By Don Fitzkee, moderator of the Church of the Brethren Annual Conference
When the Holy Spirit came at Pentecost amidst tongues of fire and miracles of speaking and hearing, the people were amazed and perplexed. Peter explained to them that the words of the prophet Joel were being fulfilled:
“In the last days it will be, God declares,
that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh,
and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
and your young men shall see visions,
and your old men shall dream dreams.
Even upon my slaves, both men and women,
in those days I will pour out my Spirit,
and they shall prophesy” (Acts 2:17-18, NRSVue).
Scholar Walter Brueggemann in his classic work The Prophetic Imagination argued that the role of a prophet is to imagine new possibilities. Perhaps one reason the church remains mired in the same old patterns is that we have lost our ability to envision anything better.
Paradoxically, Brueggemann suggested that a prophet’s visions and dreams for a hopeful future often reappropriate themes and symbols from the past that are rooted in God’s call and faithfulness—a newness that is so old, he wrote, that it has been forgotten.
When I was a young man leaving for a year abroad, a mentor encouraged me to “remember who you are.” Could it be that the key to envisioning a way forward for the church is to remember where we’ve come from? Rather than something entirely new, what may be needed are renewed dreams and restored vision as we reclaim themes like radical discipleship, commitment to our New Testament creed, caring community, humble service, and nonviolent peacemaking.
The second verse of the hymn “What Is This Place” (Hymnal: A Worship Book, 1) suggests that “dreams, signs, and wonders sent from the past are what we need.” What’s old can be new again. “What a commission it is,” wrote Brueggemann, “to express a future that none think imaginable!”
Imagine!
— Find a link to the theme statement along with the daily themes for the Conference in downloadable pdf format at www.brethren.org/ac2026
#cobac26
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