CHRISTIAN VIEWPOINT: Called to shine a light through acts of creativity
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‘And God said “Let there be light”,’ the choir intones quietly. ‘And there was light.’ And on the final word, a powerful explosion of rich sound erupts from the orchestra.
It’s the most breath-taking moment in Joseph Haydn’s work The Creation which was performed on Sunday at the Drumossie Hotel by the Inverness Choral Society.
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The oratorio, for choir, soloists and orchestra, was composed in the 1790s.
It tells the Bible’s story of the creation of the earth out of darkness and chaos, and its population with all forms of life culminating in the first humans.
It’s an uplifting piece, full of loveliness, and it makes my heart sing.
Even if we were hearing The Creation for the very first time, and didn’t know of Joseph Haydn, we would have no doubt that it was written by a supremely gifted musician who had brought their heart, mind and soul into its composition.
Yet many of us assume that the world, more wondrous and complex by far than Haydn’s masterpiece, is the product of billions of years of random evolution.
Surely it is more likely that a creative mind lies behind it, and that the universe is a great act of self-expression by a Spirit who reaches out and encounters our spirits in everything that is beautiful and true.
As Haydn’s chorus puts it ‘The heavens are telling the glory of God.’
Haydn wrote his many works as a life-long Catholic Christian.
He said that, while composing The Creation ‘I knelt down each day to pray to God to give me strength for my work.’
At the final concert he ever attended, a performance of The Creation in 1808, we’re told that he pointed heavenwards in response to the applause, saying ‘Not from me – from there, above comes everything.’
I believe that when artists and poets speak of ‘the muse’ it is often the Spirit of God who is moving and inspiring them. Christians believe that human beings are creative because God is the Creator: God works in partnership with us as we exercise our creativity – bringing beauty, truth, love and joy into all aspects of life, even the mundane and every-day.
As Jewish Rabbi Abraham Heschel put it: ‘God’s dream is to have humanity as a partner in the drama of continuous creation. By whatever we do, by every act we carry out we either advance or obstruct the drama of redemption; we either reduce or enhance the power of evil.’
Wherever we find chaos and darkness, we are called as was Joseph Haydn to shine the small flickering candle of our creativity, drawing strength and inspiration from above, responding together to God’s call over our troubled world: ‘Let there be light.’
