God’s Design - Our Dreams
John 21:1-25
I want to begin this message with a word from Scripture and a line from a song.
One of the most thoughtful and most perceptive folk groups of the 60’s and 70’s was the group Peter, Paul and Mary. This group disbanded in the early 70’s, only to regroup at the end of the decade. In their album, Reunion, an album to celebrate their gathering together again, they sang a nostalgic song that looks back on the 60’s and forward to the challenges of the 80’s. The song is titled Sweet Survivor, and the song notes how the torch has been passed from one generation to the next generation in the struggle for freedom and justice. There is a line from the song Sweet Survivor that haunts me. I think it is a line that haunts all of the children of the 60’s and 70’s. I think it is a line that can haunt the children of any age.
¨ Children, who protested war, but lived lives of violence.
¨ Children, who stressed love, but used one another both physically and emotionally.
¨ Children, who sought peace, but brought fragmentation to their lives through the use of narcotics.
¨ Children, who stressed the rejection of materialistic values, and today are the ones wearing the designer jeans and heading the corporations of America.
¨ Children, who cried out for freedom, but became slaves to another form of slavery.
Indeed, I think the line of that song haunts all of us here today, regardless of generation, and that line is this: "And you wonder if the dreams we shared together have abandoned us, or we have abandoned them."
A word from Peter, "I’m going fishing."
A commandment from Jesus, "You follow me."
A line from a song, "You wonder if the dreams we shared together have abandoned us, or we have abandoned them."
God’s Design - Our Dreams that is what I want to think about this morning. For you see, in recent worship services, much has been said about dreams people have for First Christian Church. Many of the leadership have shared those dreams. Individuals have reiterated those dreams in the classroom and newsletters.
And yet, I wondered, as I was preparing this sermon … I wondered what about the hopes and dreams of individuals in the church. What about, not institutional dreams, but what about individual dreams.
Do our leaders still dream? Do our members still dream? What do we dream about? Who do we want to be? What do we want to be doing? What does God want us to be? What does God want us to be doing?
God’s Designs and our Dreams need to be wedded together.
John 21, you see, I think is a very significant part of John’s gospel. I think, that in part, what John is doing is recording an event that is very personal in the lives of the disciples. It is personal for those disciples that were in the boat fishing. But especially, it was personal for Peter and for John because, in those moments, Jesus gave his final words of parting.
I think it is a word that is so very personal for those of us here this morning. Because I think that it is an episode that calls on us to hold onto our dreams.
There are three things that I want to share this morning about God’s Designs - Our Dreams. I want to talk first of all about the Birth of our Dreams.
The birth of Peter’s dreams is not found in the last of John. It is found in the first of John. In John 1: 40, and 41, Andrew, his brother, has found the Messiah. He accepts Him as the Messiah, and he runs to tell his brother, Peter, "We have found the Messiah." Peter’s immediate response is to drop his nets and to go and follow this man who claims to be God’s Son, no longer to be a fisherman, but a fisher of men.
For you see, Peter, Andrew and the other disciples, in the opening pages of the gospel, realized that to find Christ was the reason for dreams. To find Christ and to accept Him as the Messiah, to accept Him as the Son of God, would give birth to a multitude of dreams.
It is as Mike Singletary, the Hall of Fame linebacker from the Chicago Bears, has said, " I think the thing that I learned most is that God can be trusted. I’ve realized that every day is a new day, a blessing from God. We have to realize that, no matter who we are, we are weak. No matter how hard we try, we control nothing. Nothing. No matter how hard I try to secure my future, I could wake up the next day with a lump on my chest, be in the hospital and die. When we finally realize how weak we really are, then we realize how strong God is. It was not who I was that mattered, but who God is. Now God was filling the void in me that had so long been filled by my ego, my sin, by the world."
For us today, we need to be reminded that the most important thoughts and dreams that can occupy each and every one of us here this hour is our individual responsibility to God. Out of a variety of settings, dreams sweep across our minds: at camp, attending a class, a song sung, a word preached, a comment made by a brother or sister, a silent moment encountered with God in prayer and something happens.
We catch the interconnection in our lives. We realize how short our life is. We realize how many people there are who need to experience the love…
And dreams are born. Dreams that are baptized in the name of Jesus. Dreams that are realized through the power of the Spirit. Dreams that have caused all of us to come to this worship this morning.
Yet, we must remember, my friend, that those dreams are so very personal. Dreams that I have for my life may not be the same dreams you have for your life. The designs God has for my life may not necessarily be the designs that He has for your life.
