Monday, December 23, 2019

Dreaming of Days to Come
By Griff Martin
A Sermon on Isaiah 7:10-16 and Matthew 1:18-25
For the Fourth Sunday of Advent (Dec 22, 2019)
For the Beloveds of First Austin: a baptist community of faith

Incarnate and Coming Christ, we ask that you once again take the Word and transform it into a living and breathing new reality we can all together experience. Make us aware of your presence here in this space and in these words God, for if we are present to you then nothing else will matter, but if we are not present to you then nothing else will matter. In the name of the Creator, the Christ and the Comforter. Amen.

One of my favorite Anne Lamott lines: “If you want to make God laugh, tell her your plans.”

It’s amazing how quickly the future we have planned can change. You dream of this (you fill in the blank here), and then it all changes with one phone call, one kiss, one bad medical diagnosis, a job promotion, a positive pregnancy test, a freak accident, an unexpected inheritance… Suddenly, life can pivot. 

For instance, you are head over heels in love, and the person whose blue eyes have captivated and captured your soul is now the one on whom your entire future finally rests. He is the one you picture building the perfect home with; she is the one you picture walking hand in hand with on the beach from your dreams; he is the one you picture rocking your firstborn to sleep at night; she is the one you dream of… usually.

Or at least, that is how Joseph’s dreams had been going, when he could remember them. Although he was sure that he dreamed all the time, Joseph rarely remembered his dreams. He was too busy. His work was hard work: building all day, lifting lumber, nailing, sawing, sanding. It was hard physical work that left his muscles aching and his eyes heavy as soon as the sun set.

And on top of that, he was recently betrothed. Which was exciting, as well, thinking about the life he would build with his new wife. So much energy was going to anticipation, as well as building a home for them to share, and adding a room onto his parents’ house, as was tradition. This, too, was hard work. 

A lot was going on. And with all that, Joseph usually fell asleep the minute his head hit the pillow and he slept like a rock all night. The few dreams he remembered were vaguely about Mary and the life they were going to share… until that dream. 

It’s a dream we know little about. We know the message of it, we know the point, but we don’t know the details. And dreams are made of details. You don’t wake up from a dream remembering the point of the dream, you remember the story and from there you do the work of finding meaning. We dream in narrative and then work to meaning. We don’t know what kind of story Joseph dreamed, but it must have been a doozy because he did the work and he understood the point of the dream: Don’t be afraid to stay with Mary, to marry her still even though she is pregnant with child. This baby is going to be named Jesus and he has a very important task, maybe the most important task of all time.

Now, I think we miss this part of the Christmas story often; we think of Joseph going to sleep knowing nothing and waking knowing everything. But brain science has me rethinking that more traditional interpretation. We now know that our brains need time offline to process and to learn new things, which they do during the sleep cycle. The brain often tries to solve problems and complete processes while dreaming that could not be solved and completed in the waking hours.

Which makes me think that Joseph went to bed knowing that Mary was with child and trying to figure out what he was supposed to do about that. You see, when that pregnancy test went from white to pink and then the little positive sign appeared, the future Joseph and Mary had been dreaming of suddenly changed. 

And he goes to bed with all that on his mind. He probably did not sleep much at first; you know the routine when you go to bed with so much on your mind that you can’t sleep? You toss and you turn and you try to put all your thoughts to bed, but your thoughts are ready to pull an all-nighter, so you just watch the clock tick by, minute by minute, and you begin to debate using that one Ambien tablet you have saved in the medicine cabinet until, miracle of all miracles, you are asleep.

And then your brain does the work that it was designed to do once you get out of the way. It has everything to do with the ego and control and worry and anxiety and how those things often blur the very voice of God and of reason. It’s why sleep might be a very real form of prayer, a spiritual discipline and practice of letting go. 

Joseph finally lets go and drifts off and there he finds the dream of God; there he finds a new future. Or maybe it’s not exactly new. Listen to the first passage we read this morning from Isaiah: “the young woman with child will bear a son and shall name him Immanuel.” 

The problem is that Joseph’s dream leaves him with some terrible decisions to make. Will Joseph obey Scripture (which would tell him to divorce Mary – a strange sequence of words there), or to follow the voice of God? Pay attention to that; sometimes following the voice of God means changing the way you have always understood the Word of God. All truth is paradox.

The second decision is whether or not he will sacrifice his own dreams (which certainly did not include a marriage that would, in those days, be considered shameful) for God’s dream (and pay attention again – God’s dreams rarely worry about our shame). 

I think it’s two questions we are often called to face, as well: Will we obey our traditional and often limited view of Scripture, or follow the voice of God? Will we follow our dream for the future, or God’s dream for the future?

Joseph surrenders to God’s future. He sacrifices his own so that he can be part of God’s plan. And that is not all he sacrifices – to be part of God’s future, Joseph not only gives up his own personal dreams and plans, he gives up all the thought he knew of God and laws and holiness codes and traditional systems and the way things should be and the limited reality he knew then. He surrenders what he thought he knew about God in order to actually know God.

And in doing so, he got to be part of God’s dream. He used all the verbs that God tends to favor – he trusted, had faith, surrendered, had compassion, he loved… and because of all that, he got to play a role in the most important story we have: God’s kingdom coming to earth.

Joseph says yes. And God’s kingdom here is not built by bricks but is built each time we say yes to God’s calling; a kingdom of our yesses. 

The more I have thought about Joseph over the past few weeks, the more I realize the incredible influence he must have had on Jesus Christ. Perhaps Jesus Christ learned this incredible act of self-sacrifice for love, trust in really scary callings, faith in a future that God is promising, compassion and not judgement, learning to read Scripture more truthfully based on God’s character… I think Jesus learned that from his earthly father.

Joseph and Jesus both doing the hard work of following God… trust, faith, listening, loving. To each of those, we answer yes.

But before we answer yes, we have to face a hard reality that begins with this question: What’s our dream? I would guess that it is something close to what we have all too selfishly called the American dream: a nice place to live with a guest room or two, a happy marriage that is as perfect as it looks, children and grandchildren that are just delights, a job that is meaningful and provides some extra cash on the side, and that we will all live happily ever after. 

I think this is probably humanity’s dream: a nice life with meaning and comfort and a happily-ever-after ending.

And church, we have heard this dream so often we now actually think this is God’s dream for us. Hence, the entire tragic prosperity Gospel movement. 

And I hate to burst your bubble – and I struggle here all the time because I want this dream as much as anyone here – but here’s the truth: this is our dream. This is not God’s dream. 

God’s dream has never changed. We have heard it over the last few weeks from the Isaiah text, and it has nothing to do with a big house but instead everyone having a home. The happiness of a perfect marriage is exchanged for every person living in perfect unity and community, children and grandchildren extend to be every child… it’s a big dream of peace, love and belonging. 

During Advent, I have to tell you something about our God. I think our God is still dreaming dreams and I think God is still giving us those dreams. 

It’s our choice how we respond to them.

To trade our understanding of God for a bigger picture of God and God’s love.

To trade our dreams for God’s reality. 

And I think God’s dream is still similar to the one God gave Joseph: I want my child to be born into this world, I want My story to be told, I want people to know how much I love them, I want to find a way to communicate My truths to people. 

God wants to be continually reborn in us. To let us live out that story. For us to live God’s dreams into reality. 

The choice, First Austin, is ours. 

This Christmas season, will we release our dreams to accept God’s dreams?


May we be so bold as to say ‘yes’ with Father Joseph, and ‘let it be’ with Mother Mary. Amen and Amen.

*artwork: Unto Bethlehem, painting by Mark Jennings, mark-jennings.pixels.com

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