God At Play - God @ #2

[Music] god at play that's what we're talking about and i'm so excited to be talking about it with you uh consider this just right off the top the universe is not god at work but god at play there is no creation without play play is oxygen for the imagination which sparks creativity which ignites innovation which combusts in paradigm shifts all human creation is re-creation god did not create us to work at life but to play and find joy in living that's uh leonard sweep what an incredible quote inviting us to explore the implications of god at play and the invitation for us to play with god this preparation for this message has been inspiring to say the least it's been mind-blowing in all in in many ways as well and so god is at play we're going to take a deep dive into the scriptures and talk about all things play and god and how we're invited to play with god together now just so you don't miss this one we will try to answer some questions live so if you have those please send those in and if we can't get to them live we will get to them in the after party today so questions are welcome uh and also even just expertise at play so all those play experts out there which are usually like kids uh although i do know of some play experts that are not children but play experts you know get ready also i don't want you to miss this illustration that's happening live this art installation of a preach so that is behind me natalie burch yes and she is a sculptor a potter doing pottery doing all the sculpting stuff now normally natalie is the producer of the sunday event so she is behind the camera pretty much telling me what to do and telling everybody else what to do as well and she's an expert in that she's incredible worker producer all that kind of stuff and i asked her as a fantastic embodied illustration of what the invitation is going to be today and every day of our lives to stop working this uh during this message and to play instead so this is natalie's play place the place where she can actually lose all of the baggage and all of the adult-y nature of all of her work her to-do list and all that kind of stuff and just play just create just experience the joy and the wonder of building and creating something sculpting something that comes to life and so she's playing for us as this illustration so don't i didn't want you to miss that now um scientifically and medically play is proven to relieve stress to improve brain function to stimulate the mind and boost creativity to improve relationships and connections to others to keep you feeling young and energetic that's just what it does for you here's what it does for relationships play helps develop and improve social skills play teaches cooperation with others and play can even heal emotional wounds okay that's the scientific and medical community uh discussing what play can do in our own lives and in our own relationships so if that's not enough for you which isn't because we're not talking about science at play we're not even talking about us at play we're talking about god at play and theologically how this idea of god at play might impact the way that we engage in life and relationship with each other so i want to start with a curious story in second samuel for all those people who have not watched footloose if you watch footloose you might have heard this quoted before but ii samuel chapter six and uh we can start this at uh verse 14. so just for a bit of context here we're going to um talk about a a glimpse in the life of david and david is this fascinating character in the old testament he's the guy he's an artist so he's written the psalms for the most part and he's a king he was anointed he's most famous for taking down goliath with a stone and but he's also infamous for some terrible you know murderous adulterous sort of things in his life as well and what's curious about the um character of david is that the lord says david is a man after his own heart and it's always a bit curious because david's like a real human with a lot of flaws and so you're like what exactly about it david is after your own heart and i think this story kind of we glimpse it a little bit here uh in this story so 2nd samuel 6. uh if you also if you haven't seen raiders of the lost ark you might not know about the ark of the covenant but the ark of the covenant is this really special thing with the glory of god the presence of god the power of god the israelites have put into this ark and they carry it with them so that god's presence is with them in this physical thing they've lost that when they were captured and it was taken by the philistines and then it was kind of returned but everyone's afraid and everything hasn't gone super well so this is david making sure that this presence of god is coming back to where it belongs is coming back home to jerusalem so we we capture the story we catch up to the story in verse 14. it says david wearing a linen ephod danced before the lord with all his might while he and the entire house of israel brought up the ark of the lord with shouts and the sound of trumpets now just for a second here what there's a couple really interesting things about the way the hebrew writers use certain words in this passage of scripture so david wearing a linen ephod danced before the lord the word dance there this is fascinating now the hebrew word for dance and play is the same word normally but this word they used a hebrew word called karar let me make sure i get this right i don't want to tell you anything that's wrong yeah they use this a word called karar and it actually means spinning like a top and what's really interesting about this spinning like a top is that it is uh in the eastern culture that david was a part of there was a proper way to dance there were like choreographed moves there were specific dances