CATCH A GOD-DREAM AND FOLLOW THE STARS…

Rev. Karen Pidcock-Lester

First Presbyterian Church, Pottstown, Pa.

Epiphany Sunday 2008

Isaiah 60:1-6

Matthew 2:1-12

Introduction to the Scripture/ Isaiah 60:1-6

The verses we now hear come at the opening of the third section of the book of Isaiah. In these verses, the prophet Isaiah speaks to the people of Jerusalem several years after their return from exile.

60:1-6

Let us pray.

New Year’s Day in Atlanta was a bleak midwinter, cold and windy day, darkened by a brittle rain. In the middle of it, I opened an email from my sister-in-law announcing the dates of our annual family beach week in July: “It’s not too soon to be thinking about the feel of sand under bare feet,” she wrote, “long glasses of iced tea, the soft thwack of ping pong balls and creamy handmade ice cream (not to mention,” she wrote, “that first cup of coffee sipped at the pavilion by the sea, bike rides and blazing pink geraniums) Oh, and did I forget watching dolphins play merrily in the waves and the smell of sun-tan lotion as it dries on warm brown skin?”

Ah…

A vision of what is to come.

I’ve asked Gillian to save that email, and send it out every New Year’s Day hereafter. It came at a good time, coming as it did into the midst of the post-Christmas slump, when – as the poet W.H. Auden writes in his poem “For the Time Being,”

… Now we must dismantle the tree,

Putting the decorations back into their cardboard boxes –

Some have got broken – and carrying them up to the attic.

The holly and the mistletoe must be taken down and burnt,…

And the children got ready for school. …

There are bills to be paid, machines to keep in repair,

Irregular verbs to learn, …(For the Time Being)

We have celebrated the coming of the Light – and we believe the Light has come, but we live in the Time Being, between the dawn and fulfillment.

And, as Auden says, “To those who have seen/ the Child, however dimly, however incredulously/The Time Being is, in a sense, the most trying of all.”

There is still darkness covering the earth,

for some people, the darkness is deep,

and it will take a great deal of energy to move through the winter months that lie ahead.

But here, channeled through the email on the computer screen, was a whiff of what will surely come, a vision of something to look forward to and live towards: the warmth and brightness of summer days.

The people of Jerusalem are in a slump.

More than a slump, they are in the slough of despair.

They have bigger things to face than the bleak midwinter.

The time of their celebration has passed. When they had first returned from foreign lands to their homeland, the people had been elated. There had been great expectation and celebration as the refugees began their new life.

But now, several years after their return, the people of Israel are despondent. The economy is in ruin, poverty is widespread, the Temple must be rebuilt – where will the energy and materials come from to do the work? The reality of what restoration and rebuilding requires has sunk in. As we have seen in the devastation of hurricane Katrina and the battles of Baghdad, rebuilding Jerusalem will take a long, long time, and more mental, emotional, and physical effort than anyone can muster.

But the Lord God knows what the people need:

something to look forward to,

something to live, to work towards.

So through the prophet Isaiah, the God gives them a vision of what will come:

the Temple will be restored to its former glory,

all the nations will respect Jerusalem.

Sons and daughters will come home…

the economy will flourish, poverty will disappear as ships on the sea bring abundance to Israel’s shores,

and exotic colorful caravans of camels – from neighboring lands, Arabia and Sheba --will stream across the deserts bearing lavish gifts of gold and incense to Jerusalem.

Isaiah’s promises stir the imagination: “Lift up your eyes and look around!” he cries. “you may not see it now, but picture it , “ says the Lord. Imagine it – because it shall come to pass – the prophet uses the emphatic voice of divine promise – this is what the Lord has spoken.

Isaiah 60 is only one version, one smidgeon of God’s great vision. God’s vision for the future spills out from all parts of the scriptures. Jesus adds color and detail to God’s vision: the proud and mighty will be cast down – tyrants like Mugabe, the poor lifted up, the prodigal will come home, the lost souls will be found (I’m picturing Todd, here…), the doors of the God’s realm will open wide and men and women from east and west and north and south, from the byways and highways, from every nation and race, will sit at table, children will grow blessed and safe, sick people will be healed, and there will be no more crying, death itself will be swallowed up, and all creation will join in worship and praise. Picture it.

God is constantly putting before us a view of what is to come,

because in the middle of life’s cold, bleak darkness,

when we are most discouraged and despondent,

when life’s realities most overwhelm us,

God knows what we need: something to look forward to.

