(1) Last year I heard an incredible song that was the background to a house whose lights were set to this song. Those of us who have e-mail probably received it at least once last season.
After I tracked down the title, I tracked down the CD and Susan gave me the CD as a birthday present. The group who recorded the song is the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. (None of them however, from what I have been able to tell, are from Siberia.) Several of those songs on that CD have become favorites of mine and it was one of those I was listening to in the car this past Monday that made me stop and ask the question, ‘What is your Christmas Dream?’ (2)
It goes like this…
On this night of hope and salvation/one child lies embraced in a dream/where each man regardless of station/on this night can now be redeemed
Where every man regardless of his nation/ancestral relations/on this night the past can fly away
And that dream we’ve held the most/that every child is held close/on this night that dream won’t be betrayed
All as one/Raise your voices/raise your voices/all as one/on this Christmas Day!
All rejoice/raise your voices/raise your voices/all rejoice/Anno Domine!
On this night when no child’s forgotten/no dream sleeps where he cannot see/no man here is misbegotten/and this night’s dreams are still yet to be
As a child one of my Christmas dreams was always centered on my hoped for presents. As a teenager and college student, I dreamed of sharing my Christmas with a girlfriend which never happened until about 25 or so years ago when Susan entered my life. As an adult, I admit that I still have a kid in me, but a greater dream is that those who receive my gifts get great joy out of them as well as remembering the true reason for the season.
What is your Christmas Dream?
In the song I just quoted, we hear about a dream that all people get a second chance and that all children are ‘held close’ as they are loved by someone who cares for them. Those are good dreams and I think, as we come again to the season of advent, we hear some of those same dreams, those same hopes acknowledged in the Biblical account of Christmas especially when we come to Luke 2:13 and 14. (3)
“Suddenly, the angel was joined by a vast host of others—the armies of heaven—praising God: “Glory to God in the highest heaven,
and peace on earth to all whom God favors.”
Whom does God favor? Well, in the context of the passage we can say with a fair amount of certainty that God favored those shepherds the angels were speaking to that night.
We can also widen the lens a bit and say with some additional certainty that God favored Mary…, Joseph…, and the Wise Men. Then, pulling the lens back even further, we can go to John 3:16 and say with some more certainty that God, because He loves the whole world and sent His son, Jesus to die for it, favors all of us.
(4) This leads me to ask, ‘What was (and still is) God’s Christmas Dream?’ We are going to look at Joseph’s dream this morning and see if we can answer the question.
Now, before we take some time to look at Joseph’s situation, it is important to note something here that you might have had questions about over the years, namely, the marital status of Joseph and Mary.
According to Biblical scholars, there were three stages in the marriage process of that day. First was the agreement between the families that their children should marry because marriage was arranged by the parents not the children. Second was the period of ‘betrothal’ or engagement. This second period is different from our concept of engagement in that where a couple in our time and age can break an engagement off without too much difficulty, the only way that Joseph and Mary could break their engagement was either by dying or by divorce and Joseph had legal grounds for divorce because Mary was pregnant before they were legally married.
The final period, generally after one year, was the marriage at which time the groom went to the bride’s home, took her away from her family, and the couple was considered married.
All of this was on Joseph’s mind while he was asleep. He was facing a very painful and difficult decision. He was an honorable man and he wanted to do what was right by Mary as well as do the right thing. He had every right to divorce her for she had violated the law that indicated there was to be no sexual intimacy during this time.
Joseph certainly did not expect this to be the outcome of his engagement to Mary. I think that it is very safe to say that at this point, his dream regarding his future with Mary seems to have been shattered. Have you ever been in a situation like Joseph where your hopes and dreams have been maybe altered or even shattered?
Several years ago I read in a book interestingly called, ‘The Season’s of A Man’s Life,’ that many men (and I think women as well) deal with what is perhaps one of the most painful transitions in adulthood, the ‘death of the dream.’
The authors of the book, from what I can recall, suggested that all adult men have what is called a life dream that is a powerful and unseen motivator for their choices and goals as they move from early adulthood into middle adulthood and then into mature adulthood. But, at some point, they come to a realization that the dream is not going to be realized and a crisis ensues.
Joseph is in crisis. We do not know how old Joseph and Mary are… some scholars have indicated that they were young, especially Mary, but we really do not know. Yet, from the text we know that Joseph was a ‘just man,’ that he was a person of good character. That is a good sign.
