A couple of weeks ago we looked at a short clip from the “Saving Jesus” series where we heard Matthew Fox say (approximately): “We need to stop our tea-cup talk about Jesus. Jesus is often presented like a Little Bo Peep with his sheep; but he was so much more than that; he was a prophet and a mystic; we follow Jesus by becoming mystics and prophets ourselves and being creative – all the prophets were social artists.”
What is a “mystic”? You probably find it quite a weird-sounding term; images of long-haired, long-bearded men who’re more than a bit loopy; not something you’d think apply to yourself. Think of it as a way of describing someone who has direct experience of God: someone who could say, “I know God – I have felt his presence – I am close to him” Isn’t that what Jesus enables us to be? Isn’t it what God has been saying for about the last 40 years in the “Renewal” movement? It’s challenging to get to know God deeply because it takes effort to achieve and in some ways it cuts us off from others who are not interested – we might lose friends, be ridiculed – even crucified! But surely without intimacy with God we have lost our starting place as the followers of Jesus, the Son of God.
And what about being prophetic? Prophets speak what they hear from God: they are often against the stream and controversial: they are subversive and challenge the established order. Prophets pick holes in our settled ways and make people feel uncomfortable. They recall people to God; to keep focused on the task and not get distracted onto the worldly and the unspiritual. They may have a social critique as well, and a heightened social conscience about justice for all. It’s so much easier to believe in gentle, inoffensive Bo-Peep Jesus and just keep our heads down and be good sheep! But try to let the Spirit of God rise up in you in response to what you see around you – either to affirm it or to want to transform it.
And “creative”? Where does that come into our very rationalistic, theory-based church traditions? (”I just want to hear a good sermon” – not too long, of course!!) From the word go, God has been creative and he is always creating. A major part of being “in his image” is our ability to create things. What do you enjoy? Music, art, drama, writing, gardening, knitting, sewing, building, designing, and so on? Creativity helps us communicate what matters to us: in a way it’s what brings out our true personhood. Good art, for example, helps us focus on God and meditate on him at a deep inner level. Jesus created health and understanding and joy and hope as he performed miracles and told stories. What can we do to uplift the spirits of other people through our creativity?
Let’s aim to make our church community a place of mystics and prophets and creative people who have a living message about Jesus pulsing through our common life. We are his witnesses as mystics, prophets and creative people: because that’s what he is like and it’s what his Spirit does in us.
