“Just A Dream Away” Text: Genesis 28:10-15
Elpis Christian Church
September 27, 2009
I’ve always been a vivid dreamer. Black and white, vivid Technicolor, sometimes even a combination of the two – my night life is a cinematic wonder. And, most times, I consider that to be quite a blessing. True – I’ve had some spectacular nightmares too. But – far more often I have spent hours happily swimming in beautiful exotic oceans, or flying through the air like a bird, or having some adventure in some far off place. And, not always, but again, most nights I can find deep, symbolic meaning in what my mind is doing while I am busy snoring. It’s been interesting.
What’s also interesting is that I can’t recall ever vividly dreaming about heaven. I mean – you’d think a minister could conjure up at least one really good dramatic vision of what the other side is all about. But, to be honest, I can’t recall ever having more than just a passing glance – a hint – like looking through a veil – and that mystical, beautiful place we all one day hope to inhabit. Maybe that’s because I spend so much of my waking time thinking about God and heaven. But I suspect it’s something more.
Here’s my theory.
Heaven is so beautiful, so indescribable, and so perfect – that my subconscious knows better than to try and conjure up a cheap, movie version of what it’s all about. Somehow – my brain is content – at least for now – to let heaven remain mysterious and unknown and indescribable. Better to wait for the real thing. I suppose I’ll have to be content with that – for now anyway. But I have to admit – I’ve always been a little envious of those biblical characters – like Jacob – who have had a glimpse, just a glimpse, of the real deal.
Today, as we move a little bit further down the road on our journey through the Bible, I wanted to stop and ponder Jacob’s vision for awhile. Because I think it reminds us of something very important. While we are busy down here on earth and while our vision and attention are focused on all the day to day challenges we face – we need to do something. We need to realize that the most real thing of all – SPIRITUAL reality – is just a dream away. It’s just through that thin veil that clouds are vision a bit for now. SPIRITUAL reality is, when all is said and done, the most important reality. And yet – when you look at what most people spend most of their time and energy being focused on – well, you might get the impression it’s hardly worth noting.
That’s a real shame.
What characters like Jacob remind us about is that our vision is so very limited. We get up every morning, some of us after tossing and turning in bed at night, and we look bleary eyed into the mirror. And there – staring back – we see what we think is reality. Sometimes it’s not a very pretty picture. We might see a face there that is tired, or worried, or distracted. Then – we splash some water on that face and do what we need to do – we get moving.
So our day begins – and the phone rings, or the kids yell something, or the school bus arrives early, or we start fighting traffic – you know the routine. Then, those of us who are still on that treadmill called work – well, before you know it, our mind and our attention is pulled in eighty different directions. And, even those of us who are supposed to be enjoying our retirement- well, I’ve got your number too. Some of you are busier in retirement than you ever were while you were gainfully employed. Appointments, family concerns, bills, you name it – you have plenty on your plate too.
So – this reality – grabs our attention day, after day, after day. And if we are not careful we forget something. We forget what Jacob reminds us about – that heaven is just a dream away.
You know Jacob wasn’t very far along on his life’s journey when heaven came knocking. And, as he lay there on that rock pillow of his and he saw the ladder or stairway or whatever it was, with angels going up and down, the fact is – his life at that point was anything but heavenly. He and his brother Esau, to put it lightly, and to use today’s lingo, had “issues.” Jacob was troubled. He was on the run – running from the fact that he had stolen the family birthright. Go back this week and read the whole story. This was not a calm, peaceful, wonderful time in Jacob’s life, nor would the life to be a bowlful of cherries either. There’s all that stuff about working seven years so he could marry the love of his life – only to find out he had to work another seven years to get to marry the right one. Again, go back and read the whole story – it’s pretty dramatic stuff.
But today – leave it at this – Jacob’s life was anything but perfect. He wasn’t a saint, he wasn’t a minister or priest - he wasn’t even a good brother. But somehow – God allowed him to have a glimpse, just a glimpse, of heaven. And more than that – he was given a personal assurance from God that he would be the recipient of the same blessing that God had already promised to his grandfather Abraham and his father Isaac. He was number three in line – to this incredible, beautiful, promise – the promise of the “Promised Land.” I love that part of the story.
