Prophesy, Visions and Dreams
Acts 2:1-21 | 5/30/2004
(RENT THE MOVIE, “FIELD OF DREAMS” FROM YOUR VIDEO STORE AND WATCH IT BEFORE READING THIS SERMON. EVEN IF YOU’VE WATCHED IT TEN TIMES, PLEASE WATCH IT AGAIN!)
Despite America's deep passion for baseball, the immense popularity of the 1989 movie “Field of Dreams” took a lot of film critics and entertainment big-shots by surprise. Field of Dreams was not only a huge box office hit, it has now grown to be a classic. This quiet little film is about an Iowa farmer who listens to the advice of a spirit-like voice and builds a baseball diamond in his cornfield. It has become a symbol of hope for thousands of people suffering from severe "dream-deficiency." Field of Dreams struck deep chords in many American souls. The phrase "field of dreams" has moved beyond its movie roots and has entered our language as a metaphor. I have heard the term used in relation to the earth; for America; a new field of dreams for African-Americans; and a new field of dreams for science. Field of dreams has come to mean hope, daring to try, and moving into the future even with doubts.
I wonder, why haven’t I heard a call for a new field of dreams for the church? Could it be that the church, which truly began as a field of dreams for the outcasts and outsiders, has today become a field of boredom, a field of confusion, a field of battlement, and a field of laziness? Does a field of dreams for our church seem outside the reach of even the highest imagination?
Today is Pentecost. Pentecost was the Jewish “Festival of Weeks,” in which they gave thanks for the harvested crops. At the beginning of the Christian church, that year Pentecost occurred 10 days after Jesus ascended into heaven; 50 days after his crucifixion. Listen as I read you Peter’s sermon to the crowds that day, from Acts 2:14-21: (READ)
Today is Pentecost. This is a day for remembering where the church came from, how the church came to be, and for asking what on earth the church is for and where in heaven's name are we headed. This is a day for consciously receiving the Holy Spirit again for learning, for visions, and for dreams, just as the first Christians did nearly 2,000 years ago. This is the day when we should envision what the church could be, share dreams of what we want it to look like -- and to start working to bring that dream to reality.
Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your point of view), we don't get to choose our starting point. When the Iowa farmer, Ray, was directed by the guiding voice to build his baseball diamond, at least he had a flat, even cornfield to work with. The church doesn't have such nice terrain. Before we can think about construction, some really basic spade-work has to be done. There may even need to be an "attitude earthquake" before any dreams can be cultivated.
The truth is that the church -- no matter how stodgy and out-of-shape she has become -- is still in God's hands. The church's future is never predictable or plotted out because the Holy Spirit, the animating breath of the church, blows up storms and whirlwinds without any notice. White House scuttlebutt reported that after former President George Bush senior saw the movie, “Field of Dreams,” he walked out shaking his head in perplexity and muttering, "I just don't get it." There are those same kinds of people in the church—even in this church--who can only mourn its decline. They just "don't get it." They don't "get" that the Spirit will do its work, that the hand of God is still upon us, that the future is where our field of dreams still lies.
Congregations who refuse to get with it, to look forward to the future instead of wishing for some mythical good old days, will die spiritually, if not physically. But the church itself will not. In other words, if we don’t get with it, and allow the Holy Spirit to work through us, this congregation will die—spiritually and physically. But the Church as a whole will not.
Marjorie Hewitt Suchocki said in her book A Learned Ministry?, that even if we bring our children to church, we are trying to teach them the things of God one hour a week. We don’t require homework or accountability for what is learned. Suchocki says, “If we taught mathematics or reading in the same way that we teach religion, parents would rise in a furor, demanding change.” But seldom do parents protest that education in Christianity is not rigorous enough; knowing little themselves, they require little of their children.
To make the church once again into a field of dreams, we must reclaim our Pentecostal heritage. According to the Book of Acts tradition, there was a period of time between Christ's resurrection appearances to his disciples and the day when the gift of the Holy Spirit was poured out upon them. Surely those must have been days of excitement and high expectation. They waited on tiptoe for the coming Spirit of God.
