Tag Archives: John Lennon

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REVISITED: Why Imagine?

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Read Matthew 5:1-16; 6:7-15; 13:1-34; Mark 12:28-34

ALSO IN SCRIPTURE
“As you go, proclaim the good news, ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near.'” (Matthew 10:7)

Why Imagine?I was just listening to the song “Imagine” by the late, great John Lennon. The song has long since been heralded as the global anthem of world peace and was Lennon’s best selling song of his entire solo career.  The song challenges the listener to imagine a world without possessions, without war, without greed and poverty.  John takes things that are commonly held to be the cause of war and suffering, and challenges the listener to imagine a world where those things didn’t exist, which John assumes would be a world where the “world would be as one.”

At the top of John Lennon’s list of things to imagine the world without, was the notion of heaven, and conversely, the idea of hell.  To the Christian, such lyrics should make us pause. Why would John Lennon want us to imagine a world without heaven?  What would such a world be like? John then takes it one step further and ends that verse with this, “Imagine all the people living for today.”  For John Lennon, the concept of heaven is one that is foreign to this earth. It is a place far, far away; it is a place that is someplace other than this earth.

Christianity has often taught that this world is something to be discarded, that we are to await “a place that is far better than this world.” Heaven has been taught, by Christians, to be the very antithesis of Earth. Yet, in the Bible we find a different understanding of heaven.  Jesus didn’t speak of the Kingdom of Heaven as a place that was far, far away; rather, for Jesus heaven was right here, right now. Jesus taught that not only could we see and experience heaven on earth, but that we could inherit it. All that we needed to do was open our hearts to God and see the world through God’s eyes.

For Jesus, heaven and hell were the opposite sides of the same coin. As he walked the streets of Galilee and Judea, he saw hell all around him. Starvation, extreme poverty, disease, neglect, abuse, and other terrible things are all examples of the hell Jesus witness all around him. His entire country was experiencing the hell of being occupied by the oppressive and tyrannical Roman Empire.

Yet, despite all of the hell Jesus saw, he also witnessed to the very real presence of heaven in the world. When he chose to heal instead of harm, when he chose to love instead of hate, when he chose to forgive instead of bear grudges, when he chose to stand up for right rather than sit down for the status quo, he was not only witnessing to the presence of heaven but he WAS THE PRESENCE OF HEAVEN…the very presence of God in this world.

And we can be the presence of heaven too. We just need to be willing to get a little dirty, to feel a little uncomfortable and to step outside of the boxes we put ourselves in. We need to be willing to reach out and be LOVE in the lives of those around us. We need to be willing to become vulnerable, just as Jesus became vulnerable, for the sake of those around us.  To do such things is to bear witness to the reality of heaven on earth.

While John Lennon is calling for us to imagine there to be no heaven out there in the sky, he is also calling us to imagine a world in which heaven exists here on Earth.  But he has missed an important truth that Jesus has been pointing us to all along: we don’t have to imagine heaven on earth…we only have to live it.  Pointing to others not living it is not proof that it doesn’t exist. It does exist if WE choose to LIVE it!

THOUGHT OF THE DAY
Imagine what would happen if you stopped imagining and started living what you imagined.

PRAYER
Lord, I thank you for my imagination and for equipping to make what I imagine become a reality. Guide me to be your shining light, witnessing to the reality of heaven! Amen.

Devotional

What Have You Done?

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Read Matthew 1:18-23

ALSO IN SCRIPTURE
“Then Isaiah said: ‘Hear then, O house of David! Is it too little for you to weary mortals, that you weary my God also? Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Look, the young woman is with child and shall bear a son, and shall name him Immanuel.’” (Isaiah 7:13-14)

131212-immanuelEvery day over the last few weeks have been filled with reminders that this world is just not right, that things are just not as they should be. We have Christians, Jews and Muslims who are losing their homes and their lives as the result of religious extremism and intolerance. We see the tension and division over racial inequality in the United States growing ever more stark in the light of the tragic events of Ferguson, Missouri and now in Staten Island, NY. We see people going missing, active shooters in schools and public buildings, and other horrific events jumping out our TV sets and into our very own communities. All of this in time for Christmas.

In times like these, and perhaps in general, people enter into the Christmas season a bit on the cynical side. What’s this Christmas holiday? You see signs that read, “Keep Christ in Christmas”, but that just leaves most people with a BAD TASTE in their mouths. After all, where is God? Where is Christ? What good is a Christ or a Christmas that masks the pain of others and celebrates the advent of BIG BUSINESS and the pursuit of abject materialism of the haves over and above the abject poverty of the have-nots? What good is Christmas?

As I have written in the past, so I still maintain, there are really no answers that can adequately satisfy us when it comes to why God and evil coexist. Then again, the non-existence of God does not eliminate the reality of evil, so that really isn’t much of an adequate alternative either. What’s more, these questions also remind me of “Happy Xmas (War Is Over)” by John Lennon. In it he starts the song off with these lyrics, “And so this is Christmas, and what have you done? Another year over and a new one just begun.” The fact of the matter is, we can ask what good is God, or what good is Christ, or what good is Christmas; however, the question we really should be asking is, what good are we?

