Dreams and Realities
Sunday, July 24th, 2005
Pentecost + 10
Jerusalem Baptist Church, Emmerton VA
1 Kings 3:5-12
We were walking down the middle of the street. We could, since it was late at night, and there were no cars coming or going. The weather was mild, considering that it was the fall of 1985 in Oviedo, Asturias, Spain.
The Cantabrian Mountains rise around the city, run along about 300 miles of the north coast of the country, an extension of the Pyrenees, the mountains that separate France and Spain, and block most of the moisture-laden weather systems coming off the North Atlantic from crossing down into the heart of the country, which made for a very DRY central plain (contrary to the song from My Fair Lady), and a very WET northern hill country. So a light drizzle was almost a permanent fixture over the course of the year that I lived there.
Within a couple of months of arriving in Oviedo, I had signed up for Guitar classes and photography classes. Neither took a great amount of coaxing to get me interested, since I had wanted to learn guitar for at least the last 3 years, watching two of my roommates in college play and sing, and my father had given me the present of a 35 mm camera just before I left for training.
I figured, what better place to learn to play guitar than Spain, the BIRTHPLACE of the guitar? As things turned out, the man who ended up being my teacher was an American jazz guitarist from Philadelphia, named Michael Weiss, who was living in Oviedo and teaching English in a local private institute.
The photography class I signed up for was taught by a man who’d been born in Cuba, but had moved to Spain as a young teenager in the mid-to-early seventies. The class was made up of a mix of folks, some college students, some young adults who were just interested in getting a little more out of their cameras, and Lisa Hale and me. Lisa was the middle daughter of the missionary family I was working alongside. She encouraged me to take the class because SHE wouldn’t be able to take it by herself, since it would be letting out late at night, and she would have had to walk home by herself. If I joined the class, I could walk her home afterwards and her parents would be assured that she would be safe.
The mission church we were trying to grow had been planning a fall evangelistic campaign, to be led by one of the most dynamic speakers I have ever heard, Roberto Velert, who was at the time Pastor one of the larger churches in Barcelona. The last Sunday night before the campaign was to begin, we had a prayer meeting, specifically to pray for the campaign. Later that night, at my apartment, I asked God to give me specific opportunities to invite people to the campaign in a natural, unforced way.
I may have mentioned this about Spain at some point in the past, but at the time, the atmosphere in Spain – the religious atmosphere, if you want to call it that, was still very much in reaction to having spent decades under the rule of the dictator Francisco Franco being forced to abide the combined rule of the Catholic Church and the VERY Catholic – some would say even MORE Catholic – Spanish Government. When Franco died in 1976, and King Phillip began to move the country towards a much more open and pluralistic society, one of the first things to go was the artificially imposed allegiance to the Catholic Church, and with it most if not all receptivity to organized religion. When we spoke of an evangelistic campaign, it could not be couched in very religious terms. We made no apologies for having a faith-oriented purpose, but we chose terminology that would still accurately describe the nature of the meetings while still explaining what we were doing in a way that might appeal to people who would shut out anything that smacked of religion. We were very much about introducing people to the person of Christ first and foremost.
The campaign was scheduled to begin midweek, and the photography class met on Monday nights, so we would still be able to attend that class. If I remember correctly, it met from 9 or 10 at night until almost midnight. At that hour, there is a kind of bond that forms among people who might be trying to keep each other awake as much as trying to learn something about photography. At the conclusion of the class several of us headed off together, either walking to the same general area to our apartments, or just to accompany the rest of the group.
