Sermon of November 15, 1998

Transcription

1 Sermon of November 15, 1998 Rev. Mark Trotter First United Methodist Church of San Diego (619) Fax (619) Isaiah 65:17-25 Acts 2:1-21 "CAN T HELP DREAMING" You remember the story of Don Quixote, Cervantes classic novel about an old man who decides to become a knight, and live the life of chivalry. Cervantes wrote that book in the 17th century, long after all the knights were dead and the age of chivalry forgotten. It was read as a satire, and has remained a popular story for over two hundred and seventy-five years. Don Quixote is a gentleman with a great deal of leisure on his hands. He sits around the hacienda all day, reading about knights and romantic tales about the Middle Ages, and the time of chivalry and gallantry. He decides, since he has nothing else to do, that he will become a knight himself. The only problem is, the world has changed. Now his quest for honor and valor meets resistance and ridicule, ending in a series of mishaps, and even schemes devised by people to embarrass and humiliate him. 1/7

2 Because of the novel Don Quixote, we have that word in the English language, "quixotic," which means naive and unusually idealistic, out of touch with the real world. It is not a compliment to call somebody "quixotic," it means you are out of touch, irrelevant, eccentric, and probably even a little bit crazy. But let me suggest another way of looking at Don Quixote. This is from the Spanish philosopher, Miguel de Unamuno. He suggests that Don Quixote represented the person of faith in the modern world. The Middle Ages was not only the time of knights, it was also called the "Age of Faith." By the time of Cervantes, in the 17th century, that age was gone and a new world was emerging, called the "modern world," the world of science, determined by principles of reason. In fact at almost the same time as Cervantes published his novel, which would have been 1605, and the second edition in 1615, Galileo was looking through his telescope, and discovering that what Copernicus said was right, the earth is not the center of the universe, but rotates around the sun. That is when you can mark the end of the Age of Faith, the end of culture dominated by religion. From that point on in history, to be a Christian, a person of faith, in the minds of many people, is to be like Don Quixote, looked upon as ridiculous, an anachronism, dwelling in a world that no longer exists, who believes irrational things, even absurd things, with dreams that can never be fulfilled, hopelessly naive. Ted Turner, the multibillionaire, some years ago made a statement for which he became notorious. He said he disliked Christianity because it was a religion of losers. I am tempted to point that out to Mr. Turner, who owns the Atlanta Braves, and who lost the National League Championship to a team that bears the name of Christian missionaries. But apart from that irony, he is right. Christianity is based on an impossible dream, a vision of what this world should be, a world when all people will live together in peace, a world when every person born will find the fulfillment of their life that God intended for them, a vision where men and women will live for the highest there is. That s the dream. Unamuno, who was a devout Catholic, compared Don Quixote to the saints of the Church, who held to the dream that comes to us from the prophets. He said what characterized the saints is, "this intolerable disparity between the hugeness of their desire and the smallness of reality." What a phrase, "this intolerable disparity between the hugeness of their desire and the smallness of reality." To live with a huge desire, an impossible dream, in a finite, limited and sinful world, means that you are going to experience defeat, many times. You may even be labeled as a "loser," because you refuse to compromise, you refuse to be realistic, you refuse to change your dream, or to discard it in order to settle for less in this world. It is especially difficult in a time when success is defined as adapting your dreams and ideals to the smallness of the world. Quixote wouldn t do that. The saints wouldn t do that. Our Lord wouldn t do that. Our Lord was killed because he would not compromise his dream, the dream of the Kingdom of God. He taught us, "What does it profit you to gain the whole world and lose your soul." Which I take to mean, the essence of us, that which makes us truly human, what we call the soul, is that which 2/7

