2026.05.10 | Creativity

“Changemakers: Creativity”
Proverbs 8:22–31
Preached by 
Rev. Dr. Marvin Lance Wiser
Eden United Church of Christ  
Cherryland, CA 
05 May 2026

Before we begin this morning, I simply want to say thank you. Last Sunday’s Service of Installation was an incredible gift of love, joy, and Spirit-filled community. I am deeply grateful to everyone who helped lead, organize, cook, welcome, pray, sing, set up, clean up, and celebrate.

Thank you for the trust you place in me and for the shared ministry we are building together here at Eden. Last Sunday reminded me what a beautiful community this is: rooted in love, justice, belonging, and joy. It is truly an honor to serve alongside you.

El Servicio de Instalación del domingo pasado fue un regalo increíble de amor, alegría y una comunidad llena del Espíritu. Estoy profundamente agradecido con todos los que ayudaron a dirigir, organizar, cocinar, dar la bienvenida, orar, cantar, preparar el espacio, limpiar y celebrar.

Gracias por la confianza que depositan en mí y por el ministerio compartido que estamos construyendo juntos aquí en Edén. El domingo pasado me recordó qué hermosa comunidad es esta: arraigada en el amor, la justicia, el sentido de pertenencia y la alegría. Es verdaderamente un honor servir a su lado.

And now, friends, I invite you to pray with me:

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O God, our rock and our redeemer.

Creative Spirit, stretch our imaginations this morning. Open us to your Wisdom that still calls out in the streets and sings through creation. Abre nuestros corazones a Tu Sabiduría, que aún clama en las calles y canta a través de tu creación. Remind us that we are Your children, made in Your image, capable of creating love, justice, beauty, and change in this world. Amen.

In our scripture today, Woman Wisdom tells us that she was there in the very beginning of creation. Before the mountains rose. Before the oceans burst forth. Before the skies stretched overhead.

Wisdom says she was beside God, “like a master worker,” rejoicing in creation and delighting in humanity. Not unlike John’s understanding of the Word, Logos, being with God in the beginning, and through which all came into being. 

But interestingly, the Hebrew amon here in Proverbs can also be translated differently. Some scholars suggest Wisdom was beside God not only as a master worker, but also “like a little child.”

And honestly, maybe we need both images. Because creativity requires craftsmanship. It requires building, shaping, making, organizing, and bringing something into being with care and intention. But creativity also requires the spirit of a child: wonder, curiosity, imagination, playfulness, and the freedom to see possibilities where others only see limits.

Maybe Wisdom is both architect and dancer. Both builder and child. Both skilled maker and joyful companion.

And perhaps that’s part of what it means to be made in the image of a creative God. We are called to cultivate wisdom and skill, yes, but also holy imagination. The willingness to ask, “What if?” The courage to dream beyond what currently exists, and endeavour together toward its fruition.

Children do this naturally. They can turn cardboard into castles and backyards into worlds. Somewhere along the way, many adults lose that capacity for holy imagination. We become practical. Cautious. Efficient. Risk Mitigators. We stop believing new things are possible.

But Easter is God’s reminder that new creation is always possible. And during this Easter season, as we reflect on Jesus and ourselves as Changemakers, that matters deeply. Because sometimes the problems in front of us feel impossible. The needs are overwhelming. The divisions are deep. We look at the world—whether the Middle East or the gutting of the Voters’ Rights Act—and think: I don’t know how to fix this.

But Proverbs reminds us that we belong to a creative God.

The very first thing scripture reveals about God is not power or punishment, but creativity. God creates life where there was chaos. God imagines possibility where there was Tohu wavohu, a real primordial mess. And because we are made in God’s image, that creative power lives in us too.

Creativity is not only painting or music or art, though it certainly flourishes there. Creativity is the courage to imagine that things can be different.

Every movement for justice began because someone imagined a better world first.

Someone imagined freedom.
Someone imagined dignity for an oppressed people.
Someone imagined a church rooted in love and justice and belonging.

That is holy creativity. And of course it's best accompanied with the creativity of art and song, which fuels movements.

