00:00:09.530 - 00:00:22.300

Good morning friends. Okay, we'll try again. I know it's early, good morning friends. Oh , I'm so glad you're there without you being there , I wouldn't have to be here. I could

00:00:22.300 - 00:00:35.030

be actually having some good coffee. But no, I'm called to be here as you are. And I'm delighted and honored to be back here at Austin's Seminary. I'm really pleased that your government provided a

00:00:35.030 - 00:00:48.500

visa for me to return to this country to the republic of texas. And I'm so honored. The border crossing was a little bit dicey, but they're taking the rest of us from the other 49 states

00:00:48.700 - 00:01:00.750

and I'm grateful you are part of the Union. You know, after all, I will tell you that this past week I was at Nashville Tennessee at the Association of Presbyterian Church educators gathering and I'll stop

00:01:00.750 - 00:01:17.540

it. And we were uh, we were talking about theology and christian education and I invited them to consider their own Hermano tickle perspectives, that your theology is framed by your hermeneutics and fancy word for interpretation

00:01:17.540 - 00:01:26.280

. And we're talking about this. And I got them to move around the room as educators should, to sort of own their hermeneutics. And one of my pharmaceutical challenges was to identify the region from which

00:01:26.280 - 00:01:38.180

you come. And so we're in this ballroom, 100 and 20 people in Nashville Tennessee renaissance hotel downtown . And I said, okay, the Southerners go over here, Midwesterners go over here, North easterners

00:01:38.180 - 00:01:49.440

and westerners and they moved accordingly and then I realized there was sort of this ruckus taking place among the southerners. I turned to them and said what's the problem? And they said well we wanna we wanna

00:01:49.450 - 00:02:08.470

have a select group of southerners because we really aren't southern and there were 11 of them who had pulled away from the southern section. I said well who are you people? They said we're Texans. I

00:02:08.470 - 00:02:23.800

said okay, you know that's why the rest of us don't like you people very much. And they all said so I'm I'm delighted to be back in the republic of texas and honored. I am honored

00:02:23.800 - 00:02:38.330

to be here as part of the jones lecture series of speakers tremendously honored, grateful to carl Travis to the first presbyterian church of fort worth texas, uh people with whom I have spent time and for whom

00:02:38.330 - 00:02:49.700

I have great affection, great affection for carl as well. I'm grateful to the imitation of President Ward lot to join you during these days and look forward to these conversations. I do have to admit to

00:02:49.700 - 00:03:08.840

you that I view myself somewhat as appetizer, albeit a large one asian appetizer. Um because I think the substance is still to come whenever you proceed. People like barbara wheeler and tom curry, I just

00:03:08.840 - 00:03:24.260

think all I can possibly do is sort of wet your appetite. So think of me as a bowl of edamame or pot stickers and just wait until the substance comes now I do want you to know that

00:03:24.260 - 00:03:39.370

we've already had dessert if you were here last night because life is short, you eat dessert first I understand and we had dessert in the amazing preaching and proclamation of the word by a president of a seminary

00:03:39.370 - 00:03:54.920

called Union Presbyterian Seminary in Richmond Virginia. We get a second dose tonight. I'm honored to be in crowd with barbara wheeler and tom curry and brian blunt . It's an amazing, amazing gift for me.

00:03:54.930 - 00:04:15.360

So thank you for the invitation. So what I've been pondering during these days is imagination as a critical attributes of leadership in the church today. And I've titled my two lectures from surviving to thriving, serving

00:04:15.360 - 00:04:33.860

the people with imagination. And this first lecture is titled marked as the imago dei image of God, human beings and our capacity to imagine. It's interesting that Albert Einstein is famed to have said that imagination

00:04:33.870 - 00:04:59.130

is more important than knowledge because while knowledge defines all that we currently know and understand one's imagination points to all we have yet to discover and create In these lectures. I argue that the Great Challenge for leaders

