Imagine. Just imagine.
Imagine a world without doors locked from fear or grief or sadness or despair.
Imagine a world without those great divides of us and them, of rich and poor, of haves and have-nots, of gets and get-nots.
Imagine a world in which folks look not to walls that divide but to ties that bind.
Imagine a world in which hearts are taught not to fear but to love.
Imagine that.
Remember that wonderful John Lennon song “Imagine”
Imagine heaven all around us
It’s easy if you try
Heaven right within us
Expansive as the sky
Imagine all the people
Living from that place.
Imagine no divisions
No boundaries, no borders
Nothing to kill or die for
It’s not that hard to do
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace
You may say God’s a dreamer
God’s not the only one
Maybe one day we will join her
And the world will be as one
Imagine no possessions
A world without a pall
No need for greed or hunger
Community for all
Imagine all the people
Sharing what they have
You may say God’s a dreamer
God’s not the only one
Maybe one day we will join her
And the world will be as one
I think God calls us into the work of imagining the world anew. The world Christ ushers in. A world in which water turns to wine. A world in which the lame walk, the blind see, the deaf hear, and the poor experience good news.
Imagine the world—the world Christ ushers in.
Imagine that Easter world. Right here. Right now.
*At Live at Five I think we’re on the way. On the way to an Easter world of Jubilee where people gather together to celebrate life with one another—life in Christ both here and far beyond those doors—an Easter world in which around the table we slowly weave our separate lives into one as we become one body sharing one bread and one wine.
*At St. Michael and All Angels—our larger congregation on the move both reaching out to people in great need and digging deep in a life of prayer, praise and service.
Worshipping communities leaning into God’s imaginings.
Take a moment—just a moment—to imagine that Easter world lived not from a place of fear but from a place of love and hope.
Imagine Albuquerque living from that place.
*There would be no houseless and no homeless in an Albuquerque powered by love. We’d find a place for folks and find a way to connect us all together—housed and houseless all really quite at home within themselves and with one another too.
*Imagine all our children loved and welcomed and given the chance to grow into the people God created them to be.
*Imagine police protecting and also serving—beginning with the most vulnerable in our community: the homeless and the mentally ill.
*And imagine the people—we the people stepping away from our own vantage point and beginning to see things from the point of God in the person facing us.
Imagine our country living not from a place of fear but from a place of love.
Remember what Paul had to say about love: Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things.
What a foundation for a Presidential campaign! What a base for a party platform! What a set of legislative rules!
And imagine—just for an Easter moment—imagine a world lived from that place of deep peace Jesus offers those who come into his orb. That peace that springs from abiding in the healing waters of God’s love. No need to prove one’s or one’s country’s righteousness. All are loved. All are welcomed. All are tenderly cared for.
Imagine. Just imagine.
Imagine heaven all around us
It’s easy if you try
Heaven right within us
Expansive as the sky
Imagine all the people
Living from that place.
Imagine no divisions
No boundaries, no borders
Nothing to kill or die for
It’s not that hard to do
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace
You may say God’s a dreamer
God’s not the only one
Maybe one day we will join her
And the world will be as one
Imagine no possessions
A world without a pall
No need for greed or hunger
Community for all
Imagine all the people
Sharing what they have
You may say God’s a dreamer
God’s not the only one
Maybe one day we will join her
And the world will live as one