Sunday, August 10, 2014

Finding our way out of the Pit


Genesis 37
 
        The Apostle Paul wrote, “In everything, God works for good for those who love God, and are called according to God’s purpose. To those God predestined, God also called.  Those God called, God justified; those God justified, God also glorified.”
        Such is the story of Joseph.
        Joseph was the 11th of 12 children.  But that didn’t matter. Joseph was the first child born to Rachel. Jacob loved Rachel and her offspring more than any of his other wives and children.  Perhaps this wasn’t fair, but it was the truth.  From birth, Joseph was treated like royalty and, as the text reveals, Joseph was not only favored by his father, but by God.
        Joseph was a dreamer.   It is one thing to sit around and idly daydream the day away.  Joseph dreamed of the future.  He imagined one day he would rule not only his family but he would have the power of a king.  Being the 11th in a household of 12 boys Joseph’s imagination and dreams were barely tolerated by his older brothers.   Joseph dreamed all of his brothers would bow down to him.  Joseph’s brothers schemed about how they could get rid of this meddlesome half-brother.  Complicating the issue, Jacob did not discourage the boy.  Much to the dismay of his brothers, Jacob dressed Joseph in royal clothing,
        At some point the older brothers had enough of the preferential treatment.  They decided enough was enough and their lives would be much easier without the presence of Joseph.  They lured Joseph away from the house, bound him with ropes and tossed him into a pit.  They took the royal coat, ripped it apart and dipped it in blood.  Then they discussed the fate of their sibling. Some of the brothers wanted to kill Joseph.  Cooler heads prevailed and eventually they gave him to a slaver on his way to Egypt.  With Joseph headed toward Egypt, the brothers returned home and presented the blood stained cloak to their grief stricken father.  This one act set in motion the eventual transformation of Jacob’s family as free men in Canaan to slaves in Egypt.  But that is another story.
        This is a classic tale of the power of a dream, the killing of a dream and the resurrection of a dream.  Dreamers are hardly ordinary folks.  Dreamers often get in the way of us common folks.  Most of the time our lives are pretty much set in stone or to be more exact, lived according to our calendars.  We can look at our calendars and figure exactly where we will be at 2:00, three days from now.  That is the way we need to operate to be productive.  If I’m at work, I need to have my day lined up so I can be prepared for each visit or meeting.  If I’m at home, Deb and I coordinate our calendars in order that chaos doesn’t rule the day.  Dreamers can make mincemeat of a calendar. Dreamers imagine another path, a different direction.  This may or not be fruitful; it may or may not be successful; but to quote  Thoreau, “If a man does not keep pace with his companion, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer.”
        There can be no doubt that Joseph marched to a different beat.  I wonder when he realized that this drummer was more than his own imagination.  I wonder when Joseph realized he was on marching orders from God.  I wonder if he had any idea where his dreams would take both him and his family.
        There is a danger to marching to a different beat.  Ever see a marching band parade down the street in three/four time.  You waltz to three/four, not march.  To the best of my knowledge Sousa never wrote a march in three/four.  Like wise, I doubt Strauss wrote a waltz in six/eight.  Maybe that was the problem, Joseph waltzed in three/four and his brothers marched in six/eight.  Regardless, the whimsical thoughts of Joseph could not be tolerated.  They were different, threatening, even embarrassing.  New ideas and old traditions usually mix like oil and water.  One had to be eliminated and in this case there was certainly strength in numbers.  Truth is, if you hear the dream, and the dream makes you nervous, than it is always safer to eliminate the dream before it has a chance to become reality.  That made real good sense to the older brothers of Joseph.
        The decision was made that the dream had to be eliminated. But as many of us have discovered, dreams die hard.  Dreams are the stuff from which resurrections evolve.  The dream the brothers killed would eventually resurface in what woukld become their greatest nightmare.  Like a cat with nine lives, Joseph would not die.  Through the pit, through escapades with Potipher’s wife, through time in an Egyptian jail and finally as the chief advisor to Pharaoh, Joseph continued to dream a vision he believed God had placed in his heart.