3 leads us to dreams and visions, and pulls us on to something that is greater than ourself. The fulfillment of life, Jesus said, is living for something that is greater than anything you can find on this earth. The impossible dream. We have two texts for this morning. First I want you to look at the passage from Acts, which was read to you this morning. It is the first Christian sermon ever preached, the charter sermon, you could say, for the Church. It was at Pentecost, and Peter is explaining what has happened to the disciples. He explains their behavior by quoting the prophet Joel: "Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams." The reason, he says, that these people are so enlivened, the reason why they behave as if they have received some extravagant gift, or received some unbelievable news, is because they are now inspired by a vision. They have received a dream of the way the world will be. The resurrection of Christ renewed the visions of the Old Testament prophets, and led the Christians to believe that it is possible now. There can be a new heaven and a new earth because of Christ s resurrection. From that point on, from Pentecost on, the mission of the Church is to give young people a vision of what this world can be, and of who they can be, and to keep old people dreaming, not let them get discouraged about the dream. Do you know what the reaction of the world was to the first Christians? They said, "What has come over them?" "Are not these Galileans?" That is what the crowd said when they saw the disciples. They asked that because they were not acting like Galileans. Galileans were labeled as country bumpkins, or fishermen, which was worse. These people don t seem to know their place. Here they are in Jerusalem, this cosmopolitan city. There are people from all over the world in Jerusalem, a sophisticated city, and here are the Galileans, holding their own. In fact, they are doing better than that. They are speaking eloquently. They have caught people s attention. People are listening to them. I imagine that they retained their accent, and their inadequate grammar. That is why they were recognized. But now people are listening to them. "Why is it?" they ask Peter. Why can they speak with such power? The answer is, they have a vision of who we can be, and of what the world can be. They have been transformed by a vision. Immediately the revolution began. The revolution was that people no longer kept their place. People no longer stayed in the pigeon holes that the world placed them in. They refused to conform the hugeness of their vision to the smallness of the world. I love that story about Ruth Gordon, the actress. She was discouraged from going into acting from the time she was a child. Her parents told her she would never make it. Her teachers told her that. She went to acting school. Her coaches in acting school told her that she would never make it. She was too short, she was not attractive at all, and her acting skills were not that great. You ll never make it. Well she made it. She became an international star. She said her motto was, "Never face the facts unless you are ready to forget them." She would not reduce the hugeness of her desire to the smallness of the facts. 3/7

4 The Christians were the same way. They kept on going. They never gave up. People said, you are naive. You are too idealistic. This is just a dream, it will never happen. But they kept on going because their lives had a goal now that was greater than this world, and they committed themselves to embark on a pilgrimage toward it. That is why Paul said to the Philippians, "I am not yet what I am going to be. But I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own." There is a phrase now, "inventing yourself." In fact, there is also the phrase, "reinventing yourself," which is used primarily for politicians, I notice. Which reminds me of the story of the politician who concluded his speech by saying, "These are the principles upon which I stand. And if you don t like these, I have some others." It s true, we can invent ourselves. We can even reinvent ourselves. Which simply means that we can be the people that we choose to be. We pattern ourselves after images that are presented to us in the culture. That is what made Don Quixote the ridicule of the people in his time, because the image he chose to be, the image of a knight, the image of courage and gallantry, was no longer popular. He was the defender of noble causes. Nobody was doing that anymore. Christopher Lasch, in his critical study of our time, called The Culture of Narcissism, says that the images out of which Americans invent themselves are gotten through advertising. Those are the images that are presented to us in the mass media. In the Age of Faith it was the image of saints that instructed people who they were supposed to be. We have the image presented before us of models, and of movie stars, and television personalities. We seek to be who advertising tells us to be. Maybe that is what makes the Christian look like a loser to Ted Turner, and to others, because we seek to be different. We seek something higher. As it is put in the First Letter of John, "It has not yet appeared what we shall be, but we know that when he appears we shall be like him." To be a Christian means we pattern our life after Christ. We are to be like him. He said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life." He is the life that we are supposed to emulate. Flannery O Connor wrote, paraphrasing Jesus s statement, "You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free," said, "You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you odd." Like Don Quixote. But those who have seen the vision know what life is all about now. Life is not about adapting to this world. Life is about striving for a better world. It is the seeking that makes it all worthwhile. In The Man From La Mancha, the Broadway musical that was adapted from the novel, Don Quixote, Don Quixote is accused of being mad because of his vision and the quest he goes on that nobody else can see. But he can see. He replies this way. "Madness is to see life as it is, not as it is supposed to be." Which brings us to the Old Testament text for this morning, the beautiful passage from the 65th chapter of Isaiah, one of those huge visions that will not conform to the smallness of this world. For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; and the former things shall not be remembered...nor shall there be weeping and the cry of distress. No more 4/7

