A Sermon by Pastor Tom Lacey . . .

LET US DREAM

Isaiah 65:17-25, Preached at Congregational Church of Boca Raton, November 18, 2007

Just before the funeral services, the undertaker came up to the very elderly widow and asked, "How old was your husband?" "98," she replied. "Two years older than me" "So you're 96," the undertaker commented. She responded, "Yep. Hardly worth going home, is it?

Our text today is about keeping something inside of you alive, so that no matter where life’s conditions find you, you’ve got that dream, that special hope of your own. You have heard quite often by now about living with a purpose, having a purpose-driven life, but perhaps purpose isn’t the best word. It sounds too machine-like, too much of an automaton type of existence. “I-have-a-purpose—beep—My-purpose-is—beep.”

It’s better to think in terms of a dream or a vision, a passion, a hope or more than one for that matter. It doesn’t have to be just one. But something should be stirring inside so that we know what is important to us and what we are supposed to be going after. Not everybody has this or knows what theirs is, which reminds me of a new patient who settled comfortably on the couch. The psychiatrist began his therapy session. "I'm not aware of your problem," the doctor said. "So perhaps, you should start at the very beginning." "Of course." replied the patient. "In the beginning, I created the Heavens and the Earth..." We want to keep our dreams on this side of psychosis. Proverbs 29:18 says, “Where there is no vision, the people perish.” What’s true for a group is definitely true for an individual. Jesus said, “You are the light of the world” (Matthew 5:14) because Christ wants us to live by a dream of what would happen if the light were to shine and the darkness would not overcome it. Paul thought this was so important that he said, “We are saved by hope.” Romans 8:24 The big stuff is the important stuff. Hold on to the principles that you believe in. Make the right choices. Don’t turn your back on what you take to be truth. Stick to the rules that guide your best actions. When we give these up we give up our hope. Behind the big picture and the important dream and the right way is the belief that some things make a difference, that you make a difference, that God makes a difference. “So fear not, don’t be discouraged.” Deuteronomy1:21 “The Lord fights for you and you shall have your peace,” says scripture. Exodus 14:14

What we want to see this morning is that God has a dream also.

And this is the one that really matters: “…I am about to create new heavens and a new earth….No more shall the sound of weeping be heard in it…No more shall there be in it an infant that lives but a few days….They shall not build and another inhabit; they shall not plant and another eat….The wolf and the lamb shall feed together…They shall not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain.” This is life as intended by God for all creation. This is shalom, the peace that is more than peace without war because it is peace with justice for all, as God intended and still intends. This is the dream that engenders hope. This is the big picture that gives direction to local action. In this scripture, reform receives a clear focus by refusing to sacrifice justice to the logic of expediency. Just because the world is often harsh and ugly doesn’t make beauty and truth less valuable. Just because we have mountains of waste doesn’t mean we shouldn’t take notice of beautiful sunsets. Just because I can’t paint doesn’t mean I can’t see beauty in artist’s paintings. Just because there is war doesn’t mean we shouldn’t work for peace. Just because there is injustice doesn’t mean we forgo justice.

In his letter to the Roman Christians, Paul affirms this when he writes, "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to his dream.” 8:2 Paul is not saying that we all get to live the life of our dreams. A lot of things happen to us that are not good. We are indeed forced to live another kind of life at times. Paul is saying that if a person will consider all the experiences of his or her life, both the good and the bad, and bond them together with love for God, then the sum total of that life will be good. It is possible to believe in the sun when it is not shining, to believe in love when you cannot directly feel it, and to believe in God when God is silent for a period. God’s will is much stronger than our lack of will. God’s plan is much more persistent that any counterforce. The dream will triumph even if it is not immediately evident. An English bishop once said, "Everywhere Paul went there was a revolution, while everywhere I go they serve tea."

