Vision
By Daniel Gregoire, Intern Minister
9 October 2012
...Write the vision;
make it plain on tablets, so that a runner may read it. Habakkuk 2:2
Prophets and sages are constantly tasked with write down the
things that they see and hear. It’s simply not enough to have the personal
experience of a vision. Having a prophetic
mental picture of things to come, of fantastic new worlds or zombie apocalypses
is one kind of thing—a miraculous thing. But to write it down is another,
perhaps more important task.
Yet, is writing it down, “writing the vision”, enough?
At least in the
Jewish and Christian scriptures, we see people who are called out of their
normal habits and places, sometimes even transported to wild and exotic
locations to apprehend visions of the distant future, and then, somewhere in
the middle of that experience (but, usually towards the end) they are reminded
by a voice from on high, “Oh yeah, and, write this down!” It’s as if the act of
seeing is just one part of the experience, but does not contain the whole
thing.
There is a power in writing that extends far beyond the ink
and paper. It seems to be able to move visions closer to reality.
You are going to hear a lot about vision this month. We have
visions about the direction and places we want to see the congregation move
towards. AWAKE ministries is a kind of vision that we are all excited about.
And, there is the ongoing Stewardship Campaign, which is an expression of our
commitment to supporting the many visions of the church. Just recently we were
asked to attach our own individual “visions” to the giant “Vision Catchers”
arrayed in the sanctuary. I took great pleasure in making those vision catchers
before my recent trip to Boston.
We give life and substance to our visions by committing them
to writing. Otherwise a vision is reduced to self-indulgence, a fantasy or even
a delusion. We must share them with others, simply and plainly.
In fact, it is not even enough to share our visions by
talking about them. The vision must also be plain enough so that a person could
understand it while running. Can you imagine that? If you just told me your
vision while I was running I could miss it. I would need to see it in writing,
with the bigness and simplicity of a billboard sign. The letters would need to
be huge, the font - very simple, sans
serifs and perhaps the fewer letters, the better. Maybe we would have to
write the vision and place it in a few locations?
“Write the vision, make it plain…” this text makes an
undeniable claim on me, both as a minister and as a human being. It says to me
that I must use all of the resources at my disposal: my mind, my mouth, my
soul, and even my written words to testify. Through my writing I proclaim both
the wonder of life as I see it and experience it, and I acknowledge the
sufferings that are necessary and add meaning and depth to that precious life.
My vision has a lot to do with my faith in “Life”: creating
and sustaining it, causing it to flourish in diverse forms and combinations- to
the end that “All souls [all life] will grow into harmony with the divine”.
That is a line from the covenant I affirmed every Sunday at my church in
Brockton, Massachusetts and it was printed in the order of service.
How is it that writing makes things “real”?
I don’t know the exact mechanics behind it, but I would
hazard a guess that writing is an act
that somehow signals to the “universe” our growing capacity and readiness to participate
in making the vision a reality. It moves us, and we move the vision further
down the road. The author and teacher, Elizabeth Andrew in Writing the Sacred Journey: The Art and Practice of Spiritual Memoir
describes writing as an opportunity to transform “…[a] longing into something
of substance” and the chance to bind “…the inner world to the outer, satisfying
[ones] desire to unite with creation.”
Writing the vision is an act of faith and deep confidence.
How would we reveal our faith and confidence by writing? Would it be by writing
a memoir (spiritual or otherwise)? Might we write poems, songs, or make entries
in that journal we started sometime ago. (it’s
been far too long since I last wrote in my journal)
Perhaps we could simply write an affirmation on a slip of
paper “I am a spark of the divine” and tape it to the bathroom mirror. There
are so many ways to “write the vision”; indeed, so many ways to confidently proclaim
and create the reality of our aspirations.
In closing, I commend the song “The Vision” composed by
Patrick Love; it is in the Gospel tradition of the African American Church, and
it just one more way to communicate power of “writing the vision.”
