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I‘m sure you are all familiar with John Lennon, the former Beatle, and with his now iconic song “Imagine”. He released it back in 1971 as the title track of his second solo album called “Imagine”. The phenomenon of this song is huge. Let’s not underestimate what a deep chord it hits with people. In 2004 Rolling Stone ranked it no.3 in its list “The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time”. Ever since 2005 it’s the song that’s played on New Year’s Eve when the ball drops at Times Square. “Imagine” is the universal, global go-to song for whenever the sentiments arise that we need to make this world a better place. Whenever there is a great tragedy involving the death of many people, “Imagine” gets more airplay than any other song. It seems that whenever the feathers have hit the fan, “Imagine” seems to hit the spot.
What’s so special about it? Well, Lennon invites us to imagine all the people living for today to make the world better rather than just shuffling on our way hoping for some sort of better afterlife; to imagine all the people living life in peace rather than killing each other over nations, politics, and religions; and to imagine all the people sharing all the world so that rather than greed counter-balanced by hunger, there is human unity and economic fairness; and, in the end an invitation for all these imaginative people to join together to live as one. It’s basically a call to imagine people united in peace and sharing what they have and maybe to join together to make it a reality.
Oddly, the song was very divisive. Just listen to the lyrics:
Imagine there's no heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today... Aha-ah...
Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion, too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace... You...
You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be as one
Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world... You...
You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will live as one
If John Lennon were trying to put out a call to a better world, he certainly made no friends among those who want to be rich and those who seek power in politics and religion. This song got him into some very hot water particularly with the Christian crowd. It really does sound like he was going after the Christian faith or at least the institution of the Church, but not Jesus. I think he, like the Doobie Brothers, would have thought that “Jesus is just alright”. The Christian response to “Imagine” was pretty brutal especially from the religious right. I remember back in the ‘80’s hearing on Christian radio more than once how this song was a demon-inspired call to Communism, Anarchy, and Atheism. There was no embrace by the religious right at all.
But to be fair, Lennon did say where the inspiration for the song came from – a Christian prayer book given to him by Dick Gregory who was a comedian, singer, and activist and an African-American man of faith. Lennon also said that what he meant by “no religion” was not atheism, but rather this thing of people saying my religion is bigger than your religion and then fighting over it. I don’t think he was trying to rule out God and spirituality, but just the institution of religion. I think he was just trying to say, “Look up to the sky above with a slate cleared of the institutions of religion, politics, and economic domination that have led humanity so wrong and appreciate the possibilities for a world of peace…and of course God, unhindered by the chains of religious institutions, would be a part of that. It would be presumptuous to say Lennon was an atheist. He was an Anglican, actually.
Well, I don’t want to make too much of John Lennon; that would be making him bigger than Jesus for the purposes of this sermon. I would just like to step out on a limb and say this world of peace and unity that Lennon calls on people to imagine actually came about in the first couple of decades of the church in the wake of Jesus’ resurrection. Let’s take a jump into our reading from Acts and note what arose in those small Christian communities of faith.
That world of peace and unity that Lennon could only imagine was really present among those Holy Spirit-filled followers of Jesus, the Son of God, who was crucified dead by religious and political authorities for inviting people to come live according to the Reign of God rather than the ways of religions and empire. Jesus was crucified dead, but God raised him. In the power of the Holy Spirit God raised him and he was seen by the Apostles and well over 500 people. Then, in due course God poured the Holy Spirit by whom he raised Jesus from the dead upon Jesus’ disciples and enabled them to live as Luke, the writer of Acts, says, as a people of one heart and soul who shared all things in common.
People ask how this little group of Jewish Jesus followers grew and spread so quickly and expansively throughout the Roman Empire and beyond to be multi-national, multi-ethnic, interracial, and egalitarian with respect to gender and social status. Most Christian historians and Bible scholars say it was due to three critical factors; their proclamation of the historical fact that God raised Jesus from the dead, the experienced presence of the Holy Spirit among them, and the historical reality of the quality of community that they shared.
Scholars will also say that the Holy Spirit-filled community that arose in the wake of Jesus’ very real, bodily resurrection was exactly what people back then imagined to be the perfect form of human community. Thus, the community the early church shared was a type of community that those who longed for the purest expression of human community were drawn to. The Romans had Pax Romana with roads and mail and stuff but it came at the cost of oppression by the Roman military. The early church had fulfilling human community.
