Psalm 15; James 1.17-27
Keep up the good work …
You’re doing fine …
You’re making progress …
You do good … you pay attention … you smile at the world … you pray often … you give to reliable charities … you’re informed and well-read …
You’re doing a better job today than you did yesterday … and tomorrow, it’ll be even better …
And if it isn’t better, that’s ok … some of your best learning is done when things go south …
You are instruments of God’s Peace …
Through you, God touches the world! And through you, the world touches God.
At the heart of our faith, life itself, good questions …
Questions to keep us thinking, and growing.
I love to watch interviews … historians, politicians, business leaders and academics … ever so often during the interview, a question is raised that gives pause to the one being interview … they’ll stop to think, and say, “That’s a very good question,” as they collect their thoughts.
Good questions.
What is life all about?
Who am I?
Where did I come from … and where am I going?
What’s love got to do with it?
Will the world be better off because of me?
Can I manage the challenge?
Will I make it through?
Part of what we do here is ask good questions:
Life is mostly about good questions … not answers …
Yes, we have books full of answers … much of it of value … but far too often … answers crush the questions … answers crush the soul … answers close the mind and shut the door.
In too many churches, and in so much of our traditions: judgment, hellfire and damnation …
If not quite so violent as a sawdust trail preacher, a bit more refined, in high pulpits and comfy pews, but still the same old hash:
you’re not welcome here,
you’re not quite right for us,
we care more about ourselves than we care we about you …
183 questions are put to Jesus … he directly answers only 3 of them. In turn, Jesus asks 307 questions.
Questions fire the imagination … imagination is the heart and soul of life.
Watch a child at play … Christmas, Birthday … a gift unwrapped … the child goes for the empty box!
The gift is wonderful, but the empty box wins out … because the box invites the child’s imagination … make of me whatever you want, says the box to the child … shall I be a rocket ship to take you to the moon? Let’s go and see the universe.
Or maybe I’m a car, and we can drive fast all over the world.
Maybe I’m ship sailing on the high seas, and off we go for grand adventures in faraway lands …
The child goes to bed happy, a tired smile and a twinkle in the eye … the gift for another day … for now, it’s the empty box!
All the best things in life started with imagination … a refrigerator and an airplane … … finding the North Pole and going to the moon … voting rights and civil rights … knee replacements and vaccines …
Imagination …
Abraham Lincoln … imagines a world where freedom for all is the order of the day …
Teddy Roosevelt and his trust-busting work … he imagines a nation where all the people benefit, from the wealth of the land, and the wealth of our industry.
Nelson Mandela, jailed for 27 years … imagines his beloved South Africa free of Apartheid …
Dietrich Bonhoeffer imagines his beloved Germany free of Nazi madness.
Galileo and his telescope … Edison and his light bulb …
Ruby Bridges goes to school, and Rosa Parks refuses to go to the back of the bus.
Imagination is the heart and soul of life.
Poets imagine a better world …
Artists, dancers and story tellers …
Chefs and bakers …
Teachers and social workers …
Bankers and brokers …
Dorothy on the Yellow Brick Road and Captain America …
Imagination …
God said, “Let there be light” …
The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want …
Give us this day our daily bread …
Love your neighbor as you love yourself …
Water from a rock, and manna in the morning …
Trumpets blow and the walls of Jericho crumble to the ground …
Jonah and the whale …
David and Goliath …
A star in the sky, shepherds in the hills …
Jesus and John in a river called Jordan …
Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
We imagine a new world every time we pray.
Every hymn we sing …
Before I go any further, let me remind you that imagination can run amok …
A friend of mine hid under the pew when he was a child, because he was so afraid of God … his imagination violated by angry preachers … when it came to communion, he’d take the little piece of bread and tuck it into his pocket, and he sip the juice, but not swallow it - after church, he’d spit it out, wash his mouth out, because he believed himself unworthy, and if he ate the bread and drank the juice, he’d be damning his soul to eternal hell.
A child’s imagination sullied, violated, injured, by thoughtless adults … no wonder Jesus says:
Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever becomes humble like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me. If any of you put a stumbling block before one of these little ones who believe in me, it would be better for you if a great millstone were fastened around your neck and you were drowned in the depth of the sea.
Good theology, theology centered in Jesus, ignites the imagination … lifts the spirit …
Good theology invites us into the child’s empty box … to imagine ourselves on great adventures of faith.
Good theology invites us to see the world through the eyes of love …
To know anything about Jesus is to know the energy and power of imagination …
I am the Bread of Life … says Jesus.
I am the Light of the World …
I am the Door …
I am the Good Shepherd …
I am the Resurrection and the Life …
I am the Way, the Truth and the Life …
I am the Vine …
Come and follow, and I’ll make you fish for people.
You are the light of the world, and the salt of earth.
Look at the birds of the air …
Consider the lilies of the field …
Knock and the door will be opened to you …
Don’t build your house on the sand, build it on the rock.
This isn’t theology - it’s imagination.
This isn’t dogma, or doctrine - it’s imagination.
These aren’t rules and regulations …
These aren’t requirements and restrictions …
These are not dire warnings and threats of punishment - it’s imagination.
Christianity at its best is like a piece of great music,
a fine book,
a visit to the Norton Simon,
a stroll in the mountains,
a picnic with friends,
a quiet evening at home binge watching a favorite show.
This building is all about imagination … the chancel is a bright blue sky … the ceiling above you, a crown of crosses, covering the whole wide earth.
In the this place, we imagine great things …
Amen and Amen!
1 comment:
Does this even count as a sermon?
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