St.
Paul’s United Church Sunday, January 6, 2008
Day of Epiphany
Dream a Little Dream With Me! – Rev. David Mundy
Isaiah 60:1-5
Matthew 2:1-12
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When our children were small, it wasn’t unusual for one of them to come
to the breakfast table with a report on a dream. The descriptions were often enthusiastic and
dramatic and in great detail. Some of the dreams were frightening –what we
might call nightmares – although most of those resulted in the plaintive call
during the night rather than the morning debriefing. The majority of these
dreams were simply about encounters with people they knew or exciting
adventures. For the most part these stories were quite entertaining although
there were occasions when there was so much to be told that I wanted to say
“I’m on the clock here and work is waiting!”
From time to time Ruth and I would chat about these accounts of our
children’s dreams later in the day. We
were impressed that
there was no reluctance on their part to share them. Adults are
often wary of telling others about their dreams, don’t you think? When was the
last time you told someone else about a dream during casual conversation? We were also struck by their vivid recall. We
realized that while we did dream, and were even awakened by those dreams, by
the time morning came we had little or no recollection of the content. With the
passage of time our dreams are shoved into the background of our lives rather
than playing a prominent role.
It has been suggested that a good way for us to remember our dreams is
to keep a pad of paper or a voice recorder on the night table so we can note
them at the time. Not a bad suggestion, except that I don’t
know anyone who does this. I’m sure many of us who share our beds with partners
would discover in a hurry how they felt about idea. We would probably be
banished to the guest room in no time!
This Sunday is a special day in the Christian year called the Day of
Epiphany. Actually, Epiphany is always
January 6th, following the twelve days of Christmas and can
therefore fall on any day of the week, but this year it is a Sunday.
Today we finally get to the few verses of the New Testament which tell
us about the magi or wise men. The story is only found in one of the four
gospels and the whole thing has a wonderful, fantastic quality don’t you think?
Mysterious strangers of another religious tradition and another land make their
way to Bethlehem in search of the Christ Child. They are what we would call
astrologers, following what is described as a star which stops above the town.
Then these travellers have a secret audience with the evil Herod who wants to
know where the baby can be found. It doesn’t stop there. The Magi offer
marvellous gifts to the baby and pay him homage – they treat him like a king.
Then in a dream they are told to skedaddle, and they slip across the border as
mysteriously as they came.
In today’s cynical and rational world we would point out that stars
don’t just stop and start for even the most important people. And how did Herod
find out that the magi were around? And what happened to the trust fund set up
for Jesus with all that loot?
None of those pesky details matter in this story. God is at work here in a marvellous way and
the dream allows God to enter into the psyches and spirits of those who came as
seekers of some new but yet unexplained revelation. There are actually four important dreams in a
matter of a couple of chapters of Matthew.
In the first Joseph is encouraged to take Mary as his wife even though
she is pregnant. Then immediately after the magi depart he is told to take his
family and run from the scheming Herod. Finally there is a dream in which the
holy family is invited to return home from Egypt after Herod’s death.
The bible in both the older and newer testaments contains many life-changing
dream stories including what may be the best-known dream sequence involving
another Joseph. According to the book of Genesis the dreams of Joseph altered
the course of his personal and family life and eventually the trajectory of
nations. Marc Chagall, perhaps the
greatest Jewish artist, created a stained-glass window which included elements
of Joseph’s dreams. Scholars suggest
that the dreams of Matthew’s gospels are meant to resonate with this saga of
another time and are an essential aspect of the in-breaking of the Good News of
Jesus Christ. What is striking about these dreams is the conviction that they
were from God and that they resulted in responses which were life-altering.
Here is a question which I think deserves an answer from each of us.
When we read and retell these tales of the God of dreams, do we actually
believe them? And when I say believe them, I mean do we have any conviction that
God enters into our lives to bring about extraordinary change and
possibilities?
We still use dream language even though we may not pay much attention to
our actual dreams. People speak about getting their “dream job” and “you can
win a dream vacation” by entering this or that contest. We use expressions such as “dream on,”
and dream big” and “you’ve got to be dreaming.”
