Imagine a Better World(a sermon delivered at the Hamburg Unitarian Universalist Church on September 19, 2004) Imagine. It’s what I do for a living. Without an imagination, it’s safe to say I would be out of a job. I create entire worlds in my mind and then use words to bring them to life on the page; fantastic worlds filled with strange metallic creatures, powerful gods, crazed demons, and dwarves, lots of dwarves. . . . I like dwarves, what can I say? But in the hands of a true visionary, an imagination can change the world. A poet friend of mine recently told me: “The rational man accepts the world as it is, and therefore changes himself to adapt to the world. The irrational man refuses to accept the world as it is, and therefore changes the world to adapt to him.” I’m not saying that you have to be irrational to imagine a better world. But people certainly might think of you as irrational – might even call you crazy – if you go out and try to create that better world all by yourself. This was John Lennon’s legacy. He tried to change the world and some people did call him crazy – and many worse things than that. John Lennon wanted to create a fantastic new world where there were no demons, nor any gods; just people, living together in peace. He tried to create that world not in his mind and on paper, but here on earth with his voice and his songs. Now, I have to admit that I was never a huge Beatles fan – not in the strictest definition of that word: fanatic. Truth be told, I was born about a decade too late. By the time I began listening to their music, they weren’t even the Beatles anymore. Sure, I enjoyed their songs, but I never owned any of their albums. I didn’t have Beatles posters in my room, nor did I track their personal lives or get involved in their politics. And I don’t recall where I was when John Lennon was killed. You see, Lennon’s life hadn’t really affected mine at the time of his death. I was young, republican, and living in Indiana. What use did I have for an aging hippy? But John Lennon’s songs – specifically one song – Imagine – would have a huge impact on my life some twenty-one years after this visionary – this imaginative man who tried to teach the world to love – was taken from us by a truly irrational man named Mark David Chapman. Chapman proved on December 8, 1980 a lesson that most of us who live in this violent world have learned all too often: Namely that the ability to imagine – to be irrational – is a gift that can be used for evil just as easily (often more easily) than for good. Chapman was a troubled young man whose irrationality led to a psychotic battle between good and evil inside his own head; a battle that evil won; a battle with a single casualty; a battle that caused the world to grieve. Twenty-one years later, this lesson was ferociously driven home again by 19 irrational men – 19 true fanatics – who hijacked four jumbo jets and turned them into flying terrorist bombs. This time, there would be some 3,000 casualties. This time part of the world would grieve while another part celebrated. This time, the act of madmen would be but the first battle in a war that could feasibly last an eternity. 9/11 is a day I shall never forget; the day that 19 irrational men changed the world. Our family had been living in Hamburg for only a few months. The five of us (and our dog) lived in a 2-bedroom apartment while we waited to close on our house. I was sitting at a card table set up as a temporary desk with the computer in front of me and notes strewn around me, working on my first novel while I enjoyed the September sunshine and the pre-fall breeze off the lake. Then the phone rang and the world changed. I had planned to write until the kids got home from school, but I ended up sitting on the couch instead, watching those horrible events unfold 400 miles away. I sat on the couch and I cried. Like many people, I shut down after 9/11. Already battling intermittent depression over personal changes our family had gone through that year, I spent the next two weeks on the couch, watching the aftermath of the attacks. Instead of creating worlds on the computer, I stared in horror at the devastation of twisted metal covered in a carpet of ash. Instead of putting words on the page, I sat and wept while families wandered the streets of New York with signs and flyers depicting images of lost family members. I shut down for nearly two weeks. I couldn’t work. I could no longer create those fantastic worlds. My head was too full of the horror of real life. My imagination had fled in the face of evil. The turning point for me came on September 21st. Hollywood and the music industry put on a telethon to raise money for the victims of 9/11. “America – A Tribute to Heroes” began with Bruce Springsteen singing “My City in Ruins” as what he called “a prayer for our fallen brothers and sisters.” It was a subdued night for the entertainment industry. There were no commercials. There was little ego. Between the songs, Hollywood stars talked about the heroes and the victims, and even called for an end to violence against Muslim-Americans. For me, the highlight of the evening was Neil Young’s gorgeous rendition of Imagine. Tears welled up in my eyes as the first haunting notes rose from Neil Young’s piano. By the time he sang the final refrain of “And the world shall live as one,” my face and shirt sleeves were soaked with tears. That song – which has now become forever entwined in my mind with the events of 9/11 – was both the low point of my depression and the signpost pointing the way back from the hell of those two weeks. To be honest, I can no longer listen to Imagine without thinking about the 9/11 attacks – and without shedding tears for those who died and for the lost dream the song inspired in its creator. It seems almost ironic now, looking back on the life of John Lennon and the legacy of this song, that Imagine could become an anthem to unite Americans against oppressive religious fanaticism. In his day, Lennon was reviled by the Christian