that you would do but spinning like a top is the way children would dance it's unchoreographed it's completely undignified it's just like a little kid and actually little kids still do this you ever be with a little kid where they just like go around in circles until they fall over they're not dancing any complicated steps they're not thinking about it they're just twirling as a matter of fact still in the middle east there's like a surf group of islam followers who are called the whirling dervishes and they literally do this as an act of worship they just whirl around they twirl around and they say the reason why they do this is called a suma the reason why they do this is they say it's the best way to cast off your ego it's the best way to cast off your ego so this is david dancing the other thing i just might want to say real quick is that it says danced before the lord but before could also be translated with so think about this for a second david is twirling around like a top he's spinning like a child he's just like lost in this childlike spinning with god and this is what's happening uh in that now uh verse 16 as the ark of the lord was entering the city of david macaul the daughter of saul and the wife of david watched from a window and when she saw king david leaping and dancing before the lord she despised him in her heart okay now everybody gets food because that's what happens when you're dancing and partying and playing you've got to eat but skip ahead with me to verse 20. when david returned home to bless his household macau daughter of saul came out to meet him and said how the king of israel has distinguished himself today disrobing in the sight of the slave girls of his servants as any vulgar fellow would now if you thought sarcasm was just a thing that happened in your marriage i'm glad to introduce this to you so early on in the old testament she's not happy we always read that she already despised him in her heart david said to macau this is verse 21 it was before the lord who chose me rather than your father or anyone from his house over the lord's people israel i will celebrate that word actually means play i will pray i will play before the lord i will become even more undignified than this and i will be humiliated in my own eyes but by these slave girls you spoke of i will be held in honor now i will become even more undignified than this we already talked about him being like a child and often times when we read this we always think it's about the nakedness but even that word nakedness like that uncovering actually is a word that means unveiling or beginning again showing the beginning so again it connotes this idea of childlikeness of uncovering david as his truest of selves this act that david does is this entry in to something beautiful where he's losing his dignity his ego twirling whirling like a whirling dervish and he's entering into this moment with god and he says he will become even more undignified that undignified actually means to be made light or to be made small and then the honor will come as a result of that and the honor is of course to be exalted which reminds us of a conversation that jesus had with his disciples so if you want turn with me to matthew chapter 18 because that's where that conversation happens matthew 18. an incredible conversation again catching up with this story uh this is mount of transfiguration this is healing with like boys with demons this is like this ascension like jesus is on a roll and the disciples are seeing all of this unfold they're getting very excited about this coming kingdom uh that is here and uh coming still and uh this is chapter 18 right at the first verse and it says this at that time the disciples came to jesus and asked who then is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven which is just so like us is that who then is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven and he called a little child to him and he placed the child at the front of them among them and he said truly i tell you unless you change and become like little children you will never enter the kingdom of heaven therefore whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven and whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me jesus is blowing everybody's mind in a culture that is about dignity and uh religious togetherness and you know rigid religious practices he's saying forget all that forget the ascension of the religious ladder like who's the holiest of them all who is the most religious of them all and he's saying it's childlikeness and we sort of echoes of this when he's talking to nicodemus remember about the spirit of god in john chapter 3 and nicodemus is like how can i enter into this incredible world that you're inviting me to and jesus is like easy be born again be born again he says like the the chief religious leader just be born again just become like a child and what is that childlikeness now lots of times i think we focus on the belief of children you know their natural inclination to be able to believe or their dependency but i think according to this david account and this jesus account that there's a part of the childlikeness that is leaving our cynical busy important ego aside and entering into a genuine relationship a place where we are connecting with god from a purely delightful wondrous joyful uh place now check out this quote by betty johnson miller this is also beautiful she says this put simply if we are only capable of thinking in terms of use and purpose we will be incapable of thinking about those realities that we cannot put to our purposes the loss of a sense of the mystery or enchantment of the world and the divine presence in the world seems to coincide with a loss of the sense of play now what's really cool about all of this this like david's example of just losing