The lead piece is from "Amazing Grace by Kathleen Norris. In this book she takes many of the words and images of the faith and attempts to put some reality and life to them.
IMAGINATION
I once read a book, a conservative and rather hysterical response to Christian feminism, that argued that the language of the Bible was not at all human - the writer positively scorned the idea that an image such as "God the Father," or any other biblical image for the matter, could be the least bit metaphorical. He insisted that it was an entirely literal language, having come direct from God... How much saner, healthier, and how much more incarnational, are the words of a document from Vatican II, "On Divine Revelation": "...the words of God, expressed in the words of men, are in every way like human language, just as the Word of the eternal Father, when he took on himself the flesh of human weakness, became like men."
Here is a bold sanctification of the human imagination, and of language itself, the flawed, conditional language of the Bible's inspired but wholly human authors. Here, too is the justification of the mystic's certainty, as in Shaw's St. Joan, when she responds calmly to an inquisitor's pouncing on the word imagination, as if to spring a trap. "I hear voices telling me what to do," Joan says. "They come from God." "They come from your imagination?" her interrogator asks, and she replies, "Of course. That is how the messages of God come to us."
This was a long excerpt. I find it to be quite important. I often speak of "faithful imagination." It is imagination informed by the vision of God's reign as it would come to life within the everyday world in which we live. I think the prophets were ones of great imagination! So great was their faithful imagination, they were able to see through the corruption and injustice that was the "way things were" in their day and they were able to speak of another vision for life...not yet seen...imagined. I would think that the literalists of our day would have quite a hard time with the voice of the prophets of old. I would imagine that literalist would also have a tough time hearing how and why the gospel writers put down on paper what they did. I have been considering an old phrase over and over again. "Make believe" is something we do as kids. WE...pretend that such and such is true ( we may be older...we may be soldiers...we may be artists...we may be...). For me, a faithful imagination is the beginning of taking seriously the vision of God's eternal reign...I, you could say, make believe, that Jesus is the saving Lord of all...already. I believe it...even if there is not a lot of evidence that Jesus rules....I make it my day...I prayerfully call on God to make it some among us.
Connection: What will your faithful imagination let you see and hear today!?! Go ahead...make believe...and then step into the promises of God that are not yet in full view. That, takes imagination.
Lord, God, you invite us into the vision of your glorious reign. Encourage us so that we will not be afraid to hear the voices of life that keep coming into our lives from your blessed reign. Call us forward into the life you would have us live. Amen
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