In a Dream

"In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams"(Acts 2:17 NIV).

We all have dreams. Some are the dreams we have when we sleep — yes, even those of us who can rarely remember them still have them. Others are dreams we have for our lives and those we love — more than goals, dreams are those great hopes we have for the future. Some of us are not real keen on sharing those dreams — we don't want to be embarrassed if they don't come true or we don't want to be held accountable to pursuing them. Others talk about their dreams — both kinds of dreams — all the time. Regardless of whether we share them or not, we all have them.

So what is the dream you have for your life?

Is this the same dream you had for your life ten years ago?

Have you given up those earlier dreams?

What happens when your personal dreams are shattered by circumstance, betrayal, disappointment, or what feels like unanswered prayers?

And maybe the most obvious question of all: What in the world does any of this have to do with Christmas or the birth of our Lord?

Believe it or not, the story of Jesus' birth is a ship that sails on the sea of broken dreams!

All behind the story is a plot line that connects Jesus' coming to our lives and to our broken dreams.
• God's people had dreams of freedom, independence, influence, and importance that were all broken by the domination of Roman power and government.
• Mary had rearranged dreams of motherhood, marriage, and family when the angel of the Lord appeared and told her about the miraculous conception of Jesus.
• Joseph had shattered dreams of a holy marriage to a pure and devoted young woman of God.
• King Herod had megalomaniacal dreams of power and prestige that were threatened by the coming of Jesus and the recognition by the magi that Jesus was the true King of the Jews.

With all the broken dreams surrounding the birth of Jesus, we shouldn't be surprised by one of Matthew's key phrases in the birth stories about Jesus: "... in a dream."

Joseph is told "in a dream" that Mary was not unfaithful to him, but that the child Jesus was conceived miraculously by the power of the Holy Spirit and he should make Mary his wife (Matthew 1:20).

The magi, or wise men as we often call them, are warned "in a dream"not to go back to Herod and tell this demented king where to find Jesus(Matthew 2:12).

Joseph is warned by God "in a dream" to go to Egypt because Herod wanted to kill baby Jesus (Matthew 2:13).

Joseph is told "in a dream" that he could take his little family back home from Egypt because Herod and those who wanted to kill Jesus were dead(Matthew 2:19-20).

Joseph is told "in a dream" to not go to Judea, but back to Galilee, so that Jesus could be protected and God's promises about the Messiah being from Nazareth would be fulfilled (Matthew 2:22).

If we listen closely to the story of our Savior's birth, all behind the story is a plot line that connects Jesus' coming to our lives and to our broken dreams. You see, Jesus' birth is all about what God can do when our personal dreams are shattered. If we follow his lead and listen for his voice, the Father gives us new dreams and fresh hope. The story of Jesus' birth teaches us that every broken dream leaves an empty place in our hearts for God to speak a brighter future and to give us better promises.

So as we remember the birth of our Lord, today and for the days and weeks and months and years to come, let's also remember that out of our broken dreams come God's deliverance and our Savior. The Father's words for us are much like they were for Joseph: "Don't be afraid!" And our response needs to be like Joseph and the magi: we need to do what God says and embrace his dreams for our future. When we do, we will find Immanuel, God with us, is more than a story; he is part of our lives. (Matthew 1:23).

What Do You Do with Jesus at Christmas?

It is a strange question, but one that perplexes many people this time of year: what do you do with Jesus at Christmas? Is this a religious or a secular holiday? Since this year Christmas falls on a Sunday, do you go to church or open presents around the tree? Or both? How do you treat friends who insist that Jesus is the reason for the season? What about friends who do not believe in Jesus? How do you combine Santa Claus, baby Jesus, reindeer, and wise men into one season? What do people do with Jesus this time of year?

1. Ignore him. Xmas instead of Christmas. Trees and stockings, but not nativity scenes. “Deck the Halls”, but not “Away in a Manger”. Read The Night Before Christmas, but not Matthew 1 and 2.

2. Be a little religious. Be nicer to people. Focus on giving, not getting. Show up at church on Christmas day, or at least Christmas Eve. Make a charitable donation or two. Give some presents to the underprivileged. Include going to church and being a better person with your New Year’s Resolutions.

3. Keep Jesus a baby. Focus on the nativity. Attend the wise men, shepherds, animals, Mary and Joseph pageants. Be sure to go to the ones put on by the little kids. They are cuter than and not as startling as the real event was. This approach does not seem to recognize that the baby grew up and died on a cross. So save that for Easter weekend.

Jesus is more than a baby celebration for the holiday season.

4. Celebrate Jesus just like you do every day. Realize that Jesus did not come to earth so we could celebrate a birthday. He came to save us from our sins. That is the good news. He was born to die. He was raised to live. Jesus is not the reason for the season. He is the reason for every season.

As for me, I am happy to celebrate Jesus at Christmas… and in January, and in spring, and summer… and well, every day. If the holiday season has caused you to wonder what to do about Jesus, I would enjoy discussing it with you.

Let Christmas Deny the World

Then Jesus said to his disciples, "Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it. What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?"(Matthew 16:24-26 NIV).

There is a wonderful line from the American scholar Stephen L. Carter that is appropriate to the Christmas season: "Religion is, at its heart, a way of denying the rest of the world." He is surely, astutely, and gloriously correct.

Faith's view of this world is strangely skeptical. No, more than that. It is a posture of unequivocal distrust leading to rejection! When the world recites its mantras — you matter only if you are beautiful, the most important thing is money, winning is everything, Look Out for Number One — faith protests them all. It adopts a posture of doubt and incredulity. It lives in skepticism and disbelief.

I refuse to believe that selfishness is acceptable or that it is permissible to resent another's good fortune. I will not swallow the world's way of thinking in order to justify prejudice, aggression, and hatred. No believer can be anything but incredulous about the claim of this world that she is entitled to anything she can get her hands on or that he should feel no guilt in exploiting others.

So let Christmas deny the world it's hold on your heart.

So distrust the alleged certainties of sense that cancel the mysteries of faith. Dispute the tendency of the masses to look forward only for the sake of declaring the impossibility of living with hope. Deny altogether the inevitability of such greed, hatred, and violence that we cannot prove the reality of love.

The Bible warns against being blinded by this world and speaks of the danger of the blind leading the blind. That warning puts us on notice that things, people, and ways of thinking totally rooted in the finite world of time, space, and matter will keep us from discovering, experiencing, and delighting in the greater realities of God, spirit, and eternity that can only be known by faith.

Faith isn't self-deception. It is neither wish projection nor wishful thinking. It is our willingness to hear and stand with the things God has shown us through events and people as awe-inspiring as a trembling, smoking mountain in the desert and as modest as a baby's first cry in the village of Bethlehem.

So let Christmas deny the hold of this world on your heart. Let it open your eyes to what the willfully blind will never see, your ears to things the incorrigibly deaf can never hear. See Immanuel — and know God is with us. Hear the song of angels — and receive God's peace given to anxious hearts. Hold the confusion, cynicism, and antagonisms of this troubled world suspect — and choose God's reign as your way of affirming the true realities.

Merry Christmas to all!