00:04:59.140 - 00:05:18.290

of Christ Church in the 21st century has less to do with how much we know or think we know and understand or think we understand and has more to do with how we lead as discoverers and co creators

00:05:18.290 - 00:05:40.330

with God into the realm of God, the reign of God, the kingdom of God about which brian spoke so eloquently last night I believe the great challenge for us is how we take seriously letter H in

00:05:40.330 - 00:06:06.220

W 4.4003, will you come on, will you serve the people with what energy intelligence, imagination. And ah will you serve the people with energy, intelligence, imagination and love? It's the eighth question

00:06:06.230 - 00:06:20.830

that's asked of us as church officers, deacons, elders and ministers of the word and sacrament. I will tell you that. I'm not so worried about the intelligence part. I think we get that.

00:06:20.840 - 00:06:38.050

I think when jesus was asked about the most important things in the world and he said that you love God with all your heart, soul. And he added mind just for presbyterians, we said, oh

00:06:38.060 - 00:06:51.440

good thanks be to God were included and strength and then love others as you yourselves would like to be loved. I'm not so worried about the intelligence portion of that question. I'm worried, I'll be honest

00:06:51.450 - 00:07:04.030

about the energy portion. I just completed a research project with a bunch of young adults and one of the women, this is in san Jose California in a interest group. We're talking about it, a

00:07:04.030 - 00:07:18.220

focus group. And she said, you know those words you people say what words, those words you people say before you're doing the communion stuff. What words, you know those words people will come from

00:07:18.220 - 00:07:30.820

north and no, no different words. Um this is not a presbyterian, no different words. Oh this is the joyful, those words, those words . How do those words go? Well, some

00:07:30.820 - 00:07:45.570

pastors will say this is the joyful feast of the people of God. And she said she was just in the church, one of our churches in the bay Area celebrating celebrating communion. And the pastor said

00:07:45.570 - 00:07:54.760

, this is a joyful feast of the people of God. They will come from north and south and east and west instead of the presence on the table of the Lord. This is the Lord's table.

00:07:54.760 - 00:08:07.620

This is not a presbyterian table. And we are all invited by the Lord. And she said, I thought to myself, shouldn't you pay attention to the words that you're saying? So I'm I'm a

00:08:07.620 - 00:08:20.700

little nervous about the energy portion to be honest, I'm not worried about intelligence and to be honest and I'm grateful for this. I'm not so worried about the love portion. I meet women and men.

00:08:20.310 - 00:08:35.330

I joined my faculty colleagues here and teaching women and men spending time with them who I think are doing their very best to love jesus and to love this church and to love the church's people. I'll tell

00:08:35.330 - 00:08:54.410

you what I'm worried about. I'm worried about our imagination. I believe it is the difference between whether in this time of declining membership and declining resources, whether we simply survive or whether we thrive. So

00:08:54.410 - 00:09:07.900

I opened with a story about imagination, no doubt you've heard this many of you or an iteration of this story. M scott Peck uses this story in the opening to his book, a different drum.

00:09:07.120 - 00:09:24.350

I've abbreviated it somewhat. It's titled The Rabbi's Gift . And the story concerns a monastery that had fallen upon hard times. It was once a great order , but in recent years it had entered a long

00:09:24.350 - 00:09:41.150

period of decline And all of its branch houses were lost and there were now only five monks left in the decaying house, the abbot and four others all over 70 years of age. Clearly, this is

00:09:41.150 - 00:09:58.250

a this was a dying order. In the deep woods surrounding the monastery, there was a little hut that a rabbi from the local town occasionally would use for a Hermitage. The old monks had become a

00:09:58.250 - 00:10:13.220

bit psychic in their years so they could always sense when the rabbi was in his Hermitage, the rabbi is in the woods, they would say to each other, the rabbi has come to the woods.