himself and then jesus's instruction to the disciples about like this childlikeness being of value being like a key way of uh experiencing the kingdom of god is that there's been a lot of theologians all throughout church history that have explored this idea of god at play and uh playfulness and delightfulness and wonder and joy being the source of our real connection and relationship with god so um moltman for example he's a really famous german uh theologian and really old i think he's still alive he's in his 90s and he wrote an entire book called the theology of play i don't even know i don't even know how you make play boring but anyway the theology of play and as i was reading the main takeaways of this book i was going to paraphrase them for you but then i thought you know what forget it you people are brilliant let's just read it through because there's basically five things that moltman says are kind of keys to understanding how play in his words what he says uh the whole of the christian life is at stake if we don't understand this whoa just take the whole of the christian life is at stake if we don't understand this because he said there has to be a paradigm shift in our understanding of who god is and who we are and how we relate to him and play is essential to this he says this paradigm shift should include shifting from work to play from necessity and outcomes to freedom and spontaneity from adult notions of purpose and goals to childlike enjoyment of god for its own sake from law to gospel and here are the five sort of theological principles molten uses in his theology of play and i want to read them to you because they're like blow your mind good and i couldn't make them sound any better so here play foreshadows the joy of the final days where all manner of drudgery and disease and decay and death will be left behind would what play foreshadows the joy of the final days where all manner of drudgery disease and decay and death will be done here's number two plays a celebration of life lived to the fullest here's number three in play we emulate god's actions who did not create the universe because it was a necessity god is playful and god loves and enjoys creating four play relativizes our over seriousness toward life filling us with a spirit of joy and delight that carries over into all other aspects of our life now just pause here for a second there's one more but would this be characteristic of your life would joy and delight uh from experiencing god the joy and delight of experiencing god be carried over when people look at christians do they go oh those are those people who can play hard like those are those people who are filled with joy and delight all through history as a matter of fact the opposite has been true we've been considered unhappy or there's like kierkegaard said like i can get a more joyless experience than to find christians in my day right just dour and always critical and always like on all things play the very opposite moltman said is true if we can encounter god the way we are supposed to encounter god and number five this is what he said play is not time out from work and it is not rest time either now listen to this it is kingdom foreshadowing it is a momentary escape into the future reality that god intended for us all a momentary escape into the future reality in other words in other words when we play when we really fully enter into the moment of play moltman says that we've actually lost that spectator spirit and we've entered into our childlike selves and it's in that place that's timeless it's when we touch eternity it's when we sense the divine the delight of god you remember eric liddell chariots of fire and he was going very seriously as a missionary to china and he was called as a missionary to china but then also he was an olympic athlete and he suspended his trip to china so that he could run in the olympic games and his parents and his church was like what are you doing like where are your priorities like what about your duty to god your calling as a missionary and eric liddell very famously said god made me for china but he also made me fast and when i run i feel his pleasure what when i run when i enter into those places when i fully when you ever if you have a chance to watch footage of eric liddell running he ran like nobody else like it was like he was a child running he was fully filled with the pleasure of god and in those moments uh that's exactly when we encounter something sacred where the agendas are gone and the competition's gone and the list of to-do lists is gone and we enter into our childlike self we will become even more undignified than this and we whirl and we twirl and we lose ourself in this beautiful divine dance what theologians would call the divine dance of the trinity which we're going to get to in a second but as i was preparing for this message you know i was thinking a lot about people who've taught me to play and obviously my children are so good at this just even eyes of wonder and delight and if we're willing to open up you know just a full confession that this is really difficult for me i'm an activist i'm a justice minded i want to get stuff done you know i've got a lot going on and so to to to stop the like relentless pursuit of all things adult and to put on this you know the lenses of wonder and joy and delight again just at the way things are has been a difficult journey but a really good one i remember my eldest son asking if he wanted to go to the park you know many years ago and him saying to me it depends are you bringing your phone or not and it was like what and he said well when you have your phone you're not really playing with me at the park you're on your phone and i'm playing at the park but if we want to play together i need you to be present with me it was a warning it was a rebuke it