Can our days of remembering also become days of imagining?
Can our days of looking back also become days of looking forward with new eyes
because of the clarity of what is behind us. This weekend was a good time to
look back to remember, but also to look forward and envision. This looking back
and imagining forward started on Sunday, Pentecost, with the birth of the
church. I think that Pentecost is a story of imagination, not because it didn't
happen, but because it did. The birth of the church was not the result of careful
planning, organization, activities, and launch dates. The birth of the church
was an event of the Holy Spirit, where a small group of disciples became the
leaders of a large group of followers through the intervention of the Holy
Spirit. They started off the day small, scared, and hiding in a room and ended
the day with a public witness that is still working through the DNA of the
world. And let's please not forget the end of the story, the rest of the
chapter of Acts 2 where the disciples accomplished something in their small
corner of the world that rock start and celebrities are talking about today.
They eliminated poverty. Not through donations and charity, but through their
imaginations as they shared everything that they had and nobody was in need.
So where are our imaginations today? Where is our vision of
a Spirit filled kingdom of God that was started on the day of Pentecost? I ask
because there are days where I feel like we are further away from that vision,
not closer. Days like Sunday where I was reading different bulletin inserts
about Pentecost. One of them had a summary of Pentecost that said, "they
were so moved by the Holy Spirit that they began to worship together on a
regular basis, especially on Sundays." Ignoring the factual errors in this
statement, there is more importantly a huge loss of the imagination of
Pentecost. I hope that we don't see the most important part of the birth of the
church that people now worship together on Sundays. We would be ignoring the
sharing of cultures and understanding that came from speaking so many different
languages. We would be ignoring the sharing of property and the community of
having enough that has in the past and hopefully will in the future be one of
the marks of the Christian way of life. I hope that we can open up our
imaginations so that our celebration of Pentecost does not become just a time
to have birthday cake in the church, but is a time to remember how the Holy
Spirit can move and invite us to still be moving in those ways today.
It is with this view that we move into another day of
remembering. Monday was Memorial Day, a day of remembering brave American soldiers
who served their country, especially many who never got a chance to do anything
but serve their country because they died in service. When we hit Monday I was
still looking through the lens of Sunday and it was not necessarily an easy
view. It was another day where I hope our looking back and remembering can be
something that spurs on our imagination for the future. I posted on my Facebook
wall a picture of a very good friend of mine because that is who I remember on
days like Memorial Day. However, even this picture brought up a contrast that I
could not shake. The day of Pentecost started with the disciples huddled in a
room, probably a little afraid because their leader was the victim of a state
sponsored execution by a foreign occupying force. This image clashes with the
image of a cross on the tomb of a solider. It is hard for me to reconcile the
two. It is especially hard when I think about the person that I remember on
Memorial Day, because he was not completely defined by his job as a solider. He
was so much more than that. However, I cannot shake the idea that praying for soldiers
of war to protect our freedom to worship a Prince of Peace represents a lack of
imagination on our part. That we misplace our confidence and misunderstand what
type of freedom God has for us when we become his children. I cannot shake the
idea that soldiers and disciples were similar in their willingness to die for
their believes, many American soldiers and almost all of the original disciples
died for what they believed in. They were also, however, different in that one
group was not willing to kill for their beliefs and the other one was. I am not
convinced that this is the imagination that the Holy Spirit hoped to bring to
the world on that day of Pentecost so long ago.
So let me wrap up by calling for a day of imagination today,
Tuesday, May 29. On Sunday we were able to remember Pentecost and the birth of
the church through the Holy Spirit. On Monday America celebrated Memorial Day
and the remembrance of soldiers who served their country. Now that we have
looked back. Now that we have remembered and hopefully honored all children of
God that held strong convictions of their beliefs. How can we move forward? How
can we take the lessons that we have learned and the things we have experienced
and move forward into a new place of imagination of the spirit. Can we remember
all casualties of war, not just American soldiers, but innocent children and
not so innocent enemies whom I hope we would say are still creations of God
just like you and me. Maybe this will make us less likely to go to war,
creating fewer fallen soldiers to remember. Let’s create a new holiday, to acknowledge
the past, but to celebrate a future. May it be marked by an imagination of the
spirit that allows us the understanding of others that comes with speaking
their language and a peace that comes with an end to poverty through a sharing
of what we have. As we continue on in life may the images of our celebrations
confuse less and less and bring harmonious love more and more.
We were trained for this right? We were prepared to learn a
new language, figure out a new culture, and become experts in communication. We
are trained as missionaries to not impose ourselves on another culture, but to
be as much a part of a new community as possible, and to walk with them as they
and we make new discoveries together. And we were warned about culture shock,
that thing that happens when you find yourself in a strange new land and are
not sure where you fit in, if you have any value, or how to tell if you are
doing a good job. We should be good at
this right? 
Liz and I are excited to be welcoming another little man
into our family. Kaleb Christopher Soard was born on June 12, 2012. This is almost
5 years after his older brother Derrick, born in 2007. They are both beautiful
people and I don’t even know that much about Kaleb yet. There may be times when
Liz and I look at each other and think we are crazy, but I think these times
will be few and far between when weighed against the times of happiness and joy
that these two kids will bring us and each other. Pray for us, this time we are
not talking about returning across an ocean, but even more importantly
venturing again into the journey of parenthood. 