00:10:13.230 - 00:10:30.400

They would sense. Now it occurred to the abbot that a visit with the rabbi might result in some advice to save his monastery. The rabbi welcomed the abbot to his hut. But when the abbot explained

00:10:30.400 - 00:10:45.430

the reason for his visit, the rabbi could only say, I know how it is. It seems the spirit has gone out of the people. It's the same for me, almost no one comes to

00:10:45.430 - 00:11:03.570

the synagogue anymore. So the old abbot and the old rabbi wept together. Then they read parts of the Torah and spoke of deep things and when the abbot had to leave, they embraced each other and

00:11:03.570 - 00:11:16.460

the abbot said, it has been wonderful that we should meet after all these years then? He said , But I have failed in my purpose for coming here. Is there nothing you can tell me that

00:11:16.460 - 00:11:39.140

would help me save my dying order? No, I'm sorry, the Rabbi said. I really have no wisdom to give, but I can tell you this one thing. The messiah is one of you

00:11:39.630 - 00:11:52.620

. When the abbot returned to the monastery, the four other monks gathered around the father Abbot and asked , what did the rabbi say? What did the rabbi say? And the rabbi said, the Abbot

00:11:52.790 - 00:12:11.610

replied, something very mysterious. It was rather cryptic , he said that the messiah is one of us . I have no idea what he meant in the time that followed the old monks wondered about the meaning

00:12:11.620 - 00:12:26.760

of the rabbi's words. The messiah is one of us. Could he possibly have meant one of us monks? And if so, Well, then, which one? Oh, do you suppose he meant

00:12:26.760 - 00:12:39.970

the Father Abbot? Yes, he must have meant the Father Abbot. If he meant anyone, he has been our leader for more than a generation after all. You know. On the other hand,

00:12:39.970 - 00:12:58.300

perhaps he meant Brother thomas. Certainly. Brother thomas is a holy man. Everyone knows that thomas is a person of light, but he could not possibly have meant Brother L read. L read gets so

00:12:58.300 - 00:13:13.440

testy and crotchety at times. But you know, come to think of it even though he is a thorn in all of our sides. When you look back upon it, L read is virtually always right

00:13:13.170 - 00:13:33.800

often. Very right. Maybe the Rabbi did mean Brother L. Rid Oh, but surely not Brother Phillip Phillip. He's so passive, a real no one. But then almost mysteriously he does have this

00:13:33.800 - 00:13:48.970

gift for appearing whenever you need him. He just seems to be present. Perhaps Philip is the messiah . Of course, the rabbi didn't mean me. He couldn't possibly have meant me. I'm just an

00:13:48.970 - 00:14:09.870

ordinary person. Just a monk. You suppose he meant me? I suppose I am the messiah. Oh, God, not me! I couldn't possibly be that much for you, could I? So

00:14:09.870 - 00:14:28.130

as they contemplated the Rabbi's words, the old monks begin to treat each other with extraordinary respect. On the off chance that one of them might actually be the messiah, and on the off off chance that

00:14:28.130 - 00:14:46.230

they themselves were the messiah, they began to treat their own selves with extraordinary care and respect. Now , people occasionally came to visit the monastery in its beautiful forest, to picnic on its tiny lawn to

00:14:46.230 - 00:15:03.900

wander along some of its paths, even to meditate in the dilapidated old chapel as they did so, they seem to sense the aura of extraordinary care and respect that began to surround the five old monks and

00:15:03.900 - 00:15:26.970

seem to radiate out from them and permeate the whole atmosphere of the place, there was something strangely compelling about it, hardly knowing why these people began to come back to the monastery to picnic and to play

00:15:26.780 - 00:15:46.670

and to pray. And they brought their friends to this special place and their friends brought their friends and then some of the younger people who came to visit the monastery started to talk more and more with these

00:15:46.680 - 00:16:07.420

old monks and after a while one young man asked if he could stay and spend some more time with them, then another did and another. And within a few years the monastery had once again become a

00:16:07.420 - 00:16:33.580

thriving order. And thanks to this rabbis obscure gift , a vibrant center of light and spirituality to the whole realm. Huh? See in her classic text , teaching and the religious imagination, the late Maria

