On entering the house, they saw the child with Mary, his mother; and they knelt down and paid him homage. Then, opening their treasure chests, they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for their own country by another road.
Matthew 2:11-12
A few days ago, with the frenzy of Christmas and New Year’s past, I was picking up around the house, trying to reclaim some order after the joyful chaos of the past days. I’m sure you know what I’m talking about. I was tucking away the clutter and trying to sort out what was useful and find a place for the things that had made their way onto countertops and coffee tables. As I was stashing things in one of my favorite hiding places—the kitchen “junk drawer,” I noticed a bright object that was peeking out from under the drawer’s messy contents. It was a little homemade bracelet. I pulled it out thinking it must be one of my kids’ crafts from long ago and that I could dispose of it because it was no longer wanted. But instead of finding one of their names on it, it had a word written in letter beads— ”DREAM” it said.
It made me stop short and interrupted my cleaning frenzy. It felt like some kind of sign. Because I realized that it was the day before Epiphany and in a flash, I thought about all the dreams that God placed in the minds of the people in the Advent and Epiphany story.
Matthew’s Gospel is full of them. Joseph is told in a dream to take Mary for his wife; the Magi are warned in a dream not to return to see Herod; Joseph is told in another dream to flee to Egypt for the family’s safety and then later to return to Nazareth where Jesus would be raised.
That tiny bracelet, stashed away long ago, resurfaced in a perfectly timed moment, just to remind me how important it is to be open to God’s dreams for us. As we stand on the threshold of a new year that is full of possibility, we need to dream.
Three years ago, as we struggled to emerge from the pandemic, mired in uncertainty, isolation, and fear, I asked the congregation to do three things: Celebrate, Dream, and Invite. Do you remember? We had no idea what the future would bring. Many folks were reluctant to gather. Many were slow to return, but we could do those three things. We could celebrate what we saw God doing among us amid the disruptions. We could dream about what kind of a church God was calling us to be. And we could invite others to join us in building the church as a new community of hope and healing.
I look back on the cycle of these last three years and see what doing those things has helped us accomplish. Our church is alive and vibrant once again. Our space has been infused with new life and possibility. We have continued our vital ministries and begun new ones too. Our gatherings are filled with people who have long been a part of the church family AND with folks who have recently discovered us and want to be a part of this joyful community. This is what Celebrate, Dream, and Invite has helped us do.
I hope you see that this sequence—this cycle—has a circular movement that invites us to repeat the process. It is again time to celebrate these things that I have just named, and then to dream about how we build upon them. I want us to dream about what comes next that grows out of all that God has helped us achieve in these last few years.
During Advent when the all-ages Sunday School met, I made up a vision board to capture ideas as we talked about dreams of past, present, and future with our “A Christmas Carol” theme. I think that vision board was just a start—it was a germ of an idea that we can continue to build on in this coming year. There are many ways to capture our dreams and a variety of groups and people who might think together about what comes next for First Church. And, of course, we need to keep inviting others who want to be a part of this vision God is placing in our hearts.
So, friends, I ask you: What is it that you want to celebrate? Tell someone! What are you dreaming of next? Share that dream with someone too! And who are you going to invite to join us in this amazing community God is helping us to build?
Pastor Duane
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