As we were walking along, Daniel, one of the guys whom I’d met in the class, struck up a conversation with me. More often than not, conversations with new acquaintances turned fairly quickly to the question of what I, as a citizen of the United States, was doing in Spain. It gave me any number of opportunities to explain why I was there, as well as providing a natural lead-in to invite whomever I was speaking with to whatever meeting I thought would be appropriate for them to come to. As Daniel and I talked, we walked along for several blocks. I explained that I was there working as a teacher for Lisa and her sister, as well as working with the little Baptist Mission that met a few more blocks away. He shared that he came from a non-practicing Jewish family (which in itself was something a little rare to find in Spain), and that he’d had some interest in protestant churches, but had never had the opportunity to be in one. I quietly told him that he’d be more than welcome to join us at our church whenever he wanted, and one or two of the others in the group chimed into the conversation to ask other similar questions about what differences there were between Protestants and Catholics. In responding to those questions we finally got to where I had to turn down my street, and after wrapping up the conversation I wished everyone a good night – and completely blanked on the fact that just two days from then we’d be holding conferences in a downtown meeting hall to introduce folks to what Baptists believed and practiced.
It is an oversight which to this day still causes me no small degree of regret and sorrow. The opportunity never again presented itself. Daniel didn’t continue the class.
Today’s passage has Solomon as a young boy – scholars say between the ages of 12 and 14 – talking to God in a dream. As we read, in the dream God asks him what he would like – what he would have God give him – as he becomes the King of Israel. In response, Solomon asks for wisdom to govern the people. God’s response is positive, so much so that he grants Solomon the wishes he DIDN’T make – if we read on in verses 13 & 14, God grants him riches and honor all his life, and, conditionally, if he will walk in God’s ways, God would lengthen his life.
I need to say, the portrayal of God as a wish-grantor makes me REAL uneasy. In saying that, though, I realize that I am reacting to a surface reading of the text, and need to move past it to what the text is saying to us today. So here it is: a couple of questions:
What of significance have you asked God for lately? I remember several years ago watching the wife of a televangelist ask the audience to pray to God for her eyes, because the makeup she was caking on was irritating them. That’s NOT what I’m talking about. Yes, we read about God watching over the sparrow, and providing for it, and we also read that we should ask whatever we wish of the Lord and he will grant it … but let’s take a cue from what Solomon asked for. Listen to God’s response again:
He didn’t ask selfishly. He asked for the greater good in mind, not his own glorification or enrichment. In that prayer there are echoes of what we will later find coming from the mouth of Jesus, when he asks for God’s will, not his own, to be done.
I love to listen to my children pray at mealtimes. They always thank God for the beautiful day and then they usually go on to thank God for what they have enjoyed so far or are anticipating enjoying – ‘thank you that we are going to get to go see a movie, or go swimming, or that we get to play video games…’ you get the picture. It is when we move away from mealtime and ask them to pray for other things - situations where someone is ill, or afraid, or going THROUGH something – that that the jewels really come out. There is, of course, some mimicry of what they’ve heard us pray at one time or another, but apart from that, the heart and the purity with which they ask is a lesson in the making for me just about every time.
Most of us are familiar with the saying ‘Be careful what you ask for … you might get it!’ As a warning for those who ask without thinking of the ACTUAL consequences of receiving that for which they ask. As with most sayings, there’s a kernel of wisdom being conveyed in it: it’s an entreaty to be intentional about what our goals are, and what our motives might be.
So let’s go with a hypothetical situation: suppose you are dreaming, and in that dream, God is asking you to name something – anything – and God will give it to you. What is your first, your gut response? Think about it. I thought about running down a list of possibilities, but I think by now most of us have run through a list on our own. Take an honest look at what came to mind. How many of those things you found yourself listing are centered on the Kingdom of God, and how many are centered on the Kingdom of Man?
Hear me say this: there is no shame in responding from a human perspective. We ARE human, and that is probably going to be reflected in those items near or at the top of that list – however long or short it might be. So how far down the list is the kingdom? This is not an exercise in goading you into thinking the ‘right’ thing. It’s not intended to make you feel guilty if the first things that came to mind had more to do with you than they did with God.
What we need to understand and be reminded of is that God has already given us our heart’s deepest desire in the person of Jesus. Whether we realize it or not, whether we acknowledge it or not, the gnawing emptiness can only be filled by the presence of Christ in our lives.
God spoke to Solomon in a dream. We have many other instances throughout the scriptures of God speaking through dreams – Joseph, Peter, Paul – it’s not an unfamiliar story, but are we willing to apply that story – that dream – to our reality? Are we willing to let God speak to us and give us dreams in which He shows us … what we are capable of IF WE ARE WILLING to submit to HIS will?
