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About Jesus - Steve (Stephen) Sweetman John
Lennon's Imagine Despite my mother's
disapproval, I began listening to popular songs in December, 1965, after
her and dad gave me a six transistor radio for Christmas.
I recall listening to John Lennon's song "Imagine" that
was released on his 1971 album by the same name.
I've heard it many times since, both on the radio and on my
"John Lennon Collection" CD.
Lennon invited us all to
join him in imagining a world where "there's no heaven, no hell below
us, above us only sky. It's easy if you try."
Well, it's not easy for me to imagine and it certainly wasn't for
my mom. I get my Christian
mom's dislike for pop music that I heard on CJBQ Belleville, CHUM "You may say I'm a
dreamer," he sang. We all
know Lennon's imaginative dreams died while he was back on top of the
charts with his album "Double Fantasy."
I lived in a I like everything about
"Imagine," except for the lyrics.
Just "imagine all the people, living for today," he sang.
With no heaven or hell, living for today may make sense for some.
Even Paul, no, not Paul McCartney, Paul the apostle, might have
agreed with Lennon on that count. "If
only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be
pitied" (1 Corinthians 15:19). Paul
was not to be pitied. His hope
of a resurrected life in heaven determined how he lived "for
today."
"Imagine there's no
countries, nothing to live or die for.
Imagine no possessions, no need for greed or hunger, a brotherhood
of man." John's love-in
communal living sounded cool in our hippie days, but as was our common experience, it failed.
Nations,
which "we live and die for," originated with man's arrogant
aspirations to erect an empire apart from God (Genesis 11).
It's why God disbursed us into various ethnicities, which we've
been undoing ever since in our hope to rebuild Imagine "no
religion, too." Would no
religion "Give Peace a Chance," as Lennon sang with his Plastic
Ono Band on a 1969 single's release recorded in Montreal? Would no religion discard
his Beatle band mate George Harrison's eastern mysticism?
Is religion really our problem as the centuries-old conspiracy
theory tells us? Jeremiah 17:9
states the truth. Humanity is
the problem. John Lennon released
"Imagine" while the Beatles were suffering through divisive
issues that eventually split them apart.
Larry Norman (1970's Christian rock singer) commented on this in
his song entitled "Reader's Digest," released in 1972 on his
"Upon This Rock" album. In
part, he sang: "the Beatles sang all you need is love, and then they
broke up." So much for
John Lennon's "brotherhood of man." Have John Lennon's
imaginative dreams or George Harrison's eastern mysticism ever purified
the thoughts and attitudes of the human heart?
While Lennon was imagining and "For the word of
God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it
penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges
the thoughts and attitudes of the heart." Post
Script Imagine
by John Lennon Imagine
there's no heaven Imagine
all the people Imagine
there's no countries Imagine
all the people You
may say I'm a dreamer Imagine
no possessions Imagine
all the people You
may say I'm a dreamer
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