That is not to say that we are bad and to interpret the question that way is to miss the point John Lennon is making. We can look to God or to Christ or to Christmas and wonder where the magic is, all the while continuing on living our lives separated from the hurt of the world. But what good is that? How does that disconnected, finger-pointing approach help make this world a better place? Not to mention, it also mischaracterizes Christ/mas and shows that we have a deficit in our own understanding in what it means for us to experience the nativity of Christ in our lives.

The Nativity story is not only a reminder of Immanuel, of “God with us,” but it is also a reminder of the fact that through Christ, “God is in us.” The nativity for us is not the birth of a baby 2,000 years ago; rather, it is the birth of Christ in our very own hearts. And that birth, that nativity, changes us to reflect the light, the love, and the goodwill of Christ in the world. To translate that to words that actually mean something, we are to be the Christ we wish to see in the world. That is what God is CALLING US TO DO.

And so this is Christmas, what will you do? Will you watch the year expire only to continue on disconnected all the way through? Or will you, to quote Gandhi, be the change you wish to see in the world? Will you stand up against inequality? Will you be the ushering in of Immanuel, of God with us, of Christ who is the lgiht of the world? Each and every day we are called to make a difference. We may not be able to change the entire world and we may not be able to eliminate evil, let alone explain why it exists; however, we can be living proof in the lives of others that God is real, that God is love, and that God is working through Christ in us to bring about hope, healing and wholeness in the world. Game on!

THOUGHT OF THE DAY
“We need not look any further than our own hearts, and the hearts of those around us, to find God.”

PRAYER
Lord, I thank you for always being preset me, and thank you for revealing your presence in me. Let me witness to that Good News and strengthen me to actively work for change in the world around me! Amen.

Devotional

Why Imagine?

Leave a comment

Read Matthew 5:1-16; 6:7-15; 13:1-34; Mark 12:28-34

ALSO IN SCRIPTURE

“As you go, proclaim the good news, ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near.'” (Matthew 10:7)

Why Imagine?I was just listening to the song “Imagine” by the late, great John Lennon. The song has long since been heralded as the global anthem of world peace and was Lennon’s best selling song of his entire solo career.  The song challenges the listener to imagine a world without possessions, without war, without greed and poverty.  John takes things that are commonly held to be the cause of war and suffering, and challenges the listener to imagine a world where those things didn’t exist, which John assumes would be a world where the “world would be as one.”

At the top of John Lennon’s list of things to imagine the world without, was the notion of heaven, and conversely, the idea of hell.  To the Christian, such lyrics should make us pause. Why would John Lennon want us to imagine a world without heaven?  What would such a world be like? John then takes it one step further and ends that verse with this, “Imagine all the people living for today.”  For John Lennon, the concept of heaven is one that is foreign to this earth. It is a place far, far away; it is a place that is someplace other than this earth.

Christianity has often taught that this world is something to be discarded, that we are to await “a place that is far better than this world.” Heaven has been taught, by Christians, to be the very antithesis of Earth. Yet, in the Bible we find a different understanding of heaven.  Jesus didn’t speak of the Kingdom of Heaven as a place that was far, far away; rather, for Jesus heaven was right here, right now. Jesus taught that not only could we see and experience heaven on earth, but that we could inherit it. All that we needed to do was open our hearts to God and see the world through God’s eyes.

For Jesus, heaven and hell were the opposite sides of the same coin. As he walked the streets of Galilee and Judea, he saw hell all around him. Starvation, extreme poverty, disease, neglect, abuse, and other terrible things are all examples of the hell Jesus witness all around him. His entire country was experiencing the hell of being occupied by the oppressive and tyrannical Roman Empire.

Yet, despite all of the hell Jesus saw, he also witnessed to the very real presence of heaven in the world. When he chose to heal instead of harm, when he chose to love instead of hate, when he chose to forgive instead of bear grudges, when he chose to stand up for right rather than sit down for the status quo, he was not only witnessing to the presence of heaven but he WAS THE PRESENCE OF HEAVEN…the very presence of God in this world.

And we can be the presence of heaven too. We just need to be willing to get a little dirty, to feel a little uncomfortable and to step outside of the boxes we put ourselves in. We need to be willing to reach out and be LOVE in the lives of those around us. We need to be willing to become vulnerable, just as Jesus became vulnerable, for the sake of those around us.  To do such things is to bear witness to the reality of heaven on earth.

While John Lennon is calling for us to imagine there to be no heaven out there in the sky, he is also calling us to imagine a world in which heaven exists here on Earth.  But he has missed an important truth that Jesus has been pointing us to all along: we don’t have to imagine heaven on earth…we only have to live it.  Pointing to others not living it is not proof that it doesn’t exist. It does exist if WE choose to LIVE it!

THOUGHT OF THE DAY

Imagine what would happen if you stopped imagining and started living what you imagined.

PRAYER

Lord, I thank you for my imagination and for equipping to make what I imagine become a reality. Guide me to be your shining light, witnessing to the reality of heaven! Amen.