I was a Religion and Philosophy major in college, which, I imagine, doesn’t sound all that exciting to most of you. Studying these topics at a Quaker college was different from the experience of many students who attended more Mainline denominationally connected school, at least at that time. Most of those colleges and universities focused on what used to be called Western thought; European schools of thinking that had emerged from Greek and Roman roots. Many of these ways of thinking touched on God but did not see God as central to philosophical dialogue. The same could be said for most Eastern schools, which is probably why the Apostle Paul had so much trouble with philosophy. It usually did not begin or end with a Deity or a god-centered ideology.
The Quakers, however, were different; George Fox’s focus on the inner light was a blending of theology and philosophy, and Quakers embraced this sense of wonder, rather than the more pragmatic view of most religious and philosophical traditions. I listened to a program last week that offered this idea: pragmatism cannot explain imagination. It cannot explain the tendency of human beings to create beauty. It cannot tell us why many species of animals help each other or human beings, or why any being plays. Imagination, the speaker said, comes from God. Pragmatism is really a response to our limitations. We want “just the facts”; we want to understand why things happen and how they work. Imagination goes beyond what we think we can do and spurs us on to go beyond our self-imposed limitations.
When I see a work of art or listen to a piece of music, I experience God’s spark flowing through human beings. When I see an animal do something inexplicable, like a dolphin saving a human from a shark, I experience the unexpected. And it is the unexpected, to me, that often shows me who God is. It is the very act of creativity, which is really God’s vocation from the very beginning of Scripture, that proves to me that God exists. “In the beginning, God created…” is a bold statement about the nature of God. God doesn’t need to create to be God – God creates because- maybe – it’s fun! I don’t sing because I have to, I sing because it allows me to express emotion and faith and love. Like the spiritual, “His Eye is on the Sparrow”, I sing because I’m happy – I sing because I’m free. Artists – musicians – most of them create because they must, not because it will make them rich. To imagine is to channel the Almighty – to create is to mimic God. Let your imagination go wild! Play! You will make the world a better place.
Prayer – Thank You, God, for creating us with Your spark. May it flow through us to enrich the world. Amen.
Today’s art is a sculpture by Yuanxing Liang.