00:16:33.580 - 00:16:57.050

Harris writes that imagination has a power which saves from death imagination, she writes, is able to save and redeem imagination has a power which saves from death imagination is able to save and redeem The late french

00:16:57.050 - 00:17:22.710

philosopher paul rico sure wrote that imagination has a prospective and explore a tive function in regard to the inherent possibilities of human beings. The imagination is par excellence the instituting and constituting of what is humanly possible in

00:17:22.710 - 00:17:52.150

imagining possibilities. Human beings act as profits of their own existence, in imagining possibilities. Human beings act as profits of their own existence. Score draws two conclusions. The first is that imagination understood this way

00:17:52.160 - 00:18:15.740

is redemptive, just what Maria Harris said. And the second is that since every real conversation is first a revolution at the level of our directive images, we can alter our existence by changing our imaginations.

00:18:17.800 - 00:18:45.050

Since every real conversation is at first a revolution at the level of our own directive images, we can alter our existence by changing our imaginations imagination as redemption . A dying religious order can again become a thriving

00:18:45.050 - 00:19:07.120

one. A church in decline can become a center of hope for a community. Death can give way to life. Reading rock or I am struck by the theological quality of his language. Redemption. Salvation

00:19:07.130 - 00:19:30.010

profits. This is intensely theological language. So let me be clear about my own definition. What I mean by imagination here is the inherent human power to transcend the concrete, to create new images or ideas

00:19:30.050 - 00:19:52.630

, that can open up new possibility and promise both the not yet of a future we can envision and the revaluing or reassessing of a remembered past. Ultimately , what I mean by imagination is the human capacity

00:19:52.630 - 00:20:11.990

to receive and respond to God's revelation in our everyday lives. What I'm most struck by in my reading and research preparing for this conversation with you is not simply viewing imagination as new possibility and promise for the

00:20:11.990 - 00:20:36.600

future. What struck me to my core was that imagination also enables us to revalue and reassess the remembered past, permit me a story from my own background . So On December 7, 1941, the Empire

00:20:36.600 - 00:20:56.720

of Japan did a despicable thing. They bombed the US base at Pearl Harbor and thousands of women and men lost their lives sadly in february of 1942. A misguided President Roosevelt also did a despicable thing.

00:20:56.730 - 00:21:21.720

He signed executive order 9066 was forcibly removed. Americans of Japanese descent from regions on the west coast, all of California, western Oregon and western Washington. My mother, Aiko Alice Tamura, not yet.

00:21:21.720 - 00:21:40.760

Nishioka Was 10 years old living in Vacaville, California . My grandparents on both sides were U. S . Citizens born in the territory of Hawaii and the state of California. Mom and dad both were born

00:21:40.760 - 00:21:59.160

in California in april this notice went up and they were given three days to sell everything. They've had my grandfather owned a farm, lost that farm. He was taken away three weeks earlier by the FBI

00:21:59.870 - 00:22:15.310

because he happened to be given the responsibility to be the chair of the Japanese american Farmers Association of Vacaville . It was a rotating chair and that was his turn and when the FBI looked at the list of

00:22:15.320 - 00:22:34.860

community leaders, they saw some yuichi Tamura and they picked him up along with the local buddhist priest and the principle of the japanese language school and the United Methodist pastor of the local japanese american church. My

00:22:34.860 - 00:22:51.420

mother remembers when my grandfather was taken, they did not know where he was. So my grandfather grandmother has this time by herself with two young Children to pack up everything sell what they can take, only

00:22:51.420 - 00:23:04.870

what they could carry. And they met in downtown Vacaville to board busses to a place they did not know for a length of time, they did not know not knowing where their father, their husband was

00:23:07.030 - 00:23:25.860

. These Japanese americans. Most of them thought they were being deported to a land they had never seen as U. S. Citizens. My mother remembers that my grandmother stoic and solid throughout all of this

