Day Dream Believer

This morning (Monday 30th April 2012) I caught the last few minutes of Radio Four’s ‘Start the Week’ 09:00–09:45 with Andrew Marr on creativity with Jonah Lehrer, Scanner, Rachel O'Reilly and Joanna Kavenna.

The conversation was around the value of day dreaming, or what is sometimes referred to as ‘blue sky thinking.’ Indeed one of the contributors spoke of his joy in flying in an airplane and how he didn’t want to be able to get mobile phone connection. He further argued that we should treasure moments of apparent boredom by allowing our minds to wander freely and not try and cram every moment with answering emails or meeting some demand.

My wife and daughter are always telling me off (mostly in a nice way!) for always fiddling with my phone and checking emails.  I know there is a real danger that we can do this because at a subconscious level we want to say to people look how important I am and how much in need people are of my attention.

Referring to somebody today as a dreamer is most often said in derogatory terms. We take it to mean someone who has their head in the clouds, who will not face reality, living in a fantasy world.

However dreamers are essential for human flourishing and development.

Yes, they need to be able to share that dream, to convey it in such a way that it can be grasped by hard nosed realist who can begin to turn the dream into a reality.

The dreamer and the dreams also need carefully monitoring – Hitler dreamed up a world of the most imaginable horror that then led to hard nosed realist building an efficient way of exterminating a whole human race and class of people!

The way of Scripture, Reason and Tradition, beloved on Anglicans can help put the dreamer’s dreams into context as to whether they will help build the Kingdom of God upon earth.

Whilst training for Church Army my tutor reported that I was a ‘dreamer’ – this was written in a report with a slight note of disdain or concern. I thought long and hard about this and in the end came to thank God that I was and am a dreamer. (The tutor eventually also came to the same conclusion).

A part of my ministry as a Diocesan Evangelist is to dream dreams as I work alongside Churches helping them find creative ways of communicating and proclaiming the Gospel. Busy clergy and churchwardens and congregations often find themselves so hard pressed and up against things that they have lost the capacity to dream and to think of anything beyond what is facing them and any kind of solution. They have so often reached an impasse, a log jam with no discernable way through. 

This is common in all spheres of life, families, big businesses and the Church. Often what they require, and sometimes pay good money for, is someone to help them move forward first by imagining a different scenario and then by agreeing upon that idea, followed by practical steps to make it happen. However it begins not with the practical steps but in the dreaming of a different outcome and future!

Most of my ‘dreaming’ is done whilst out running on my own. No phone, no emails, nothing but an hour or more to allow my mind to wander and explore all sorts of things. I love dreaming, I love allowing my imagination to wander, I love looking at clouds and seeing animals or all kinds of other stuff, I love sharing this with those around me. It is important for us all occasionally to have our heads in the clouds!  

What time do you allow yourself to dream dreams? Is this your gift to the Church and to the world?  How do you convey your dreams? How do you measure and weigh them up to try and discern if they are from God and can help build up God’s Kingdom? How often do you encourage your Church leaders to spend time day dreaming?

‘In the last days, God says,

   I will pour out my Spirit on all people.

Your sons and daughters will prophesy,

  your young men will see visions,

  your old men will dream dreams.’

 

   

Jesus gets in the way...

This afternoon I watched the Preston Passion which was an interesting take. I had been up and about since early this morning.  First of all joining a small group gathered to pray at the site for the Soul By the Sea, Brighton Passion, happening Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday. Then it was straight off to the Walk of Witness around Hove. From there it was then time to walk back to St John the Baptist Church helping our Priest carry the cross back.  We received some very interesting looks!  Indeed we had some of those during the Walk of Witness which this year saw a very sizable group. We kept getting in the way of people trying to enjoy their Bank Holiday Easter weekend. I occasionally smiled and apologised, especially to drivers we held up on the road.  But overall I felt this was just about right. Jesus does get in the way. He does come and interrupt our lives and He has been doing this for the last 2000 years since that very first Easter Sunday morning.

Back to the Preston Passion – once again Pilate was spoken of as someone caught on the horns of a dilemma, weak and vacillating. What we know of Pilate and Romans in general could not be further from the truth. I am currently reading a book about Gladiators; not one of those that focus on the gratuitous violence, although there is plenty of that, but rather it seeks to understand and chronicle the rise and development of gladiators. It was not uncommon to have a spectacle where thousands of prisoners of war and unwanted slaves were forced to enact battles and slaughter each other. There is no way Pilate would have vacillated or shown weakness. He was a man in command and to show weakness was to show you were on the way out of your post!

However, I had read something in the Church Times, reflecting on Palm Sunday and the Passion suggesting that those shouting for Jesus on Palm Sunday were Galilean pilgrims gathering for Passover.  But those baying for Jesus’ blood were Jerusalemites who thought of Jesus as nothing more than a northern upstart.  Pilate was caught in the middle of this potentially dangerous squabble and had to do something or allow a riot!

Jesus comes before Pilate when Jerusalem is heaving with pilgrims and tensions are running high. Galilee was well known as a place to harbour rebels.  So could this be what Pilate was trying to weigh up? Does he have Jesus crucified and risk a Galilean upsurge and riot, possibly against the Jerusalemites and spilling out into an all out melee against the Romans? Or should he allow Jesus to be crucified and placate those baying for Jesus to be killed? And maybe, just maybe, there was at least a part of Pilate who spotted a stitch up when he saw one and he was not for playing that game.

The rest, as the proverbial saying goes, is history. (Yes, we are talking real history here!) Jesus is taken away, flogged and then crucified. No Galilean uprising or riots. Jesus followers melt away like the morning dew, with the exception of a handful of women. But they are of no importance and hold little or any status in that culture and time. This is one of the reasons why the Gospels are so remarkable – very, very bad PR move to have woman as witnesses.

Jesus disturbed people; He disturbed the religious leaders in Jerusalem, He disturbed Pilate and He disturbed some people in Hove today. What about you – who do you say that Jesus is and has He or is He disturbing your life?