Creating Art

“Creating Art is an opportunity to focus on our relationship with the holy 
and, in the process, bring God into the world.
Because God has chosen to do much work here on earth through us his children.”
-- Brother Stephen of Taizé

 
Thank you for a wonderful celebration last Sunday of my sixteenth anniversary serving Saint George’s. It continues to be my privilege to serve in this wonderful place. I often tell people I have the best job, and the reason for that, is you. Together we have the very best job – the sacred duty -  to create art in praise of the holy each week we gather for worship.  
 
Created in the image of God, humans were born to create.  In times of despair or strife, the need is even greater. Creating is life-giving and transforms our hearts and minds. When we sing together and make music in praise of the Holy, we deepen our relationship with God and bring God among us.  This is true for all the things we create.  Some of you may identify as artists and some of you might think you are anything but. Regardless of how you view your artistic abilities, I invite you, as I have before, to create something this week. Draw or color, create music or a textile, write a short story or poem, take a photograph, or create a new recipe. There are endless possibilities for us to engage in the life-giving act of creating. It need not be complicated or take a long time. Do something creative even if you think the result might not be aesthetically pleasing, after all we know creating is more about the process than the result.  
 
While you engage in the creative, be in conversation with the Holy, in prayer and in meditation.  Be aware and listen. I suspect that you, like me, will find that the creative process is a messy thing, and sometimes, maybe even most of the time, it yields an equally messy result. Yet, no matter the result, the creative process is continually transformative and intertwined with the numinous, the holy transforming love of God. When we create, we grow in God’s love which empowers us to embody justice and be Christ’s disciples in this broken world.
 
Soli Deo Gloria!
Ben Keseley, Minister of Music