00:23:25.860 - 00:23:42.830

time. Never cried even though her husband was missing that she kept everything together until the moment they got to this bus station with all the other Japanese americans from Vacaville and the surrounding area and her younger brother

00:23:42.840 - 00:23:59.880

, my uncle Harry turned to my grandmother and said mama, I'm hungry, do you have anything to eat? And my grandmother realized in the rush of that moment she had forgotten to pack anything for them

00:23:59.880 - 00:24:18.250

to eat and she broke down in tears weeping because she thought I am a terrible mother. I didn't even think to pack some food from my two Children . My mom remembers hitting my uncle Harry for making

00:24:18.260 - 00:24:37.190

grandma cry. Uncle Harry remembers that too. My mom said 10 years old. Well Mama I'll go find something for us to eat. So she made her way through these friends, other Japanese Americans looking

00:24:37.190 - 00:24:53.400

for something to eat. And she said, the crowd parted and this lovely white woman came forward with a tray and said hi, are you hungry? And mom said yes. And she offered my mother

00:24:53.410 - 00:25:10.260

sandwiches and a piece of fruit and a cup of juice. And my mother took the sandwich and fruit and a cup of juice and went back to my grandmother and my uncle and my grandmother asked her where

00:25:10.260 - 00:25:26.450

she got it and mom said from this white woman and my grandmother said, well we don't know any white people take it back. And mom said, oh okay. So she took it back and the

00:25:26.450 - 00:25:41.000

woman insisted no this is for you. And she gave my mom yet another sandwich and fruit and a cup of juice. And mom came back with yet more food. And my grandmother was insistent and said

00:25:41.010 - 00:25:53.570

take it back, we don't know any white people . And she went back and forth. She remembers trying to pay the woman and the woman refused any money. And my grandmother said to her, well

00:25:53.570 - 00:26:10.420

who is she all in Japanese and mom goes back and asks her in english, who are you? And the woman said I'm a christian friend. Mom went back and told my grandmother this woman is a

00:26:10.420 - 00:26:23.210

christian friend and my grandmother said, well we're Buddhists , we don't know any christians and we don't have any white people who are friends, tell her she's mistaken. My mom went back and said, you're

00:26:23.210 - 00:26:37.100

mistaken, We don't have any christian friends, let alone white people. And the woman said, tell your mother I'm a Quaker and let me follow you . And she followed my mother and brought more sandwiches

00:26:37.110 - 00:26:57.200

and fruit and juice. My grandmother remembered this christian friend. They were sent to first the tan foreign race track where they were in a recently occupied stall horse stall. For 3.5 weeks. Grandfather actually met

00:26:57.200 - 00:27:12.090

them there, which was a great, great relief . And then the government sent them to a lovely piece of desert property in Hillah River Arizona just below phoenix for 3.5 years. When they got out of

00:27:12.090 - 00:27:30.800

the camp, they went to Pocatello Idaho, one of the farthest western places where japanese americans could move without yet going back into California, western Oregon, western Washington, which was still off limits. Mom

00:27:30.810 - 00:27:51.170

went to the elementary school in Pocatello Idaho. Now she's almost 14. She made friends with a white girl who was a Nazarene. And this Nazarene friend invited my mom to spend a saturday night over at

00:27:51.170 - 00:28:03.460

her house. Mom came home and asked my grandmother could I stay over at her house and my grandmother said no you have a bed here, Does she not think we have beds. You have a bed

00:28:03.460 - 00:28:15.140

here. Well I think white people do this. I think they invite people to stay over at their houses. And grandma said, well no you can't do that, this is your home, this is

00:28:15.140 - 00:28:36.860

your family, you stay here and then my mom said well she's a christian friend. My grandmother said she's what, she's a christian friend. My mother said oh okay you should go to her house.

