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To Experience Dreams
February is Black History Month. It celebrates the achievements of black people throughout our history.
More than just their achievements, it celebrates the dreams that survived and overcame the harsh realities of racism and oppression.
Perhaps the most famous figure in black history is Martin Luther King Jr. He is famous for the “I Have a Dream” speech he gave in 1963. The speech evoked the hopes of universal fellowship among all people.
With soaring words, people were elevated and taken up into this beautiful dream of the Beloved Community.
It was a high point in his life, and it was a high point for the nation. It was a mountaintop experience.
On the mountaintop of today’s passage, the disciples experienced something like this, something almost indescribable with words.
Jesus was transfigured. His appearance was transformed and elevated into something glorious beyond measure.
It was literally what you would call a mountaintop experience. Mark does his best to describe this experience:
And he was transfigured before them, and his clothes became dazzling bright, such as no one on earth could brighten them. (Mark 9:2-3)
What the disciples experienced on the mountain was a glimpse of a glorious future, when Christ comes again. They saw Jesus in all his resplendent glory.
It was a glimpse when all of God’s dreams for the world would be fulfilled.
We need moments like that in life.
Moments of transcendence and elevation. Moments of clear vision.
They allow us to see and experience something different. We see a beautiful vision for life.
Martin Luther King Jr’s gift was to elevate people’s spirits so that they could see and feel the dream he was envisioning.
We need dreams. We need vision. They give us purpose. They give us meaning. They show us what life can be and what it should be.
They pull us out of the small world of our own problems and worries into a much bigger one that has greater purpose and meaning.
Your problems and worries take a back seat. They’re still there, and you still have to deal with them, but they can’t dominate you when you have powerful dreams that drive you.
Such is the power of dreams and visions.
When millions of black people all over America bought into the dream, their own personal problems and worries became absorbed by the greater cause of helping others.
Suffering Before Glory
To have dreams is beautiful. But those dreams collide with the reality of everyday life.
Martin Luther King Jr’s dream collided with reality. Racism was too entrenched. Hatred was too strong. The problems of the country were too complex.
People began to lose faith in his vision. His philosophy of nonviolence seemed out of date compared to the violence they received from all the hate around them.
The dream was on shaky ground when it was finally shattered by a bullet. That bullet took his life and shattered the hearts of the nation.
But more importantly, it shattered the dream.
After the disciples’ glorious experience, Jesus said something very puzzling:
As they were coming down the mountain, he ordered them to tell no one about what they had seen, until after the Son of Man had risen from the dead. (Mark 9:9)
Why did he say this? They had just witnessed something glorious and out of this world. Why hold off on sharing this glorious experience?
Before they had that experience on the mountain, this is what Jesus did:
Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes and be killed and after three days rise again. (Mark 8:31)
They were to hold off on sharing their glorious experience because Jesus first had to experience the cross.
Before glory comes the cross. Before dreams are realized in their glory, they must go through suffering and struggle. But after that struggle and suffering will come glory.
Living Without Dreams
Martin Luther King Jr’s dream might be shattered, but it must not die.
When dreams die, life has no purpose.
Without dreams, life is dreary and mundane. Without dreams, all that’s left to pursue is comfort, convenience and pleasure.
I think that’s what’s happened in the world. People stopped dreaming. They lost faith in anything. They lost faith in dreaming itself.
Without anything to dream in, all that’s left is the pursuit of comfort, convenience and pleasure.
Dreams don’t come out of nowhere. They are formed in community.
The dreams of Martin Luther King Jr took root in the segregated black community of the South. They were the dreams of that community.
He was the right person at the right time with the gifts to articulate those dreams. He became the representative and articulator of those dreams.
Dreams are formed in community, and dreams bring the community together.
With no dreams, there’s no community. With no community, there are no dreams.
This is where we find ourselves today. There is no community. Everyone is out there doing their own thing. You do you.
We have more comfort and convenience than ever, but ever less solidarity. Our comfort and convenience has isolated us from one another, as we each prioritize and pursue our own comfort and convenience.
This is not a good way to live.
We need dreams that arise from the community. We need community built around inspiring dreams.
Visions Given in Community
After Jesus ascended into heaven, the followers of Jesus were alone. They were uncertain of what lay ahead.
They weren’t sure what would happen to Jesus’ dreams for the kingdom of God.
But they didn’t disband and go their own ways. They remained together. They waited and prayed.
On the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit came upon them. They began speaking in tongues.
Something new was happening. They discovered new dreams and visions.
This is how Peter describes it:
In the last days it will be, God declares,
that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh,
and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
and your young men shall see visions,
and your old men shall dream dreams. (Acts 2:17)
He was quoting the prophet Joel.
When the Spirit was poured upon them, they received a new vision to be witnesses of God’s grace in Jesus Christ. These dreams became their power and driving force.
The world may not be a place that generates dreams. But when we come together in faith and stay together in worship and prayer, the Spirit gives us new dreams and visions.
Yesterday we had a new members’ lunch. We heard stories from each person about how they came to our church.
It was amazing to hear all these stories. People from different places and walks of life. People who otherwise would have never met each other. God brought them here.
Rev. Kim reflected that our identity as a church is not static. It is a dynamic identity.
As new people come, the identity of the church shifts and changes. New visions form.
There is no new member and old member, we are all members in this body of Christ. We could feel the presence of the Spirit giving us new dreams.
The world may kill our dreams, but we are not of this world.
We live life in the Spirit of God. When we gather in the Spirit, God gives us new dreams.
With Strength from The Church
When we are one in Spirit, the world cannot kill our dreams. It may damage and attack them, but new dreams rise again.
Slavery was a cruel institution. It dehumanized black people and made them property.
The one thing they did allow them to have was church. In black churches, they came together to pray, sing and hear the word of good news.
Churches were their mountaintop where they could see and experience the glory of the Lord.
Those experiences gave them dreams for a better future. They gave them not only strength to endure, but joy through the pain.
Toward the end of Martin Luther King Jr’s life, the challenges became almost unbearable.
But he was raised by the community of faith in the black church. The strength of that community kept his dream alive.
This is what he said the night before he was killed:
Well, I don’t know what will happen now. We’ve got some difficult days ahead. But it really doesn’t matter with me now, because I’ve been to the mountaintop.
And I don’t mind.
Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I’m not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will. And He’s allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I’ve looked over. And I’ve seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land!
And so I’m happy, tonight.
I’m not worried about anything.
I’m not fearing any man!
Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord!!
The Church is where we gather to experience the glory of the Lord.
The Church is not an institution. The Church is an incubator of God’s dreams for the world. The Church is the community formed around these dreams.
When we gather faithfully in worship, prayer and fellowship, the Church is a foretaste of the eternal kingdom to come while we’re here on earth.
Churches are struggling. So many people have left faith and the church.
But I still believe in God’s church. I still believe in God’s dreams for this world.
I still believe that God has the power to lift us out of our hopeless situation and give us new dreams and visions.
I pray that your heart may be revived with new visions for your life. I pray that this church may be a place where you experience grace, transcendence, and new dreams given to us by the Spirit.
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