Israel is on the far side of the Red Sea, the culminating moment to long drama of hope, tension and suspense. It is the first time Israel is truly beyond the reach of Egypt, the first opportunity Israel has to take a breath and assess the situation—what does Israel do? They do the most non-useful, impractical, inefficient thing possible. They sing a song! In Exodus 15 we find the song sung on the far side of the Red Sea, commonly called Miriam’s song.
In Miriam’s Song we find some often overlooked realities, namely that creativity isn’t an ancillary decorative gesture, but is central to a people of God being a people of God. I’d like to unpack that reality a little bit and by doing so get a fresh grasp on why we do what we do, which in turn, and here’s the important part, gives us a little bit of leverage in dealing with how we do what we do. I know you’re busy, I wouldn’t ask you to read this if I didn’t think it’d make a difference.
There are two components to this exploration, bearing in mind we can’t really separate them, they flow into and out of each other. First, Divine identity; second, human identity.
DIVINE IDENTITY: God’s name is story.
Near the beginning of the exodus story, three times and in rapid succession God refers to himself as “the God of Abraham, the God if Isaac and the God of Jacob.” (Exodus 2:24; Exodus 3:6; Exodus 3:15) These instances of self naming are nothing short of amazing. God names himself as story. He is his journey and story intertwined with the story of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. "I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob." By this he doesn't mean that he is the God who belongs to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, as though he's a piece of wood they can posses and carry around. God means he is the God in the stories of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. He is the God who acted in people's lives, in history. God is saying he is faithful, consistent grace and love in action.
Think of how powerful this is. God choses to be named not as a collection of facts, nor[ as an abstract proposition. Creator God chooses to be named lyrically, through story. God can’t be contained by language, to name him is to label him, to label him is to render him static, powerless, contained. Adam’s first act of dominion over creation was to name the animals. To name is a creative act made possible by Adam’s image in the Creator. To name is to have dominion over. So God names himself—as story. He is his action in history; endlessly dynamic, endlessly able to act, beyond imagination.
Miriam lyrically re-tells the story of God’s grace toward Israel. Through story telling the historical facts of the Red Sea, of horse and rider are transformed into a community defining song. Through creative expression the community develops a real living notion of God-with-us. Her Song is the next chapter in the story that is God’s name. I am the God of Abraham. I am the God of Isaac. I am the God of Jacob. And now, I am the God who delivered you from Egypt.
If you are an artist, Miriam’s legacy is passed to you. What you do isn’t ancillary and decorative. It is central to the ongoing theological act of naming God by telling stories of grace in your community. Stop, take a deep breath and read that again, because it should shift your world. What you do is central to the ongoing theological act of naming God by telling stories of grace in your community. God has gifted you with creative expression, therefore you are called to add your expression to the song that is God’s name. And because you produce visual media, you have the unparalleled privilege of doing so in our culture’s lingua franca—visual media.
HUMAN IDENTITY: God’s children acknowledge him through story.
Not only is creative expression at the centre of the ongoing process of naming God, creative expression is at the centre of children of God acknowledging themselves as children of the God-who-is-named.
First of all, it is useful to point out that there exists a difference between being a child of God and acknowledging one is a child of God. Being a child of God is the result of a declaration on God’s part. We are God’s chosen simply because God says it is so. It is non-insrumental, non-commercial, not achieved and not earned. In contrast, acknowledging ourselves as God’s children begins with us, our impetus. God has given us freedom of will, therefore we are free to acknowledge or to not acknowledge our identity as children of God.
While all of life is potentially an acknowledging act of worship, God is particularly pleased when we speak acknowledgement. Speaking acknowledgement is an act of naming. By naming God we name ourselves as his children because, as we have seen, God’s name is Stories-of-Grace. We, his children, are inexorably participants in those Stories-of-Grace. Therefore, to speak about God is to speak about ourselves as his children. It’s theology and ecclesiology all in one—a theology of community.
