August 16 – Sacred Space: Cultivating Theological Imagination

Did you stay up late and watch the Perseids meteor shower this week? I took my yoga mat out to my deck and just lay on my back gazing up at the night sky. The first thing I realized is that I should do this more often, even when there’s no meteor shower. To just lie on one’s back taking in the endless stars, the milky way hovering above like a comforting blanket, well, that’s something… And then, when a shooting star bolts through the sky in its fiery trajectory, that’s an added dose of pure delight. Awe inspiring. It makes me wonder how ancient peoples incorporated such things into their worldview. What did their imaginations come up with to make sense of such events?  

This Sunday, in our sixth and final service celebrating Sacred Space, we explore the idea of “Cultivating Theological Imagination.” This could be the most important of the series, because it speaks to the sacred space within our own minds, the stories we tell ourselves at the core of our being that form the basis for not only our inner thoughts, but our outer actions. As the writer and peace builder Gareth Higgins has written, “The way you tell the story about your world will . . .  co-create that world.”

What is the most important story we tell ourselves as followers in the way of Jesus? I think it’s a story of resurrection, the Easter story. So, though it’s August, and even though we have not come through Lent, we’re going to look at the Easter story this Sunday. We’ll look at it with fresh eyes, exploring how it speaks to our theological imagination and informs our thoughts and daily life.

In the meantime, read John 20:1-18 and ponder the following:

1.       What is one word that you take away from this account? How does that word inform what you believe?

2.       Are you a theological thinker? Do you encounter the world in terms of an expressed or forming theology?

Image: "Stardust," Jeremy Mueller, pexels.com