http://pcmk.org/sermons/2010-12-05.wma
"Dream On" Isaiah 11:1-10 Matthew 3:1-12
I've been doing some reading in our church history. The first pastor of the church, Rev. Andrew Shiland, seems to have set the tone for the spirit of this place. He was remembered as "of Scotch ancestry, of the old school, a student and schoolmaster, stern, of strong opinions and perhaps dictatorial, grounded in the doctrines of the Presbyterian Church and accepting them in toto, as a sermonizer to-day he would be considered dull but he was sound in doctrine and an earnest worker among his flock." (Dr. Harrison Teller, cited in the 70th-anniversary history of the church)
Shiland had a fairly long ministry, but toward the end, he seems to have overstepped the boundary between being a strong leader and apparently turning against the congregation. For the last year of his ministry here, people said all he did was scold.
I guess that's the place where leadership turns into separation, or even abuse. Where the connection that's essential for a productive relationship, where it disappears. John the Baptist seems to have something of a scold in himself: You brood of vipers…
Imagine if I turned to Sierra Rose and berated her at the baptismal font: "What have you done to prove that you love God? Are you serious about your faith? Who warned you…"
Every one of has our strengths and our flaws. Some of the visionary side of Isaiah, and some of the curmudgeonly side of John the Baptist.
Last week, I challenged you to “Stay Awake.” So what do I mean this week, saying “Dream On”? Clearly I’m not talking about the sort of dream that happens when you’re sleeping. I mean the kind of eyes-open dream that Dr. King referred to when he said, “I have a dream…”
I want to suggest today that dreaming is the antidote to the epidemic of fear and anxiety that seems to have our nation by the throat. Of course, dreaming can be hazardous to your health. Isaiah's vision of the messianic age in which the wolf shall dwell with the lamb and the calf with the young lion (Isaiah 11:6) might get us into trouble! As Woody Allen said: "The lion and the calf shall lie down together but the calf won't get much sleep." [Without Feathers]
This week I revisited The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch on “Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams.” If you haven’t seen it, it’s a moving mixture of practical advice with an engineer’s sensibility, brought to you by a man in his 40’s who knew he was dying. At the end of his talk he says, “It’s not about how to achieve your dreams. It’s about how to lead your life. If you lead your life the right way, the karma will take care of itself. The dreams will come to you.”
Dreamers don’t accept the world as it is. Bobby Kennedy was quoting George Bernard Shaw, from a play in which the Serpent is speaking to Eve on matters of life and death: “You see things; and you say 'Why?' But I dream things that never were; and I say 'Why not?'”
With Isaiah, let's work for a world without greed, hatred and violence. Dream what Madeleine l'Engle called the "Glorious Impossible." As Christians we expect a world that reflects the love of God which Jesus lived. Advent reminds us that peace and love and joy are available. Advent faith challenges us to look to the future instead of living locked in the past. Dreaming requires imagination, a sense of wonder and a willingness to risk in order to become partners with God in the New Creation. These days can be a time to share in God's work in the world.
In 1992 Lee A. Dugatkin of the University of Louisville did a study* on the survival value of fear in guppies. Based on their reaction to the presence of smallmouth bass, he categorized the guppies as timid, ordinary or bold. The timid hid, the ordinary simply swam away, and the bold maintained their ground and eyed the bass. Each guppy group was then left alone in a tank with a bass. After 60 hours, 40 percent of the timid guppies had survived, as had only 15 percent of the ordinary fish. Every one of the bold guppies became bass food.
We might say that the bold guppies teach us the dangers of dreaming! Dreams can make us foolish, if we ignore the feedback of the Universe. But they can make us passive, if we fail to do what we can today to make a difference in the world because we wish for a better situation tomorrow.
So my invitation to you at PCMK is to dare to dream despite the news we read and hear.
Dare to believe that something good will come of any pain in our life.
A good dream is not just wishful thinking. It’s based on what we’ve seen and known in the past.
Dreamers can listen calmly to an outline of the “worst-case scenario” and respond, “And the point is?”
The guppies teach us how to survive—be timid.
Dreams show us how to live—be trusting. Dream On!
Make a difference. Change the world! Allow yourself to be changed.
May we dare to dream on in all we do! Amen.
*--Dugatkin, L.A. (1992) Tendency to inspect predators predicts mortality risk in the guppy (Poecilia reticulata). Behavioral Ecology, 3:124-127.
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