted the Red Sea, He endowed the craftsmen with wisdom and visual art for the temple.
And ultimately, God’s fullest form of expression was sending Jesus as the embodiment of love itself. Of love, himself.
If you want to know or learn ANYTHING about God, look to Jesus. Jesus isn’t merely a message. He brings life to the message!
“Imagination Specialists”
God has gifted certain individuals as, what one theologian calls, “Imagination specialists.” According to Byron Spradlin, artists are particular individuals—imagination specialists—“who [are] unusually wise at imaginative design or expression.” He says that“Artists create environments for people to touch the transcendent realities.”
He’s getting this concept from Exodus 35:30-36:4 where we see the first people God gave the Spirit to: artists and craftsmen to design and construct the dwelling place of God:
Bezalel was
Filled with God’s Spirit: with wisdom, understanding, and ability in every kind of craft to design artistic works in gold, silver, and bronze, to cut gemstones for mounting, and to carve wood for work in every kind of artistic craft.
Bezalel and Oholiab were
Given the ability to teach others.
Filled by God with skill to do all the work of a gem cutter; a designer; an embroiderer in blue, purple, and scarlet yarn and fine linen; and a weaver.
They could do every kind of craft and design artistic designs.
Bezalel, Oholiab, and all the skilled people were
Tasked to work based on everything the LORD has commanded.
The Lord gave them wisdom and understanding to know how to do all the work of constructing the sanctuary.
What is amazing to me is that in our society today, artists are often poked fun at, considered socially awkward, and used for their gifts. Yet the church does not often asked for their insights.
In this Exodus passage though, they are the ones God gave wisdom to. They have the ability to teach.
Often, prophets are on the margins of society. Consider the fact that John the Baptist was in the wilderness. Isaiah, Jeremiah, and the others were cultural outcasts for calling Israel to turn back to the Lord. What is significant to me is how they leaned into the the realm of the imagination, of what C.S. Lewis called “the organ of meaning.”
Artists care deeply and have vision or outside-the-box ideas because they want to manifest something meaningful into the world.
Notes
Spradlin, Byron. 2023. “Byron Spradlin On Missions and the Role of Artists.” lausanne.org.
