The Gift of Holy Imagination
One of the Pharisees, called Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish Council, came to Jesus by night. ‘Rabbi,’ he said, ‘we know that you are a teacher sent by God; no one could perform these signs of yours unless God were with him.’ Jesus answered, ‘In very truth I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he has been born again.’ ‘But how can someone be born when he is old?’ asked Nicodemus. ‘Can he enter his mother’s womb a second time and be born?’ Jesus answered, ‘In very truth I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born from water and spirit. Flesh can give birth only to flesh; it is spirit that gives birth to spirit. You ought not to be astonished when I say, “You must all be born again.” The wind blows where it wills; you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone who is born from the Spirit.’
‘How is this possible?’ asked Nicodemus. ‘You a teacher of Israel and ignorant of such things!’ said Jesus. ‘In very truth I tell you, we speak of what we know, and testify to what we have seen, and yet you all reject our testimony. If you do not believe me when I talk to you about earthly things, how are you to believe if I should talk about the things of heaven?
No one has gone up into heaven except the one who came down from heaven, the Son of Man who is in heaven. Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, in order that everyone who has faith may in him have eternal life.
‘God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that everyone who has faith in him may not perish but have eternal life. It was not to judge the world that God sent his Son into the world, but that through him the world might be saved.’
Lent has its origins as a time of preparation for those who would be baptized at the Great Vigil of Easter. This was the most auspicious and most common time for baptism in those days. The Church recognized that it was impossible to teach someone everything about being a Christian before they joined the Body of Christ; sometimes experience is the only way to understand a thing. Imagine dying to yourself and taking on life in Christ which you will share with every other Christian who has been, is now, and will be. Imagine.
I don't remember being taught how to imagine as part of my formation as a Christian. But holy imagination is a fundamental skill for us. Not because we have to convince ourselves that God is real or Jesus Christ really was who he said he was. We are persuaded of these things through experiences that we have and those shared by our siblings in Christ. No, we must be imaginative because our faith promises a world very different from the one we live in today. If we are to make our way from here to there, even with God leading us, we need to be able to imagine the steps.
I believe this is at the core of the conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus. The Pharisee is intrigued by what Jesus has done and these descriptions of the kingdom of God. Nicodemus is curious. He is ashamed of his curiosity, knowing how his peers would react if they knew he were taking this Galilean rabbi seriously. His imagination has been sparked but he cannot quite see his way from the world he lives in to the one Jesus is describing.
When Nicodemus presses him, asking how someone can be born a second time, Jesus chides him for his lack of imagination. "You a teacher of Israel and ignorant of such things!" (John 3:10) If Nicodemus cannot even imagine his way to a different earthly existence, how will he ever imagine new, eternal life in the kingdom of God? Not a kingdom grieving its past glory, occupied by foreign forces, and torn apart by greedy politicians, but a place where the widow and orphan are safe and the foreigner is always welcome. For this is the destination: Not condemnation, but salvation.
This is one of the greatest gifts that we have to offer someone who hears God's call and is considering how to respond. A persistent hope. A faithful imagination that lets us see a world radically different than the one that we live in today. We can envision great change, with God's help, and with that view in mind, we can draw a little closer each day.
In December of last year, Trevor Noah interviewed Zohran Mamdani, the new mayor of New York City, on his podcast What Now? As you might imagine, their conversation included plenty of politics. In particular, the surprise with which Mamdani's election was met. He is a self-described democratic socialist, dramatically leftist on the American political spectrum. He is also 34 years old. Not a typical New York City mayor at all.
One portion of their conversation was about why the left seems to have such a hard time convincing people of much that is hopeful. While the right dreams big and manages to accumulate lots of support for the idea. In the conversation, Trevor Noah said "I sometimes think it’s because of the decline of religion on the left." His cohost, Eugene Khoza, offered a correction, suggesting that it wasn't religion, but a decline in faith. Noah responded by saying:
One of the things that faith requires of you is the ability to believe that this current state that you are in is not the end. There is a possibility that something can be greater. And even though you cannot see it, you believe that it can happen.
Mamdani confirmed that during his campaign, he found that houses of worship were regularly the places where people had faith and trust that things could get better. Not a sentiment shared so clearly in many other gathering places or communities that he met along the way.
Our holy imagination is a profound and important gift. One which, I suspect, many of us take for granted.
Just as Nicodemus demonstrates, the kingdom of God is impossible to even begin to understand without strong capacity for imagination. If we cannot conceive of a world dramatically different from this one—a world aligned with God's justice and the overflowing love that saw Jesus Christ, the Son, sent for our salvation—then we will have a hard time changing anything. If we cannot imagine a radical difference, the best we can hope for is the status quo, perhaps in a slightly different shade of beige.
Cast your minds to the promises that we make and reaffirm at baptisms. We will renounce and fight against evil, that we will believe and put our whole trust in Christ as our Lord and Saviour, and that we will obey God's holy will and commandments, and serve God all the days of our life. This is expanded into promises about working for justice, affirming and respecting the dignity of every human being, being good stewards of God's created world. And, of course, the Apostles' Creed which ends with "I look for the resurrection of the body and the life of the world to come." We do not know exactly what the life of the world to come will be like, but we commit ourselves daily to imagining it and looking for signs that it is near.
We also give the newly baptized a lit candle. A symbol and reminder that they now carry the light of Christ with them. They should be signs of hope in the world, allowing God to work through them for the good of their neighbours. Placing faith and trust in God's promises that tyrants will be cast down, the poor will be lifted up, and peace will rule the nations. Helping the helpless to imagine the world that their dignity deserves and that we commit ourselves to work toward.
Glory to God, whose power working in us can do infinitely more than we can ask or even imagine.
