The Scripture Readings this week are:
- Matthew 1:18-25
- Matthew 2:13-15, 19-23
The Sermon title is Dreams of Love
Early Thoughts: Disney's Cinderella would have us believe that "a dream is a wish your heart makes, when your fast asleep". The Everly Brothers suggested that all we had to do was dream and our beloved would be in our arms. The Mamas and the Papas told us that California Dreamin' was the way to escape a dreary winter's day. It seems often, but not always, when we sing about dreams we treat them either as wishful thinking or a way to escape reality.
Maybe dreams are like that sometimes. I know I have had my share of escapist or wishful or 'what if' day dreams over the years.
But sometimes dreams are something deeper. When we quote Dr. King's famous speech where he pronounced "I have a dream" nobody accuses us of being escapist. We recognize the words of a man who knew reality and saw a different possibility. Sometimes dreams push us to live differently.
Still, it often seems that to say someone is a dreamer is a slightly nicer way of saying they have unrealistic hopes or expectations.
Then there are dreams in Scripture. Dreams are a common way for God to communicate with God's people in our faith story. Consistently those dreams are times when God offers direction and/or comfort so that those people can go on following God's Way. And so I believe they are dreams based in God's love for the world and for those individuals. In love God encourages them to follow a hopeful path (even if there are times the path seems fraught with danger and disaster).
As Matthew tells the story, Joseph is a dreamer [which reminds me of another Joseph who rose to prominence not just for having dreams but also for interpreting other people's dreams]. In a dream he is told not to give in to the rules and divorce Mary, despite her being pregnant, but to marry her and name the child (to have Joseph name the child would show that Joseph is accepting the child as his own). In a dream he is warned to get out of town before Herod's goons get there. In a dream he is told to go back to his homeland, and then a subsequent dream suggests he go to a different town instead.
Would the story of Jesus even get going without all these dreams? What role do dreams have in furthering the story of Love?
In these verses Matthew shows God acting through dreams to make the story possible, to make the renewal and restoration of the world possible. [There is another dream in these chapters of Matthew -- the Magi are warned not to tell Herod where the child is to be found.] In dreams, God is acting to protect the promise of Christmas.
How does God move in our dreams? How does God prod us to act, to participate in the story of renewal and restoration and redemption that we find in Jesus of Nazareth? How does God plant the dream of a renewed world in our hearts?
Are we ready to dream big dreams, and live out the dream despite the dangers there may be along the way? Can we share the dream and possibility and promise of love active in the world?
Can we risk being called dreamers?
--Gord
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