was an invitation a divine invitation for me to really create meaningful relationship with my son and the same invitation of course god is giving us if you haven't heard this recently and you don't know this about god he wants to play with you he wants you to participate in this divine dance of creativity so let me give you a little bit more theology because there's something really cool but oh my friend tanis that's right i was thinking about her all week because tanis opened me up in so many ways to the god at play in the world and how i could experience the divine so she just last year i we lost her in december she passed away but just last year she was at center island with my family uh in the summer and we were walking along and absolutely everything was closed because it was uh you know all all the things we've been through you know why and uh tanis i just remember her seeing a treat you know not at all discouraged that there was nothing to technically do functionally do she just saw a tree and remember her looking at my kids and going that tree looks climable you'll want to climb a tree and my kid's like yes we want to climb a tree you know and off they go they're up a tree and then they're like in the fountain even though probably you shouldn't be in the fountain and they're in the lake then they're on a rock then they're fully engaged in life i remember a couple years before that when i was with her in that experience when you can just experience something shift something shift from to-do lists and ought to's and what will people think to like this eternally present place where play opens us up to something sacred and holy and connects us in a way that nothing else can so years ago i took her with me to england on a speaking trip that i was on and it was right in the center of england like right in the downtown core and the venue had uh filled past capacity so they they created another venue just a couple blocks away and what they had done is they put these events on simultaneously so i had to speak at one event and then kind of walk briskly to the next place and speak at that event so there was this kind of timeline that's how i remember this so well i remember tanis it was her first trip to england and so she was just like wide-eyed with wonder childlike with joy about all that was going on and this is a woman who did not need to be that way she could have been cynical and jaded her life was filled with suffering and pain as a matter of fact physically she was in pain most of the time but her willingness to be childlike to throw off her ego to embrace the moment was just extraordinary and taught me this so we're walking between the venues i've spoken at this one venue i'm like tana's come with me we gotta go and we're and i keep losing tennis i'm like where'd she go like she's gone and i'd like have to turn around and look for her and sure enough i would find her just like wide-eyed with wonder staring at a statue i remember it was a statue of an angel and she's just like danielle look just look it's an angel like do you want to hang out with an angel you know like i really do want to hang out with an angel this is incredible but like i got tick-tock i got work to do you know and this battle between this like present opening this wonder this invitation to play and this work that we have to do is always present in our life but it might help you to know that god is at play all of the time and inviting us and one of the reasons why i think i was able to sense the sacredness the the timeless eternity the divine presence of god when i was with tanis was her ability to participate in what is called the divine dance of god the divine dance of god now the theological term for this is called pericorasis perichorasis and it comes from two greek words this is how god is described parakorasis the trinity god at play the divine dance it comes from a greek word which means korah which means space making space for and perry which means around so it's basically making space around itself for another the theological idea of this is that god as trinity is mutually indwelling so the idea that god is moving in and through and uh or in someone or something uh it's like a swirling actually this idea of pericolasis is like a swirling or what moltmann would say is a dance the dance of god and we see this in the trinity right god is three parts like god is three persons father son holy spirit we see this at the creation account when we think about the playful perichorasis of god at the creation of count where god the creator is there and the holy spirit is there hovering over the water and then jesus of course is present because god speaks and it's the word of god that actually makes things happen and we know that jesus is the word of god so there the trinity is dancing in that first creation we see this in the words of jesus later on when he's trying to describe the relationship that he has with the father in john 14 and he says the father is in me and i am in the father it's like what and then he's describing the holy spirit is going to come and be with you and also in you what and then it's like i am the vine and you need to be in me and what he's describing is this mutual indwelling or what is this dance of the divine the divine dance of creation and play and welcome and indwelling this mutual indwelling and this is the invitation i think um this is one of the the most exciting ways to understand god if especially if you come from a place where god's been at work and he's very serious and busy and you don't want to bug him because he's got work to do this is the very opposite of that that actually god is joyful god is childlike god is filled with wonder and delight god is inviting us to dance with him in this beautiful co-creating losing ourselves i will become even more undignified than this unless