Ralph Waldo Emerson made the observation that there is a time in every man’s education when "… he arrives at the conclusion that imitation is suicide, that envy of others is ignorance, that a man must take himself for better or worse, as is his portion."
Recall, as far as we know, the last conversation Christ has with Peter. Christ tells Peter, "In your youthful days you came and you went as you saw fit, Peter. You wanted to fish, you fished! You wanted to follow me, you followed me!" But then Jesus tells Peter, "A time will come when you will be taken by people that you do not know to a place that you do not want to go." And as Jesus says that, Peter turns and sees John. He points his finger at John, and he says, "Lord, what about this man? You told me about my plans, but what about him? What is going to happen to him?" Jesus essentially says, "It is none of your business. You follow me."
My brothers and sisters, each of us must possess our dreams. We cannot copy the dreams of others. We need to get our minds off others, and get our minds on doing what God wants each of us, in our individuality, to be doing. We cannot be doing what our mothers, or fathers, or spouses, or pastors want us to be doing. We must be doing what our Lord wants us to be doing with the gifts he has given us. That our own personal dreams, every dream we have in our lives, must be shaped by the personal commandment, "You are to follow me."
Then to understand, as from the movie Dead Poet’s Society, that when Neil discovered his passion for writing and poetry, and shares that with his father, he didn’t want to be a doctor. He was only working towards that because that is what his father wanted. He wanted to be a writer, a poet. But his father strips that dreams away from him. And on the darkest night of the movie, Neil takes his own life because his dream has been taken away.
When we listen in on this conversation between Peter and Jesus, even though it is such a personal conversation, we can apply it to ourselves. For, in essence, what Christ said to Peter, so many centuries ago, he says to us. "Never mind the task that is given to someone else. You follow me."
By those words dreams are born, for Jesus says that to each of us here this morning. Not all is so glorious. Not all is so smooth. For as we encounter the birth of dreams, we meet, as well, the barriers to our dreams.
As the birth of Peter’s dreams are found in the first page of the gospel of John, the death of those dreams are found in the last of John’s gospel. When Jesus cried out, "It is finished", Peter would not have been present at the cross to hear those words. But they would have echoed down the streets of Jerusalem. They would have searched out the corner where he was hiding in shame. And he would have heard Jesus’ cry, "It is finished." And he would have moaned, "Not only is it finished for him, it is finished for me as well." For with the crowing of the cock, and the coming of nightfall on the first Good Friday, Peter’s dreams had vanished.
And yet, as we look at the Bible, beyond the story of Peter, John and the others disciples, we see scattered through the pages of Scripture the lives of those who had dreams, dreams filled, dreams unfulfilled. Moses hoped to lead the people into the Promised Land. Paul hoped to go to Rome. The history of the church is filled with dreams, dreams filled, and dreams unfulfilled.
That over the 100 plus years of this church, there have been those who have dreamed. What happens, sometimes the doors are open. But I have talked to enough people to know that sometimes the doors are closed. Something happens. I have seen it. Somehow, we meet barriers on our journey.
That with the death of Christ so many had thought the hopes of Israel had vanished. One of the twelve had betrayed Him. Peter, the bold, had denied Him. All but one, the apostle John, had abandoned Him at the cross.
And I wonder … I wonder how many of the disciples and others had echoed the despair of the two on the road to Emaeus, "We had hoped …" We had hoped, but we no longer hope.
I wonder how many put those words into action, like Peter, "I’m going out to fish." Such a move by Peter and the others was dangerous, I think, because they had been trained for something far greater than fishing.
In the movie Superman, there is a scene at the beginning of the movie that provides a good commentary on John 21. Superman, as Clark Kent, wants to play football. But he can’t. He’s too good. He was too strong. So his father comes out to the barnyard, and the father shares these words: "Son, you where meant for more than to kick a football."
For you see, the picture we see in John 21 is a picture of men without purpose, men who had seen their dreams shattered. Perhaps they thought that regression overcomes depression, to return to the good old days to escape the hard realities of the present.
Things beyond our control can interfere, can’t they? Circumstances beyond our control can become our prison walls:
¨ An unexpected illness for you personally or for someone yoy love.
¨ An unexpected death.
¨ A break-up in a significant relationship between couples dating or married or children and their parents.
¨ The doors to a ministry or mission barred to you.
¨ The disappointment of a job that once held promise, but now only holds you captive.
¨ Our own physical or intellectual limitations.