In the same way that the ideals that John Lennon wrote about in “Imagine” hits a chord with the vision of ideal human community for people today so did the early church with people back then. Several of the ancient Greek philosophers, Plato for one, when they reflected on what ideal human community would be like said that people would be “of one heart and soul” and they would “share all things in common”. The people of Early Christianity were of “one heart and soul” due to the Holy Spirit in their midst making Jesus real to them and creating a devotion to him that overflowed into an unconditional love for others. This love led them to share all things to the extent that there was no needy person among them. They eliminated poverty in their midst.
They eliminated poverty in their midst!
How did they do that? Well, their wealthy adherents discerned that their allegiance to Jesus meant more than the power and status that their wealth provided them in the Roman Empire. They truly believed God had raised Jesus from the dead and that he would return and a new world was on the verge. The evidence they based this on was the felt presence of the Holy Spirit among them when they gathered for worship and fellowship and the Holy Spirit’s going before them in mission doing things only God can do. Imagine that! Well, that being the case, they sold those extra fields and houses and possessions that they didn’t need and laid it at the disciples’ feet for distribution to the needy. Imagine that! And it wasn’t just the wealthy. Aside from these very generous acts, sharing possessions was simply the way of life for early Christians rather than being obsessed with calling everything “mine” the way we do. Imagine that!
Luke gives two distinguishing markers of early Christian fellowship. The first was that the Apostles gave their testimony that they themselves were eyewitnesses to Jesus being raised from the dead. The Holy Spirit backed it up with what Luke calls “great power”. The Greek word for power he uses here isn’t the one used for power in the sense of authority. The Apostles were not lording power over the early Christian communities by saying things like, “We saw Jesus raised” or “we were his closest friends so you have to do what we say.” The word here is dynamis from which we get words like dynamic and dynamite. The power by which God raised Jesus from the dead undergirded their testimony and made it effectual in those who heard it. People were healed and changed. Divisions and grudges were set aside. All those things that would keep people from being of one heart and soul were mended.
Luke also says “great grace” was upon them. When we use the word “grace” around the church we often misuse it or misinterpret it to mean God showing grace by not giving me the punishment that I deserve. That’s not what grace means. Think of it this way. We got some fans of the British Queen among us. If we were to say that Queen Elizabeth II showed me grace, it would be that she welcomed me into her presence, showed me her favour, and promised to act for my benefit; so it is with God’s grace. Grace with respect to God is that he brings us into his presence, declares his favour for us, and promises to act for our benefit which he, of course, does. Think of a gracious host. A gracious host spares no effort in making you feel like you’re the most important person at the banquet. God, by the gift of his presence among us, the Holy Spirit, makes us each feel as if we are most special to him, like family to him and with each other. God considers us his beloved children for no reason other than he loves us. That’s grace.
This “great grace” was then embodied in the early church by the fact that there was no needy person among them. As I said they eliminated poverty in their midst. How did they do that? Those who had shared what they had with those who had not. Imagine that! Imagine if we thought about the grace of God less in terms of God loves me even though I’m sinner and the proof of that is Jesus died for me and more in terms of God loves me and the proof of that is I give everything to everybody just as Jesus gave his life for me. Imagine that! They relinquished their attachment to possessions. Imagine that!
People will say that this ideal image of the early church that Luke presents us with here was simply contrived, that Luke took the example set by a few individuals and made it seem as if everybody was doing likewise. To be honest, Luke was writing in hindsight and as they say “Everything looks better in hindsight”. He wrote his Gospel 20-25 years after the events he portrays of the life in the first decade of the church there in Jerusalem. But most scholars will say that one of the reasons the church spread so explosively was that they really did redistribute their wealth and share their possessions in the way that Luke says they did. Early Christians were so convinced that they were living in the inbreaking of the Kingdom of God that they lived accordingly. Imagine that!
Jesus taught things like: “Lend expecting nothing in return.” (Lk. 6:35) Sell your possessions and give alms”…(“and you will have treasure in heaven”)…”For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Lk.12:33-34; 18:22) “None of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions.” (Lk. 14:33) These first Christians really took Jesus’ teachings on wealth and possessions seriously. Imagine that! Wealth and possessions are odd animals to have on the farm. They’re like cats. We think we own them, but in reality they own us. If we died alone in our houses with our dog around, the dog would loyally sit by our side or go find help whereas our beloved little tabby would soon start to nibble on us. (Just trying to lighten the moment).
The first Christians took Jesus’ teachings on redistribution of wealth and sharing possessions so seriously as to actually do it because they were convinced God had raised him from the dead and, resultantly, the Kingdom of God was indeed at hand. Imagine what the world today would be like if we the followers of Jesus shared their conviction! Imagine that!…or maybe we should do more than just imagine. Amen.