In the nineteen fifties and sixties a girl might say about a boy “he’s
so dreamy!” In 2007 we heard a lot about Doctor McDreamy.
A popular Mamas and Papas song of another era was Dream a Little Dream of
Me, which also serves as the sermon title today. And in that same time frame Martin Luther
King preached his powerful “I have a dream” speech as a call to social change
and racial equality.
Why is there this “disconnect “between the jargon we use and our actual
experience with dreams, especially from the standpoint of faith?
We really don’t expect God to do anything out of the ordinary or to
“rattle the latchkey of our hearts” as one poet has expressed it. So our faith becomes safe and church becomes
“clubby” and pleasant if we are not careful. We don’t actually have to talk
about Jesus or what God is calling us to do and be at all if we don’t want to.
It may be that this dreamless religion is what is slowly but surely sapping us
of vitality. Our faith story doesn’t have much zip when we edit out the
extra-ordinary bits, but that is what we are inclined to do.
Surely this is why there are so many dreams in the bible. They offer a
way of describing the powerful in-breaking presence of the God whose desire is
to be in relationship with us, even when our tendency is to take a “business as
usual” approach to our faith. The God who is revealed in Christ will get our
attention, one way or another. Our only hope from a personal perspective and as
a Christian community is to open ourselves to the dreaming and the visioning
which comes from Christ.
But it doesn’t happen the way it did in the bible, does
it? We aren’t meant to take dreams literally? This is just a metaphor, surely?
People don’t have dreams that alter the direction of their lives, do they?
Well, nearly two years ago a newcomer came to church one Sunday and asked if he
could meet with me during the week, which we did. He explained that he had no
Christian background and Jesus wouldn’t have been mentioned during his upbringing
more than a handful of times. Before the previous Sunday he had never been
through the door of a church and to do so for the first time had involved
research and an act of the will.
So why was he there? He had a
dream in which Jesus visited him and spoke with him. Jesus didn’t offer any
great revelation or warning or direction of any kind. Christ was simply there, offering words of
encouragement. As low-key as the dream was it had a powerful effect on him. He
woke up his partner and talked to her about what had happened.
I must admit that when he first told me about this dream I was tempted
to look around for the hidden cameras. Was this some sort of a prank? No, this
was the “real deal” which led to baptism and joining the church and becoming a
follower of Christ. Life-changing.
I now realize now with 20/20 hindsight that he was taking a considerable
risk in sharing this dream with me, a stranger. He had no idea how I would
respond. Would I take him seriously, or would I would
consider him a candidate for psychiatric help?
But there it is! Dreaming is
risky business. The life in faith is
risky, challenging, life altering business if we are willing to listen
and respond. As we enter this new year every one of
us, young and old and in between has the opportunity to dream a little dream
with God, or maybe even a bigger, bolder dream. Whether they are waking dreams
or the ones which occur while we are deep in slumber, Christ will meet us in
ways that will not leave us unchanged.
Are you ready for God’s dreams to become your dreams in this new year? Are you ready for the epiphanies, the marvelous revelations and new beginnings which Christ has
in store for you?
A few weeks ago I received an email from a woman who was part of the
course I attended at Ghost Ranch in New Mexico during early November. While I
was able to connect with some of the people who were there I couldn’t recall
the face of the person who had sent the email. She included a wonderful poem
which has been in my thoughts ever since and it seems appropriate to share it
with you in closing today. It is by a Spanish poet, Antonio Machado and it’s
called
Last Night As I Was Sleeping.
Last
night as I was sleeping,
I dreamt that
a spring was breaking
out
in my heart.
I said: Along which secret
aqueduct,
Oh water, are you coming to me,
water
of a new life
that
I have never drunk?
Last night as I was sleeping,
I dreamt that
I had a beehive
here
inside my heart.
And the golden bees
were
making white combs
and
sweet honey
from
my old failures.
Last
night as I was sleeping,
I dreamt that
a fiery sun was giving
light
inside my heart.
It was fiery because I felt
warmth
as from a hearth,
and
sun because it gave light
and
brought tears to my eyes.
Last night as I slept,
I dreamt that
it was God I had
here
inside my heart.