00:28:37.360 - 00:28:56.600

My mom ended up going to this Nazarene church and she received jesus christ as Lord and Savior. Eventually she dragged Harry along and forced him to receive jesus christ as Lord and savior. When California opened up

00:28:56.740 - 00:29:15.120

they moved back to the bay area, Hayward California and mom and uncle Harry started going to the san Lorenzo Japanese christian church. Eventually my grandmother and my grandfather joined them at the san Lorenzo Japanese christian church

00:29:15.130 - 00:29:37.400

and they came to know jesus christ as well. Mom met up with this handsome young man named Dick Nishioka who was a seminary student doing his internship from the Berkeley baptist divinity school, the american baptist seminary

00:29:37.400 - 00:29:53.190

of the West. Now she wasn't very impressed with him, she could tell he was far too impressed with himself but he was very impressed with mom. On the third request she said finally okay I'll go

00:29:53.190 - 00:30:15.300

out with you eventually they got married And Dad retired after serving 32 years in the pulpit of the Japanese Presbyterian Church of Seattle they have four sons, one of them is an air traffic controller in Honolulu,

00:30:15.480 - 00:30:33.530

one of them is a pastor of a chinese evangelical church in Seattle one of them is an optometrist assistant in Los Angeles and one of them holds the benton family chair of christian education at a place called Columbia

00:30:33.530 - 00:30:55.470

Theological Seminary. Mhm. I am standing here because of a sandwich and a piece of fruit and a cup of juice for years afterwards whenever my grandmother and I would be in a store and we would go

00:30:55.470 - 00:31:23.220

down the oatmeal, I'll the cereal aisle, she would always stop and point to this and she would say in her broken english raja christian friends, good people see imagination not only enables us to look to

00:31:23.220 - 00:31:41.970

the future with new possibility and promise to a future . We do not yet know. It also enables us to revalue and reassess a remembered past. That's part of the power of imagination for you and for

00:31:41.970 - 00:31:57.540

me to look back upon our lives and see how God has been active and how God is at work . To give some further definition to this idea of imagination, I draw upon the work of Samuel Taylor

00:31:57.540 - 00:32:15.830

Coleridge, a poet and philosopher of the 19th century romantic period. I do this thanks to Sandra Levi's fine work on imagination and the journey of faith. Coleridge explicitly links one's imagination with our direct experience of

00:32:15.830 - 00:32:34.880

God. In fact, Coleridge identifies our imagination as primary access to God. Coleridge and his friend William Wordsworth as well as other English writers of the late 18th and early 19th centuries were part of a romantic

00:32:34.890 - 00:32:51.890

literary and artistic movement that caught fire not only in England, but also in France and Germany and the United States. This movement was in part a reaction to the rationalism of the enlightenment, and so it

00:32:51.890 - 00:33:12.840

celebrated the expression of emotion in art forms, particularly poetry. The imagination was of central interest as a human faculty, reflecting creative freedom of spirit and nature itself is seen as encompassing or incarnate ng, a

00:33:12.840 - 00:33:30.390

transcendent spirit to be discovered and revered. Now, Coleridge, interestingly enough, divided the concept of the imagination into what he referred to as the primary and the secondary imagination. What he meant by the primary

00:33:30.390 - 00:33:52.900

imagination, he says, is our basic mental capacity to see and organize stimuli from the world around us . As Coleridge defined it. This organizing capacity has creative synthesizing and unifying power that is God given.

00:33:52.910 - 00:34:13.630

It is what marks us as the imago dei. It is a fundamental creative power that we share with the Divine. In exercising this creative function, we act in our image of God. He sees the

00:34:13.630 - 00:34:35.230

power of the primary imagination as incarnated in human beings and as such, Coleridge argues, this is part of our essential equipment. It's what makes us human we humans participate in and re enact God's creative being

00:34:35.240 - 00:34:55.830

through the power of imagination. The mind's power to order the reality around it is a God given and grace filled one that all humans possess and express more or less adequately throughout our lives. He uses the

