The Dream!

In the beginning God had a dream!

God said “Let there be light”  And God saw that the light was “good.”  And God separated the light from the darkness. (Gen. 1)

I want to talk about dreams this morning.  Because the original separation, the separation of the light from the darkness, remains a dream still today.

Jesus alludes to the presence of darkness in the Gospel of Luke (see below).  He says “Woe to you…”

In the Old Testament book of Daniel (Chapter 7) Daniel has an awful dream about this issue of darkness.  Fortunately, an angel was there to calm Daniel’s concern.  He talks to Daniel like a mother or father: Don’t worry, all the monsters that threaten God’s plan. They lose their power in the presence of the Holy One.  

The BIG monsters and the small ones, the Hitler’s and bin Laden’s,  the angry tantrums, and arrogant behavior, all fall short in finding success before God.  The kingdom will overcome then forever and ever.  

Our Creator God had/has a dream of how life on earth could be.

Joseph had a dream! 

Daniel had a dream!

                                 Jesus came to teach the dream

"But I say to you that listen, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, 28 bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. 29 If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also; and from anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt. 30 Give to everyone who begs from you; and if anyone takes away your goods, do not ask for them again. 31 Do to others as you would have them do to you.

Jack Frost’s famous brother Robert once wrote a poem about this dream:  

“Two roads diverged in a yellow wood.  And I?  I took the one less traveled by.  And that has made all the difference”

Now lets go back to our not-so-ancient past.  

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. spoke these famous words:

“I have a dream!  A dream that all people will one day be known "for the content of their character”  Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave that speech in 1963.

Some of us are old enough to remember what it was like in the 1960s.  It was a radial revolutionary time.  At least in California where I lived!  It was a decade of rebellion and moral decay.  Viet Nam filled the nightly news with graphic reality.  College campus’ were the seat, and seed field, for demonstrations of political unrest and reform.  The young people of that generation were searching for meaning and purpose; within a culture, they perceived, offered them a hypocritical set of rules and expectations for living their young lives.  They wanted to make sense of it all!   They wanted a truth!  A truth they could hold on to.  And they had a vision, a dream, of how life could be.

I wasn’t apart of the Hippie Movement.  I was too “square!”  And I was an extremely idealistic High School student!  The hippies colored way too far outside the lines for me.   However, I can’t help but believe that the vision, the dream, of the 60s — from the young people as well as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., was in many ways quite simular to what Jesus preached about in his Sermon on The Plain that we read in Luke 6.  

In the 1960s the dream was a hope of a political reality where all would be made right. Right through the honorable “content of each individual character.”  A Content of Character that created justice, equality and peace for each and every person.  Along with the hope of a healthy ecological attitude for our natural resources.  

An attitude much like I would imagine God originally designed in the Beginning.  Plenty for all!  Respect for all, people and nature!  With generous amounts of mercy, compassion, forgiveness, understanding and acceptance for all.

That was also the dream that was so passionately voiced in the 1960s!

It was also a dream, that I believe, Jesus spoke about so passionately two-thousand-plus years ago as he stood among a people who stretched to touch him in order to be healed.

There are not many of us who speak passionately about that dream anymore!

Dr Martin Luther King Jr. was murdered for speaking out so passionately.

Jesus was crucified for doing the same!

Maybe the students dream of the sixties died as well!

Because no one wanted to listen!  Not then!   Not now!

Most of us are way past mid-life now.  And have fallen back in stride with the norms of our culture.  Some are “good Democrats” or “ good Republicans.”  Or, at the very least thoughtful Independents! Some sell insurance, some are lawyers, others are big into computers.  Some even sit in Congress, or administer government programs.  Some stand in pulpits! Others actually still live in communes.

But very few ever speak out about the wonderful dream anymore.

And thats too bad, I think!  Too bad because, behind all the turmoil and demonstrations, the dream was a good one. It was good because it tried to mirror the social reform and radical message spoken by Jesus himself.

