Project Tabernacle
Exodus 31:1-5
Exodus 35: 30-35
II Timothy 1: 1-7
A Sermon by the Reverend Odette Lockwood-Stewart
 

“Project Runway” is a reality TV show that fascinates me.  Sixteen aspiring fashion designers compete.  Every week, they are given a challenge in which they must create something that expresses who they are as a designer under unusual circumstances:  Take $75 into a grocery store (or a recycling center, or flower mart ... or fabric store) and in 12 hours design and create fashion for a television star out of the groceries!

Their creativity under pressure astounds me.  Judgment by the experts on the runway and it is harsh and clear. One designer is sent home each week: “...one day you’re in, the next day you’re out.”

We have been taught this.  We have been taught that creativity is a special gift that belongs to the few, and that is judged by comparison. But children know that they are all artists... until they are taught otherwise.  Research has shown that at the age of five, 90% of the U.S. population measures “high creativity.”  By the age of seven the percentage drops to 10%, and among adults, only 2% measure “high creativity.” (Finley Eversole, The Politics of Creativity)

On vacation I read Bishop Beverly Shamana’s book, Seeing in the Dark:  a Vision of Creativity and Spirituality.  Bishop Shamana, who retires at the end of this month has consistently taught that we are all blocked and untutored artists. She has persisted in proclaiming that in the beginning, God created, and that we are all created in the image of God.  She insisted on bringing the art of gourd carving to people and into places of leadership where the dissonance between art and wisdom, and resistance to art’s relevance, was surpassed only by the distance between head and heart and mystery. She asked us again and again to rekindle the gift of God that is within us that is creativity.

Bishop Shamana also introduced me to a Biblical story I had never heard in church.  It is the story of an artist, not mentioned once in the lectionary.  The story of Bezalel.  

In the Book of Exodus, we learn about the liberation of a people and the shaping of their life together. We know that Moses met God on Mt. Sinai, and that God gave Moses ... the 10 commandments chiseled on stone tablets.  But God also told Moses on Mt. Sinai how to build the Tabernacle, the meeting place with God, how to create a space to encounter the Holy. For this, God appointed an artist.

That is our text this morning.  And that is where we meet Bezalel.

For God says to Moses, “See, I have called by name Bezalel son of Uri son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah:  and I have filled him with divine spirit, with ability, intelligence and knowledge in every kind of craft, to devise artistic designs, to work in gold, silver and bronze, in cutting stones for setting, and in carving wood, in every kind of craft.  Moreover, I have appointed with him Oholiab son of Ahismach of the tribe of Dan: and I have given skill to all the skillful so that they may make all that I have commanded you; the tent of meeting and the ark of the covenant, and the mercy seat ... “

God appoints others to help in the work.  God calls Bezalel to teach and guide others to bring forth their raw materials, their gifts and their creativity for the work. Bezalel was called not to be “the” artists, but to oversee the design and building of the Tabernacle.

The School of Art and Design in Jerusalem is called the Bezalel Academy.
The name Bezalel means “in the shadow (protection) of God.”  The naming of the Academy celebrates Bezalel’s role as catalyst and architect of the work of the people for the glory of God.

The tabernacle was to be a place of meeting, testimony, reconciliation, atonement, mercy, discernment, celebration...a home for holiness. The people created a building, furnishings, garments, oil, fabrics, and objects all for the worship and glory of God.

 From this glimpse into this story, we already we have a clear sense that Project Tabernacle is NOTHING like Project Runway.  Creating the meeting space for the Holy in our lives and world requires all of us and it is not a competition.  Project Tabernacle uses every unique gift and raw material to express who God is as a designer.  Project Tabernacle calls forth from the whole community, yet also uses the guiding vision and leadership of skilled artists and architects who are spirit filled and called by God.

I’m glad that Bezalel is not famous as God’s designated artist.

In visual arts, I am one of the first people to say “I’m not artistic.”  “Not me”, “not yet”, “not good enough” can block our creativity.  There are ways in which we all are creative, ways we need to reclaim and rekindle the gifts of God within us, all the gifts, and release these gifts to the glory of God!  Who are we not to use the gifts we have been given?  Who are we not to offer who and what we truly are to God?

Clark Kellogg has been artist in residence at Epworth for a number of years.  Clark is an artist.  Yet he blesses us with his understanding of the role of artist in community not only as a venue for his own creativity but as a catalyst for the creativity of others. He has given us the tools and space and guidance to be artists in so many ways.

Paul’s second letter to Timothy is to a church in tension at the turning of the generations.  Timothy is a new leader, and Paul invites him to claim his heritage and to rekindle the gift of faith within him – to let the light within him shine.
Like Timothy, we are invited to claim our inheritance and rekindle the gifts within us.

Just before leaving on vacation, I had the privilege of spending time with some of our youth.  We watched Denzel Washington’s film, “The Great Debaters,” a true story from the 1930s of an African American debate team from a small UM college in Texas, Wiley College. This debate team beat Harvard University at a time when African Americans could not attend state universities.  It was a film where story and characters illuminated, and the story revealed the deep wounding history and violence of racism in this nation.  There was a lot of joking around during the film, and some questioned how the story was being told and shown.  We had a good, hard conversation, at the end of which I promised Cory, Elliott, and Deion to download and listen to 2pac’s, “Thug’s Mansion.”  Tupac Shakur was a rapper, hip hop artist and social activist who was killed at 25.

I did download and listen to Thug’s Mansion, which helped me understand their response to the film.   2pac’s artistic expression is not subtle illumination, but rather raw exposure of hard truth. 2pac describes the current lived legacy of racism, no place to belong, no place to be at peace. No place to be free from being chased and shot -- not even in heaven, he wrote, “So much pressure in this life of mine I cry at times I once contemplated suicide and woulda tried but when I held that nine all I could see was my mama’s eyes no one knows my struggle they only see the trouble not knowing it’s hard to carry on when no one loves you....”
Artists risk telling truth that is not named or acknowledged.  Art can disturb and destabilize with revelations that have the power to transform.

Years ago R. G. Collingwood wrote, “The artist tells his (or her) audience, at the risk of their displeasure, the secrets of their own hearts.”

Creativity is a path to direct knowledge of God, direct experience of the holy, direct expression of truth. We are more than we know we are. Art is a pathway to discover gifts and truth, to honor God and to know God. It takes courage and risk to create.

Throughout worship today and every Sunday, creativity has been offered to glorify God – beginning with Jerry’s music, the visual meditation of images of children creativity from summer camp, our voices raised in song, to Clark and Aaron describing a collaborative “timepiece.” In just a moment, Caroline will offer a musical improvisation for our meditation.  Each and all are Spirit filled and Spirit led. During the meditation and the hymn that follows, let’s offer the artist within us, let us offer all the gifts we have been given, to God......

We are God’s artists ... co-creators of God’s tabernacle.  Rekindle the gift.  Amen.