The Gospel of John (Lennon)

Yesterday John Lennon’s Imagine popped into my life twice. Twice in one day…

1. While driving home from mass, suddenly I was singing it. Which was a little odd, since I don’t typically sing John Lennon songs, and I don’t recall having heard it lately. But there it was, rolling off my tongue: “No hell below us… above us only sky…” I thought about how bizarre it was when about five or six years ago or so I attended a funeral at a Presbyterian Church of a former boss of mine, and a soloist sang this song, since it was Rich’s favorite song. Right in the middle of a church, a song about imagining a world without religion. What an unusual moment that was.
2. Later in the evening last night, I made a connection through Facebook with an old high school buddy. I visited his profile, and he described his religious views as “Imagine there’s no heaven.” As Neo would say, “Whoa!”

What a weirdness, to have that song show up twice within a span of a few hours. Especially for me, since while I love the song, I also am clearly a religious person; I love being a person of faith. In fact, maybe I love this particular song because I am a person of faith. Let me explain.

The more I think about it, the more I think Imagine is not at all inimical to faith — at least not to authentic faith. Perhaps it’s an attack on superstition and fundamentalism, on the kind of childish cosmology that really does posit a heaven “up there” and a hell “down below.” But I pray every day that I might be delivered from such a superstitious religiosity (so no wonder John Lennon was no fan of it, either).

But as a person whose faith is (hopefully) somewhat transgressive of the narrow boundaries erected by superstition and fundamentalism, I actually think John Lennon’s sentiments can support a truly mystical spirituality.