BProp16

1 Kings 8:22-30, 41-43; Psalm 84; Ephesians 6:10-20; John 6:56-69

August 23, 2009

Dreams

In the bible they are plenty.

There was Jacob who had a dream when he was alone in the wilderness;

Jacob’s ladder full of angels assured him of God’s presence in his journey.

Then, there was young Joseph, the lad who had the coat of many colors.

He had dreams that foretold God’s favor upon him

that made his brothers very jealous…

jealous enough that they got rid of him.

And later in Egypt, when he was a slave of Pharoah,

Joseph interpreted a troubling dream that Pharoah had

which so amazed Pharoah that he made Joseph his chief commander.

And then there is another Joseph –

a dream told him that his betrothed Mary would have a son

and that he was to take her as his wife;

then in another dream he was warned to flee to Egypt

to save the child Jesus from the threats of King Herod.

And then there was R.W. Chance.

Mr. Chance had a dream I’d like to share with you.

He lived in White Springs, Florida, with his wife, Martha,

at the same time I lived there.

He was a good man.

In earlier years he had owned a Stuckey’s in White Springs,

right on US 41 when it was the major north/south highway.

Martha was a young widow and Mr. Chance married her

and became a father to her young daughter.

Martha was Episcopalian. He was Presbyterian.

He saw that she got to services in the next town twenty miles away

and he devoted himself to keeping the doors of the little local Presbyterian church

open in White Springs.

Mr. Chance had a garden

and was always showing up with fresh vegetables to share.

His pride and joy was his chiote squash

which he loved to cook in a variety of ways.

He would invite me over for lunch

and I would notice how lovingly he cared for Martha

as she began to lose her memory.

I remember him showing up at our house and walking up the driveway

carrying a long cane fishing pole and a little tackle box for my son’s fifth birthday.

A young boy’s first ‘big person’ fishing pole.

Mr. Chance was a good man.

When Mr. Chance became ill, I would visit him at the V.A. hospital in Lake City. One evening I got to the hospital and he was sleeping.

His nurse came up to me.

“You here to see Mr. Chance?” I replied yes.

She began to tell me about what had happened the night before.

He had called her into his room and told her he had had a dream.

And he wanted to tell her about it.

The way she relayed it went like this:

Mr. Chance began:

I met up with Jesus and told him I was ready.

But he looked at me and said, ‘RW, when you come this way,

I want you to leave behind anything from your life that doesn’t belong here.’

And Mr. Chance said to Jesus, “Lord, I can’t think of anything bad in my life

that I haven’t already repented of.

I don’t hate anybody. I’ve tried to help people. I’ve taken good care of Martha.

And I’m not afraid of anything, not even death.”

And then Jesus turned him around and showed him

what he knew was all the people who have lived on earth.

They were moving forward together like the current in a river.

And behind them was this beautiful luminous light that pulsated with life.

As it emptied itself like a spring, life poured from it and moved the people forward.

The Light moved all through the stream of people.

But there were patches of shadows.

Just as Mr. Chance was thinking that the dark spots must be where evil was

and wondered how it got there, Jesus told him this.

‘All through the ages people have forgotten

about the Light that made them and moves them.

They look to themselves for life and light

and their experience is always that there is not enough.

They become afraid.

Rather than a flow that never runs out, that will move through them and pass on to others freely,

they hold onto what they can muster up themselves.

This has become so much a part of the human experience

that you can be born into this world not knowing anything else.’

They are sucked into the world and carried along with it.

Being deprived of this power and freedom, and responsibility

they are swept along by forces that seem beyond their control.

Jesus then said:

That life-giving, self-giving Light that you saw,

That is what I came to help people remember.

Mr. Chance’s dream reminds me of words from Ephesians:

That we share the fullness of the one who fills all in all. 1:22

That we can be strengthened in our inner being with power through his Spirit,

and that the Light of Christ may dwell in our hearts through faith

as we are being rooted and grounded in love.3:17

That we may have the power to comprehend

what is the breadth and length and height and depth,

and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge.

As children of light we are urged to expose the darkness.

We are to be subject to one another out of reverence for Christ.

The nurse went on:

Mr. Chance’s next thought was, “What does this have to do with my life?

Am I one of those filled with light or are there shadows in me?”

All of a sudden, as it often is toward the end of our lives,

he was looking at his own life and he talked a little about it.

Growing up in the early 1900’s in a small South Georgia town.

His family. His years in the war. His business. His meeting Martha.

His nurse told me that he then stopped talking - and he took hold of her hand.

His two thin, white, tissue paper hands holding between them

a younger, darker, hand.

And she told me that he said to her,

“I want to ask you to forgive me.

All my life all I knew was to distrust your people;

To keep you at a distance; And even to fear you.

I want to leave that behind. I don’t want to take it with me.

Will you forgive me?”

She said she nodded, and he kept her hand between his as he began the Lord’s Prayer

and they said it together.