What Lies Ahead

Philippians 3:4-14

I am not sure how it happened or when it began.  I am not sure if it is an American thing or if it is a pandemic sweeping the world. But, it appears that we have become suspicious of big dreamers.  Have you noticed that?  Maybe it was our parents encouraging us to do what is practical and possible and plausible- to take the safe route for fear of failing.  Maybe it was our friends and peers and the lives that we live that demand us to stay on track so we can do what is right and reliable.  Or maybe it is politicians and their empty promises that have made it impossible for us to really hook our hearts to the moon.  We hear platforms bloated with big ideas, big plans, big hopes for what could be and what could only be if we elect them.  We scoff at projects and schemes that seem unimaginable and we balk at people who propose something beyond our wildest imaginations.  And because of all of this, it seems that many of us have become suspicious of big dreamers.  I hear it on talk radio.  I hear it from my morning dog walking crew and I hear it again and again from our friends and enemies and those voices on cable news.  We have become suspicious of big dreamers. 

Being a practical person, I have always appreciated a dose of realistic pragmatism.  I often join the chorus of those asking for plans with specific goals and clear objectives outlining how the ultimate vision will be reached.  I often look with a dose of suspicious toward those who craft a world much different than the one in which we live.  But lately I have become a bit restless.  Maybe you have too.  I have found myself in a bit of a quandary.  I want to be practical, I want to be critical of “pie in the sky” ideas; I think it is prudent and sound and safe to approach leaders of all kinds with censorious eyes.  Yet while many of us tend to be suspicious of big dreamers, since when have we become suspicious of big dreams? 

To be sure, it can be difficult to separate the two.  It can be nearly impossible to separate the blind idealist from the person who posits that we could be on the precipice of another way.  But I fear that in our attempt to dismiss the unrealistic dreamers, in our efforts to be critical of those we claim are out of touch or simply in the business of getting votes or filling seats; we have dismissed the art of dreaming too. We have surrendered the very act of letting our hearts imagine another way and another world. 

Lately, I have been wondering, since when have people of faith surrendered the task and call and art of dreaming big dreams? Since when have we surrendered our huge hopes and wholly and holy wondrous propositions to only those who command a grand audience?  Since when have we forgotten that what lies ahead, that big dreams and wild imaginations are at the core of our life of faith?

It seems as if we have forgotten who we are. We people of faith are the original dreamers.  It is easy to see how we have lost this art, but it is true. I fear that in the mix of hollow systems crumbling and financial foundations on the brink and threats of yet more violence throughout the world, we are letting just those with power articulate what could be, we are letting them do the dreaming.  But friends, I believe that we people of faith are the original dreamers. 

You might remember a gentleman born in Quincy who had a dream.  It was a dream that was mocked as implausible and impossible and unlikely.  But he was a man of deep faith and he knew that nothing is impossible with God.  He believed that there could be a nation built upon the principles of freedom, justice and a passionate spirit of independence.  He believed that there could be a place built on liberty and hope and the idea that what lies ahead depends in part upon what we are willing to imagine.  That dreamer was John Adams.  And you might remember a woman who gave up everything for her dream.  She dreamt of a world where everyone could have enough to eat.  She dreamt of a world where those with nothing could be surrounded with God’s love.  She was a woman of deep faith and she believed that God’s radical grace is especially present in those on the margins.  She said, "I was to give up all, and follow Jesus into the slums.....It was an order.....And when that happens, the only thing to do is say yes."   She believed in the idea that what lies ahead depends in part upon what we are willing to imagine. That dreamer was Mother Teresa.  And you might remember a man who sung from a podium, “I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal." I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood…I have a dream today.”  He believed in the idea that what lies ahead depends in part upon what we are willing to imagine.  That dreamer was the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King.

In case we have forgotten, we people of faith are the original dreamers.  And we know the very heart of our God because of another dreamer.  He had big dreams and he didn’t surrender them to the Roman political elite.  When Rome commanded its people to sacrifice their lives for the Empire, he had dreams for them.  He said, “Come to me… and I will give you rest.”  When the world said that children had no place, he had dreams for them.  He said, “Do not hinder them…let them come to me.  Whoever does not receive the realm of God like a child shall not enter it.”  When the world said that our value comes from how much we have or where we are from or where we live.  He had big dreams for us.  He said, “I came that you might have life, and might have it abundantly.” In a time when there were just those who had little and those who had power, Jesus believed that there could be another way.  He had this dream for the woman with no man and no status.  He had this dream for those in prison and those not clean enough to go inside the Temple walls. He believed in the idea that what lies ahead depends in part upon what we are willing to imagine with God.  And I suspect it was because he loved a God who is in the business of dreaming too. 

Friends, dreaming is not just for politicians or poets; dreaming is for us, each of us. We dream because we love a God who has dreams for us all.  In his letter to us today, Paul writes, “Beloved, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead…”  What lies ahead depends upon how big we are able to dream, whether we are willing risk letting go of our plan in order to receive God’s.  What lies ahead depends upon whether we are willing to change direction and aim our hearts to God. 

So when is the last time you dared to dream? When is the last time you took some time to write down your wildest dreams?  When was the last time you really let your heart wander and search for something you could only do with God? That is what dreams really are, dreams are plans for what lies ahead, plans that we can only accomplish with God. Today is a new day, a moment to change direction, to aim the compass of our hearts to God’s dreams for us.  Let it be.  Amen.

Mother Teresa in Ladies Home Journal, April, 1996, p.146