Redeemer Review
The Episcopal Church of the Redeemer
June, 2007
From the Vicar
Sacred Imagination, Daily Information
One of my favorite one-liners comes from a comic novel about Jesus. It’s called Lamb: The Gospel
According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal and it was written by Christopher Moore. Here’s the line: “Faith isn’t
an act of intelligence, it’s an act of imagination.”
I love that line, not only because Maggie Magdalene says it, but because I also think it true. Nothing in
the world pointed me to the truth of a loving God more vividly than imagination and nothing is better equipped
to deal with the dangers of rigid doctrine. Or as one of the writers in our fall adult formation series muses, “The
adventure with God is not a destination but a journey. The never-ending journey begins when you open the door
and invite the Presence in.” How imaginative is that?
How do you imagine the life of faith? Is it belief, community, healing, family, joy, prayer, nature, truth?
Who is Jesus? These things cannot be seen in the way I see a traffic sign. They are revealed in surprising ways
and in the people I least expect. In the beginning, God imagined a world into life and mind and heart: as it says
in Genesis 1:28, “And God made humankind in the image of God, male and female God made us.” To be in the
image of God is to reside in the imagination of the Divine.
Prayer is a form of imagination. When I open myself to God in prayer, I can imagine the power of
God’s love, healing, advice and help. The more I pray, I may find myself growing very silent and very still and
in the silence of the breath of the spirit, I imagine God imagining me into more abundant life. For, as St.
Irenaeus of Lyons said, “The Glory of God is the human person, fully alive.”
If imagination is by its very nature sacred, not all life nurtures this precious gift. As an imaginative
person in a linear culture, I became very concerned when, in the context of Redeemer Preschool, I recently read
the California State Educational Standards for Kindergarten. The standards were rigorous. We all know that. I’m
not afraid of rigorous, but I am afraid when school stresses information over imagination during the most
imaginative and formative time in a young child’s life. Young children learn by imagining. The concepts and
concreteness comes later. When wonder is taken from them in favor of a “correct” answer on a “standardized”
test, we take a risk with life and health.
I don’t mean to put down information. But without imagination, information is dead. There’s a very
famous story about inventor Elias Howe. He wanted to design a mechanical device for sewing, but couldn’t see
how to do it. One night he woke up from a terrible nightmare. Savages were attacking him with strange spiky
spears that had holes in their tips. Shocked to awareness by the sheer fright of the dream experience, he
suddenly realized that these spears were the answer he had been seeking! He had been trying to thread his
mechanical needle from the wrong end. For machine sewing, the thread needed to be at the tip of the needle, not
its base. This dream affirms the power and truth of imagination in the so-called “real” world.
Jesus lived in the real world. Our faith does not call us to abandon that world or put it down. Our faith
calls us to imagine how that real world can be more abundant, more just, more wonderful and more loving. And
that is just what we will be doing at Redeemer for the rest of the year. Answer the invitation!
Your friend in Christ,
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