Imagination

I am a worrier. It took me a long time to admit that. On the outside I try to be the super confident person that everyone thinks has everything together…but really, I’m not. I still am a worrier, but I especially when I was in high school.

I agonized over almost everything. What to wear each day became terrifying. I rehashed conversations constantly to see if I embarrassed myself. Not embarrassing myself became my highest priority.

Anxiety, I think, is one of the emotions with which all of us identify. At some point in our life, somewhere, we have worried about something. And so we read from this part of the sermon on the mount in Matthew, and it causes even more anxiety in us…ironically. We become anxious because Jesus is telling us not to be anxious, and that makes us even more anxious than we were before!

I’ve seen this scripture on posters, coffee mugs, and tshirts; and every time I think to myself…are we trying to convince ourselves of something? Are we trying to convince others that we have everything together?

We used to play a game at Camp Glisson called “What If.” And it was meant to freak yourself and others out right before bedtime. We would sit around the campfire and make up “what if” scenarios. And it was a practice of imagination, but for some reason the only what if scenarios we came up with were always bad. It had to do with being left alone in the woods, or encountering something you deeply feared. We would make up these things and then tell campers to go to sleep!

But What If questions are constantly on our mind. You can think of your own What if. You can drive yourself crazy thinking of all the what ifs in your life.

I think the primary sources of anxiety is fear. We are afraid. And it says constantly in the Bible, don’t be afraid. So we strive for security in an uncertain world. Just in Case.

And if we try to puff out our chests in defiance saying we aren’t afraid of anything…take a step back. We are all afraid of something.

But what Jesus is talking about is when we live our lives serving our fears rather than serving our God.
We serve the things that hold power over us. And fear is a powerful thing.

That is why the weapon of terror has become so prominent in our modern day. The main weapon of terrorists is fear, and they use it well…because many of us are afraid.

And an answer that was present in both Jesus time and our own is that wealth can take away fear. By being able to get whatever you want whenever you want takes away your anxiety. People put their trust in land and titles in Jesus day, much like our own, but Jesus is offering a better way. Because land and titles don’t bring the absence of anxiety, if anything they just bring different fears.

Instead, Jesus is asking us to imagine the world as he sees it. And he sees it as God provides. Even your salary and your income are provided by God. And if you would trust in that…then your worries don’t seem as important anymore. Because it is out of your hands, and it is in God’s hands.
But let’s be realistic. The worries are still there. Because our society isn’t based on how God sees it, it is based on how we see it. So it is tempting, just like with a lot of things Jesus says, to write it off. Yeah, that’s great Jesus, but you don’t have a mortgage, kids, car payments, equipment fees, taxes, papers to grade, tests to take, relationships to find, bank accounts to monitor…and the list could go on and on. But I want us to rethink this passage, especially as we are approaching the season of Lent that begins in a week and half. Before we write it off as an ideal that can never be attained, lets think of what this might mean to our life of discipleship, our life of following Christ. The disciples are the ones Jesus is talking to after all.

Jesus is inviting us to turn the tables, just like he did in the temple, and inviting us to turn the tables during Lent.
Yes, imagine what ifs, but instead of them being bad things where everything falls apart, imagine them being what God sees with God holding everything together! It is much better! We have license to do this, I mean, that is what God sees. That is what God created us for. To imagine the world as he sees it. And Jesus is inviting us to think with him.

What if your worries and concerns about your life disappeared. That you realized that you are doing okay. That vices do not have control over you, and you are equipped to make a life in this world. What if?

Or, what if your kids turn out great? They are loving, responsible citizens of the human community? What if that happened?

Or, what if we were a church that was known for embodying the love of Christ? That in everything we do we are striving for the Kingdom of God and his righteousness.

Now the question we ask ourselves once we catch that vision that Jesus casts for us is…what are we going to do to help make sure this vision happens?

First, I think, we must trust God. We can no longer look with skepticism at what God has provided us in scripture, reason, tradition, and experience.

And second, our seeking and imagination must become natural.
That is why, I think, Jesus says to look to lilies and birds as our example, because they are doing what they are naturally created to do, which is why they are absent of worry and live the vision God has for them. But somewhere along the way, we lost that natural ability. So it is no longer natural, but with Jesus’s love we are able to gain it back.

This past week when I was coaching at the high school, one of the girls accused me of focusing on the little things too much. I tend to focus on the little things in soccer. Like proper form in shooting, proper technique in passing. Trapping the ball with the correct foot. Getting yourself in the right position. I am even concerned with which you foot you start running with because that will get you in the right position for your next move.

And I told her why I did this. Because if she can learn how to do these little things as if they were second nature, then the game would come easier to her. If she naturally carries out these little things, if this is her primary mode of operating on the field, then she will be successful.

And I think this is what Jesus is saying to us. If we can shake off the negative what ifs to turn them into possibilities to the point where it is our natural mode of operating…then fear cannot stop us.

We will naturally love the poor. We will see a place where there is pain and suffering and we will know that God has called us to be an answer to prayer. Our prayers will have power and meaning because they flow forward from the imagination of God and not from our own desires.

We will naturally give generously, simply because it is a part of who we are. We do not have to struggle into the mode of being Christ’s disciple, we naturally are, which is why we talk of Christianity as being free. We are free from those self-doubts and vices, and free to love as God loves.

So how do we get there? How do we get to a point where this mode of operating in life is natural to us? Well, like with anything, we have to practice. And that is what Lent is about. Practicing spiritual disciplines so that they might become natural. Practice reading scripture. Practice giving to the poor. Practice feeding the hungry. Practice giving yourself. Practice so that the words of Christ are naturally on our lips in whatever we see. And the world might be interpreted through that lens.

Removing those obstacles, and focusing on Jesus and what he did to make us free. Removing all of the allegiances that we have so that our allegiance to Jesus and each other is the only one we have.

Lent is coming in a week and a half. We will gather to impose ashes on our foreheads in our preparation. It is my hope that God’s imagination will take over our own in this church and this community. Removing fear and anxiety, but especially removing worry.

There is a story out of Southeast Asia that talks of this.

Once upon a time, a boy traveled with his father through a jungle to sell produce at a market. It was a long day, and as the father was traveling home at the pace of a tired child he knew that they would have to spend the night in the jungle, which was dangerous.

The father picked a spot, and told the boy to lie down, and the boy said, I want to sleep in the middle! Put me in the middle! The father didn’t know what he meant. So the boy snuggled in on top of the father’s chest, and fell asleep, as did the father with his son sleeping, “in the middle.”
Later in the night a tiger came to their camp, and intended to do them harm, but when he saw the boy and his father he was taken aback. What was this creature with four arms, four legs, and two heads? And when the father awoke the tiger became frightened and ran away.

When they got home, the mother asked how their trip was, because she was concerned about where they slept, the father told the story about their son sleeping “in the middle.” And the mother knew that the child was safe, because he slept in “the middle” of his father.

We are the beloved children of God, worth more than many sparrows and many lilies. And we know we are safe and secure in the middle of our heavenly Father. Lent will put us there, as when we live in the middle of our Father, we imagine as he imagines. Seeking his kingdom, and his righteousness.