Good Shepherd 26/12/2004 (Boxing Day Family Service)

Hebrews 2.10-end, Matthew 2.13-end


Joseph had a dream. In it the angel told him to escape to Egypt to save his precious baby's life.
The Magi had a dream. In it the angel told them to go a different way home.

The Christmas story is full of people having dreams. What other dreams can you remember...? (Joseph - birth of Jesus foretold; Zechariah - birth of John foretold;)

It seems like God likes telling us things in dreams.
It seems like the best time to hear God speaking to us is when wešre asleep!

Sometimes of course we dream when wešre awake. We dream of better times ahead - of winning the lottery, of getting that job, of that ideal partner, of the care of our family. We are born to dream, itšs part of who we are.

"I have a dream!" said Martin Luther King, Jr., the black civil rights leader, many years ago, "I dream that someday the children of former slaves and of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table as one family, and live in a nation where they will be judged not by the color of their skins, but by the content of their characters."

To make that dream come true, Martin Luther King, Jr. got people organised in all sorts of protests and eventually the change he dreamed of did come. Even though he lost his life in the meantime all his efforts had been worthwhile.

Good King Wenceslas was a dreamer. He dreamed that by trudging through the snow to deliver gifts to the poor man, he would close the gap between them, put things right between them.

And Bob Geldof was a dreamer. Remember him? He dreamed that a bunch of lazy, self-obsessed musicians could start to put an end to the famine in Africa. Twenty years on, we know that his project Band Aid really has helped to feed the world.

What do you dream of?
For yourself?
For the world?

Remember this - God loves a dreamer. God is with us in our dreams.....


Let No One Steal Your Dreams

Let no one steal your dreams
Let no one tear apart
The burning of ambition
That fires the drive inside your heart

Let no one steal your dreams
Let no one tell you that you can't
Let no one hold you back
let no one tell you that you won't

Set your sights and keep them fixed
Set your sights on high
Let no one steal your dreams
Your only limit is the sky.

Let no one steal your dreams
Follow your heart
Follow your soul
For only when you follow them
Will you feel truly whole

Set your sights and keep them fixed
Set your sights on high
Let no one steal your dreams
Your only limit is the sky




Notes

The poem is by my friend, accomplished poet and performer Paul Cookson. I used the poem and the Martin Luther King story in a talk about Perseverence at the Blue Coat School, 12 March 2003