MARCH 23, 2008 PASTOR SCOTT FULLER
ACTS 10:34-43; PSALM 118:1-2, 14-24; COLOSSIANS 3:1-4; JOHN 20:1-18
What Dreams May Come
Prepare our hearts, Lord, to receive your Word. Silence in us any voice but your own that in hearing we may believe and in believing we may obey your will revealed to us in Jesus Christ. Amen.
Dear friends in Christ: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
What Dreams May Come, is the title of a 90’s movie, (I think), that starred Robin Williams. The plot is strange, but I like the title…mainly because it reminds me of a book by C. S. Lewis: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Do any Narnia fans here remember that Chronicle? A small but brave crew of the beloved ship, The Dawn Treader, sails into uncharted waters and…an amazing assortment of adventures. One of their most surprising and, ultimately, disturbing experiences begins with a very strange sight.
Out in the middle of the open ocean, they come upon what appears to be the entrance to a large, dark cave. Unnerved, but intrigued, the crew readies themselves for battle, the ship for security, and lights every lamp they have…then they slowly push forward into the strange, darkened hole.
Can anyone tell us what they find? Soon they pick up a shipwrecked sailor floating in the darkness. No sooner is he on board, when the man begins to beg them to turn around and sail as fast as they can to the freedom of the open seas. He warns the crew that they are in grave danger, for they have entered a magical place…a place where dreams come true.
Well, at first…that sounds like great news to everyone – could you imagine it? – living in a place where your wildest dreams become reality?!?! But fervently the man persists with his urgent plea to flee.
Finally, he’s able to break through by reminding them that mixed-in with an occasional dream that delights us, are, of course, those nightmares that frighten us. What dreams may also come true, they realize, are those that torment, terrify, haunt and harass…As one, they quickly put their hands to the oars and pull for all they’re worth, fleeing from that darkness of despair.
This, I believe, is emotionally close to where the followers of Jesus found themselves on that first Easter morning. After his triumphal entry into Jerusalem, to the praise, applause and approval of the people, I’m guessing the disciples were very eager to see what other dreams would come true…
How quickly they came to discover that, as we cannot control the delight or drama of our dreams, so, too, the pleasure OR pain of much of life is beyond our control. Their grief was grounded in the death of their teacher and friend – it was a blow to their hearts, as is the death of a loved one to ours. But even more so, Jesus’ death on the cross seemed to signal the death of all their dreams…for all of life…for all the people of the planet.
Jesus taught them to love their enemies…yet their ears were stung by the
curses of the crowds, the ridicule of the Romans and the slurs of the
Sadducees, Pharisees and scribes.
Jesus taught them to live as if God could-and-would make all things new…
yet their tear-stained eyes beheld the same old disease of death
and despair, anger and angst, fury and fear.
So, when Mary made her way through the streets early on that first day of the week, her heart was numb with grief – both for her teacher AND for his followers’ dreams. Certain that it couldn’t get any worse…she then found the tomb empty of Jesus’ body, and began to fear that another nightmare had come true. Seeing whom she thought was a gardener, Mary confessed to the man her anguish: They’ve taken my Lord’s body and hidden it!.....
And then, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, in the split-second it takes to speak a simple name, the nightmare of her soul became the dream of a lifetime, a dream for all life and for all time. Mary, said the Lord of the Dance of Life, and her terror was changed to treasure, her despair to delight, her heartache to happiness, her grief to an amazing grace. Rabbouni, she responds, and soon Jesus sends her forth, the first to share the good news.
Now, imagine yourself watching Mary leave the house in the hour before dawn… then imagine watching her as she returns to share this sensational story…was she cool, calm and collected? Did she smile subtly, shrug shyly, and speak softly? Or, do you suppose she burst into the room laughing, her face beaming and her voice booming, I have seen the Lord! - - -
Lazarus Laughed is the title of a play by Eugene O’Neil about the friend that Jesus raised from the dead. Set in the days after the first Easter, Lazarus encounters the pain of many people, from his family and friends to Emperor Caligula. Through all his experiences, sad AND joyful, Lazarus laughs… he has to, he explains, for he has seen that God delights in life. In the last scene when he laughs even at his own death, a chorus chants:
Laugh! Laugh! There is only God! Life is His Laughter!
We are His Laughter! Fear is no more! Death is dead!
Now that is something to dream about. If Death is dead, if our fears of failure AND finality are discarded like Jesus’ death clothes, then we are truly free to laugh and love, to dance and dream, to speak and sing – free to live as if God’s Word is real. Imagine what dreams may come true then!
This is God’s gift to us on Easter: Jesus Christ is alive and well, laughing and dancing, forgiving and freeing – all so that we, like Mary, might dare to dream and dance and shout and sing:
Christ is risen! (He is risen indeed!) (3X) Amen.