Dreaming New Worlds

[Coronavirus – VIII]

Picking up the rubble after the coronavirus will require the cooperation of county, state, and national governing bodies. It will also require the cooperation of the public, private, and social sectors. All hands will need to be on deck.

But the dreaming and inspiration behind the new world that will emerge is specifically the work of artists and poets and musicians. The possibilities will only be as beautiful as the imagination with which we conceive them.

Religious folks have seen worlds come and go, empires swell and collapse, coups rise up and governments fall down, economies crash, and societies turned on their heads. But the timelessness of our convictions persists. Now is the time to begin dreaming with our hearts and not our ideological commitments, our souls and not our political affiliation, our deepest longings and not our one-dimensional soundbites.

Jesus was a rabbi, a prophet, and a king. But he was also an artist, insofar as he could envision a world unaccustomed to the one within which he lived (while at the same time addressing the “worlds” we’ve constructed in our hearts!). He used words, stories, and songs to paint an alternative picture of what was possible.

Only artists can dream of economies that don’t leave people out, governing bodies that are altruistic, and judicial systems that are not inherently racist. Only songwriters and painters and dreamers can picture a different world (at the sacrifice of their own social acceptance).

Well, now is the time to begin listening to them. Now is the time to take seriously that which we dismissed because it was idealistic, far-fetched, silly and immature, impossible, and day-dreamy.

Now is the time to dream of new worlds.