Preached at St. Peter’s United Church of Christ in Ferguson, Missouri on August 13, this sermon is the 2nd in a 3 part series on “Unexpected Grace.” The first in the series, “The Struggle is Real” can be heard by clicking HERE. This sermon on finding God and grace in unexpected and difficult places – in embracing God’s dream for Creation – includes reflection and response to the events in Charlottesville, Virginia on August 11-12, 2017.
“Haters Gonna Hate”
Genesis 37:1-4, 12-28
It all started with a dream. Joseph could not help that he had dreams. He could not help
what he dreamt. None of us can. Our dreams tend to reflect our subconscious – connecting people and circumstances, and emotions, sometimes in inexplicable ways.
Sometimes these dreams have a way of moving from our subconscious to our conscious self. The alarm clocks goes off or a loud noise shakes you from your nap – mid dream. A bit later in the day you wonder, “Was that real? Did it really happen or did I dream that?” I guess he did not have to SHARE the dream. He could have kept it to himself.
I am sure there are some who might try to shift responsibility from the brothers back to Joseph. “It’s not that the HAD the dream,” they might suggest, “it is that he had the audacity to SHARE it.” There is no denying that the teenaged Joseph did possess a certain smugness that comes from being coddled and spoiled. After all, his father loved him more than any of his other kids. But, I do not buy that shifting of responsibility.
The other 10 made their own conscious decision to kill him. When you make a decision to respond to something you do not like with such violence … you have crossed the pale – there is no massaging that kind of thing – you can’t “nuance” that, I don’t care how many tweets you send out. It is what it is.
And it started with a dream.
And dreams can be pretty scandalous. Older brothers bowing down, becoming subservient to the younger? No. That is offensive! It goes against the status quo and tradition. “We lord over him, not the other way around!”
But therein lies a problem. Dreams have a way of disturbing status quo and tradition, inverting history. Dreams have a way of disrupting, if not angering those in power.
It all starts with a dream.
54 years this month, a quarter of a million people lined the National Mall in Washington DC to hear Dr. King speak of his dream:
- “A dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.’”
- A dream that his 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.”
That dream caused no less scandal, no less turmoil, no less threat of violence than the dream of Joseph. Two days after MLK’s dream was shared, the FBI widened its investigation into Dr. King, calling him a “major enemy of the United States.” Less than 5 years later, Dr. King would lie dead on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel.
Today, dreams of equality and justice are seen no less a threat. Do not believe me? Ask your neighbor. Ask yourself. Ask the people of Charlottesville.
The bigotry and racism and hatred and violence perpetrated by a group of white-nationalist Nazis stems from their own ignorance and misguided fear. It is because others dared to dream of a place – a world, a country, a community, a society where all people are seen as valued and loved and cherished by God.
Those dreams are powerful. Those dreams are prophetic. Those dreams are threatening.
Abraham dared to dream that one day he should have many descendants. While fleeing from his brother, Jacob dreamed of a ladder reaching to heaven on which angels ascended and descended. In this dream Jacob received God’s promise that Abraham’s blessing would be carried on through him. Mary dared to dream she was with child. Another Joseph dreamed he would be a father. Both scandalous. The time shall come, it says in Acts, when the young shall have visions, and the old shall dream dreams
Joseph dared to dream. He was ridiculed and despised by his brothers; at first they plotted to kill him:
“Here comes the dreamer. Let’s kill him and throw him in one of these pits. We will say an animal devoured him.”
Murder then deception. All because of a dream.
Even his father dismissed him. Chalked it up to immature bravado, most likely. But Jacob never forgot the dream.
Neither did God.
And neither should we. We should not forget the dream, nor the dreamer. In fact, as persons of faith, we are called to embrace both dreamer and dream.
And those who don’t? Well, haters gonna hate.
And while they are hating, we should keep on dreaming. Why? Because as Walter Brueggemann reminds us, the dreams are where we find God. Throughout the story of Joseph, he is not the main character or catalyst. The dreams are. God is. God’s own dream for humanity is found right there, and in the midst of those dreams, in the midst of God’s presence, we find those moments of unexpected grace.
It is hard to find grace in a story about betrayal, death, and imprisonment. But it is there. Maybe it is in the voice of Reuben:
“Let’s not kill him.”
Maybe it is in the voice of Judah:
“What’s to be gained by killing him and concealing his blood?”
Maybe …
Just maybe …
The grace is just waiting to be revealed. Like the presence of a God who is always there but not always recognized.
It generally starts with a dream … a scandalous dream.
It is scandalous because God is scandalous.
It is scandalous, because grace is scandalous.
Dreams disrupt.
God disrupts.
Grace disrupts.
Dreams can be uncomfortable.
God can be uncomfortable.
Grace can be uncomfortable.
Dreams disrupt the status quo.
God disrupts the status quo.
Grace disrupts the status quo.
That in a nutshell is the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
That in a nutshell is the Kingdom of–
The Kin-Dom of
The Realm of
God.
Jesus dreamed, too. That the first shall be last and the last shall be first. That the lowly shall be exalted and the exalted shall be made low. That’s Jesus dream. The Realm of God. Where grace is found and where grace is abundant.
That’s why Joseph’s dream was so important. It shook the very foundation of understanding and expecting and living. It said, in the ways of God, things are going to be reversed. I do not bow down to you, you bow down to me.
Some people are not comfortable with that. In some people, that discomfort breeds ignorance.
And ignorance breeds bigotry.
Bigotry breeds hatred.
Hatred breeds violence.
That is what we saw in Charlottesville this weekend. It is what we have seen in other parts of our country. It is what we have seen right here.
It all began with a dream.
Not Joseph’s. Not MLK’s.
But God’s dream.
That humanity, created all of us in God’s image and likeness, would find shalom. Peace. Harmony. Justice. Seeing one another as equals.
I will never understand bigots and skinheads and Nazis, new or old. I will never understand the way of thinking that wrongfully suggests that in order for me to be equal to you, you must somehow become less than.
As they say, justice and equal rights are not like pie. This person receiving more now because they have been denied in the past – receiving now what they deserve as Children of God, does not mean less for me.
But if we are going to be faithful to the dreams of God, we must –
WE MUST –
WE MUST
Call out the sin of hatred and bigotry for exactly what it is. We must denounce it. We must condemn it. We must shine light into the darkness and evil that it is. It is not just evil deeds, but evil thoughts and feelings.
We MUST be willing and able to do so.
It is not going to be popular with some folk. But this journey is not about being popular or being liked. But it is going to be faithful. Faithful to God. Faithful to the call of Jesus. The same Jesus who said that some will despise you – some will hate you because you follow me. Because you are faithful.
As for those haters. Let them hate. That is what they do.
As for the rest of us, let US be faithful. Let us claim the identity, “Children of God” for ourselves and for all others.
And let’s be like Joseph. Let’s keep dreaming …
(Audio of this sermon can be found by clicking HERE.)
PastorPDC.com 