In his book, The Easy Yoke, author Doug Webster tells a story about a young, energetic and idealistic seminary student in Philadelphia. His name was Ted, and he was studying to be a pastor. In fact, he dreamed about being a pastor. It’s all he’d wanted to be since seventh grade. He was motivated. He had energy. He had enthusiasm. His first seminary class was called “How to Talk About Your Faith.” An “easy-A,” Ted thought.
As a part of the class, each student was given an area of the city. For an assignment, they were supposed to go there and simply strike up a conversation with a stranger about the Christian faith. Then they would return to class and discuss their experiences. Ted was sent to a particularly poor area of Philadelphia filled with lots of housing projects and a high crime rate. But Ted, as I said, had energy and enthusiasm. Full speed ahead!
On the designated day, Ted parked his car in front of one of the large apartment buildings in the neighborhood, said a quick prayer, walked up a flight of stairs and knocked on the first door he came to.
After a long pause, the door was opened by woman holding a naked, screaming baby and smoking a cigarette. She looked Ted up and down, and frowned. She was clearly in no mood to hear some, idealistic, suburban college boy tell her about Jesus. She started cursing him and slammed the door in his face. Ted was frozen in shock and disbelief. This wasn’t how the conversation was supposed to go.
He stepped outside, sat on the curb, and replayed the encounter over and over again in his mind. In the space of 2 minutes, his whole world had been cast into doubt, his foundation shaken. “Look at me,” he thought. “How in the world could someone like me think I could tell anyone about Jesus?” Deflated, he got up and started walking back to the car…ready to quit…when he remembered something. The baby…the screaming baby the woman was holding was naked. And the woman was smoking. A plan started forming in Ted’s mind.
Ted drove to the nearest grocery store and bought a box of diapers and a pack of cigarettes. When he knocked on the door again, the woman opened it and just rolled her eyes when she saw him. But before she could slam the door, Ted quickly thrust the box of diapers and the cigarettes toward her and said, “Here. I got these for you.”
The woman stared at him. “Come in” she said…suspiciously.
For the next couple of hours, Ted played with the baby and changed his diapers (even though he’d never changed diapers before.) When the woman offered him a cigarette, even though he didn’t smoke, he accepted it. He spent the better part of the afternoon smoking and changing diapers. He never said a word about Jesus. But he listened to the woman’s story. He got to know her. And gradually, they started laughing together.
As he was getting ready to leave, the woman asked him why he was doing this. So…with some fear and trepidation…Ted explained his assignment, and then he told her everything he knew about Jesus. It took about 5 minutes. When he stopped talking, the woman looked at him and said softly, “Please pray for me and my baby that we can make it out of here alive.” So he took her hands…and they prayed.
Ted had a dream…a vision of what his ministry…his life was going to be like. But in one afternoon…that dream was trampled. And Ted almost gave up…until he realized…that maybe…just maybe… God had a different dream in mind for him. In fact, Ted realized, God had taken his broken dream, and had mended it.
We all have hopes…visions…dreams about what life will look like in the days to come. Sometimes those dreams become a reality. But sometimes, those dreams do not…in fact, sometimes our dreams take a beating.
Over the years, I’ve spoken with many of you about your dreams. I’ve heard your
- Dreams for your future.
- Dreams for your children.
- Dreams about getting into a college.
- Dreams about being picked for the lead role…or for the varsity team…or a promotion.
- Dreams about your health, or the health of someone you love.
I’ve heard about your dreams. And, I’ve heard about your disappointments… those moments when your dreams have been trampled. And I have heard how for many of you, that has caused deep hurt…even pain.
Tonight, we gather to hear a familiar story; the story of Jesus’ birth. It is a story of love, and beauty and hope. But it is also a story of dreams…dreams and disappointment…and then mended dreams.
You see, Mary, the Mother of Jesus, had dreams. And these dreams did not involve giving birth, basically in a barn, to the Savior of the World, to the one she would someday have to watch being crucified. As a teenager engaged to Joseph, she had dreams of love, family, and stability…but then God spoke to her and told her what her role in history was going to be. And her dream for Joseph and their new life together was shattered. But then…God gave her a new dream: A son who was the Messiah.
And Joseph…let’s talk about him for a moment. He too had dreams for what life would look like. And then Mary came to him with the news of her pregnancy. And Joseph’s life…it kind of fell apart around him. He had to be disappointed; skeptical; even angry. He was going to leave Mary…in fact, he had every legal right to just walk away…but God spoke to him and mended his dream into one of being a father and a protector, to the Savior.
And the Shepherds? They too had a dream. I suspect that they dreamed of a better life. They dreamed of stepping out of poverty. They dreamed of freedom. They dreamed of a life with no limitations. And then the angel came and spoke to them…and told them of a new dream…a Savior…who is Christ the Lord…a Savior…who would set them free. They dropped everything…and went to find this child…this mended dream.
I have seen a lot of mended dreams this past week. On Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, Trinity was the distribution site for our local Toys for Tots program. Over 540 families from our community came through the building to pick up toys for children who otherwise might not receive anything at Christmas. 540 families!
It was a site to behold. The toys, and books, and bikes filled Fellowship Hall. It was amazing. Hundreds of volunteers were here to walk alongside and help the parents as they shopped.
I spoke with some of the parents, just casual conversation as I walked through. One woman saw my staff nametag and said to me “Thank you for doing this.” I explained that it wasn’t just a Trinity thing. It was a whole community coming together. She said “That’s what I mean. It is overwhelming to see all this.” And she went on, “Sometimes in the past, we haven’t been able to give our kids presents at Christmas. And that made us feel like we weren’t good parents.” And tears filled her eyes, and she went on: “But this…this is amazing…this will…make Christmas real for our family.”
And then, my eyes began filling with tears.
Mended dreams. I believe that God mended the dreams of this woman, her family, and many others who were here last week.
God mends your dreams as well. God loves you so much that when your dreams are broken, when your hopes are shattered, something new arises. God has a new dream for you.
So, there is another, deeper layer to our Christmas story: You see, God calls us to be dreamers. There is a world out there that desperately needs dreamers.
We have to open our hearts…our minds…our very souls, to the dreams of God. People who follow Jesus work to align our dreams…to God’s dreams.
It may not come naturally to us, but I think actually, it’s not that hard. First, we look around, and we see, and we listen. We look for the needs around us.
Then we ask God, “What could be? God, what do you dream for this?”
And then, we ask ourselves the question, “What could be?” how could this be different? What could it look like?
And then we act. We don’t over think, or over analyze. We don’t look for reasons why it won’t work. We just do it. We start making this hope first a possibility…and then a reality.
And if this dream doesn’t become a reality, then we step back and we ask God to re-form our dream. And we go at it again…and then again…and again…until our dreams align with God’s, and the new Kingdom of God that is made real this night in the child Jesus, surrounds us.
Author and pastor Nadia Bolz-Weber writes that “Christmas itself isn’t about getting what you want, or making sure you’re giving others what they want. To experience Christmas is to trust that God can do this thing again. God can again be born in me, in you, and in this broken mess of a gorgeous world.”
And we have faith that through Jesus, God steps into this “broken mess of a gorgeous world” with us. And that God is the is the one who mends your broken dreams.
My prayer for you this Christmas…you might say that it is my dream for you… is that like those gathered around the manger, we come to this night with awe, wonder, and holy imagination for what is possible.
My friends, dream your dreams. Seek God’s will. Trust and follow Jesus. And know…that when God dreams…God dreams of you.
Thanks be to God, and Merry Christmas!
Amen.
Test Driving Theology 