November 2015
THEME: Transcendence
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| "The Starry Night" by Vincent van Gogh |
“Imagine...” - John Lennon
“Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, and saying, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news." - Mark 1:14-15
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It might seem strange to pair a quote from the John Lennon song that invites the listener to image there’s “no religion too.” with a Bible verse calling people to “repent and believe in the good news.” Yet, if we take a closer look at each, we find their message is more in harmony than is commonly thought.
Lennon’s song asks us to image a world different from the one in which we live today. It is a song about vision and transformation. It is about removing the various and divisive lenses through which we normally see and relate to the world and one another that we might recognize our common humanity.
Most of us have been taught that “repent” means to apologize and seek forgiveness. But in the context of the verse from Mark’s gospel it means something quite different. In the Jewish Bible (what Christians call the Old Testament) repentance meant “to return.” In the Christian New Testament, repentance carries an additional meaning, for the roots of the Greek word for repentance means “to go beyond the mind you have.” Thus when Jesus calls would be followers to repent, he is calling people to return to God (or that which is life giving and sustaining), to envision (or imagine) a life that is different from the one in which we live and believe that such a life is here ready to be embodied through us in the way we relate to one another and live our lives.
John Lennon’s imagine is in many ways then, can be heard as a 20th C. affirmation of Jesus’ call to repentance, inviting us to transcend the self-inflicted limitations of the mind and embody through our lives, another way of being, the kingdom, some might say, of God.
Reflection and Exercise
Write your own version of “Imagine.”
What kind of world do you envision and seek to embody through your life?
I believe there is a way to transcend beyond the mental place we are now by returning to our inner light. This thought calls me to imagine a world where everyone worked to be their very best self at all times, to ourselves, those around us and our environment. Of course, even John Lennon can't imagine a "perfect" world but simply striving to be closer to it than yesterday. this is Amy (not Mary)
ReplyDeleteLovely. What you describe is at the heart of every spiritual practice. Thank you for sharing, Amy.
ReplyDeleteI like Amy's comment and I agree wholeheartedly. Do the best we can to be our best. If everyone did that the world would be much better off.
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