John Lennon's "Imagine" and The Kingdom of God

Please go through this page sequentially, from top to bottom

A friend sent my wife and I a video of a hearing-impaired choir's rendition of John Lennon's peace anthem "Imagine". After the intial, emotional reaction to this video, I started thinking about the relevance of the lyrics to our attempts to build The Kingdom of God, here on Earth. Click the button below to see and hear the video.

If you need a moment, please take it and then read through the lyrics. Take note of the lines that would define your vision of a perfect world, and those that would not.

Imagine there's no heaven, it's easy if you try
No hell below us, above us only sky
Imagine all the people, living for today

Imagine there's no countries, it isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for, and no religion too
Imagine all the people, living life in peace

You may say that I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us, and the world will be as one

Imagine no possessions, I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger, a brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people, sharing all the world

You may say that I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us, and the world will live as one

At first, I was unsure about Lennon including - "no heaven", - "no hell", and - no "religion too" in his Utopian vision but, as I thought it through, two things became clear to me. First that heaven and hell are the great unknowns of Creation and are God's business, not mine. They may also be the only things that God will continue to retain as mystery to inspire us in the future. Second that religion as a human construct would simply not be required if we could actually complete the building of The Kingdom of God, here on Earth (and neither would heaven or hell).

Click on the button below for "Imagine" as performed by John Lennon. Unfortunately, this video can only be played from the youTube page, please disregard the comments and commercialism. You can turn off the ad that appears at the bottom of the video. All this serves to remind us that, despite John Lennon's vision, we are still living with possessions, greed and empire. If your computer has lots of jam, try fullscreen.

Note: This video has now been taken off youTube due to violation of copyright - POINT MADE!

Finally, I have found a simple and clear definition of The Kingdom of God, something I had not been able to do with my limited knowledge of scripture. Perhaps John Lennon would qualify as a latter day disciple, perhaps we all could if we try, perhaps it isn't that hard to do . . . . . I wonder if I could.

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