Imagine it! Says the prophet.

God wants us to catch a vision of what will be,

so we can live towards it.

But we must be very careful that our vision is accurate and clear. We must make sure that the vision we are waiting for, the dream we are pursuing is what God intends, and not something conjured up by our own imaginings. We need the spectacles of scripture to clarify our vision.

If we take a close look through scripture, we will see that the prophet is not painting a vision of prosperity and glory for the people of Israel themselves. We cannot confuse this talk of abundance from the seas and caravans of gold with promises of material abundance for ourselves, or a particular people.

The gold and glory of Isaiah’s promise comes not to individuals, nor even to the nation of Israel: it comes as tribute for the Temple. The gold is a sign that people far and wide will at last recognize the Lord as the Sovereign over the whole earth. In time, all people shall worship God, and pay homage. The text says, “They shall proclaim the praise of the Lord.”

If the vision we pursue is really going to come to pass, it must be the Lord’s vision and not our own, for it is God’s dreams which will ultimately come true.

David Lansdale, a Jesuit writer has said, “God is endlessly imaginative… [what we must do is discern how we are] to creatively enter into God’s vision for the world and collaborate with the Spirit in making that vision a reality.” (adapted)

God’s Spirit is already at work, breathing God’s dreams into being. The summer season of God’s realm is real, and already moving towards us, and even though winter darkness may cover the earth, light is already shining. “Catch sight of it!” says Isaiah. Plug into it.

Do you have a God-dream? What vision are you living towards?

Catch a God-dream so you can live towards it, and the Spirit can bring a little of it into being through you. Florence Booth, one of the founders of the Salvation Army, “What mighty channels for the outpouring of God’s love upon the world would be represented here today if each [person] were prepared to obey the heavenly vision!”

I don’t feel very mighty, do you? But you and I can be mighty channels for God’s future, whether we are an engineer or an accountant, a homemaker or a student, a scientist or a retired worker, whether we are 15 or 50 or 85, whether we are able bodied or frail, outgoing or shy, whether we have succeeded in the eyes of the world, or failed so many times we cannot count… we can catch a God-dream and live towards it. Picture that! If each of us were a mighty channel for the outpouring of God’s love, and the inbreaking of God’s vision upon the world.

While we live in the world, wise men and women who follow God’s dreams will have setbacks. The Herods of the world and powers of sin will sabotage God’s dreams. Our God-dreams may get smashed and broken. You and I might have to learn to dream again and again.

But when we do, we can take our example from the 5 people who were members of the debate team of Wylie College, an historic African-American college in the segregated south, in Marshall, Texas. Their story is told in the movie “The Great Debaters.” In the 1930s, one man, Melvin Tolson, caught God’s vision of equality for people of all races. He led his brilliant debate team to challenge the Jim Crow laws of the South by pursuing the opportunity to compete with white schools.

Time after time, these debaters would see their God-dream beaten and crushed, as the white world resisted God’s vision of justice. Time after time, because the walls of segregation limited their ability to travel freely, because there were few resources at poor colleges for the poor descendents of slaves, because police harassed them, because they suffered the terrors of lynchings, their God-dream was sabotaged. Time after time, the five young people would have to learn to dream all over again.

Eventually, God’s vision would become reality. Change came slowly, at great cost. But change did come. It would take more than 30 years, but in time blacks would enter all universities, freely travel, vote and be elected to public office. One of these Wylie College debaters would become one of the first black female attorneys in the South; another debater would become a key leader in the civil rights movement.

Not all the debaters would live to see the vision come to pass. But in the bleak midwinter of the Jim Crow South, they got whiffs of God’s summer. there were invited to debate the national champions, an all-white team. Much to the shock of everyone, including themselves, they won. And for a glorious moment, they saw the light of God’s reality already shining in the darkness of 1935.

The light of God’s reality is already shining in the darkness of 2008.

“Lift up your heads and look around!” says Isaiah. “Don’t miss what is already coming to pass! Picture it. Imagine it. Catch a vision of God’s bright realm and live towards it. If you do not have a God-dream, ask the Lord to give you one, one suited to you. Here at the outset of a new year, offer yourself as a wise man, a wise woman, willing to follow a star. Let God use you as a mighty channel.”

And as with wise men of old who caught God’s dream and followed,

light shining from the heavens, the light of Jesus Christ, will guide you,

and lead you to the vision’s end.

Amen.