I’m told that every human dreams every night. We enter a state of deep sleep—REM sleep—for our most vivid dreams, something that happens several times each and every night. These dreams usually last from five to twenty minutes.
However, most dreams are not remembered in the morning.
Sometimes, we wake up with a faint wisp of a memory of our dreams. However, recalling the details is like trying to grab on to a cloud; as soon as you make the effort, it dissipates. By the time you open your eyes, place your feet on the floor, stand and scratch your backside as you stumble toward the bathroom, it’s gone.
But then there are those few dreams that are so vivid, so real, that they startle you awake, and stick with you for the rest of the day. I still remember one dream I had like that when I was just a child: my family was standing in a parking lot, at night, when I started floating into the air, hovering about fifteen feet over the ground. It wasn’t frightening to me, but it was fascinating.
Well, I had another dream like that, just last month. I’m not sure I really want to tell you about it, because—well, I don’t know about you, but I’m always a bit skeptical in regards to people who seem to read too much into their dreams. But what the heck, it’s Easter; might as well pull out all the stops.
Like the dream I had when I was a child, this more recent dream was not frightening, at least not in a nightmare sort of way, even though I did wake from this dream early in the morning on Friday, the 13th of March. It was 5:00 a.m. when I awoke, an hour before I had intended to wake up, but I could not fall back asleep. I could not stop thinking about the dream I’d had. I didn’t really want to stop thinking about it. It was just that fascinating. Fortunately my plans for that morning included a lengthy bus ride, so I had plenty of time to ponder the significance of my dream—or at least, to invent some significance for it.
Scientists don’t really understand why we dream, and I really don’t know why I dreamt what I dreamt. My best guess is that it involves a number of different things that had been a part of my life in the weeks prior to the dream. Some books I’d been reading, both fictional as well as books on faith and the church, I think might have played a role. Also, the pastor’s class I’ve been teaching; and the movie Watchmen which I saw; and the hysteria over the Twilight movie and series of books which my wife is in to so much it’s scary. All this, and a couple of other things as well, I think, influenced my dream.
In my dream, I was standing in a darkened garage which had the door open. The garage was very much like the one I remember that was at my grandparents’ house, although if that has any significance to anything, I have no idea what.
All of a sudden, while I was standing there, something strange started happening to my body, something that I couldn’t explain. I dropped to the ground, laying flat on the cement. Whatever was happening to me was painless, but it was so dramatic and so complete that it was sapping all of my energy. I could not move. I was, for the moment, paralyzed.
Then I noticed some other people standing just outside the garage, in the sun. No, they weren’t glittering. They weren’t vampires or werewolves. They were humans; but I knew that whatever was happening to me had already happened to them. I was afraid of what was happening, mostly because I didn’t know exactly what was happening, and I didn’t understand it. However, the people standing in the sun let me know that everything would turn out all right.
I knew that whatever was happening would leave me permanently and irreversibly changed and transformed. As I lay there on that cold, dark floor, looking at those figures standing there in the sun, I knew that they were human just like me, but that they had been changed somehow—as I was being changed. What I was experiencing, they had already experienced; and as a result, they were a new kind of human. Superheroes, I thought at first; but then I realized that, no, that wasn’t quite right.
I decided that “new kind of human” would be the best description I could come up with; and I knew that I would soon be one, too, and that my life would never be the same.
I don’t claim that this dream was from God. As I said, I have a high level of skepticism when it comes to dreams. I’m much more comfortable thinking of it as the result of too much science fiction and fantasy, combined with my passion for the church and God’s people. I can’t help but worry that, in sharing this with you, you’ll think I’m even crazier than you might have thought before.
But even now, one month later, I can’t get this dream out of my head. Some dreams are like that. I think it’s destined to join the “floating over the parking lot” dream as one of the more memorable dreams of my life.
Maybe Lent, and its focus on the cross, and the tomb, also contributed to this dream. As a pastor, such things have been on my mind lately, and a darkened garage does bear some similarities to a cave—the cave where Jesus’ body was laid, perhaps…
What was it like, inside that cave, inside that tomb, between Good Friday and Easter morning? Barbara Brown Taylor has written that, whatever happened in there, it was between Jesus and God, and isn’t for us to know. But still, I can’t help but wonder: was Jesus even aware of what was going on, given that he was dead? If so, did he feel vulnerable, frightened, confused—the way I felt on the garage floor in my dream? I bet he did feel vulnerable, frightened, and confused on the cross, if not in the tomb.