you become like a child this is this invitation of god so have a look at this picture because i think this describes it so well so this picture is taken from the 15th century and it's painted by it's very famous it's called the trinity it's painted by an icon maker a russian icon maker named andre rublev okay 15th century icon making and the idea of icons of course are not to worship they're like windows it's art that windows us into like the fuller picture and more and more things he was inspired by a little curious story of abraham where three angels come and visit abraham and then abraham ends up worshiping them and they receive the worship so it's kind of like whoa that was the trinity visiting neighborhood you know like and he's just like what abraham fed god like what's going on here and so those are the three angels but actually the title the trinity so this idea that like god is trinity and working and this divine dance is really represented here so just a little art lesson here for you so he uses three primary colors to describe the trinity so the first one is gold and you see that person there the first one wearing gold so gold is representing the father it's perfection fullness wholeness the ultimate source and then you see the next one in the middle they're wearing blue that's a significant color um they say art experts say that blue is the incarnate christ so both sea and sky mirroring one another and that you see if you can see uh jesus's hand there he's holding two fingers up which in those times especially meant jesus's his ability to um put spirit and matter divinity and humanity uh in one together with himself so um anyway and then also he's wearing red which is a symbol of suffering so there's this beautiful imagery of jesus and then go to the third person there wearing green uh this is really cool green representing the spirit the divine photosynthesis which wow who even like just practice saying that's really cool um this is hildegard of bingan so she's a theologian that's often overlooked in church history but a very a great female theologian that offered a lot she called this uh the greening of all things she called the holy spirit the greening of all things isn't that beautiful the constant greening the bringing to life of all things so there they are they're having dinner they're at a common table they're eating out of a common bowl they're in relationship they're in community and this is this understanding that god is in community that god is in relationship that god is mutually indwelling that god is inviting now what's really cool about this picture is if you look at the holy spirit you can see the hand of the holy spirit's kind of open and inviting there's a space at the table there's this fourth space at the table and um what's really cool is that there's it's it's like the trinity is inviting somebody else to the table now early art historians suggest that that see that little square underneath the bowl there on the table there's like a little square there when they found the first icon the there was a piece of glue you know there was sticky glue that was attached to that square in that that icon and what most early art historians believe is that there was a mirror attached to the icon where that square is and the mirror was this divine invitation for you to join the table to join the dance to join the mutual indwelling that god's invitation is for you to play what i mean isn't this incredible so this is god at play this is god as someone who loves to play who is at play in the world who's creating out of wonder and joy and a sense of um oh just a sense of overflow of love and inviting us and that's why when we touch play when we play together when we genuinely throw off those things or if you're like natalie and you sculpt or you paint or you sing or you just enjoy games or you knit or something happens and you're invited maybe you love getting outside in creation and as you enter into that place you can sense something sacred something divine as you find your truest self your childlike self this is where we can actually encounter god together isn't that good news and so for me the challenge has been will i take god up on the invitation you know my challenge has been will i will i be willing to say yes every time the divine dance invites me to join and it it seems to me that we always have this choice we can be like david or we can be like macall we can be like david where we're willing to become undignified where we're willing to twirl around and become childlike to play with god or we can become like macall and just get critical and just think like oh how silly i just think like how ridiculous there's real work to do you should be more dignified than this you should be more adulty about these things and it's my desire and i hope you hear this as a beautiful divine invitation that you are invited to delight to wonder to explore to be curious to spin like a talk to uh ex to experience the childlike wonder of the invitation that god has for all of us and that really is my prayer so let's talk about it do you have any questions do you have some interest in some more jared okay yeah there are some questions here danielle and just before we get to those you're going to be on the after party uh coming up at 12 o'clock eastern right so yes continue as we uh just dig into this so great i'm glad you're glad you brought rubolov that was uh that's so beautiful okay so here's the thing um people seem to be wrestling with holding tension with some of the things that seem to be at opposition here on some level so first thing might be this maybe this is getting us fast forwarding a little bit to where we're going to be going down the road like in weeks to come but what's the difference between god at work and god at play yeah we're gonna have to ask jimmy [Laughter] oh boy