Does that prospect frighten you? Are you deterred by the fact that you are advanced in years? Scripture is full of instances of new careers starting late in life. Read the story of Moses and find out how old HE was when God called him to lead the people of Israel out of Egypt. At the other extreme, are you dissuaded by the fact that you might be YOUNG in years? Look at the story of a young boy named David. And even the story we’re studying right here today. Are you challenged by some disability? Again, Moses was terrified of speaking … especially in public, and Paul prayed three times for that figurative thorn in his side to be removed from his side – and it wasn’t. The point is, God honors willing hearts.
Jerusalem church did something historic this past Wednesday. We voted to endorse a candidate for ordination to the Gospel Ministry. Over the years, Jerusalem has done that many times. The distinct aspect of this last action is that the candidate in question was a woman.
Jerusalem is taking hold of those dreams. We are not stepping out into this because it is more common today that it has perhaps been in years past, but because we bear witness to the Biblical story and to what we have experienced in our own lives of God blessing both men and women for ministry.
So we ask God to raise leaders out from among us, and God has done that. God has granted our wish. We have responded to God’s faithfulness to us.
What we do with this opportunity will speak through the years to come to OUR faithfulness to GOD, and our willingness to live out those dreams he gives us in the face of realities that are crying for a savior, to live out God’s own dreams for the world he loved so much that he sent his own son to die for it.
Let’s pray.
Sunday, July 24th, 2005
Pentecost + 10
Jerusalem Baptist Church, Emmerton VA
1 Kings 3:5-12
5 At Gibeon the LORD appeared to Solomon in a dream by night; and God said, "Ask what I should give you." 6And Solomon said, "You have shown great and steadfast love to your servant my father David, because he walked before you in faithfulness, in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart toward you; and you have kept for him this great and steadfast love, and have given him a son to sit on his throne today. 7And now, O LORD my God, you have made your servant king in place of my father David, although I am only a little child; I do not know how to go out or come in. 8And your servant is in the midst of the people whom you have chosen, a great people, so numerous they cannot be numbered or counted. 9Give your servant therefore an understanding mind to govern your people, able to discern between good and evil; for who can govern this your great people?" 10It pleased the Lord that Solomon had asked this. 11God said to him, "Because you have asked this, and have not asked for yourself long life or riches, or for the life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself understanding to discern what is right, 12I now do according to your word. Indeed I give you a wise and discerning mind; no one like you has been before you and no one like you shall arise after you.
We were walking down the middle of the street. We could, since it was late at night, and there were no cars coming or going. The weather was mild, considering that it was the fall of 1985 in Oviedo, Asturias, Spain.
The Cantabrian Mountains rise around the city, run along about 300 miles of the north coast of the country, an extension of the Pyrenees, the mountains that separate France and Spain, and block most of the moisture-laden weather systems coming off the North Atlantic from crossing down into the heart of the country, which made for a very DRY central plain (contrary to the song from My Fair Lady), and a very WET northern hill country. So a light drizzle was almost a permanent fixture over the course of the year that I lived there.
Within a couple of months of arriving in Oviedo, I had signed up for Guitar classes and photography classes. Neither took a great amount of coaxing to get me interested, since I had wanted to learn guitar for at least the last 3 years, watching two of my roommates in college play and sing, and my father had given me the present of a 35 mm camera just before I left for training.
I figured, what better place to learn to play guitar than Spain, the BIRTHPLACE of the guitar? As things turned out, the man who ended up being my teacher was an American jazz guitarist from Philadelphia, named Michael Weiss, who was living in Oviedo and teaching English in a local private institute.
The photography class I signed up for was taught by a man who’d been born in Cuba, but had moved to Spain as a young teenager in the mid-to-early seventies. The class was made up of a mix of folks, some college students, some young adults who were just interested in getting a little more out of their cameras, and Lisa Hale and me. Lisa was the middle daughter of the missionary family I was working alongside. She encouraged me to take the class because SHE wouldn’t be able to take it by herself, since it would be letting out late at night, and she would have had to walk home by herself. If I joined the class, I could walk her home afterwards and her parents would be assured that she would be safe.
