Does God Dream?

Sermon for December 14, 2008
Holy Cross Church Episcopal

Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11
Psalm 126
1 Thessalonians 5:16-24
John 1:6-8, 19-28

Does God Dream?

When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion, then were we like those who dream. (Psalm 126:1)

Bing Crosby dreamed of a white Christmas, and we still hear all about it in shopping malls. We dare to dream. And our dreams often have to do with opportunities to better our situations. At this time of year, little children are dreaming of all the goodies that Santa will bring them. Or not. Many parents are trying to dream of how they can provide Santa gifts for their children. Or food. Or clothing. Or a college education. Laid off workers are dreaming of finding the right job. All around us, changes are taking place so fast that nothing will ever be the same. Just when we think the news can’t shock us, it shocks us, and most of our attention is turned to the negative. How can that be reversed? Maybe by dreaming. Dreaming keeps hope alive.

Does God dream? If God dreams, what does God dream about? If God knows everything past, present and future, why would God bother to dream? I believe that God does dream, and that God, who never slumbers nor sleeps, dreams good things for all of us. According to our lesson from Isaiah, there would come a time when God would restore all things to their former glory. It’s called the Day of the Lord and if you went to the Messiah Sing last Sunday afternoon, you got a good dose of this prophetic dream.

The definition of a prophet is “One who speaks for God” and this passage from Isaiah sounds very hopeful. It has an almost dream-like quality, especially if you look at the Middle East today. We as Christians believe that in heaven with God we will have perfection. There will be no more sin, sorrow, or sighing, but how many of us expect that to happen here on earth? How many attempts at utopia have crashed and burned?

We might wonder: If God is all powerful and all knowing, why doesn’t God just snap his fingers and make all this dreaming come true? It’s because once upon a time, long, long ago, God gave us a powerful gift. It’s called Free Will. Yes, we can choose to cooperate with God in God’s dream. This is the biggest gift we can give to God. If God coerced us into worshipping him, our worship would be worthless. We are not puppets on a string. We have a choice.

We can also choose not to cooperate with God. This is the root cause of separation from God, which is called in theological terms “sin.” Hell, by the way, is eternal separation from God, which we bring on ourselves through the exercise of our free will. Repentance is changing the direction in which we look for happiness. It’s looking around to see what God is doing and getting involved, remembering that God does not compromise on certain issues such as righteousness, justice, and mercy. God clearly loves justice, and hates robbery and wrongdoing. Lately, God has probably been weeping more than ever.

But God dreams of reconciling us to himself. St. Paul gives us advice on how to get in sync with God and to get in on God’s dream: Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. . . . 1 Thessalonians 5:16. Rejoice always – for me, joy comes from cultivating a deep faith in Jesus Christ. Joy comes from knowing in the bedrock of my own heart that no matter what happens to me in this life or in the next, I am in the loving hands of God. God is all around. God meets us here in the Word and Sacraments. That gives me great joy.

Did I say I was happy all the time? No. I did not say that. There is a lot in this world about which I am very unhappy. Unhappiness is my reaction to hunger, oppression, poverty, domestic violence . . . I could go on and on. Sorrow over these things is what prods us to do all we can to eliminate such conditions from God’s good earth. But we can have joy in the midst of sorrow. Such joy is based on our trust of God and our hope in God. If we are willing to rejoice and give thanks to God for all of God’s blessings, we can have God’s joy in the here and now.

God’s big dream of reconciling us to himself came true, of course, in the person of Jesus Christ. If you read this passage from Isaiah and then turn to the Gospel of Luke Chapter 4, you will hear Jesus saying these very words: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor . . . Read a little further and you will find out that Jesus’ audience almost killed him on the spot. Maybe they were not ready for such good news.

The Old Testament prophets died without ever having received the promised Messiah of God. Even John the Baptizer, who is back in our Gospel reading again today, did not live to see Jesus complete his work. But his dream came true. John had gotten involved in what God was doing and with his last breath he helped bring about the promised Kingdom of God. John goes off the stage of history with his heart full. His joy has been fulfilled. He has done what he came here to do, and he gracefully steps aside to let Jesus step into the spotlight.

This is the time of year when a lot of people go into a type of hibernation, drawing back from the world and entering a sort of dream state. This is a good time for reflection and for looking over our gains and losses of the past year. We can come to grips with the fact that we have gotten another year older and maybe some of the dreams we had when we were younger are no longer possible. I know now that I will never be a ballet dancer. As we look forward to the New Year we realize that we might need to come up with some new dreams.

If we have joy we can plan for the future. Looking back over this past year, and especially these last few months, we can see that we have claimed a spot on which to plant a church. I cannot say enough how much I appreciate all of you, and especially your faithfulness to our Lord and your efforts to bring more people into this church. It will take all of us working together to accomplish the dream of building this church into a fellowship of faith.

We need for God to stir us up to dream the right dreams. I hope that our collective dream for this church is to be here and to grow, week in and week out, providing comfort to fellow pilgrims who are seeking a way out of their wilderness. We offer Holy Communion, a great source of joy to us who receive it and to God who offers it. I cannot help but believe our dreams are within our reach. I believe that we have looked around to see what God is doing and that we have gotten involved in it. Welcome to the dream. Amen.

In peace,
Linda+
The Rev. Linda McCloud
Vicar, Holy Cross Church Episcopal
Billings, Montana
www.holycrosschurchbillings.org
406-208-7314
Photo: Snow in Montana
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