um yeah i mean i think tension's a good word and i think paradox is a good word because actually i think some of the problems that we have in our adultyness of embracing our faith is that we want all the answers instead of the mystery right like we don't want the tension we don't want the mystery and for sure in all of our lives in my life there's a tension between this like drive and calling towards working and doing the work of the kingdom and this delightful celebratory wondrous invitation now what i would say is that in the scripture it seems and even jesus's invitation is that those things are connected so they're not at odds with each other i think they're in tension with each other and i think the tension exists where the what we've done to work you know what i mean like i think that there can be childlike curiosity and a joy and excitement about what it is that god's asking us to do in the kingdom and i think that might be what jesus is suggesting to the disciples like become like a child and the kingdom work will actually be uh celebratory will be a divine dance like this is something beautiful that we get to do with god but i think we get confused and um maybe over we've over emphasized i think the work the serious nature of the work for so long that the playfulness and the childlikeness has just really been dormant and so it's i i would say if we have to lean in any direction in the season we might want to lean into play that's super helpful uh second question and i guess we'll just make this our last one actually this is sort of come in through a number of different questions so i'm kind of summarizing this here but maybe you can talk a little bit about the tension between play joy and suffering and suffering is just uh an important part it's a real part of our human experience in human existence so how do we how do we bring those two things together yeah and i think this is maybe one of the things that i learned the most out of tanis it's kind of why i brought her up because she is the person who suffered the most that i know you know just literally uh systemically and personally and then even was in physical pain but just shows and i think for her she would say that as she chose delight and wonder and play when it was available to her like when she saw that and she entered into that place it was a momentary suspension of her suffering you know just a momentary uh pause on the suffering at least in that moment of play she was able to put that aside for a second and embrace this this concept of of delight and wonder again and childlikeness again so i actually think that play and i think this is why play is becoming a much more popular form of therapy um because there is something and i think that something is god i think there's something about getting connected to our truest childlike selves that then kind of suspends his eternity like moltman says we're touching god the divine uh when we suspend uh those sort of things and foreshadow this time where we actually will all be only delightful and in the presence of god really great thanks and special shout out to natalie too for doing beautiful work back there can't wait to see what she's been playing yeah and if yeah and if you want to check out more uh natalie's at shape and fire on instagram so check it out and she told me beforehand she literally had nothing in mind she's just following the clay and following the creator and playing around and uh what a great thing to see you playing natalie i mean seriously not that i just i don't like you telling me what to do but i just think this is so cool so cool i'm going to pray with you and then just really challenge you um to enjoy your home church this week to enjoy the invitation to play with others to see it if you struggle with this adults like me let your children lead you this week so even as i was preparing for this message all week i decided i would spend this whole week saying yes to every opportunity to play and i can tell you right now i've got a book deadline on tomorrow and i've got all these things on the go and i just said i'm saying yes to every invitation to play this week as a spiritual exercise and it was beautiful and it was glorious and once i stopped freaking out and just embraced it i had really a beautiful week with the lord and with friends and with others and this connection is what actually restores us to ourselves so let me pray for you and then send you uh to play so let's pray earth is a task garden and heaven is a playground would you help us god to enter the playground of eternity would you help us to encounter you as a god who plays and creates and wonders and delights at us would we hear again the words of zephaniah who said that god sings over us and whirls and twirls and dances with delight over us would we sense the invitation from your holy spirit to lose ourselves to become small and childlike jesus would we take your invitation seriously to become like children again this week and encounter you and experience you and spread the joy and wonder of your kingdom come may god give us grace to resist our cultures over emphasis on work and play more with him in jesus name we pray amen go play people go play hi i'm bruxy thanks for tracking with the meeting house teaching if you want to see more videos by us just click right here if you want to see what our youth and our kids are learning you click here and if you want to be notified 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Channel: The Meeting House

Views: 896

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Keywords: jesus, the meeting house, the meeting house teaching, TMH teaching, TMH livestream, Jesus christ, the meeting house 2021, God @, Danielle Strickland, God At Play

Id: OJlGrNzkpiU

Length: 38min 23sec (2303 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 16 2021