Easter 5 - Year C

Well here I am for the first time - let me tell you, I have spent an awful lot of time this year imagining what it would be like to stand here and yes it is every bit as frightening as I had imagined it to be. And speaking of imagination, let me share with you part of what I've been doing over the last fortnight.
This last fortnight I have been privileged enough to be called in to help Lily and Danielle (both 3) with a particular problem they seem to have. You see, unbeknownst to me and my husband Michael, our house seems to have become the new resting place for a monster, a witch and a lion. Now they were both a little afraid of all three of these new residents, and they required someone apparently invincible - me - to move them from the places they like to hide and wait for the children. So every time they would play I would dutifully wait until I heard the screams which meant that the monster, witch or lion would have shown back up then I would rush forward and shoo the monster from under the house or the witch from behind all of the doors or the lion from off of the staircase. I did this for a long time - frightening away the animals then calming down the screaming girls until one day when I asked Lily if she wanted me to get the lion off the stairs before she went up and she turned and looked at me with the most incredulous expression on her face and said to me "Don't be silly Mum, it's just a pretend lion." And so, just like that, the game had ended. But I was left feeling a bit hollow after that. The games we had played had been exciting and put a bit of spark in my life and I wondered when it was that I had chosen to involve myself in a game of my imagination. When was the last time we played an imaginary game? Can anyone tell me if they have played cowboys and Indians this week? How about cops and robbers? Doctors and nurses? Barbie and Ken? Anyone? Why not/ why haven't the rest of us? Is it because we are grounded in reality, not fantasy? Is it because we are too mature to play silly games? Is it because we are too busy to waste our precious time? Is it because we fear the freedom of existing in a world created by our own imaginations, even if only for a few minutes?
Anyway, this adventure with the monster, witch and lion made me realise that Lily and Danielle's lives were much more exciting and joyful than mine. I began to ask, where are my imaginings? How do I engage my imagination? Well, I just didn't know the answers, so I thought I'd better start noticing; firstly so that I'd be able to know if there were any monster or witches lurking, and secondly, because I wanted to see if I had lost something that could so easily bring excitement and joy to my life.
Thus began a search. And where did this search lead? I realised quite quickly that I utilised my imagination in mainly two areas; in problem solving and when I needed to make something new. It seemed that my imagination was caught up in and directly responsible for creation. Well, kind of...I realised this wasn't necessarily true when I thought I'd rely on just my imagination to cook dinner - which wasn't so much a creation as a complete destruction of perfectly good food.
Needless to say the following day I didn't choose to use my imagination when baking a cake and pulled down instead a favourite recipe book - promptly realising of course that I was now following someone else's imagination, someone who had taken the time to painstakingly write it down so that someone else (with a less able cooking imagination) could share in the creation that they had imagined.

I was very optimistic this time when I began the recipe - I had a spring in my step and everything. However, my spirits sank when I realised that the middle of the cake had. Obviously it did matter that I had switched the self raising flour for plain flour. And so I learnt in the process that creation needs not just imagination but also the right materials.
My cooking story doesn't end there. It was a sponge cake I made (eventually - after I followed the recipe with the right ingredients) and in my book you just can't have a sponge cake without jam and whipped cream and luckily I didn't have to worry about making the jam but I did have to make the whipped cream. So I found the recipe, made sure I had all the ingredients, I put them in a bowl ever so carefully - the exact ingredients, the exact amount, then I went about trying to beat it...with my fork.
Yes that's right - I had discovered another stage in creation - imagination (or detailed instructions), the right materials and the right tools.
Now I want us to stop and think about this for a minute. Imagination and the right materials and tools leads to creation. Have a look around. Reach out and touch something. See how it was once something else that through imagination and the use of tools has become a new creation. Have a look outside - what raw materials can you see that could be transformed into a new creation if you but had the imagination and the right tools.
Now spend a moment reflecting on the current difficulties you are experiencing in life, are there tools available in your tool kit, or the tool kits of others such as doctors, friends, counsellors that could be used imaginatively to lead to a transformation or the creation of new life for you?
When we are so out of the practice of using our imaginations to change our realties, such as we did in our childhood games, I wonder if we are still able to use our imaginations to transform our lives now, or if a lack of engaging our imaginations has led to an inability to see a different way and thus a sad resignation to just accept things as they are.
