yUNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST in Simi Valley
Third Sunday of Advent - December 15, 2002 - LOVE
Anne G. Cohen

Psalm 126
John 1:6-8,19-28

For Our Reflection
Love or perish; it is not a new commandment, but its full impact was hidden from us,
because we had not known, up to the recent past, that we were capable of mass murder
and even of cosmic murder.                                               - Philip Berrigan, No More Strangers (1965)

Creative love flowing freely among all persons and organizing their common life -
this I take to be the meaning of God in history.                     - F. Ernest Johnson, The Social Gospel Re-examined (1940) 

 

                                                                      We Were Like Those Who Dream

What does it mean "to see?"
What does "vision" make possible?

*****

As with all of our senses, to see is one way that we receive information - and come "to know" more about something or someone else.

Information, in and of itself, is ambiguous. It is open for many interpretations. Colors and sounds, textures and smells are not always what they seem at first - and are not always the same to all people. Words and actions, in and of themselves, have multiple meanings. Everything that exists or does not exist in the universe is filled with ambiguity - which is why moments of clarity are so rare and treasured.

We, as human beings with a three-part brain, interpret facts. We receive information and within ourselves create meaning FOR ourselves. We have an innate sense of things which, combined with the things we are taught and the things which we experience, has developed into a system
of values. So, when information comes to us, we then act or speak or react emotionally out of that structure of meaning, that set of values that WE have inherited, learned and created and continue to reshape.

If I say, "What a beautiful dress you have on today..." these ambiguous words become meaningful in different ways to you - depending on what order the words are in and your perception of beauty and how you value beauty in your life and how you are feeling, if you are ready (or not) to receive these words - AND the intention I give them with a look or a tone of voice.

"What a beautiful dress you have on today..." means something different to each of us - if I say it this way (with focus and eyes contact and soft voice) or this way (with sarcasm and laughter) or this way (questioning and envy).

Beyond the superficial, even death itself is ambiguous and mysterious. It is not innately negative.  It is the value that we place on life and consciousness and our sense and our being - that causes us to fear or hate or ignore or embrace the fact of our mortality.

The Bible, too, is ambiguous.  It is a book of stories and histories and journals and songs and dreams.  It is the interpretation that we use, the context that is or is not understood, the meanings that others have taught to us, our examined or unexamined beliefs and assumptions about "inspiration" and "The Word" - that cause us to be uplifted or hurt or enlightened or abused by this book.

The I Ching is a book of Wisdom from centuries of Chinese culture.  It is a revered book - consulted by millions (including myself) for guidance in life and love and politics.  It has been compared, in one translation, to a cauldron (one of it's own images).  It is a receptacle for wisdom (not clarity).  It is a receptacle for all that is in it and all that we bring to it.  We receive what is in it - and mix it in our own personal cauldron.  We are nourished or poisoned or left untouched by the contents - depending on our own values and sense of meaning.

I believe that this is also true for The Bible as we know it - this book which we listen to together every Sunday morning.  We taste the contents - mixing the taste of the words with everything that is within us.  The taste is bitter or bland or sweet because of the assumptions and feelings and understandings we bring to it.

Sometimes the contents spill on the ground in front of us because we are not able to receive them - we are so full of distractions and worries - or filled with assumptions - or we are trying so hard to hold onto what we have that there is no room for anything else.  Our closed fists cannot receive the gifts of God or anyone else.

Sometimes we are so busy spewing and putting out our ideas and spreading our values around and defending ourselves that there is no room for inspiration, for something new or mysterious to take hold of us and transform us.

I came to the Biblical texts for this morning - full to the brim with darkness, defensive, tired already of this season of  "hope and peace and love and joy" in a society that so flagrantly values capitalism and greed, superficiality and dishonesty, marginalization and selfishness - instead.

I came to these texts jaded - wondering what on earth John the Baptist, cousin to Jesus, preparer of THE WAY, prophet and dead man could possibly say to me - after all these years.

I came wondering what meaning the dusty words of Psalm 126 could possibly have for my life in this tumultuous culmination of 2,000 Christian years on a planet that continues to spin in a neutral orbit around a neutral - though very hot sun - in a universe that continues to be an enigma, let alone an enormity of ambiguous darkness with occasional points of brilliant, mysterious light.

You might say that I came to this text with an attitude problem. And the only thing I had room to hear was this:

"We were like those who dream..."
When God restored our fortunes -
When God brought back to Zion those who had been taken into exile -
When God brought us home and rebuilt the shattered walls of Jerusalem -
We were like those who dream.

The reference is to the restoration of Jerusalem described in the book of Nehemiah - a short book which I urge you to read. (Its between Ezra and Esther in the Jewish scripture.) When the Holy City was restored and Jews returned and children were born and vineyards produced again - there was joy.  And they were like those who dream.