right; for saying that the Beatles were more popular than Jesus Christ (which is not at all what he was saying); for the infamous love-in protests for peace, and for Imagine, which was seen as sacrilegious for decrying the existence of heaven, hell, and religion. But is that what this song is about? Is it a call for an end to religion, government, and possessions? In part, yes. But I would guess that Lennon knew he couldn’t change the entire world with a song. He was merely pointing out the problems – the barriers, if you will – that separate us and make us distrust one another. With no countries and no religion, there would be nothing live or die for. With no possessions, there would be no greed, nor hunger. As Lennon himself once said, “Possession isn’t nine-tenths of the law its nine-tenths of the problem.” But as visionary as John Lennon was thirty years ago, he wasn’t trying to change the world by himself. He believed he had another role. He said: “My role in society, or any artist's or poet's role, is to try and express what we all feel. Not to tell people how to feel. Not as a preacher, not as a leader, but as a reflection of us all.” Perhaps this particular reflection was too far ahead of its time in September of 1971 when the Imagine album was produced. The biggest menace facing the United States in the early ‘70s was still the spread of communism. We fought in Vietnam not to free the Vietnamese, but to stop the spread of communist China. At least that’s what our leaders said. That’s what we told ourselves. It wasn’t until the fall of the Soviet Union a decade after John Lennon’s death that we all began to see the true nightmare of the late 20th and early 21st century. Wars over beliefs and ideas have all but replaced wars about possessions and property. According to Dr. Patrick Dixon, the Director of Global Change, Ltd. and one of Europe’s leading futurists, “Most wars for the last twenty years have been wars inside nations rather than between them: wars over culture and ideology.” These are wars between tribes of people, not between governments. Serb versus Croat. Tutsi versus Hutu. Taliban versus the Northern Alliance. Arab versus Kurdish. Muslim versus Jew. Tribalism threatens to tear our world apart, and John Lennon could see this coming thirty years ago. While Imagine might be seen as a protest against the Vietnam war and our government’s seemingly incessant need to exert itself as the police force of the world, America has also faced many tribal issues that threatened to tear our nation apart: Black versus white, radical versus establishment. Christian fundamentalists versus anyone who dared contradict their beliefs. Dr. Dixon calls tribalism “the most powerful force on earth.” Defined simply as the state of living together in tribes, tribalism can often foster an “us vs. them” mentality amongst members of the group. This mentality can easily be promoted by charismatic leaders. Dr. Dixon goes on to say, “Tribalism is intimately connected with terrorism: when one mass of people identify only with themselves and their values, and see others as lesser beings, then the ground is set for permanent conflict.” Permanent conflict! As bad as the world might have looked to John Lennon in 1971 when he wrote Imagine, I doubt he could have foreseen that thirty years later the effects of property, governments, and religion – the global tribes – would have on our world. We are now mired in the middle of Dr. Dixon’s permanent conflict. It’s no longer about black versus white. We now have hate crimes against every minority you can conceive: race, color, religion, sexual preference. The tribes are settling into their bunkers and aiming their weapons at anyone who looks different, who talks with an accent, who believes in a foreign theology – anyone who thinks differently! We’ve become a world of irrational people who are all trying to change their little corner to match their narrow definition of what the world should be. This rampant tribalism is what Imagine rails against. It is not an anthem for a country at war with terrorists. It is an appeal to people of tolerance to stand up and say: “Enough!” Enough hate. Enough tribalism. Enough war. Enough! Irony aside, we, the UU congregations of the world must become more intolerant of intolerance. If John Lennon’s fantastic, beautiful, irrational world is ever to have a chance of going from mind to paper to voice to reality, I believe it must come from us. We can change the world, one mind at a time. I know that Unitarian Universalists despise proselytizing. That’s what televangelists do. That’s what Jehovah’s Witnesses and Mormons do. That’s not us. If a liberal religion is right for you, you will find the UU church – that’s what we say. We’re not going to force our religion on anyone. We are the church of religious tolerance. But, I say to you today, if anyone is going to bring the word of religious and cultural tolerance to the world, who else but the UU church is going to do that? Yes, fanatics will never sway from their own fanaticism, and we can’t change that. Of course, we’re not going to convert devout Christians and Muslims, and Jews to UUism, and we don’t really want to do that. But why can’t we preach tolerance to the world? Why shouldn’t we shout it out for the whole world to hear? What is stopping us from demanding peace in our lifetime? As John Lennon once said, “If everyone demanded peace instead of another television set, then there'd be peace.” Maybe if our voices are loud enough, people will begin to listen. Maybe if we work together we can plant the seed of tolerance and help it supplant the rampant tribal weeds that have overgrown our world. Maybe a church full of irrational people can change the world. I doubt we can ever achieve a world with no religion, and I don’t think that’s what John Lennon really wanted. But perhaps – just perhaps – if we refuse to accept the world as it is, we can imagine a world where we can all live as one. |
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