But then came the resurrection, and a change, a transformation, so drastic that, at first, he was not even recognized. “Please, sir, if you have carried my Lord away, tell me where…” What had Jesus become? A superhero? No, not really. But a new kind of human, to be sure.
In my dream, I was not Jesus. Rather, I was—like those others standing outside in the sun—a follower of Jesus. But as the apostle Paul wrote in his letter to the Romans, “All who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into his death; and our old selves have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his” [Romans 6:3-5].
Likewise, to the Corinthians, Paul wrote that “if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; everything has changed; everything has become new!” [2 Corinthians 5:17].
I don’t know about you, but from what I can tell, becoming a Christian is in fact becoming something new and different. It involves a change; it involves transformation. It is Peter Parker being transformed into Spiderman. It is Jon Osterman being transformed into Dr. Manhattan. It is Bella Swan being transformed into a “vegetarian” vampire, or Jacob Black being transformed into a werewolf or shapeshifter or whatever it is that he becomes.
It is all this, and more, except that a Christian is still human—but a human who is living a new life, a life of abundance, a life that is everlasting: a new kind of human.
At the last meeting of our elders, we were discussing how difficult it is for many of us to understand the difference it is to be a follower of Jesus, since nearly all of us have been born and raised in the church, and don’t know what it’s like to not be a follower of Christ. For people like me who grew up in the church, it’s hard to understand just how dramatic the change, the transformation, is. It’s hard to grasp the magnitude of how totally different this new life is.
But it is a new life, in which the old has passed away, in which everything has become new.
And in this new life, we have a high calling, to work with God to bring about God’s kingdom on earth. You see, it’s not just about new life after we die. It’s about new life on earth, right now. There is another way to live, and it’s up to us to live that new life, and to show the world that it is possible to live that new life. Through Christ, we have been changed, to bring change.
In this new life, this life that has been changed and transformed, there is extravagant love for all. In the old life, people and groups are exclusive. There is discrimination, racism. People want to say who gets to be a part of the group and who does not. But in the new life, everyone is welcome: the beggar, the leper, the prostitute, the tax collector… and yes, even that person whose personality just drives you nuts. Everyone is welcome.
In the new life, there is justice. In the old life, some have more than they need, while others lack basic necessities. The rich live in luxury, while the poor die of starvation. In the new life, God’s resources are shared among all of God’s children. No one is extravagantly wealthy or poor; everyone has enough to live a happy, peaceful life.
In the new life, there is peace. In the old life, violent acts are carried out and angry, violent words are spoken. Nations, corporations, and individuals will bully others to ensure that they get their own way. In the new life, people make peace by honoring the presence of Jesus that is in every person. Words are always spoken with kindness. The root causes of conflict—unequal distribution of goods, or unfair policies, for example—are addressed openly and honestly, so that peace may prevail.
As you can see, this new life is radically different from much of what we see in this world. To live this new life, then, requires a radical transformation: a rebirth into a new kind of human, and a new kind of humanity.
The resurrection of Jesus shows us that new life is possible. As a community of people who have been baptized into Christ, we share in that new life. New life is ours, starting right now. Through Christ, we have been transformed. We have been changed, and to us has been given the task of changing and transforming the earth.
As people who have been transformed, we live this new life by following the way of Jesus. We know that the greed which causes many to use more than their share of resources does not lead to a life of happiness and blessing—for how can happiness and blessing come from actions which destroy life, which destroy the earth?
Happiness and blessing come from sharing and giving. We know that to be true. If you don’t know that, give it a try; you might be surprised.
We know that happiness and blessing don’t come from always insisting on our own way. Happiness and blessing come to those who live with love for all, who work to make peace among people and among nations.
We know that happiness and blessing don’t come from having a taste for fine food, but from hungering and thirsting for what is right and just in the world.
We know that happiness and blessing don’t come from seeing what the law allows us to get away with; happiness and blessing come from going beyond the law, doing more than what is required in selfless service to others.
This is a new life that we are living! A life that has been changed and transformed. A life that brings change and transformation and new life to others. This is what it means to be an Easter people. This is what it means to be people who believe in the resurrection. This is what it means to believe in the good news.
New life is possible. Change has come. Thanks be to God.
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