Imagine!

This Sunday asks us to use our imaginations.  Jesus is preparing his disciples for when he won’t be with them anymore (John 14:12-21).  It’s the night before his betrayal and crucifixion.  He’s tried to tell them he’ll be resurrected, but the fact remains he won’t be the same, and their relationship with him won’t be the same.  It’s a hard message to hear.  In spite of that, he tries to comfort them, promising he won’t leave them “orphaned,” but will give them the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, our Advocate, the “One who walks beside.” 

            And this is where we need to use our imaginations.  What does Jesus mean?  What does that look like?  In the reading from Acts 17:22-31 this Sunday, Paul is in Athens, trying to tell the people about Jesus.  He’s appalled at first by all of the idols in the city and the Acropolis where all the temples are.  A lot of them would be “R-rated” (nudity)—in other words, I would not show them on the screen with little kids in the church.  Paul’s Judaism wouldn’t allow for “graven images,” and here he is surrounded by them!  But underneath it he senses a religious imagination that “seeks after the Divine.”  God has put it on our hearts to “grope after God” (Acts 17:27-28), and it’s that longing for something bigger, that would make us whole, that his Gospel tries to speak to.     

            That sounds very familiar.  I sense that kind of longing in our day and age.  So how do we have our imaginations opened to perceive the truth and reality of what Jesus promises and describes?  The Holy Spirit is with us!  And IN us!  What does that look like for the sake of our neighbors who are groping and struggling??  How do we show AND tell others about our faith?  This Sunday is also Mothers’ Day.  It should be obvious by now that our religious imaginations could accept “mothering” images of the divine.  How might the Holy Spirit work through them? 
Peace,

Pr. Christian