W too must stand expectantly on tiptoe. But to keep on our toes will actually require four other postures:
#1. Get on Our Knees: For the church to keep on its toes, we must get on our knees, pour out our hearts, extend our hands and spread our wings to make churches fields of dreams once again. The church—and that is you and me--must learn how to pray together and praise together. Of course, worshiping God isn't restricted only to church, but too often church is the last place people expect to have a religious experience. I want you to get excited! I want our worship to be God-breathed, Christ-centered and Spirit-driven so that we may be strengthened.
The Spirit must be allowed to circulate through the sanctuary, pushing us to our knees at unexpected moments. Does anything ever bring tears to our eyes in church any more? Can the Spirit make us smile, or even laugh out loud in church? Does the Spirit in YOU make you want to sing louder or even raise your hands in the air? Church is not just the place where we come to "think about God" for one hour out of the week. It is a place to feel God with all our emotions and all our being.
That leads right into #2. We must pour out our hearts: It is easy to forget who and what the church is. To outsiders we may look like any other organization. But the church is not an organization we join, it is an organism of which we are living members. Pentecost reminds us that our purpose is to be none other than the body of Christ. We don’t need a nice building, a good choir, well-run church school, or any ordained clergy to be a church. Union Church has proved that. We need the Spirit of Christ in order to be a Christ body. To make Christ human, to feel His presence, to have Him live within us and through a Spirit-filled community, we must pour out our hearts, filled with self- sacrificing love.
Another thing we can do better is to extend our hands. #3—Extend our hands. Even in our present "dreamless" state, we have made a few attempts to offer helping hands to people in need. We periodically stock food pantries, give Love Offerings, donate to Goodwill or the Salvation Army and other charities. But there should be a difference between being a "good citizen" and being the church. The body of Christ should not be dependent on reminders from the Church of the Brethren General Board, Heifer Project, or even your pastor for its urge to serve the world. If we allow the Holy Spirit of God to guide us and direct us, extending our hands to help will become as natural as breathing.
The last posture I pray we assume is to spread our wings. We must be willing to "trust the Spirit." We cannot take flight under our own power. But we can prepare for the flight of a lifetime. Peter Pan has gotten a lot of bad press over the years but the "flying song" in the Disney version of this childhood dream story still offers sound advice. To soar "all it takes is faith and trust ... and a little bit of pixie dust. The dust is a positive must!"
As Christians we can provide the faith and trust -- while still admitting that only God can supply the miraculous "dust" of the Spirit. The church has let reason and rationalism dictate its course of action for too long. Lacking in faith and trust, we have instead opted for predicting our very own demise or insisting on considering all the “what ifs” before daring to step forward. We are terrified of getting caught without a rational plan or thoughtful explanation for every action we take, or every experience we encounter.
Nearly two hundred years ago Robert Fulton tested his new invention, the steamboat. An observer along the bank kept yelling, "It'll never start! It'll never start." Just then the steamboat pulled away from the dock and moved majestically up the Hudson River. That observer quickly changed his tune. He yelled: "It'll never stop! It'll never stop!"
We all know these people. They go by different names: The It’ll-Never-Be-The-Sames; the What’s-The-Uses; the It’s-Not-Possibles, the We-Can’t-Changes. I’d be willing to bet some of you are those people, or some other form of We-Can’ts.
It is the posture you take in life's circumstances that determines whether something is a delight or a disappointment. We must be willing to spread our wings and step off the edge. Just like baby birds, we will fall back down to earth, maybe several times before we get the hang of it. But if we believe that the breath of the Spirit will hold us up and move us forward into the future, we can have our own field of dreams come true for the church.
PLEASE PRAY WITH ME:
Lord and Spirit, open us today to your divine dreams. Forgive us for missing so many opportunities and make us useful for Your Kingdom. Amen.
BENEDICTION: Now give thanks to the Lord; call upon his name. May His Spirit fill you and nudge you to go out into the world, extending your hands and spreading your wings. Amen.