I must immediately add that speaking acknowledgment means more than saying words. I have italicized speaking to indicate a prototypical and fundamental act of creative expression. Therefore, speaking acknowledgment refers to any act of creative expression, including, for our purposes, the production of visual media.
Telling community stories of grace follows Miriam’s non-useful, impractical and inefficient example. Naming God through lyric expression is wonderfully extravagant and unnecessary, which is precisely why it is a delight to God and central to being a people of God. As a producer of visual media, you are entrusted with the joy of adding another chapter to the endless story that is the name of the God. The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob, the God of your community. You are called, among other things, to lyrically speak God’s name as active grace, to articulate the identity God’s children as recipients of God’s grace. And because you produce visual media, you have the unparalleled privilege of doing so in our culture’s lingua franca—visual media.
WHERE TO GO FROM HERE?
How does one behave as a God naming story teller on Monday morning? Honestly, I don’t know. Where you are is where you are, so who am I to say where you should go from here? Having placed responsibility squarely and conveniently on your shoulders, I can say there is a need to start with love and respect. I would like to step you through an initial experiment. It’s meant to give new life, so I leave the specifics of a loving approach in your hands.
A good starting place is an honest appraisal of your current situation. Here are a few questions to ask of your church community:
1. Which is more important to us: community expression or professional expression? Why?
2. When we articulate through creative expression are we naming abstract propositions. Are we labelling a collection of facts? Do we name to control? Do we label to kill speculation? Do we name to end discussion? If so, why? If not, why?
3. Do we articulate God through story as he did of himself? Do we invite people to stand in the mystery of The Word. Do we allow ourselves and invite others to be part of God’s incredible story? If so, why? If not, why?
I would also suggest appraisals and analysis are not enough. Carrying out creative expression—actually making something—is the best way to open up new possibilities. Again, this needs to be approached with love, humility and patience which, when present in liberal amounts, can magically open up space for creative expression.
AN EXPERIMENT IN CREATIVE EXPRESSION
Depending on your work flow and commitments this little experiment may take a month or two of carved out little slices of time. Below, you will see numbers. Paint by numbers isn’t creative expression. I have laid this out in a way that makes sense to me and the numbers just sort of look nice. I offer the following as an example, if you really don’t know where to go from here, maybe this example will give you a first step. If you are already moving, maybe this example can help guide. Don’t trust me, you don’t really know me and I don’t really know what I’m doing. Trust yourself and your community.
1. Choose a date (with sufficient lead time) from the Revised Common lectionary.
2. Gain staff wide approval to use the RCL text as an over arching theme for that week. This effectively relieves any one person of the task of deciding on a topic or a theme for that week and eliminates scheduling dependancies. This could be the trickiest and stickiest step. Remind yourself and others you are only asking for one week for an experiment.
3. Read through the text. If at all possible read it aloud in a group setting.
4. Be mindful of your individual and collective response to the text, this powerful declaration of community spoken among you.
5. Pray through your response to the text.
6. Think about the text in light of your response to the text—let’s call this meditation. Meditation is often the most difficult. Simply thinking seems to us so non-productive, and yet it is absolutely critical to creative expression. (Just ask your preaching pastor.)
7. Be mindful of the the threads that are starting to emerge in your thoughts. Hold those threads loosely. Don’t shape, mould or squish them, just hold them loosely.
8. Be mindful of stories happening around you, especially small quiet stories most people aren’t likely to notice. You are an artist, you see things differently. Tune in to what you are already seeing.
9. Observe, look, see through the lens of the text you’ve been meditating and praying through.
10. Hold it all loosely.
11. Begin your video project based on your thoughts and meditations around the text using the following criteria:
a. Limit yourself to images familiar to people in your community.
b. Let go of concrete narrative structure or didactic instruction.
c. Allude to the thread your thoughts and meditations are holding to loosely by fusing image and sound subtly, subversively, quietly, poetically.
12. Be amazed.
