May 23, 2010

When we think about creating something new we sometimes think of the tangible results at the end of the process: the finished book, the released movie, the new car design, the new prescription medication, the shiny new piece of technology. Yet, if you press the people who created these fabulous new things, really press them to go back to the beginning of the creative process, you will often find that the first step is something quite different - a hunch; a tentative step; a brave resolution; day one of a thousand. Sometimes we hear an actor or a director talk about how it took 10 years to actually get a movie made. Or we talk to someone who has finished their degree, or made partner, or written a book or finished any training program. Ask them to go back to the beginning and to remember what that part of the process felt like.

Every spring a pair of birds builds a nest on our back porch behind our temperature gauge. It is a precarious place to build a nest - big humans and a large dog walk out that door multiple times each day and the skittish mom flies away from her nest. But every year a new set of birds selects our porch and carefully builds a new nest. There are hundreds of trips to build the nest - back and forth with tiny pieces of stuff from the yard to make a safe haven. Then the eggs. Week after week of guarding those eggs, keeping them warm, punctuated by leaving the eggs as we open the back door and let the dog in and out and in and out. Bark goes the dog and the momma twitters away frantically. And finally, one day we see little baby bird faces peeking over the edge of the temperature gauge. Mom flies back and forth bringing food for her little brood. Chirp, chirp chirp says the little family. And then one day, always when we are absent, the little birds fly away and the nest is silent. The exhausting creative cycle once again completed after weeks of work.

Our Holy book - our Bible - starts with a story of creation in Genesis chapter 1. Listen again to the creative process: "In the beginning when God began to create the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while the spirit of God swept over the face of the waters. Then God said, ?Let there be light;' and there was light." The creation happened amidst a dark, formless void, a swirling wind that swept across the waters and a spoken word. I think the creative process involves a lot of chaos and effort and determination and vision to move forward despite the obstacles. I remember reading about a writer one time who talked about her process. She said she works best first thing in the morning, so she gets up early, has breakfast and then writes till noon. If she is stuck, she writes; if things are flowing, she writes. She tells herself that she will edit later, but her discipline is to do the work daily. Is it pretty? No. Tedious? Some days. Fruitful? Sometimes. One foot carefully and deliberately in front of the other, making progress one day, one page, at a time.

Think back to a time when you were starting something new. Think back to the inspiration, the first step, the "thing" that got you started. I remember the moment that I first thought about going to seminary. I was about to graduate from Duke and I was walking to the post office on East Campus. Most of my friends had plans - they had taken jobs with banks and businesses or they were going to graduate school. I had no plans. Nada. Zippo. I was free as a bird and nervous as a bird. I ran into a woman whom I knew and I asked her what she was doing next year. She said she was going to seminary. I said, "What's that and what for?" She said it was ministry training and that she wanted to specialize in working with the elderly. She was a person of grace and substance and I though hmmph. But I tucked it away and eventually looked up MDiv. Programs, found the program interesting and a year later I enrolled in Divinity school.

I realize that the creative process is different for everyone. For some it is a well thought- out-process with measurable goals and achievable outcomes. For others it is a meandering journey from here to there. Yet, however we plot our path, there is still uncertainty, the unknown, the formless void that must take shape, the spirit that sweeps over the waters and helps shape the process.

In our story today in the book of Acts, we hear a piece of the story of the creation of the early church. Jesus is not longer on the earth and has left them with these final words, "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." (Act. 1:8) So, on the 50^th day after Passover, the disciples were gathered and the process formally began - the sound from heaven of a violent wind came and filled the house where they were gathered. Tongues of fire danced around them and they were filled with the Spirit and spoke languages that were unknown to them! All this upheaval and talking and wind were disruptive and chaotic. They seemed out of control like drunken revelers. This is the beginning of the church? But Peter recognized the process of creation. He spoke with great clarity on that day. Peter understood that God was delivering the beginning of a new thing to the disciples that they would have to nurture and develop. He boldly stood and declared to them that this was what the prophets had foretold, that the Spirit of God would be poured out upon all flesh, and sons and daughters would prophecy and young people would have visions and old people would dream dreams. On all people God's Spirit would be poured out and there would be signs in heaven and on earth below. This was the day that people would document as the birth of the church, the beginning of the process of this fledgling group of followers who would decide to continue in the work of Jesus. Some people said to Peter, "What should we do?" to which Peter responded, "Repent, be baptized, be forgiven and receive the gift of the Holy Spirit."

Everything else that we know as "the Church" was to follow - the councils, the biblical canon, the structure, the leadership, the buildings? on Pentecost we remember and celebrate the first step in the creative process of building the Church of Jesus Christ. It all began with a disruption, upheaval, chaos.

Do you ever feel like your life is in chaos? Do you ever feel that you are in a period of upheaval? Do you feel that a powerful wind has swooped in and messed up all your plans? Do you ever feel as if you are speaking a language that is unfamiliar, unknown and unwelcome? Perhaps you are receiving God's Holy Spirit during those times. Maybe you are creating something new and unknown. Maybe that is the hand of God in your life.

I think - I'm not entirely sure, but I think - that I have lived long enough to notice that there is a rhythm to our lives. Sometimes there are periods of great calm and order and then at other times there is great upheaval and chaos. I'm talking both personally and globally. We love the calm times, the steady times when there is no crisis, things are humming along smoothly; and yet the chaos is when the creative process breaks in - when the inspiration comes for us to make a different choice, choose a different path, start that thing that has been noodling inside us for a while. For most of us we don't turn sharply unless we are forced to by something. If we read the Pentecost story carefully we can see that the Spirit is restless, disruptive, uncertain, bold, and exemplifies Change!

Sometimes we are so ready for a change that we say, "Yes!!!" when it arrives. At other times we view changes with great resistance, anger, clinging, and fear. God says to us through this Pentecost story - "What about it? Are you open to seeing the world in a new way? Are you willing to try something new? Are you ready to take a courageous step into the unknown? Are you willing to put one, big, fat, toe in the cold, dark water?"

I absolutely, positively, unequivocally, feel that a life of faith is a life of living by the movement of the Spirit - adapting, shifting, changing, modifying our call, adjusting our direction as we move along our path. The Pentecost story embodies this reality and reminds us that we should never stick completely to the script unless we want the script to be the same as it always has been. May God bless us all as we read the Pentecost story anew and listen for the presence of the Holy Spirit within each of our lives. Amen.