Doug Pilsworth
For the last months, I have had the privilege of doing worship services at First United Church, Trenton. When I arrived on the first Sunday, I looked at the congregation and said, “I don't like first Sundays. You don’t know me and I don't know you and your traditions. We could really foul this up!
“They always say that when beginning something new, that you should begin with an ice-breaker story, but I don't like those stories. They are lousy stories. So I am going to tell you one that actually happened to me.”
All the years in the congregation perked up. I said, “I dreamt the other night that I had died and went to heaven. There, I found myself standing in front of God. Suddenly, and without warning, God sneezed. And I didn't know what to say to God."
My story was met with some laughter, but mostly with foreheads cupped in hands. I continued, "Welcome to the next fifteen weeks!" They have been very gracious to me and my "and now for something completely different," style of worship. I don't know what their dreams of me were like, but I am sure I'm not what they dreamt.
Do you dream? Do you dream in black in white or in colour? Do you remember your dreams. Many psychiatrists use our dreams to find out our inner most desires and tendencies. Why do we dream. When I was younger, I used to have deja vu dreams. When my dream became reality, it scared me. Then, I began reading in the Bible about others who had dreams that came true. It seemed as though God was speaking to them, through their dreams. Jacob had a dream he was feeling his world. Zechariah had a dream about the birth of John, his son. Mary had a dream about giving birth to the Son of God. And Joseph, her betroth, had dreams to accept Mary and to flee Herod and to return when it was safe.
An earlier Joseph had dreams when his brothers betrayed him and Joseph rose to fame because he could interpret dreams. Dreams seem to be God's way of placing in our minds and hearts the hopes of a better world, for us to make real.
Our world right now is tribal, with many people exerting their power over others. Our world is rebelling against our disregard for it and it's creatures, as devastation is ravishing places in our world, because we have ignored the interconnectedness of our world. All seems so hopeless when we look around our world. Are we self-destructing?
Soon, we will be celebrating the vision and dreams of a man of God whose dreams will bring back a sense of the godly into our world again. It's not too late to listen to and to make real the dream of Martin Luther King Jr. Google his speech, "I have a dream." The vision God gave King is one that is desperately needed today. And we must act on his dream, now! God created all of what we are. Shouldn't we be responsive to God's dreams for us?
Dreams. God's way of telling us about the ways of heaven that will change our world. Dreams do come true, if we act upon them. Make God's dream for you and this world, a reality. Dream a little dream, with me. God bless you all.
Doug Pilsworth is a retired minister and regular contributor to Faith for Today.