00:34:55.830 - 00:35:21.140

term secondary imagination to refer to the human ability to transcend this primary organization, to reassemble perceptual elements or fragments and create new meaning, ultimately grasping for fuller and deeper meaning in our search for union with God

00:35:22.060 - 00:35:42.910

. The point here is that for Coleridge, the primary and secondary imaginative power is a divinely given power that provides a direct conduit between the perceiving creative human being and a divine being active in creation as primary

00:35:42.910 - 00:36:02.280

imagination is the faculty by which all human beings shape their existence of the world into meaningful perception. Secondary imagination is the artist's ability to create new shapes and meaning out of existing material. It is also similar

00:36:02.280 - 00:36:27.490

in its strong affirmation of the relationship between the human and divine imaginations. The human Creative Act participates in the infinite creativity of God from whom it derives its power. The human creative Act participates in the infinite

00:36:27.490 - 00:36:45.910

creativity of God from whom it derives its power. I want to illustrate the primary and secondary. So for years before being called to the Faculty of Columbia Seminary before doctoral work, all that kind of stuff

00:36:45.920 - 00:36:58.560

. I served as the General Assembly's Staff person for Youth and young adult ministry. And part of my task was to guide a group of young people and adults. The Assembly's Committee on Youth and Adult Ministry

00:36:58.570 - 00:37:10.470

and we would meet twice a year and design the next year's programs, everything from the Montreat youth conferences to try any um youth conference to mission events etcetera . We had young people and adults that came from

00:37:10.480 - 00:37:27.970

every one of our synod's in the general assembly. We met all over the country and one year we were meeting in new york city, the United Methodist guest house in Greenwich Village, coming from the Senate

00:37:27.970 - 00:37:45.540

of the Rocky Mountains was a huge young man from eastern Montana named chuck chuck's visit to new york was his first. We went through three days of meeting on the last day. We took part of the

00:37:45.540 - 00:37:59.700

day as a tour day just to walk around new york city, especially for those who had never been there chuck. This huge young man from eastern Montana wearing his cowboy hat and his boots, confessed to

00:37:59.700 - 00:38:13.320

me that he was a bit nervous because he heard new york was an awful place and I said chuck , it'll be alright because we're sticking together as a group. Before we left the guesthouse in Greenwich Village

00:38:13.530 - 00:38:29.980

Chuck turned to me and said 17 years old roger , I'm gonna look for God in new york city , we think God is everywhere. Maybe God's in new york city. I said chuck, that's a

00:38:29.980 - 00:38:43.470

good thing. We left the guesthouse made our way to the subway station nearest were walking around. I knew I was in trouble when I was following the group of young people who were ahead of us,

00:38:44.480 - 00:38:58.160

Elizabeth for adults were hanging back and we were talking . I looked up and I realized chuck was constantly waving, waving, waving on up to chuck and said chuck, what are you doing? He said

00:38:58.160 - 00:39:12.600

, well where I come from in Eastern Montana, When people say hi, they honk their cars. People are friendly here in new york city. Every time you heard a car horn he would wave,

00:39:14.960 - 00:39:27.670

I said chuck, put your hand down, you're calling a cab and he goes, no I'm not , I'm waving to friendly people. We ended up doing some sightseeing and some shopping and the group wanted

00:39:27.670 - 00:39:37.970

to go to Bloomingdale's on Lexington Avenue, I'm not much of a shopper. And so I said, anybody who wants to go in, go into the store, if you don't want to go in,

00:39:37.980 - 00:39:45.370

just meet me out here and I will hang out out here and I'm gonna sit here on Lexington Avenue , we're gonna stand here and wait for the rest of you to come out. After about half an

00:39:45.370 - 00:39:58.750

hour, most of the group had joined me, there were still some folks in there who were shopping and there was a group of us there including chuck . Lexington Avenue is one way going downtown number of

00:39:58.750 - 00:40:15.800

you have been there uh five lanes, a sea of yellow cabs, Check the standing next to me . Um the light was red, so the traffic was stopped and coming through the crosswalk was an older