En el libro de Proverbios, la Sabiduría personificada afirma haber estado junto a Dios en el comienzo de la creación, antes de que existieran las montañas, los océanos o los cielos, regocijándose en el mundo y deleitándose en la humanidad; una imagen no muy distinta de la visión de Juan sobre el Logos, la Palabra presente junto a Dios, a través de la cual todas las cosas llegaron a ser. 

Resulta que la palabra hebrea empleada para Sabiduría pueda significar tanto «maestro artesano» como «niño pequeño» en este pasaje; tal vez necesitemos ambas imágenes: la creatividad exige la destreza y la intencionalidad de un artesano, pero también la espontaneidad y la imaginación de un niño que aún cree que es posible crear nuevos mundos. 

En algún punto del camino, muchos adultos se vuelven excesivamente pragmáticos y terminan resignados a aceptar las cosas tal como son. Sin embargo, la Pascua nos recuerda que una nueva creación es siempre posible. Pertenecemos a un Dios creador que hizo surgir la vida del caos primordial y, dado que hemos sido creados a imagen de Dios, ese poder creativo reside también en nosotros. La creatividad es el coraje de imaginar que el mundo puede ser diferente. Hay que ser atrevido a soñar más allá de los límites del presente para hacer realidad un mundo más justo.

You may have been in a church service on Mother’s Day where another passage from Proverbs is read, Proverbs 31. Often translators render the Hebrew phrase eshet chayil as “a worthy woman” or “a worthy wife.” But the word chayil is much richer than that. It carries the sense of strength, valor, courage, even the language of a warrior. That’s why I translate it as a woman of valor. And that matters.

Because for centuries, institutions have often tried to domesticate women, confining them to narrow roles and private spaces. I myself grew up in a tradition where women were not allowed to pray or even speak during the worship service. But the image we encounter in Proverbs, is far more expansive and powerful than that.

Woman Wisdom is not hidden away in the home. She is in the streets. At the gates. In the public square. Raising her voice. Calling communities toward justice, imagination, and flourishing.

She is courageous enough to summon us beyond fear and scarcity and into our creative potential.

And perhaps that is part of the wisdom mothers, grandmothers, aunties, mentors, and all those invested with the sacred vocation of mothering have long carried too: the courage to create life-giving possibilities in worlds that often insisted such possibilities could not exist, making ways out of no way, stretching resources, nurturing and protecting life, building homes and communities with wisdom, resilience, and love. Woman Wisdom reminds us that creativity itself is an act of courage. 

En muchas iglesias, durante el Día de las Madres, se lee el capítulo 31 de Proverbios, donde la expresión eshet chayil se traduce a menudo como «una mujer virtuosa» o «una esposa virtuosa». Sin embargo, chayil es mejor traducido como fuerza, valor, coraje, ósea, una mujer de valor. Y esto es importante, pues si bien las instituciones han intentado con frecuencia confinar a las mujeres al silencio y a los espacios privados, la Mujer Sabiduría de Proverbios se planta con audacia en las calles y en la plaza pública, convocando a las comunidades hacia la justicia, la imaginación y el florecimiento. 

Ella nos recuerda el coraje que madres, abuelas, tías y cuidadoras han encarnado desde siempre: abrirse camino donde no lo había, nutrir y proteger la vida en medio de la adversidad y crear posibilidades más allá donde otros solo veían límites. La creatividad misma es un acto de valentía. La Pascua nos revela lo mismo acerca de Dios: la resurrección es el acto supremo de amor creativo por parte de Dios. Así pues, tal vez la transformación no comience por tener todas las respuestas, sino por la audacia de imaginar una vida nueva con la Sabiduría de Dios.

Woman Wisdom in Proverbs is not quiet or hidden away. She is active. Building. Calling. Creating life. And Easter tells us the same thing about God. Resurrection is God’s ultimate act of creativity. When the world believed death had won, when we are tempted that all is lost, God imagined new life.

So friends, maybe changemaking does not begin with having all the answers. Maybe it begins with imagination. With trusting that the Spirit is still creating new possibilities among us. And having the audacity and tenacity to align ourselves with God’s still-speaking Wisdom.

We already have enough. We already bear the image of a creative God. Now Wisdom calls to us: Will we join in the co-creating too? Amen.