Tom Johnson, July 29, 2012
Albert Einstein was once asked how his mind worked in an interview published in 1929. “What is your thought process? How do you come up with such brilliant theories that explain the mysteries of the universe?” the interviewer asked. Einstein said, “I am enough of the artist to draw freely upon my imagination. Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.” He imagined a world where time, space, the speed of light and energy all interacted in a way which challenged Newtonian physics. His imagination explored and discovered before there was any data or proof for his theories. He imagined a world where time slowed down as speed increased. They were able to test it with atomic clocks on supersonic aircraft and he was right. He imagined a world where gravity did not pull on objects but where large celestial bodies such as the sun bent space itself. They were able to observe light from stars change their position at a total eclipse of the sun. Imagination is more important than knowledge because without it, there would be few new discoveries. There would be far less innovation.
Gene Roddenberry, creator of Star Trek, imagined a world in outer space where women took leadership roles along with men. He imagined interracial marriage. He imagined multinational partnerships in space. He imagined little communication devices that flipped open where people could talk to each other without wires. He imagined handheld computers that could pinpoint your exact location. This was over forty years ago. Fiction has become reality. What gives automobiles, technology, and any business an edge is not static knowledge but innovation. Innovation begins in creative minds where improvements, advances, and new ground is broken in the imagination.
Our reading from Paul’s letter Ephesians is a prayer—a prayer to strengthen and exceed our imaginations. Paul prays a beautiful prayer. His prayer sets the bar high—so high that you might say it is unattainable: “I bow my knees before the Father,” he prays, “…that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power…that Christ may dwell in your hearts…that you may have the power to comprehend…what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge…[by the power of God who] is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine.”
Paul wants us to get out of the doldrums of religion that can be easily explained and understood. He wants us to grow in our Christian faith by a prophetic imagination. You’ll remember from previous weeks from the same letter, Paul has already challenged our imaginations—to imagine God loving us and choosing us before he even created the universe, time, and space—to imagine a people who longer build walls of hostility that divide but a God who is building us all up together.
This is not a New Age or Disneyworld imagination where we create our own realities and realize our dreams. Living our lives by a prophetic imagination is living our lives in light of God’s reality—to begin to understand that which is beyond human understanding—the breadth, length, height, and depth of the love of God through his Son, Jesus Christ. It is a truth that is too enormous to fit into our little brains—“far more than we can ask or imagine.” That is what makes Christianity exciting. It is what makes it stimulating. It is what makes it inexhaustible as a source of inspiration and strength. It is not something that we can master, fit into our finite minds, but takes us on a wonderful journey of discovery.
We live in a world that often is very different from the world God is making. This is a broken, sinful, and temporal reality. The Kingdom of God is the one that is eternal and more “real” than the limited confines of our existence. Life is depressing, boring, and without hope if we only accept and believe in the things we can know with absolute knowledge, see, hear, smell, taste or touch. In a world of violence, revenge, and bigotry, the Gospel invites us into a world of forgiveness, reconciliation, and equality. In a world of disease and death, God challenges us to imagine a world where death and the devil is no more.
When we accept God’s invitation and challenge—to have his prophetic imagination—to discovery a reality that we have never asked for or even imagined—our lives are set to an entirely new and exciting trajectory. We embark on a journey with better questions, humble spirits, and peace and joy which the world cannot give. And ultimately, God is leading us toward what the prophet Isaiah called “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the human heart conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him” (1 Cor 2:9; Isa 64:4). We have far more forgiveness and life than we could ever ask or imagine. We have a heavenly Father who loves us more than we could ever ask or imagine. And the Kingdom he is building, which we are becoming a part of day by day, delivers far more peace and joy than we could ever ask or imagine.
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