Dreaming

Last Sunday was Transfiguration Sunday, the day that the scripture reading is about Jesus transfigured on the mountain top. Luke gives this story a special "spin" by mentioning that the disciples were snoozing as Jesus was transfigured. Was their vision of him a dream? If you choose to read this sermon, you might be reminded of times in your experience that a dream influenced the rest of your life.

There is a place somewhere between waking and sleeping where our dreams seem to be very real. It’s that time when we are just surfacing from our sleep, but when we are not yet fully awake. During that time, our dreams can be more real than the reality we experience after we have shaken the clouds away from our heads and rubbed the mist out of our eyes.

Those dreams can have a profound effect on our lives. Maybe that’s because they are free from the usual limits of reality. In our dreams, we can envision the world as it might be instead of only seeing the world as it is. Our dreams can fill us with visions of beauty that inspire us for the rest of our lives. Martin Luther King, Jr. talked about a dream like that when he said, “I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood. I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a desert state, sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.” Dreams like that can change our lives.

The disciples experienced something like that when they accompanied Jesus to the mountain top in this story from Luke (9:28-36). As Jesus was praying, his clothes became as bright as lightning, and his face glowed with the very glory of God. Moses and Elijah, those two Old Testament patriarchs, even appeared to talk with him. Jesus didn’t look like a typical human being; he looked like the Son of God himself. And the disciples saw all of it! They saw Jesus’ glory; and they saw Moses and Elijah with him. But they weren’t sure that it was real. The disciples had dozed off as Jesus had been praying; and they saw him in all his glory just as they were waking up. Was it real or was it a dream? They weren’t really sure.

What they were sure of as they gazed on Jesus in his glory is that they wanted to stay on that mountain. They were tired of walking the long, dusty roads of Galilee. They were tired of being stopped by lepers and paralytics who wanted to be healed. They were tired of being accused of being sinners by the Pharisees. They wanted Jesus to get some glory for being the Messiah; and there on that mountain, he certainly had it! Why did they ever need to leave? Couldn’t they just stay? They were like the character Caliban in Shakespeare’s play The Tempest. Caliban lives on an island where the drama takes place; and at one point in the play, he describes his experiences there. “This island is full of noises,” he says, “strange sounds and sweet melodies that make you feel good and don’t hurt anyone. Sometimes I hear a thousand twanging instruments hum at my ears… I dream of clouds opening up and dropping such riches on me that when I wake up, I cry because I want to dream again.” Dreaming can be a comforting, uplifting experience. So let’s just stay here, Peter suggests. “Master,” he said, “it is good for us to be here. Let us put up three shelters – one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” Peter wanted to make the vision of Jesus’ glory permanent. He was ready to build a church up on that mountain so that they never had to leave.

But that wasn’t what Jesus had in mind. Jesus knew that we can’t stay inside a dream forever. Dreams can comfort us… reassure us… even inspire us… but they don’t last forever. Our dreams on the mountain have to give way to life in the valley. The next thing the disciples knew, the voice of God was speaking to them out of a cloud – a cloud that appeared out of nowhere and surrounded the disciples like a fog. “This is my Son, whom I have chosen,” they heard. “Listen to him.” And when the cloud disappeared, their vision was gone. Jesus was alone, looking the way he had always looked. No Moses. No Elijah. No shining face or bright clothing. Jesus again looked as ordinary as he did every other day. The disciples had no doubt that they were fully awake once again.

Luke tells us that they didn’t tell anybody about their vision; at least, not for a long time. They had to process it a little bit first. They had to come to grips with some questions that they had. Was Jesus’ glory real – or had they imagined the whole thing? If Jesus really was the glorious Son of God, why did he keep talking about taking up a cross? And why did they have to leave the mountain? Shouldn’t glory like that be worshipped apart from daily life? Those aren’t easy questions – not for Jesus’ disciples, and not for us. It takes a long time to understand that Jesus’ glory isn’t the glory of privilege, but the glory of sacrificial love. It is hard to accept that God came to us not as a conquering hero, but as a sacrificial lamb. And it takes time to realize that God’s glory mostly shows itself not on a mountaintop, but in the middle of our messy, imperfect, twisted-up world. The dreams that we dream on the mountain aren’t meant to keep us there, but to sustain us when we go back to the valley to serve others in Jesus’ name.

Sometimes we don’t understand those things any better than the disciples did. And the mountain top is a very comfortable place to be. We like it when we’re up there. We can have magnificent dreams of glory and envision a world without any violence or pain or suffering. We can imagine the banquet that God will one day spread out for us; imagine the lion and the lamb playing together; even see the little child taking care of everything. But if we stay on the mountain top, those dreams will stay just what they are – dreams. If our dreams are ever to turn into reality, we have to come back down the mountain into the valley with Jesus. We have to do what God told the disciples to do and listen to Jesus. We have to be ready to take up our cross and follow him. We have to be ready to serve in his name.

But when we do those things – when we live lives of love and service and sacrifice – then Jesus’ glory will truly shine. It will shine in our lives, as we are transformed, too, into people who are truly his disciples. We might even be the dreamers who inspire other dreamers!

And wouldn’t that be a dream come true?