We know how powerful the use of imagination can be - how powerful the use of shared vision can be. Take the example here of an extremely well known speech. It began with these words
"I have a dream" - think about these words. I have a dream, I have a vision, and I have an imagining.
With his imagination, with his vision fuelling the imaginations of thousands of others, Martin Luther King was able to combine the tools and resources of so many people to bring about a transformation, a change to the status quo - the creation of a new world for so many millions of people.
Now keeping in mind the example of the way in which Martin Luther King created a new world, let's look briefly at the world we have today. So very often in conversation with people when discussing the largest issues facing the world today such as poverty, disease, war, gender equality, terrorism, sanitation, global warming and climate change and so on, we constantly encounter this lack of imagination and resignation to just accept things the way that they are. How often do we hear statements like ‘there will always be poverty in the world' or ‘boys will be boys' or ‘this problem is too complicated for me' or ‘I could never make a real difference.' The issue with this is that we must make a difference. We can't expect it to go away; we can't expect someone else to solve it for us. There comes a point when we must realise that the buck stops with us and rather than just accept the status quo we must say ‘no, there must be a transformation, there must be a new creation.' We must fire up our imaginations, we must gather our materials, we must roll out our tool kits and all the tools we are able to beg, borrow and steal... okay maybe not steal, let's stick with beg and borrow, but we must work towards a new creation. And it starts with our imagination.
Look outside, look inside - everything you see is the result of Gods imagination. In psalm 148 we are told ‘‘the sun, moon, stars, heavens, sea monsters and all deep, fire, hail, snow, frost, wind, mountains, hills, fruit trees, cedars, wild animals, cattle, creeping things, flying birds, kings, all people, young men and women alike, old and young together."...came from God "for he commanded them and they were created" Imagination was and is essential in creation. But take heart for we are not the only ones to struggle with it.
In the acts reading we see that the gentiles accepted the word of God - in essence this means that they chose to accept the set of tools that God gave them to equip them in the lives. This was a new set of tools for them - it would have been easy to accept because their imaginations would have been fired up at the possibilities for the use for their new tools. We also see that the circumcised believers, or the old believers, criticised them - perhaps because this was not a new set of tools for them - they already had this info, it was a comfortable part of their life, perhaps their tools were a little rusty and well worn from good use and they thought that they knew the only ways in which the tools could be used. So when Peter comes and shares his vision - his imagination - with them, he takes them through a step by step explanation because they just can't see how it can be done. So just like a recipe will do, he had to explain very simply that if you use this tool with this material or circumstances, then this is what will be created.
God has given us so many tools to use - by the time we work our way through the Old Testament we have quite a collection of life tools. And yet, like most tool kits there is that one tool that is more useful than the rest. The one that, if missing, would make a toolkit useless.
Through his life, in his interactions with so many, Jesus was a walking instruction manual and before he left he spoke of the one tool that was essential to use. Jesus said ‘a new commandment I give you, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, so you must love one another."
So, what then, if we use the tools given to us by Jesus? Spend a moment thinking what it would look like. What would it look like if we chose to not use the tools of greed, fear or self-protection, but the tools that God has given us through Jesus? The tools given to us of radical love, compassion, mercy, selflessness, care, concern and righteous anger against injustice.
What would happen then?
Let me again share with you the visions of a man who could see the answer to this, let me share again the imaginings given to us by John in the text of the book of Revelation.
But this time I want you to imagine it is a different context. This time I want you to imagine that they are being spoken in our world today and to the problems of today and this time I want you to imagine that they begin like this...
I have a dream
"That I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, the New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying,
‘See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them; he will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away."
Have a look around you, behold your world, and behold the materials God has provided you with. Hold your tools tightly - the tools given to you through the scriptures and by Jesus. Familiarise yourself with the life of Jesus - for this is your instruction manual. All that is required of now you is your belief and your imagination to transform the old into a new creation.
And ladies, this week let's put on our crowns and become princess, and men lets saddle up our white horses and become that gallant hero. Let's imagine the impossible and bring into creation that which God has made possible.
The Lord be with you.