00:40:15.800 - 00:40:30.540

adult woman with a four pronged walker and I was watching her move very slowly and I was watching the lights and I thought to myself, she's not gonna make it, she's going to get hit by these

00:40:30.540 - 00:40:52.580

cabs when that light turns green, they're coming down Lexington Avenue just before the light turned green. This handsome, huge african american sanitation worker who was in his truck across the street pulling out bags of trash

00:40:52.590 - 00:41:08.760

from the public receptacles down Lexington Avenue, saw the same thing in his dark suit and bright orange vest , He ran out on Lexington Avenue and stood there and put both hands up. The light turned green

00:41:08.770 - 00:41:22.370

and all these calves started coming toward him and he is standing there in the middle of Lexington Avenue so this woman can pass, she eventually makes it across all of these cabs are honking at him chuck of

00:41:22.370 - 00:41:40.660

course is waving at all of them and then the lady gets across and the sanitation worker is still there waiting to now go back across the street when the light allows him to cross. We stood there about

00:41:40.670 - 00:42:00.180

18 of us now looking at this handsome sanitation worker and we broke out into applause and we cheered and he stood there looking around for a minute and when he realized that we were cheering for him, he

00:42:00.180 - 00:42:25.330

stopped and put his hands out like this and then he went like this light turned green, he went back across the street chuck, leaned over and said to me, Roger, God is a big black

00:42:25.330 - 00:42:46.690

sanitation worker in new york city chuck, helped us make new meaning out of our reality. He helped us engage our primary imagination according to Coleridge, no doubt hundreds of new Yorkers and tourists had passed by

00:42:46.700 - 00:43:06.700

at that same moment and they saw the same thing we did and they thought nothing of it. They did not engage their imagination. But then when chuck returned to Eastern Montana, he went a step further

00:43:06.710 - 00:43:25.650

secondary imagination beyond simply interpreting what he saw. He created something as a result of it. A few weeks later, I received in my office a cd . He had burned. It was a wrap from

00:43:25.650 - 00:43:45.650

chuck about his time spent in new york city and he was rapping in the performance to his youth group about seeing God in new york city. I listened to it and I will tell you it was horrible

00:43:49.450 - 00:44:07.870

. It was probably the best a white boy from eastern Montana could do. But what I loved about it, what I loved about it is the cd kept recording after he finished and all I heard were

00:44:07.870 - 00:44:30.410

sustained catcalls and cheering and applause from his own youth group chuck had employed not just his primary imagination in seeing and interpreting this as an act of God. He had employed his secondary imagination to create something in

00:44:30.410 - 00:44:52.020

response to it, to go deeper and find further meaning and the community of the church applauded him for it. Here's what I hope we're doing in these days. I hope we are engaging both our primary

00:44:52.030 - 00:45:14.820

and our secondary imagination, God given grace filled, so that we can see not only new possibilities in the world around us as leaders in christ church, but also we can reassess and reinterpret our past in

00:45:14.820 - 00:45:36.880

ways that speak of God's justice and hope for all of humankind. Indeed for all of creation. George Bernard Shaw writes in his play ST joan about her interrogation by the Church's inquisitors in her trial before she

00:45:36.880 - 00:45:54.490

is found a heretic and burned at the stake. And when one of the inquisitors asks her how she knows what God wants her to do, she calmly replies, I hear voices telling me what to do

00:45:55.420 - 00:46:20.850

. They come from God incredulous. The inquisitor says . They come from your imagination, and joan calmly replies. Of course, that is how the messages of God come to us. They come from your

00:46:20.850 - 00:46:45.280

imagination. Of course, that's how the messages of God come to us. What I hope to do tomorrow is have further conversation with you about ways we engender and enable imagination among those whom we are called

00:46:45.280 - 00:46:57.700

to serve with energy, intelligence, imagination and love friends, thank you for listening. Lord be with