These are words that have a unique meaning to Japanese-American members of my previous congregation - because of their experience in exile - in internment camps - and their experience after their release. Perhaps some of you understand what it is like to be an outcast and, after many long, hard years - find yourselves in a place where you are welcomed and affirmed in your full humanity. Perhaps to you these words describe people who are in a daze, uncertain of what things mean any more, what is real or unreal. Perhaps being able to dream means waiting for things to fall apart at any moment - or perhaps it is being overwhelmed with joy at feeling familiar earth beneath your feet and coming home again to yourself. Perhaps it is being able to see a future where there used to be only the past.  Perhaps there is only ambiguity and mystery and a continuation of everything that has gone before.

For me, those who dream are those who have something to live for. Those who dream can see multiple meanings in things, their assumptions don't always get in the way of seeing things in a new way. Those who dream have a sixth sense, a way of seeing what other's cannot see, a special connection with the invisible, the holy, the creative spirit of life.

For me, the first quality of those who dream - the first quality that I have to assume in order to be one who dreams - is the quality of openness - being open to RECEIVE.

Most of us dream - when? At night - when we are asleep. At night our senses are heightened. When we sleep, our cognitive, well-built defenses go down - and we are open to "what dreams my come." My assumption is, then, that in order to be a dreamer, we must practice the art of receiving.  And I believe that we must practice this art because we have forgotten it. Receiving is the first thing that we know in life - as helpless, completely dependent - mortal - beings.  In order to survive, we MUST receive - food and nurture and protection and teaching.  We must be open to our parents and siblings and others in our community.  If we cannot receive (because of internal dysfunctions or, more likely, because others are not able to give) - then we do not flourish, we do not survive.

You've heard it said that "it is more blessed to give than to receive." But even these words are ambiguous. If no one knows how to receive, how does anyone one get a chance to experience the blessing of giving?  How can there be giving if there is no receiving?  Both are necessary and both are good or bad - depending on the situation and the values attached and the people or objects involved.

During our lifetime - we learn and get used to self-sufficiency, giving birth to and nurturing others, getting or creating or finding what we need to survive.  We often forget what it means to be dependent on others.  In our old age and in the breakdown of our physical capacities and mental boundaries - we are shown again what it means to receive.  It is a hard lesson - sometimes learned with grace - sometimes learned with resentment and fury.  But it is an opportunity to learn again how to be open and receptive - to learn again how to dream.

This may explain why most of the dreamers we know are the very young and the very old.  They are the ones among us who are not filled to the brim with preconceptions and necessary activity.  They are the ones open to seeing and hearing and tasting and feeling the invisible, the ambiguous, the mysterious, the angelic, the cosmic.

This is why the very young and the very old often understand each other so well.  Neither fear death because they are both in close proximity to non-being.  They are familiar with its mysteries. Both see things awake that the rest of us do not see - because their defenses are down and their innate senses are heightened.

This may be why God chose to be born among us - as a defenseless, mortal, dependent infant in desperate need of protection from the elements and the murderous powers of darkness.  This may be why God chose to be born to receptive people - a young girl and an old man - who had dreams and in those dreams conversed with angels.  And this may be why we must learn to be like those who dream - so that God will be born among us and angels will guide us - and we will rediscover the mystery of being alive.

Very briefly, there is one other quality of those who dream that I want to mention.  It is a quality that must be in partnership with receptivity.  It is the quality of CREATIVITY.  John Sanford - in his book Dreams: God's Forgotten Language - says this:

There is always a creative element in dreams,
and it is this creativity which is divine.
It is the divine at work in the human soul... (p.7)

If we are like those who dream, we take the information that comes to us - and with the African principle of "Kuumba," creativity, we make something of it... something beautiful or strange, something useful or entertaining, something to be kept or given away.  We work in partnership with the Divine - to make something meaningful of our lives, of our relationships, of our feelings and experiences.

If we are like those who dream, we have "Nia" - purpose - a reason for living.  If we are like those who dream, we do not often have CLARITY about who we are and what we are doing here.  But there are plenty of metaphors to work with and plenty of options to choose from. If we are like those who dream, we have lots of passion and playfulness, forgiveness and genuineness, love and mystery to receive and give, receive and give again.

If we are like those who dream, God is at work and at play in us and there are dreams in us and the Light of God shines in us and we are wide open to the ambiguities and the mysteries that surround us - here and in the darkness beyond the things we already think we know.

Once upon a time there was a woman who longed to find out what heaven is like.  She prayed constantly, "O God, grant me in this life a vision of paradise."  She prayed in this way for years until one night she had a dream.  In her dream an angel came and led her to heaven.  They walked down a street in Paradise until they came to an ordinary looking house. The angel, pointing toward the house said, "Go and look inside." So the woman walked in[to] the house and found a person preparing supper, another reading the newspaper, and children playing with their toys.  Naturally, she was disappointed and returned to the angel on the street.  "Is this all there is to heaven?' The Angel replied, "Those people you saw in that house are not in Paradise, Paradise is in them!"
                                                                          - Edward Hays, Feathers on the Wind, Brussat, Spiritual Literacy (p.443)