5 shall there be in it an infant that lives but a few days, or an old man who does not fill out his days...they shall not build and another inhabit [that refers to occupation armies]...they shall not labor in vain [that refers to losing everything that you have worked for in this life], or bear children for calamity [every generation in this century has borne children to fight wars]. That scene was portrayed by Isaiah in several versions. It is called the "Peaceable Kingdom." In the early years of this republic, the painters would paint scenes out of these images of Isaiah. They called them the "Peaceable Kingdom." Edward Hicks, the folk painter, painted them. They were beautiful paintings. You can see in the background the Indians welcoming the Pilgrims to these shores. In the foreground is the menagerie of animals. Staring out of the picture you can see the wildness in their eyes. They are standing there uncomfortably in this group photo, as if they aren t sure what you do in a peaceable kingdom. "Where the wolf and the lamb shall feed together, the lion shall eat straw like the ox...and they shall not hurt or destroy on my holy mountain." It just so happens that the last time I preached from this text from Isaiah was the week that the Gulf War broke out. And today, we are sitting here while leaders decide again what s going to happen in Iraq. Once again members of this church, or their loved ones, are in the Middle East, prepared for the worst. And that s their job. But the Church also has a mission. Our mission is hold up the image of peace, and to pray for it, and to work for it. At times like this it seems almost quixotic to do so, because the powers of the world, you and I know, are going to have their way. But if we are ever going to be delivered from violence as a way of dealing with one another, personally or nations dealing with one another, even, it will be because some people refuse to adapt the hugeness of their desire to the smallness of this world. That is what it means to be the Church. Your sons and daughters shall prophesy. Your young men shall see visions. Your old folks shall keep on dreaming, clear to the end. If there is going to be a new way of dealing with one another in this world, then someone, some community, will have to keep the vision of peace alive, and pass it on to the children, and to the children s children. "We are not yet what we are going to be. But we press on to make it our own, because Christ Jesus has made us his own." In that sermon back in 1991, I shared with you a contemporary version of the vision of Isaiah, the dream of a Peaceable Kingdom. It was from Kurt Vonnegut s novel, Slaughterhouse Five, a novel based on his reflection on the Dresden bombings at the end of the II World War. Billy Pilgrim is the hero of the novel. He has experienced the horror of that fire bombing. It shattered his life. One night, later, he watches a World War II movie run backwards. Do you remember how they used to do that with 16mm projectors? They would get to the end of the spool, then put it on rewind. You could watch the movie backwards. He watched this war movie backwards. It provided a vision of the way things should be. It is a vision, I tell you, that is worthy of Isaiah. Listen to it. Every hurtful blow, every destructive act 5/7

6 becomes a healing. The bombers took off backwards from England, full of holes, shattered, full of wounded, bleeding men. They flew over Germany, where they met German fighting planes that sucked the bullets out of the American planes and out of the crew. The wounded were healed, and the planes were restored instantly. The planes that had been shot down and were destroyed on the ground were all of a sudden reassembled and lifted back into the formation to join their buddies. As the planes ascended, the flames that had devoured them were extinguished. Then the planes flew over German cities that were consumed by fire. The bombers now whole, and the crew now healed. They sucked up the bombs from the ground and extinguished the flames that were devastating the cities. The bombs came up through the bays in the bottom of the planes, and the crews took them and placed them on the racks. The planes continued to fly backward to England. When they landed, the bombs were unloaded and sent by rail to factories where women took them apart and reduced the parts to minerals. The minerals were shipped to the far corners of this world, where men put them back into the ground and covered them up where they would never, never, ever, hurt anyone again.1 It is a vision worthy of Isaiah. Simon Leys, commenting on the Don Quixote story, said, "The successful man adapts himself to the world. The loser persists in trying to adapt the world to his dream. Therefore all progress depends on the loser." 1 Thanks to Don Messer for this suggestion. Help us to be masters of ourselves, that we might be servants of others, through Christ our Lord. Amen. Click here to send your comments via to Rev. Mark Trotter. If you find these sermons of benefit, please let us know. Printed or audio tape copies of all sermons are available by subscription. Your is welcome. Click here to send to the church staff. Sermon page volunteer, Dave Watters 6/7

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