I love it especially because we, by extension, are part of Jacob’s story. And so – when I see Jacob on the run, troubled, not sure of where he is going next – when I see him getting a glimpse of heaven and all its angels, it reminds me that spiritual reality is far more real than the momentary distractions or troubles we have on this side of the veil.
Now, does that mean I am advocating living in a “dream” world? Only partially. Of course we have to be concerned with the day to day issues of life here on earth. I, of all people, appreciate the fact that if you don’t take care of some very important things like, oh, I don’t know, say – putting gas in your car – there’s going to be some trouble along the way. You might even, like I did, earn the distinction of being one of the few people in the world who have ever run out of gas while sitting in your own front yard. What about the rest of life? School projects, doctors’ appointments, bills to be paid, meetings to be held, projects to be completed – it’s all important, or at least much of it is. I know that. I’m not advocating that we all become hermits.
But – I will stand my ground though – as Jacob would I’m sure – in affirming that the spiritual realities we can barely see and rarely comprehend – heaven, hell, angels, demons – this thing we call the kingdom of God – all that is not only as real as those school projects and doctors’ appointments and bills to be paid and all the rest – those spiritual realities are even MORE real. Because they are of ultimate importance – and the choices we make in relation to them are of upmost relevance. Not just for us but for those whom we love.
The other day I spent several hours with some clergy associates of mine. We talked about the “business” of the church – not Elpis specifically – but the Church with a capital C. We talked about the state of the region and how it’s going about ministry. We talked about the various ministry projects underway in Virginia and around the world. We voiced our various opinions – something clergy are always glad to do – about whether or not the powers that be were doing a good enough job. We ate lunch and complained and laughed and commiserated about all the great “issues” facing our churches today. And then we parted company and went back to whatever our various days held – the people to be seen, the sermons to be written, the administrative issues on our minds. It was a pretty typical day.
But in the back of my mind that day – was this sermon – and Jacob’s dream.
I kept having this nagging feeling that I and my fellow clergy are always dangerously close to missing the point. We can get so busy doing the “business” of ministry – that we miss the kingdom of God in the process.
Of course the church – capital or small C – has problems. Of course we need to focus our best efforts on solving those problems. But if I ever find myself doing ministry, without undergirding it first with prayer and an awareness of larger spiritual realities – well, then I might as well just go work for any old not for profit organization. But the Church – WE – ought to always approach things differently. We must keep our feet solidly on the ground, while all the while, keep searching the heavens for a glimpse of the true spiritual reality that brings meaning and purpose to it all. Jacob had his issues – but more than that – he was blessed to have spiritual vision as well – and so should we.
I saw a clever commercial the other day. It showed a young woman who, when asked a simple question, went babbling on about a bunch of different subjects – all of which had some marginal relevance to what her friends original question had been. Her problem: she had spent so much time searching for answers on her computer that her brain was overloaded with interesting, but irrelevant, facts.
That can happen to us all way too easily. We fill our minds and our days with all the thousands of questions and “to dos” that come our way. And soon, our reality is just the sum total of all that stuff. It’s only when we sleep, and our subconscious tries to sort it all out, that we begin to make sense of it – if ever we do. Sometimes our minds, on overload, play some tricks on us – and we have some pretty crazy dreams because of it. It’s part of God’s wonderful creation – how our brains sorts and categorizes and helps us make sense of things.
But it’s also part of God’s wonderful creative process that every once and while we are blessed enough to get just a small peak of something more. We might see it in nature or in our family life or here at church. We might get a glimpse of it, like Jacob did, during the night in some heavenly dream. But either way – the veil parts temporarily and we get a glimpse of how much God loves us and what wonderful things God has planned for us. We get a vision of the “Promised Land.”
Give thanks for those moments. Don’t miss them when they fly by. And remember – the spiritual world is not just as important as the so-called “real” world – it IS the real world. Angels and demons – it’s far more than the catchy title to a novel. And paradise – well – it’s far more than a vacation from work.
Heaven – and God’s amazing grace – just a dream away. How great is that?
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