“People in general are equally horrified at hearing the Christian religion doubted, and at seeing it practiced.”  Samuel Butler

Ever since its release in October of 1971, John Lennon’s Imagine has been a lightning rod for the insecurities and indignations of the faithful.  For just as long, the song has remained the wistful ballad of the wayward and the soundtrack to all secular longing.  If man were the measure of all things and humanity divine, Imagine would be atheism’s loveliest hymn.  But to anyone whose worldview has God at the center, Lennon’s lyric overreaches and underpays; an artifact from the ruins of Babel.

If we really care about people, then we will really care about ideas.  What was John Lennon’s idea here and what accounts for its broad and persistent appeal?  Lennon wasn’t evil, but simply a nonbeliever doing the best he could with what he had on hand.  The Apostle Paul wasn’t threatened by all the false deities being celebrated on the hills above Athens and he wasn’t combative with the philosophers who argued for their veneration.  He listened, observed, and proceeded to fill in the blanks for anyone who would listen.  He simply shared the good news of Jesus Christ and let the Gospel topple all that was false.  At this week’s Roundtable, we’re going to discuss the lyrics to Imagine and work to understand why a weary world is left to its imagination and how Christianity might be the dream come true.  See you this Sunday, August 26^th at 8:30 in the morning.  God bless you!

Click here to read the lyrics to “Imagine”

There’s an old Yiddish proverb that asks, “If I try to be like him, who will be like me?”  In this question is an affirmation of the important uniqueness of everyone and everything.  To be created is to be cast by the Great Director to play a part in His great play.  Never be another’s understudy, then – learn your own lines and hit your own marks.

The church was founded and created by God to be the agent of salvation in the world.  What the ark was to Noah and his family, the church would be and now is to Christ and His family.  And just as God gave to Noah very specific details on how the big boat was to be built; the church’s design and make-up was also neatly blueprinted for its builders and custodians.  In recent years, it seems the church in the West has grown insecure in its design and despairing of the peculiar part it’s been asked to play.  Past generations built grand spaces, big enough to accommodate the entire town and on most Sundays it seemed like the entire town crowded in.  But today, the pews are largely empty and the rafters no longer ring with the hearty chorus of hundreds.  The population has flocked to other venues to be about other things.  There is a great temptation for the church to be somebody else; something more hip, more attractive, more relevant.  Our reading for this week is a fascinating Op-Ed by Rachel Evans published in the Washington Post back in 2015.  Entitled: Want millennials back in the pews?  Stop trying to make church “cool”; Evans offers her insights as one who grew up in the church, left the church, and has found it again.  There’s plenty to consider here and much to discuss.  Looking forward to hearing your thoughts this Sunday morning at the Roundtable!

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