June 10th, 2018 Beautiful Dreamer Mark 3: 20-35

“What do you want to be when you grow up?” That’s a question I often heard when I was young. My friend Holly wanted to be a ballet dancer from the time she was 5 years old. She had watched the Swan Lake ballet on the brand new TV her family had just purchased and was immediately captivated. She asked her mother for ballerina wallpaper on her bedroom wall. Every night she dreamed of being a dancer. She eventually borrowed an introductory book on ballet from the library. And practiced the poses in her room every day. Through all the years that Holly wanted to be a ballet dancer her mother told her that they did not have the money for lessons, and besides her legs were too big. Everyone knew that ballet dancers have long, slender legs. It was years later when Holly recounted this to me. She had long ago given up her childhood dreams and made a sensible career choice. Her mother approved. erShe was successful and comfortable with her life, but I couldn’t help noticing how wistful she became when she spoke of her childhood dream.

Many of us have dreams we eventually realize are just not sensible and I am wondering if that was part of the problem Jesus ran into when he clashed with the scribes in today’s gospel lesson. Was his dream just too big for them? The story picks up as crowds are gathering once more around the healer, Jesus. They have come from far and wide. The people are eager to hear everything he has to say. He has healed many people, expelled evil spirits and called a close group of followers to be his disciples. But along the way he has gained enemies. He has broken some of the laws of his faith. He has healed on the Sabbath day, when no work is permitted. His disciples do not respect the laws regarding fasting. He tells the sick that their sins are forgiven – and who is he to be saying such things that only the synagogue officials can pronounce? But perhaps the thing that makes the religious leaders the most uneasy is that Jesus has a vision, a dream. He preaches the coming of God’s kingdom and who knows what that might mean! Is he preaching insurrection against Roman rule? Is he challenging the very laws that govern the Jewish people’s faith, the laws that had kept them together as a people, through the good times and the bad? If we are to judge by Jesus’ behaviour, this Kingdom of God would seem to flaunt all the hard work the religious authorities put into keeping the people faithful to God. Chaos would surely ensue if the laws are abandoned. Rumours start spreading that maybe Jesus is not from God. Maybe Jesus is from the devil. Jesus’ family starts to worry. They come to the gathering hoping to bring him away, maybe get him to come to his senses and stop getting the scribes and the Pharisees irate. But Jesus has other plans. Jesus puts forward a vision, a dream he calls the Kingdom of God. It’s a vision of radical hospitality and radical love.

The religious authorities of the day are not the only ones to object. We also would have trouble signing up for this vision. And those of us who are parents would surely be worried if our children threw all caution to the wind, left off their studies and began devoting themselves to feeding the hungry, providing medical care for the sick and befriending the imprisoned, here at home and in the all the troubled spots in our world. We would worry that they might get hurt, that they might be captured and tortured. We would worry that they would never have well-paying jobs, and would not be building up a nest egg for retirement. We would think that they were being impractical and unrealistic.

Jesus was a dreamer, with a big, big dream. It was impractical and really not reasonable. Yet somehow it caught on. It caught on because his followers actually started practicing his teachings. Love God, love your neighbour. Be generous. Go the extra mile. Think of others first. In the process they discovered that we humans really do feel good when we make others happy. That’s the good news. Love God, love your neighbour is not just good news for others. Its good news for ourselves. Its risky business. It’s a hard business. We may get hurt. We may get taken advantage of. Our parents would probably advise against it. That’s why we must not always listen to our parents.

Do you remember my story about Holly who wanted to be a ballet dancer? Many years after Holly had given up on her dream of becoming a dancer, her mother actually met one. She had, as you might imagine, big, strong, athletic, muscular legs. Maybe Holly could have been a dancer. We will never know. But she also told me that her mother had had a dream once too. It was to become a mathematician, but her parents told her they didn’t have enough money for her to pursue her dream. The difference between unrealistic dreams and wonderful new visions can sometimes be hard to distinguish. The difference between God’s work and the work of the devil is also sometimes hard to discern. With all the rules we use to govern our lives, with all the advice we get from well-meaning friends and loving parents, the best we can do is to follow Jesus: love one another, encourage one another and trust that God will guide us. May it be so. Amen.