Oh!  Maybe the young people of the 60s didn’t know the real solutions. Nor  did they give credit to Jesus for their ideas.  But the dream!  The point of their dream was much the same.  Throughout the Gospels Jesus clearly tells us how to live in peace — with justice and equality.  

You see, Jesus’ dream, Jesus vision, for people living together extended far beyond the scope of that dream of the 60s.  It extended far beyond our imaginations even today.  And yet, we are none-the-less asked to live out that dream.  At the very least trying to participate in the dream.  By trying to live by faith defined by Jesus.

Because, as in Jesus day!  As in the turmoil of the 60s!  And in the year 2018!   Jesus speak a message that strikes at the very heart of our economic and social life-style.  It is a message that targets each individual who hears.  And, truly listens!

In truth, our nation spends more on preparation for war defense; then on the elimination of hunger, homelessness and disaster relief all put together.

And I don’t believe anyone, who is honest with themselves, can deny that we are all guilty of an insatiable demand on the earth’s natural resources.

The average family in the United States spend more on a car in one month; then most third world families spend on food in one year.

Now, it might surprise you to know that the one thing Jesus spoke about more than anything else, even more than love, was greed.  Hoarding and misusing people and money.

The message we read from the Sermon on The Plain is clearly a difficult one for our consumer life-style!

“Blessed are the poor, the hungry, the grieving!”

“But woe to the rich, well fed and content!”

We turn Jesus’ word around, inside-out and up-side-down.  His woes become the understood blessing today.  And the poor and hungry and grieving just need to pull themselves up by their boot-straps and live with it!

Now, there is no doubt in my mind that you and I believe in the life-style God came in Jesus to teach.  And we try to go out in the world and live his purpose in our daily lives. 

I am not as idealistic as I was as a high school girl of the 60s.   I am not nieve enough to think that even if we would dispose of all of our worldly good; and alter our eating habits; or drive a more fuel efficent car; or even walk rather than drive; that the “poor” of our world would be all that better off.  However the truth, of my thinking, does not in the least excuse my ignorance.  My ignorance, that is, to the real plight of the poor.  Nor, does it allow me to continue in my own vulgar display of self-indulgence.

That my friends is the very thin line!  The tissue paper thin line between the Bless and the Cursed!

The thin line is:  “The content," and quality, of our character.  The content and quality of our relationship with God.  

Here is where the dream it hit the road:  The quality of our relationship with God is what Jesus is talking about all through the Sermon on the Plain.  Trust and attention to God’s ways is the single most important determinant in the course of our lives.  

No matter how poorly we try! 

Because, the perversity of the human heart without —without— God’s guidance causes ignorance to human need. God is our strength in our weakness!  That is the totality of our hope!

Jesus is very clear here!  The alternative fate of “the cursed”  and “the blessed!”  Is an outgrowth of the decisions that our hearts make about God.  Decisions that effect the present and the future of our lives.  And the lives of others!

The issue is: what we value most!  God’s ways?  Or the ways of the world?

“Blessed are you” Jesus says, “Blessed are you” for caring enough; for trying enough to do life right; for wanting to do better. "Blessed are you!"

You see, what we don’t understand is that our lives are blessed at the mere thought — the desire — to know more about his ways.  For wanting to do better.  

“Blessed are you” for, at the very least, wanting to know me better.   Wanting to follow in my ways.

For that you have indeed chosen the right road to travel.  And it will make al the difference! 

20 Then he looked up at his disciples and said: "Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. 21 "Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled. "Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh. 22 "Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man. 23 Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven; for that is what their ancestors did to the prophets. 24 "But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. 25 "Woe to you who are full now, for you will be hungry. "Woe to you who are laughing now, for you will mourn and weep. 26 "Woe to you when all speak well of you, for that is what their ancestors did to the false prophets. 27 "But I say to you that listen, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, 28 bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. 29 If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also; and from anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt. 30 Give to everyone who begs from you; and if anyone takes away your goods, do not ask for them again. 31 Do to others as you would have them do to you.(Lk. 6:20-310