        It would have been so easy for Joseph to play the role of the subservient brother.  As 11 of 12 he could have easily fallen in line and waited his turn.  But he didn’t.  Somehow, even as a child, Joseph believed God had plans for him.
        It would have been so easy for Joseph, when placed in that pit, to have begged for his life.  He could have made all kind of promises to his brothers, but he didn’t.  He might ave been afraid, but never enough to beg for his life.
        It would have been so easy for Joseph to have celebrated his freedom once he reached Egypt.  He could have rejoiced at having his life restored and sworn off paying attention to any more dreams.  But he didn’t.  Once he was given authority in Egypt, Joseph continued to dream of the possibilities this new adventure might bring to him.
        Dreaming is easy.  Believing in dreams is the hard part.  The poet William Yeats said, “Responsibility begins with dreams.”  Perhaps dreams got Joseph into the pit, but his belief in those dreams allowed him to rise from the pit and begin a life that evolved beyond his greatest imagination.
           Do you have dreams?  Of course you do.  Some of our dreams are a bit absurd.  All my adult life I have dreamed of owning a Porsche 911.  It doesn’t have to be new as long as it is black.  Now what kind of dream is that?   Three words quickly come to mind: immature, self-serving, and impossible.  I know it will never happen.  Well I know Deb says it will never happen.    Some dreams are no longer possible.  They have been made obsolete by time.  For years I dreamed of being the starting shortstop for the Boston Red Sox.  That should have died years ago. I am not even sure I can still throw the ball across the infield. The dream would be dead except last week Boston traded all its stars and is starting over from scratch. Perhaps I should send them my number.
        Some dreams never fade.  Some folks never stop dreaming about possibilities for their children.  Some folks never stop dreaming about starting a new vocation, or discovering a new talent, or traveling to some exotic place.   And some folks, like Joseph, never stop dreaming about how they can fulfill the vision God placed in their heads.
        That particular dream always comes with a price.  There are folks, like the brothers of Joseph, who will suggest that dreaming about what the kingdom of God might be is a bit presumptuous.
        They have made it habit to dig pits or create pitfalls along the way and trust me, the bigger your dreams, the bigger their holes.  Once we stumble into their pit, we have to carefully and prayerfully ask ourselves what we plan to do once we get out.  We usually have only two options.  We can lose the dream and join our captors or we can crawl out of the hole, dust ourselves off, and continue to move forward.
        I hope each of you continues to dream about what this church is and what this church can become.  I hope each of you believes that these dreams are not of your own making but are a gift of God.  I pray each of your dreams has spent a little time in the pit.  Those times of disappointment and soul searching will only serve to make your dreams stronger. 
I hope that you find the courage to share your dreams with other dreamers.  I believe God places righteous dreams into the hearts of many.  When we discover our fellow dreamers, the will to follow God’s path will become stronger. It is through the imagination of folks like you that the church finds life, and courage and reason to exist.  Dreaming of what could have been serves little purpose.  Dreaming of what can be gives us vitality.
I am challenging you to have the courage to put on your fancy coat and speak your mind. Don’t you know by now that this is the place where dreams come to life? We have the resources, we have the tools, and we have the willing bodies. Best of all no one here is interested in digging a dream ending pit out back.
So share your vision. Give the rest of us the chance to be fully engaged in God’s amazing imagination. This is the perfect time and the perfect place for dreamers to unite. This is the perfect time and the perfect place to join together and work for the good of humankind.   This is the perfect time and the perfect place to show off your fancy coat and your Godly dreams.  A wise person once said only silence and fear can effectively kill a dream. So dream, dream of what is good, dream of what is righteous, dream of what is noble, dream of the possibility of recreating God’s heaven right here in this holy place. Once that is done, I can only imagine what else is possible.
To God be the glory,  Amen.

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