Sermon: “All We Have To Do Is Dream” If you happen to be around my age, or older – maybe younger - then you might recognize the words of today’s sermon title – a slight variation on the words to a song recorded in 1959 by the Everly Brothers. According to Rolling Stones magazine this song ranks number 141 of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Times. The last part of the refrain goes something like this – and if you know it, then sing along: Whenever I want you, all I have to do is Drea-ea-ea-ea-eam, dream, dream, dream Drea-ea-ea-ea-eam, dream, dream, dream The title of course is “All I Have To Do Is Dream” – a love song, about a guy wanting a girl in his arms – and whenever he wants her in his arms, whenever he wants to “taste her lips of wine,” all he has to do, is Drea-ea-ea-ea-eam. If you want a blast from the past, get to a computer and go online to YouTube – and you can see a black and white video recording of Don and Phil Everly – singing this song – two young handsome men, dressed in suits, white shirts and skinny ties, with their guitars, singing and playing their hearts out. Don, by the way, born in Muhlenberg County, Kentucky - near Central City, where now you can drive on Everly Brothers Boulevard. The Bible of course is filled with dreams – people dreaming and seeing visions. This past Christmas season we read about Joseph – who dreamed of “an angel of the Lord” coming to him, several times. He dreamed – he listened to what the angels told him – and then he acted on his dream. And the Wise Men, visiting the baby Jesus – they were “warned in a dream” not to return to King Herod, and they went home by another way. Dreams. All we have to do is dream. But then again, maybe that’s not all we have to do. We have to dream. Howard Thurman, the Baptist pastor and civil rights leader - who influenced the young Martin Luther King Jr., - he said, “Without dreams, we die.” We need to dream – but it’s not all we have to do. We need to dream – and then we have to act on those dreams - and work to make those dreams into a reality. Today on this Baptism of the Lord Sunday we read about Peter – who earlier in chapter 10 of Acts had a dream. Luke, the write of Acts, writes that around mid-day Peter went up to the roof top to pray – and then he was hungry. Thinking about what to have for lunch he had a dream – a vision – of a great white sheet coming down from the sky, with all kinds of reptiles and birds – unkosher food. And a voice, “Peter, rise, kill and eat.” Peter is aghast. “No – I have never eaten this unclean, profane food.” And in his dream the voice replies, “What God has made clean, you must not call profane.” For Peter this was one of those repeating dreams – like the kind you have when you are under stress, and you dream about showing up for work or school without your clothes. Peter has this dream three times. Then these men show up – Gentiles – sent by Cornelius – a believer, a God-fearing man, a officer in the Roman army – who earlier also had a dream, about sending for a man named Peter. And here are the men from Cornelius – asking Peter to please come with them. Peter goes – and later arrives at Cornelius’ house – and despite the Hebrew laws against such things, Peter goes into the house. There’s a whole group of folks sitting there. Cornelius tells Peter about his dream, and Peter, reflecting on his own dream, speaks the words we heard in today’s lesson. It’s a word about an inclusive baptized community – of all people and races – who are in many ways different from one another, but who share a common faith. God does not favor Jews over others, Peter says. Anyone – despite their nationality or culture – anyone who reveres God and lives in unison with God “is acceptable to God” – is included in this community. Right in the midst of Peter’s short sermon, “while he was still speaking” the writer says, “the Holy Spirit came upon everyone.” The group started praying and singing. Those who came with Peter, other Jews, are shocked that the Holy Spirit would come “even on the Gentiles.” “Can anyone withhold the water for baptizing these people who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?" Everyone that day got baptized. Despite differences in tradition and culture and background – everyone there was made a member of God’s family – an inclusive community of believers. All of this started from a dream – a couple of dreams. But for Cornelius and Peter, all they had to do was to dream – but not only to dream, but to take action to make those dreams into a reality. That work was not very easy. When Peter goes back to Jerusalem he is confronted by other leaders of the early church, who accuse him of associating with Gentiles – with unclean people. Peter again, tells them about his dream – and how he acted and how the Holy Spirit acted, to make that dream a reality. And Peter, and later for Paul, who had a