I can only imagine
What it will be like
When I walk
By your side

I can only imagine
What my eyes will see
When your face
Is before me
I can only imagine

I can only imagine

[Chorus:]

Surrounded by Your glory, what will my heart feel
Will I dance for you Jesus or in honour of you be still
Will I stand in your presence or to my knees will I fall
Will I sing hallelujah, will I be able to speak at all
I can only imagine

I can only imagine

I can only imagine
When that day comes
When I find myself
Standing in the Son

I can only imagine
When all I will do
Is forever
Forever worship You
I can only imagine

I can only imagine

Mark's gospel is all about Jesus daring us to imagine. But his message couldn't be further from the message of this popular song by MercyMe. Jesus doesn't challenge us to imagine what it's going to be like when we finally get to heaven. He challenges us to imagine what it's going to be like when we live in a different world.

It makes me think of the lyrics to another song, this one wouldn't be labeled, "Christian", although it would more closely resemble the message of Christ that we get in the Gospel of Mark.

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.

I suspect that Jesus would have loved John Lennon's song, "Imagine." Because it stirs us to imagine a whole new way of being in the world. That's what Jesus invites us to do in today's gospel lesson.

Today's gospel passage plays a key role in Mark's understanding of why Jesus dies and what his death means. Christians typically focus on the spiritual dimension of Jesus' ministry. We look at the cross as the means by which God forgives sinners and the way we can get to heaven. But in Mark's gospel, that's not Jesus' primary purpose. Forgiveness through the cross may be there. But just in the background. If you read Mark's gospel from beginning to end, with an open mind, and not with preconceived ideas that you may carry with you from the past, it's pretty clear that Jesus' understanding of his mission, and his followers' mission, is to imagine a new world order. The Christian gospel and the community it creates are utterly different from the business as usual that we encounter in the world around us.

Today's story from Mark's gospel takes place as Jesus is walking with his disciples toward Jerusalem. In fact, they're almost there. It's just a few short verses until we get to Palm Sunday. And, for the third time, Jesus prepares his friends for what's to come. This is the most detailed prediction of his trial, suffering, death and resurrection.

"See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death; then they will hand him over to the Gentiles; they will mock him, and spit on him, and flog him, and kill him; and after three days he will rise again."

Ironically, as Jesus lays this out for his disciples, James and John ask for seats at Jesus' right and left. Were they not paying attention? Apparently, they're thinking that soon Jesus would be sitting on a throne. And Jesus is talking about a cross. In fact, the next time Mark mentions those to "the right and the left" of Jesus, it's in reference to two crosses on either side of his.

James and John aren't alone in their cluelessness. None of the other disciples get it either. They're upset with James and John, but not because they said something inappropriate. They're fuming because they didn't think it was fair that James and John should have first dibs on sitting in places of honor next to Jesus. They wanted to sit there too.

When Jesus softly chastises them because they don't get it, he talks about the nature of human power – the kind of power that will soon crush him in the political spectacle of his trial and execution. And he explains the meaning of his death. He puts his life and death, along with the lives and sufferings of his followers, in complete opposition to human expressions of power. Jesus corrects their vision by holding up the ways of gentile (Roman) authorities as negative examples. They regularly overpower and tyrannize others. They rely on coercion and control to maintain their dominance. "But that's not the way I want it to be among you," Jesus says.

Jesus is talking about power here. The way it works in the world and the way it works in the Kingdom of God. At first glance it may appear that Jesus is against the use of any kind of power at all. But that's a simplistic understanding of something that is so very, very complicated. Wherever two or more humans gather together, power is involved. Power encounters are part of every human interaction.

Right now, I'm exercising power by speaking to you and you're listening. But you have power too. For example, if you start talking to one another while I'm preaching, or if you doze off, you take my power away from me.

Power in and of itself is not evil. Jesus wasn't against power. But he redefined power. Whereas, in the world we usually define power as

lording it over someone, Jesus says that true power comes in

serving others. This sounds simple enough. But it is a radically different way of being in the world.

• A world where we engage in sporting events to prove that we're number one.
• A world where people make it their life's work to step over other people while they climb the corporate ladder.
• A world where we hoard all the goods we can for ourselves.
• A world where we use others to get what we want from them.
• A world where the nation with the most weapons and the strongest army assumes what they have to say has more clout.

"It shall not be so among you," Jesus says. "But whoever wishes to be great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all. For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."

Imagine a world like that? That's what Jesus wants us to do. He wants us to imagine a new way of being. With a new perception of what power is.

Daring to imagine this is ultimately what gets Jesus killed.

His resurrection tells us that things can be different. The story the world lives by, the story of lording power over another, doesn't have to be OUR story.

There's another story for us. And Jesus invites us to be a part of that story. We commonly refer to that Jesus story as the Kingdom of God. It's not just someplace we go to someday after we die. But it's a place we live in right here, right now, because it's a way of life.

Jesus invites us first to imagine that story for ourselves. That's what his life was about. Getting people to imagine a different story for themselves. Maybe that doesn't sound all the impressive, just getting people to imagine a new way of being. But, what could be more powerful than to actually change another person's way of seeing the world? And that's what Jesus did. He taught his followers to imagine what had been unimaginable. And then, he called them to live into it. Yes, still in this world, but without living by the script of the world's story. Living by the Jesus story.

That's what it means to be a part of the Kingdom of God. And, as Jesus followers, it means something else for us, as well. It means working toward a realization of God's kingdom on this earth. A kingdom where we bend our knees, not to bow to the powers of this world, but to serve one another in love. We pray for the courage to do that every time we gather together on Sunday mornings. "Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven."

Imagine that.