In 1872, at the age of 16, Booker T. Washington decided he wanted to go to school. For a boy, born a slave to a plantation cook in Virginia, this was a huge step. He decided that he would enter the Hampton Institute in Hampton, Virginia. With nothing more than a small satchel of clothing, he started walking from Malden, West Virginia, 500 miles away. Eventually he made it to Richmond, about eighty miles from his destination. He worked there for a few days unloading pig iron off a ship, spending his nights on the ground under an elevated board sidewalk. He continued his journey and finally reached Hampton Institute. He asked the "head teacher" for admission. Washington later recalled, "Having been so long without proper food, a bath, and change of clothing, I did not make a very favorable impression upon her, and I could see at once that there were doubts in her mind about the wisdom of admitting me as a student." The teacher delayed a decision about Booker while she admitted other students, and he waited anxiously. Finally, she said to him, "The adjoining recitation room needs sweeping. Take the broom and sweep it." "It occurred to me at once that here was my chance," he wrote. "Never did I receive an order with more delight...I swept the recitation room three times. Then I got a dusting cloth and I dusted it four times." He cleaned the walls and closets. "I had the feeling," he continued, "that in a large measure my future depended upon the impression I made upon the teacher in the cleaning of that room. When I was through, I reported to her. She was a `Yankee' woman who knew just where to look for dirt. She went into the room and inspected the floor and closets: then she took her handkerchief and rubbed it on the woodwork about the walls, and over the table and benches. When she was unable to find one bit of dirt on the floor, or a particle of dust on any of the furniture, she quietly remarked, `I guess you will do to enter this institution.' "I was one of the happiest souls on earth. The sweeping of that room was my college examination, and never did any youth pass an examination for entrance into Harvard or Yale that gave him more genuine satisfaction. I have passed several examinations since then, but I have always felt that this was the best one I ever passed." Booker T. Washington kept a job as a janitor to help pay his expenses. In June 1875, he graduated, on the honor roll and as one of the commencement speakers. Booker T. Washington knew what h was supposed to be going after. It was his dream that propelled him throughout his life.

You know, as parents we are supposed to keep the dream alive for our children, even or especially when they forget it or no longer think it’s important. Parenting during those difficult years when our children are trying to turn into adults is that constant act of keeping the dream alive for your child, even when they lose sight of it. That is where the biggest fights come from. It is difficult to know how to keep them close enough to their best hope without trying to make them into people they are not meant to be. Err on the side of the dream. Don’t settle for excuses. Help your children to overcome their fears. Challenge them to see their best self. Be tough enough to win the battles. Keep them close enough to you and your values so that they can still catch your dream of them and their dream for themselves.

The story of the New Testament is the story of men and women who got close enough to Jesus to catch his dream. Doesn't it amaze you how quickly the disciples left their fishing nets to follow Jesus? Jesus had a vision for the world, a dream, a picture of how life is intended to be. Jesus saw a world where God ruled in every heart, “a world of righteousness, peace and justice.” Sure, Jesus talked about heaven and life in the hereafter but he also had a vision for this world. He called it the Kingdom of heaven or the Kingdom of God. You can use those terms interchangeably scholars tell us. And Jesus said that this kingdom is at hand. It is available. It is not merely a distant dream. It is a present possibility. The truth is Christ had no problem with people who are ambitious. God created us to dream, to aspire, to strive for the best. The question Jesus would ask us is, is that it? Is that the extent of your dreams? After all, things are fleeting, aspirations limited to acquiring things and that includes status, are fleeting. So often our dreams are too small. And they provide only limited satisfaction, at best. Don’t you want something more? Wouldn’t it be marvelous to know that, because of you, hungry people are being fed; because of you, children have a chance at a better life; because of you someone who had lost his or her way is brought back to life. Of course it would be, and that is why we are here and why we are Christ’s disciples, so that Christ’s dream would come true.

Our lives are shaped by our dreams, which empower us and drive away doubt. So let us dream, and believe, and do what in our dream we are called to do, which reminds me of the wife who said to her husband over breakfast, “I had a dream last night that you gave me a pearl necklace. What do you suppose that means?” And he answered, “You’ll find out tonight.” Sure enough, that evening he gave her a book entitled, Interpreting Dreams.

I want to finish with a part of the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s great 1963 Washington D.C. march speech entitled, “I Have a Dream.”  

“I say to you today, my friends, even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal. I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood. I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice. I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today. I have a dream that one day down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification; one day right down in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers. I have a dream today. I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plains and the crooked places will be made straight and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together.

This is our hope. This is the faith that I go back to the South with. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day. This will be the day, this will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with new meaning ‘My country 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the Pilgrim's pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring!’”

Dreams are not just for when we sleep, but they are for when we are awake, truly awake to God’s plan.

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