The mission church we were trying to grow had been planning a fall evangelistic campaign, to be led by one of the most dynamic speakers I have ever heard, Roberto Velert, who was at the time Pastor one of the larger churches in Barcelona. The last Sunday night before the campaign was to begin, we had a prayer meeting, specifically to pray for the campaign. Later that night, at my apartment, I asked God to give me specific opportunities to invite people to the campaign in a natural, unforced way.
I may have mentioned this about Spain at some point in the past, but at the time, the atmosphere in Spain – the religious atmosphere, if you want to call it that, was still very much in reaction to having spent decades under the rule of the dictator Francisco Franco being forced to abide the combined rule of the Catholic Church and the VERY Catholic – some would say even MORE Catholic – Spanish Government. When Franco died in 1976, and King Phillip began to move the country towards a much more open and pluralistic society, one of the first things to go was the artificially imposed allegiance to the Catholic Church, and with it most if not all receptivity to organized religion. When we spoke of an evangelistic campaign, it could not be couched in very religious terms. We made no apologies for having a faith-oriented purpose, but we chose terminology that would still accurately describe the nature of the meetings while still explaining what we were doing in a way that might appeal to people who would shut out anything that smacked of religion. We were very much about introducing people to the person of Christ first and foremost.
The campaign was scheduled to begin midweek, and the photography class met on Monday nights, so we would still be able to attend that class. If I remember correctly, it met from 9 or 10 at night until almost midnight. At that hour, there is a kind of bond that forms among people who might be trying to keep each other awake as much as trying to learn something about photography. At the conclusion of the class several of us headed off together, either walking to the same general area to our apartments, or just to accompany the rest of the group.
As we were walking along, Daniel, one of the guys whom I’d met in the class, struck up a conversation with me. More often than not, conversations with new acquaintances turned fairly quickly to the question of what I, as a citizen of the United States, was doing in Spain. It gave me any number of opportunities to explain why I was there, as well as providing a natural lead-in to invite whomever I was speaking with to whatever meeting I thought would be appropriate for them to come to. As Daniel and I talked, we walked along for several blocks. I explained that I was there working as a teacher for Lisa and her sister, as well as working with the little Baptist Mission that met a few more blocks away. He shared that he came from a non-practicing Jewish family (which in itself was something a little rare to find in Spain), and that he’d had some interest in protestant churches, but had never had the opportunity to be in one. I quietly told him that he’d be more than welcome to join us at our church whenever he wanted, and one or two of the others in the group chimed into the conversation to ask other similar questions about what differences there were between Protestants and Catholics. In responding to those questions we finally got to where I had to turn down my street, and after wrapping up the conversation I wished everyone a good night – and completely blanked on the fact that just two days from then we’d be holding conferences in a downtown meeting hall to introduce folks to what Baptists believed and practiced.
It is an oversight which to this day still causes me no small degree of regret and sorrow. The opportunity never again presented itself. Daniel didn’t continue the class.
Today’s passage has Solomon as a young boy – scholars say between the ages of 12 and 14 – talking to God in a dream. As we read, in the dream God asks him what he would like – what he would have God give him – as he becomes the King of Israel. In response, Solomon asks for wisdom to govern the people. God’s response is positive, so much so that he grants Solomon the wishes he DIDN’T make – if we read on in verses 13 & 14, God grants him riches and honor all his life, and, conditionally, if he will walk in God’s ways, God would lengthen his life.
