Yesterday evening, I’d been talking in Navigators about some of the ways I wish Christianity and the church showed more depth and reality, would really work out the implications of Jesus’ radical teaching rather than merely living a sanitised version of the way everyone else lives. (See my rant Revolutionary Christianity.)
Those thoughts seemed to filter over into my dreams last night. I dreamt I was in a big shopping centre (it was rather like Queen’s Street) and I’d arrived there with Doctor Who. I said something about how I was sad about the way the world is, and the Doctor said to me “Well, why don’t you tell them that?” So I stepped out of a shop, and onto this big pillar that had for some reason appeared. I made this big speech, ringing out across the shopping centre. I told everyone how the world was stupid, how there’s so much injustice and sadness. How consumerism is such a daft idea, and that happiness doesn’t lie in the abundance of our wealth. I went on – delivering this speech that was a mix of the Sermon on the Mount, my article on Consumerism and Christopher Eccleston’s “Stupid, stupid people!” big speech in The Second Coming. And everyone listened, and heard, and agreed, and were down on their knees with sadness and repentence.
Then Peter Davison’s incarnation of Doctor Who turned up to tell me off for mucking up the time-stream by changing history with my speech.
Anyway, that was pretty bizarre. If only it were that easy… I think I’d better keep an eye on that Messiah complex there! I need to remember that changing the world starts with myself. One of the problems is that it’s hard to live differently without support from others, but then we all tend to wait for someone else to make the first move. I hope that through prayer and discussion of how to live the Christian life, we will be able to encourage each other to live radically and distinctively Christian lives.