In a statement by T. S. Eloit, which expresses the devastating effects of shattered dreams and shattered lives, we may even hear an echo of our own cries. He wrote: "You neglect and belittle the desert. The desert is not remote and southern tropics. The desert is not only around the corner. The desert is squeezed into the pew next to you. The desert is in the heart of your brother.
But far too often, my concern is this, that far to often it is things within our control that pose the greatest barriers to our dreams:
¨ Our lack of self-discipline.
¨ Our own laziness.
¨ Our own spiritual myopia.
¨ Our own too high expectations.
¨ Too often listening to the cynics of this world who would rob us and laugh at our dreams.
¨ Too often, I think, heeding the call of a brother or sister who lacks commitment and following in their trail, unwilling to pay the price.
What shape are your dreams in? I hear people say, "I’m giving up. It just isn’t worth it. I’ve stuck it out long enough and nothing seems to change." I’ve heard it. Haven’t you?
Too often, in our age, there is the seductive spirit of fatalism where life is too big, life is too complex, life is just too powerful. Have we not heard of have we no said ourselves, "Whatever will be will be", "That’s the way the ball bounces", "Well, you can’t do anything about it." And sure enough we begin to think that we can’t do anything about it.
Such an age, where T. S. Eliot describes "an age that marches progressively backwards," there is a need for dreamers in the church who shall move forward, and not backward, who shall advance and not retreat.
We will be tempted to write off our dreams as too emotional, as too big, too impossible to reach. We shall be told by others, "It is best not to dream."
And to hear the poet who pleads: "Hold fast to dreams where dreams die. Life is a broken winged bird that cannot fly."
The birth of our dreams … the barriers to our dreams. There shall be barriers, and those barriers can be a kind of plowing of our spirits. Shall the next crop be richer or shall it be more full of weeds? Do we go forwards, or do we go backwards? Do we hold on to our dreams?
And I think that the answer to such questions are found in the final point of this sermon I want to share, that is found in the basis of our dreams.
The Peter who said, "I am going fishing" is the same Peter that upon being told by John, "It is the Lord," put on his clothes and jumped into the water and went ashore to kiss His Forgiver. It is the same Peter who is restored, as he three times professes that his love for Christ is greater than his personal ambitions.
¨ The Christ who he had seen and heard and touched.
¨ The Christ who had lifted him out of the angry waves.
¨ The Christ who had healed the lame, the blind, and members of his own family.
¨ The Christ who had said, "I am the way, the truth and the life."
¨ The resurrected Christ Peter realized, and we need to realize, is the reason for our existance, for our being and our doing.
The resurrected Christ is the foundation for all our dreams. That the winter of our discontent, when our dreams lie shattered on the floor, can give way to a spring of hope because of the hope that is found in the Resurrection, not in the sense of possibility or probability, but only in the New Testament sense of certainty.
With a firm foundation, we can dream the dreams of God, today, because Christ lives. We can dream the dreams of God, today, because God has promised to help us and to comfort us and to guide us. And it’s not that those promises may be true, the promises to help and to comfort and guide. It is that they cannot be anything else but true in our lives as His children.
"If God is for us who can be against us." "He that is in me is greater than He that is in the world." "We are more than conquerors in Him that loved us." "We can do everything through Him who gives us strength."
Peter Marshall, the US Senate Chaplain, a number of years ago, preached a sermon entitled, "The Risk of Reach." He preached at the end of World War 2 and he said this:
Acrophobia is not only the fear of high places, high mountains and flights in airplanes. It may be the fear of high ideals, high thoughts, high ambitions, high goals. Once and for all, we must put out of our minds that the purpose of life is to enjoy ourselves … to have a good time … to be happy … to make money and to live in ease and comfort. Do not underestimate what you can do. You have the courage to throw off your acrophobia and to dream big … to aim high if you do it with God’s help.
The final two lines of the sermon: "For no way can be lonely, if it is the way Christ walks. No way can be lonely, if it is the way to mission call."
To speak about dreams is such a very personal subject. I would like to close this morning in a very personal way. You see I have dreams. Don’t you? I have dreams for my life and my family. I have dreams for my ministry here with you.
For you see, what happens is this: Somewhere the personal exhortation from others, and our own personal dreams become intertwined with the urging of others reinforcing the desires that we have. And if that can happen between two Christians, it can certainly happen between a Christian and His Lord, where the dream is of God and the dreams is ours.
For, you see, God’s design for you and for me is so very personal. It is simply, "You follow me." And when such an intimate word is given by our heavenly Father, our only response … our greatest desire … our noblest dream can only be "Here am I!"
Church, do you love me? Church, do you really love me? Yes, Lord you know we love you.