I need to say, the portrayal of God as a wish-grantor makes me REAL uneasy. In saying that, though, I realize that I am reacting to a surface reading of the text, and need to move past it to what the text is saying to us today. So here it is: a couple of questions:
What of significance have you asked God for lately? I remember several years ago watching the wife of a televangelist ask the audience to pray to God for her eyes, because the makeup she was caking on was irritating them. That’s NOT what I’m talking about. Yes, we read about God watching over the sparrow, and providing for it, and we also read that we should ask whatever we wish of the Lord and he will grant it … but let’s take a cue from what Solomon asked for. Listen to God’s response again:
"Because you have asked this, and have not asked for yourself long life or riches, or for the life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself understanding to discern what is right, 12I now do according to your word. …”
He didn’t ask selfishly. He asked for the greater good in mind, not his own glorification or enrichment. In that prayer there are echoes of what we will later find coming from the mouth of Jesus, when he asks for God’s will, not his own, to be done.
I love to listen to my children pray at mealtimes. They always thank God for the beautiful day and then they usually go on to thank God for what they have enjoyed so far or are anticipating enjoying – ‘thank you that we are going to get to go see a movie, or go swimming, or that we get to play video games…’ you get the picture. It is when we move away from mealtime and ask them to pray for other things - situations where someone is ill, or afraid, or going THROUGH something – that that the jewels really come out. There is, of course, some mimicry of what they’ve heard us pray at one time or another, but apart from that, the heart and the purity with which they ask is a lesson in the making for me just about every time.
Most of us are familiar with the saying ‘Be careful what you ask for … you might get it!’ As a warning for those who ask without thinking of the ACTUAL consequences of receiving that for which they ask. As with most sayings, there’s a kernel of wisdom being conveyed in it: it’s an entreaty to be intentional about what our goals are, and what our motives might be.
So let’s go with a hypothetical situation: suppose you are dreaming, and in that dream, God is asking you to name something – anything – and God will give it to you. What is your first, your gut response? Think about it. I thought about running down a list of possibilities, but I think by now most of us have run through a list on our own. Take an honest look at what came to mind. How many of those things you found yourself listing are centered on the Kingdom of God, and how many are centered on the Kingdom of Man?
Hear me say this: there is no shame in responding from a human perspective. We ARE human, and that is probably going to be reflected in those items near or at the top of that list – however long or short it might be. So how far down the list is the kingdom? This is not an exercise in goading you into thinking the ‘right’ thing. It’s not intended to make you feel guilty if the first things that came to mind had more to do with you than they did with God.
What we need to understand and be reminded of is that God has already given us our heart’s deepest desire in the person of Jesus. Whether we realize it or not, whether we acknowledge it or not, the gnawing emptiness can only be filled by the presence of Christ in our lives.
God spoke to Solomon in a dream. We have many other instances throughout the scriptures of God speaking through dreams – Joseph, Peter, Paul – it’s not an unfamiliar story, but are we willing to apply that story – that dream – to our reality? Are we willing to let God speak to us and give us dreams in which He shows us … what we are capable of IF WE ARE WILLING to submit to HIS will?
Does that prospect frighten you? Are you deterred by the fact that you are advanced in years? Scripture is full of instances of new careers starting late in life. Read the story of Moses and find out how old HE was when God called him to lead the people of Israel out of Egypt. At the other extreme, are you dissuaded by the fact that you might be YOUNG in years? Look at the story of a young boy named David. And even the story we’re studying right here today. Are you challenged by some disability? Again, Moses was terrified of speaking … especially in public, and Paul prayed three times for that figurative thorn in his side to be removed from his side – and it wasn’t. The point is, God honors willing hearts.
Jerusalem church did something historic this past Wednesday. We voted to endorse a candidate for ordination to the Gospel Ministry. Over the years, Jerusalem has done that many times. The distinct aspect of this last action is that the candidate in question was a woman.
Jerusalem is taking hold of those dreams. We are not stepping out into this because it is more common today that it has perhaps been in years past, but because we bear witness to the Biblical story and to what we have experienced in our own lives of God blessing both men and women for ministry.
So we ask God to raise leaders out from among us, and God has done that. God has granted our wish. We have responded to God’s faithfulness to us.
What we do with this opportunity will speak through the years to come to OUR faithfulness to GOD, and our willingness to live out those dreams he gives us in the face of realities that are crying for a savior, to live out God’s own dreams for the world he loved so much that he sent his own son to die for it.
Let’s pray.
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