similar dream on the road to Damascus – continually faced opposition to this dream. But eventually, the Gentiles – people like most of our own ancestors – were welcomed into the baptized community of follower of Jesus Christ. And here we are. And all of it from a dream – and then lots of work to make the dream into a reality. Just this past week Judy and I watched the movie Amazing Grace. If you have not yet seen it, it is well worth it. Most of us know that hymn – and you may know the name of the hymn’s author, John Newton. For years Newton was a slave ship captain, who came to see slavery as a terrible sin. He left that work, became a pastor, and wrote this beloved hymn. In the movie Newton says he was haunted in dreams by 20,000 slaves, the number of slaves he transported over the years - each one shoved into an 18 inch high cargo hold beneath the main deck, shackled around the feet, arms, and neck. Sitting in John Newton’s congregation was a young boy named William Wilberforce, who heard his pastor speak against the slave trade. This young boy grew up – and along the way he had a dream – a dream to end this awful, degrading - yet very lucrative institution. He was not sure which way to go – to make this dream a reality - whether to become a pastor himself, and like Newton speak out against this awful practice, or to stay in his current line of work as a member of parliament, to stay in politics, and try to stop the slave trade by changing the laws of England. At one point in the movie his friend and future Prime Minister William Pitt asks if he wants to “praise God” or “change the world.” Later he goes to ask his old pastor, who encourages him to do both – to praise God by staying in politics, and ending this awful practice. William Wilberforce had a dream – and as he acted on that dream he faced tremendous opposition. It took years – most of his whole life. But eventually, in 1807, the Slave Trade Act was passed – which abolished the capture and shipping of slaves from Africa. Then in 1833 – just three days before his death, Parliament passed the Slavery Abolition Act, which eventually ended slavery throughout the British Empire. All of this – several decades before slavery was abolished in this country following our Civil War – just about the time of the founding of Beulah Presbyterian Church. All we have to do is dream – dream of what God would want of us – dream of what God wants of our community, our family - our church, our world – and then act on that dream – to bring it about, and make the dream into a reality. A week from Monday we will celebrate a national holiday, Martin Luther King Jr., Day – another man who had a dream – which included a day to come when his children would be judged “not by the color of their skin but by the strength of their character.” That dream is becoming more of a reality, and we still have a ways to go – so we press on. Today we come to the Baptism of the Lord Sunday – and to an opportunity to renew our baptism. Our own baptism could very well be something like a dream. Some of you know when you were baptized – some may remember the remember the actual day. I don’t – I was like a lot of us - a babe in my mother’s arms. I don’t know the date when I was baptized – and I suspect neither do most of you. Most of us, if we were asked what our baptism means to us – we’d be hard pressed to answer such a question. Like a dream it’s hard to get a hold of. What I do know is that I was baptized. Actually, to be more theologically precise, I should say it like this: I know I am baptized. For baptism is not only a one-time event in our lives – but a reality to be lived out each and every day. I am - and we are all – baptized – in the present tense – here and now – and we are part of the baptized community. And as Peter dreamed – and worked to make that dream a reality – God wants the same dream and the same work of you and me. God wants us to be an inclusive community of the baptized - where the new comer and the stranger are welcomed as a guest - where genuine hospitality is extended to each other and to every one – red and yellow, black and white – all really are precious is God’s sight – old and young, gay and straight, of any political party - all who hold a common faith in Jesus Christ. Today we have the opportunity to renew our baptism, to remind ourselves yet again that we are baptized – and to renew the calling that is ours in our baptism – the dreams that God has and will and is even now giving to us – dreams that we are called to make into a reality. So I invite you to come – to come together for renewal as a baptized community, and then, as you may feel individually led, to come for a time of personal renewal. For all we have to do is dream – and then work to make those God-given dreams into a reality. (move to insert – reaffirmation of baptism)
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