What Becomes of Our Dreams?

Genesis 37:1-28

Trust is an investment. Invest it well—trust in things which are good, faithful, and true—and it can turn dreams into reality. Invest it poorly—trust in things which are wicked, selfish, and deceptive—and life becomes a nightmare. I spoke about dreams a few weeks back, and mentioned how the Holy Spirit can use dreams to reveal the mysteries of God’s will to us. But not all dreams reveal God’s will. There are other types of dreams: those that reveal our own will or those that reveal the will of other worldly powers.

Not to be too much of a wet blanket, here, but I think we ought to confess that the dreams most often given life in our world are of the second type: selfish, greedy, power-hungry dreams. In last week’s sermon, we looked at Isaiah’s message to a people tempted to invest their trust in the dreams of idols and man-made gods. “Don’t do that!” Isaiah said [I paraphrase], “remember the dream that God has planted in you.” Isaiah was a prophet, which is to say, in a sense, that he was a discerner of dreams: he was not quick to invest his trust in the delusions that moved that masses. As a prophet, he sought to give pause to his people, a pause in which they could breathe in the Holy Spirit, ponder the purposes of God, and discern whether or not the dreams they pursued were truly trustworthy or simply selfish.

Asking people to pause from the pursuit of power, telling them their dreams might be deceptive, or revealing to them new dreams in which they are humbled doesn’t always go over well—prophets aren’t always well received. This brings us to the story of Joseph, a story which takes place long before the prophecy of Isaiah, but which challenges us in similar ways. Joseph dreamed of scenes in which his brothers were humbled before him, bowing before him—not the type of thing you want to hear about from your twerpy little brother.

It’s easy to side with Joseph in this story because we think we’re supposed to, but I’d like to give us permission to take him at face value. He is the quintessential annoying little brother! He’s a tattletale, always giving bad reports of his brothers to their father. He’s stuck-up, always flaunting his favoritism from their father in his fancy coat. He comes off as arrogant, bragging about dreams in which he is the center of attention. If I had a younger brother like that, I’d want to flick him hard in the ear every time I saw him.

“Oh jeez, look who it is!” You can almost imagine the scene. The older 10 brothers are out on the hillsides shepherding their father’s flock when they spot him from a distance. It’s hard to miss that hideous coat. “Here comes Mr. Dreamer,” they groan, some rolling their eyes, others smacking their foreheads. And here’s where the story gets interesting, because as they bemoan the approach of their younger brother, the dreamer, they, too, begin to dream. They begin to dream of ways they could be rid of him.

Remember when I said that not all dreams reveal God’s will? “Hey, let’s kill our brother!” is one such dream. Where does the impulse to kill our brother, to hurt our neighbor, to fight our enemies come from? Scripture suggests, in the story of Cain and Abel, that the desire to murder one’s brother is born of anger—behind whose door lurks sin. I also would suggest that anger comes from fear, one of the powers of this world, one of the many false gods we can be tempted to serve. Fear is the false god who tells us we are unlovable and unworthy; fear tells us that love is a commodity in short supply, that we are competing with our brother, our sister, our neighbor for the favor of the gods. I imagine that Joseph’s brothers feared they would never be good enough in their father’s eyes while he was still around. And from their fear they dreamed of a solution to their situation. “Let’s kill him…and then we’ll see what becomes of his dreams.”

As I mentioned at the beginning of this sermon, trust turns dreams into reality. When we trust enough in the ideas that pop into our heads, we turn them into actions. This is why we need prophets and dreamers who help us to discern where our dreams come from and what will become of them. The consequences of trusting the wrong dream are dire: even more dire in an age where pushing a button and starting a nuclear war would unleash a nightmare the likes of which the world has never seen; even more dire in a time where armed white supremacists still feel comfortable gathering and luring others to serve the god of hate along with them. I’m reminded of Mary Shelly’s classic, Frankenstein, where we’re made to question whether the mob with pitchforks and torches is actually the monster to be feared.

What becomes of our dreams when we allow anger or fear to take control? What becomes of our dreams when we invest our trust in visions of revenge or violence? What becomes of our actions when we serve the gods of war, anger and fear? Maybe the question to ask is not “What becomes of our dreams?” but “What becomes of God’s dream?” Our God is a God of love whose dream is a garden of peace. What becomes of God’s dream when we value the visions of false gods? What becomes of God’s dream when we trust the tempting words of the great deceiver of humankind? This is why, time and again, scriptures tell us “Do not fear!” Do not be tempted to serve those false gods, do not let their dreams inspire you to action in a world of hate and war.

What is becoming of God’s dream of a garden of grace; the dream of a feast where all are fed; the dream of a kingdom where the Prince of Peace reigns and “blessed are the peacemakers”? What is becoming of God’s dream where all the nations of the world are blessed; where faith, hope, and love abide; where forgiveness flows freely, “justice rolls like waters, and righteousness like an ever flowing stream”? Trust is an investment. Invest it well—trust in things which are good, faithful, and true—and turn those dreams into reality. Friends, do not fear, trust God’s dream. Amen.