Crises challenge our character, don’t they? I can recall several crises challenging my character including one that happened at the end of the first semester during my sophomore year of college.
I was leaving early for a trip to Maryland where I was to spend the next semester in an internship at a church. So I was able to take my tests earlier including one in a Math class.
After I took the test, I went to get my mail. As I was getting my mail, another Math class student saw me.
I don’t fully remember the conversation (it was 29 years ago) but I do remember that he learned I had taken the test and he asked me, ‘Can I have the answers?’ I froze.
I was at a Christian college and we don’t cheat. (Yeah, right.) But here was a challenge to my character, a temptation to compromise my faith and beliefs. What was I going to do?
I also faced a second crisis. It was a crisis about racial stereotypes raising its ugly head. My fellow classmate was black. All sorts of thoughts came running through my mind at that point that I refused to hold onto. I do remember thinking about how I might look to my classmate and the other black students if I refused.
Mental (and emotional) clarity finally came to me, (I give credit to the Lord for that) and I told him, as hard as it was and as much as I really wanted to help him but could not because I was soon to depart, ‘No, I can’t do that. I don’t remember all the answers. (And I didn’t.) Find someone to study with.’
Joseph is in a tough spot. The woman that he loves and has made a pledge to marry is pregnant and not by him.
What goes through his mind? ‘What will people think?’ ‘How am I going to explain this to my family?’ ‘How will this look to my friends and my community?’
‘Does Mary’s family know?’ ‘Why could she do this me?’ ‘How could she do this to me?’ ‘Who is the father of the child?’
There is agony flowing through Joseph’s heart. There is pain, grief, and anger all tossing and turning within him. ‘Why, why, why?’ His dream of marriage to a wonderful woman is shattered. His plans for a wonderful life have been snatched away from him.
He goes to sleep troubled. Yet something very important happens to Joseph.
(5) (5a) God comes to Joseph in his dream through one of His messengers, an angel. We read in verse 20, ‘an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream.’
God is not going to let Joseph wake up the next morning to mope, grieve, and go through the divorce proceedings that, in that time and place, could put Mary on a collision course for ridicule, ostracism, or worse.
God sends good news to Joseph. He lets Him know that a greater dream is at work right now. There is purpose behind this shocking news; this dream threatening situation. The child that Mary bears is the Messiah, the Savior of the world!
(5b) So God makes clear His purpose for Joseph and Mary in Joseph’s dream. “Joseph, son of David,” “the angel said, “Do not be afraid to go ahead with your marriage to Mary. For the child within her has been conceived by the Holy Spirit. And she will have a son and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. “
Joseph obeys the Lord and marries Mary. Yet it took courage for him to do that because of what people might say. That is why the Lord says to him, ‘Do not be afraid.’
When you stop to think about it, we see all kinds of dreams in the Christmas story. There is the warning dream in which God redirects the Wise Men to go home a different direction so that they do not give away the location of Jesus to Herod so that Herod does not murder Jesus.
Joseph’s dream is a dream of care and knowledge. God reveals the purpose for Mary’s surprise pregnancy to Joseph in his dream. Herod has a dream that is threatened by the news of ‘a newborn king.’
God’s words to Joseph remind us that sometimes our dreams are small, self-centered, and narrowly focused on our circumstances and situations. We need to seek out and believe His perspective and His purposes though it may not make sense at the time. We need to ask the Lord to increase our faith so that we remember that God’s plans for us, God’s dreams for us are bigger and more meaningful that what we can possibly imagine.
Like Joseph we have faced, and will continue to face, uncertainty and trouble. Our dreams will continue to be often challenged and sometimes shattered. Let us take courage, (‘do not be afraid to go ahead’) the courage of God, and let God have all of our hopes, fears, and dreams. He knows what to do with them.
To answer then the question asked earlier, ‘What is God’s Christmas Dream?’ (6) I would have us remember these phrases from that song and our text for this morning: (7)
(a) … each man… can now be redeemed
(b) … the past can fly away
(c) … you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.
God’s dream is the great dream of all… our salvation, our forgiveness, our transformation into the people that we were created to be and because of what Christ did for us on the cross, God’s dream has become a reality. For that, the best thing to say is… AMEN!
Power Points for this sermon are available by e-mailing me at pastorjim46755@yahoo.com and asking for ‘112606slides’ Please note that all slides for a particular presentation may not be available.
