01-18-09 Sermon Dream God's Dream

that marks the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., -the great civil right's leader who would have turned 80 this past Thursday if his life had not been cut short by an assassin's bullet. The arrival of this holiday and the remembrances of Dr. King's life always bring to mind many the way his speeches had the power to stir the soul of a nation; perhaps none more so that what has come to be called his "I Have a Dream" speech delivered on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on April 28, 1963. In the most often quoted lines of that speech Dr. King said:

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, ... -- one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight; "and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together."

Today, on those same steps, Rev. Gene Robinson the first openly Gay Bishop in the Episcopal Church, USA will deliver the prayer at the We Are One Concert that will kick off the inauguration of president-elect Barak Obama -a man who in his own heritage embodies King's dream. Then on Tuesday, January 20, 2009 as President-elect Barak Obama is sworn in to the highest office in this country we will take a giant step toward becoming a nation "where [people are] not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character." Yes, this is a water-shed moment! The world as we know it has been changed! A dream has begun to take shape. A vision once held in the hearts of a few will become the reality for many.

I, too, have a dream today! It is, I believe, a dream that is rooted in God's dream for each and every one of us. There are many places in scripture where we catch glimpses of this dream, but none so powerfully as in the psalm we read together a few minutes ago. Like the other 149 chapters in the book we call Psalms, this Psalm is an ancient praise song, a prayer set to music that was most likely used as part of a worship service. Like the lyrics of any song this psalm uses poetic imagery to point us toward truths that are deeply embedded in the heart of life. Although the language of this Psalm is first person it is not meant to indicate a specific person but rather to push us to affirm that each of us is the "I" in this prayer. Each of us is invited to affirm, "I am fearfully and wonderfully made, knit together in love by God's own hand, created in joy out of God's dream for the world." Peter Gomes puts it this way: "we are created, made, formed, invented, patented in the image of goodness itself." In other words the very dream of God for our lives is part of our spiritual DNA. Allen McSween asserts that the truth of this psalm is that we are "not mass-produced but custom-made;" [pictures will come in automatically]each soul of unimaginable value in the heart of God; each person with unique and unrepeatable gifts to give the world; each life a vital part of God's dream for us all.

My dream is that we will, each and ever one of us, begin to embrace and live out God's dream for our lives. We may not have the power to move the hearts of people with our rhetoric as Dr. King did. We may not have the power to capture the dreams of a generation and inspire a movement for change as President-elect Obama seems to have done. But we each have gifts to give in the living of our lives. There are people whose lives we can influence by the kindness of our actions. There are people whose hearts we can change by the testimony of our hearts. There are people whose lives we can transform by our compassion and our love.  As we begin to claim and affirm God's dream for our lives, we can and will call forth God's dream in the lives of those we touch by our words and our deeds.

But more than asserting that we are fearfully and wonderfully made, created in love out of God's heart of love, this psalm asserts that there is no where we can go that God is not. Now, when I was a child and in the midst of a church where God was painted as a figure of wrath and judgment, that was a frightening thought. But as I came to understand that God is LOVE and that God's Love unceasingly labors to lead us into the fullness of all God dreams we can be, this psalm became really good news! I can blow it completely and God won't give up on me! I can stumble and fall time and time again and God is there in the very depths of my soul giving me the strength to stand up, put one foot in front of the other and try again. The world can crumble around me and my worst nightmares become the reality of my days and still I am not alone.

Peter Gomes puts it this way: "People may take everything away from you, they may deprive you of everything you have and value, but they cannot take away from you the fact that you are a child of God and bear the impression of God in your very soul. You cannot be destroyed, and that cannot be denied."

The story is told of a young Rabbi named Zusya, who was quite discouraged about his failures and weaknesses. An older rabbi said to him, "When you get to heaven, God is not going to say to you, 'Why weren't you Moses?' No, God will say, 'Why weren't you Zusya?' So why don't you stop trying to be Moses, and start being the Zusya God created you to be?"

You and I -and each and every person on the face of the earth- are God's ongoing work of creation. You and I are part of God's dream. As with live into that dream, as we become the beings that God created us to be, we do our part in awakening the world to God's dream for us all. May it be so. Amen. [go directly to movie]

Sermon concludes with a movie created in response to the words to the song, This Is My Dream written and recorded by Laura Hill:

This is my dream, of a place
Where God's love is reflected in every single face
This is my prayer, for a day
When everyone is cared for and none get thrown away
This is my dream, this is my prayer
This is my dream, this is my prayer

Now is the moment
Here is the place
May all of God's children
Feel His loving embrace
This is my dream, this is my prayer
This is my dream, this is my prayer

This is my dream, of a land
Where differences are strengths and we all walk hand in hand
This is my prayer, for a peace
That has the strength to last for all eternity
This is my dream, this is my prayer
This is my dream, this is my prayer

Now is the moment
Here is the place
May all the things we say and do
Resonate with our faith
This is our dream, this is our prayer
This is our dream, this is our prayer
This is our dream, this is our prayer

Reading of the Word                Psalm 139:1-18

One:       ¹O Lord, you have searched me and known me. ²You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from far away.

All:              ³You search out my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways. ⁴Even before a word is on my tongue, O Lord, you know it completely.

One:     ⁵You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me. ⁶Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is so high that I cannot attain it.

All:       ⁷Where can I go from your spirit? Or where can I flee from your presence?

One:     ⁸If I ascend to heaven, you are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there. ⁹If I take the wings of the morning and settle at the farthest limits of the sea, ¹⁰even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me fast.

All:       ¹¹If I say, "Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light around me become night," ¹²even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is as bright as the day, for darkness is as light to you.

One:     ¹³For it was you who formed my inward parts; you knit me together in my mother's womb.

All:       ¹⁴I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; that I know very well.

One:     ¹⁵My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. ¹⁶Your eyes beheld my unformed substance. In your book were written all the days that were formed for me, when none of them as yet existed.

All:       ¹⁷How weighty to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! ¹⁸I try to count them--they are more than the sand; I come to the end--I am still with you.