KILLING THE DREAMERS

A Sermon by Bill McDonald from Genesis 37:1-28

August 10, 2008

Genesis 37

¹Jacob settled in the land where his father had lived as an alien, the land of Canaan. ²This is the story of the family of Jacob.

Joseph, being seventeen years old, was shepherding the flock with his brothers; he was a helper to the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, his father’s wives; and Joseph brought a bad report of them to their father. ³Now Israel loved Joseph more than any other of his children, because he was the son of his old age; and he had made him a long robe with sleeves. ⁴But when his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him, and could not speak peaceably to him.

⁵Once Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him even more. ⁶He said to them, “Listen to this dream that I dreamed. ⁷There we were, binding sheaves in the field. Suddenly my sheaf rose and stood upright; then your sheaves gathered around it, and bowed down to my sheaf.” ⁸His brothers said to him, “Are you indeed to reign over us? Are you indeed to have dominion over us?” So they hated him even more because of his dreams and his words.

⁹He had another dream, and told it to his brothers, saying, “Look, I have had another dream: the sun, the moon, and eleven stars were bowing down to me.” ¹⁰But when he told it to his father and to his brothers, his father rebuked him, and said to him, “What kind of dream is this that you have had? Shall we indeed come, I and your mother and your brothers, and bow to the ground before you?” ¹¹So his brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the matter in mind.

¹²Now his brothers went to pasture their father’s flock near Shechem. ¹³And Israel said to Joseph, “Are not your brothers pasturing the flock at Shechem? Come, I will send you to them.” He answered, “Here I am.” ¹⁴So he said to him, “Go now, see if it is well with your brothers and with the flock; and bring word back to me.” So he sent him from the valley of Hebron.

He came to Shechem, ¹⁵and a man found him wandering in the fields; the man asked him, “What are you seeking?” ¹⁶“I am seeking my brothers,” he said; “tell me, please, where they are pasturing the flock.” ¹⁷The man said, “They have gone away, for I heard them say, ‘Let us go to Dothan.’” So Joseph went after his brothers, and found them at Dothan. ¹⁸They saw him from a distance, and before he came near to them, they conspired to kill him. ¹⁹They said to one another, “Here comes this dreamer. ²⁰Come now, let us kill him and throw him into one of the pits; then we shall say that a wild animal has devoured him, and we shall see what will become of his dreams.” ²¹But when Reuben heard it, he delivered him out of their hands, saying, “Let us not take his life.” ²²Reuben said to them, “Shed no blood; throw him into this pit here in the wilderness, but lay no hand on him”—that he might rescue him out of their hand and restore him to his father. ²³So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe, the long robe with sleeves that he wore; ²⁴and they took him and threw him into a pit. The pit was empty; there was no water in it.

²⁵Then they sat down to eat; and looking up they saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead, with their camels carrying gum, balm, and resin, on their way to carry it down to Egypt. ²⁶Then Judah said to his brothers, “What profit is it if we kill our brother and conceal his blood? ²⁷Come, let us sell him to the Ishmaelites, and not lay our hands on him, for he is our brother, our own flesh.” And his brothers agreed. ²⁸When some Midianite traders passed by, they drew Joseph up, lifting him out of the pit, and sold him to the Ishmaelites for twenty pieces of silver. And they took Joseph to Egypt.

Let me read a little more scripture to you:

“When I want you in my arms
When I want you and all your charms
Whenever I want you, all I have to do is
Drea-ea-ea-ea-eam, dream, dream, dream

When I feel blue in the night
And I need you to hold me tight
Whenever I want you, all I have to do is
Drea-ea-ea-ea-eam

I can make you mine, taste your lips of wine
Anytime night or day
Only trouble is, gee whiz
I'm dreamin' my life away”

(Dream, Dream, Dream by Don and Phil Everly)

So…it’s a bad thing to be a dreamer. But it’s a good thing to be a dreamer. Our English language is strange in that you can use the exact opposite words to mean the same thing. A friend of mine, Charlie Taylor, just came out with a CD that has this great line in it: “I got it good, I got it bad for you.” So which is it—good or bad? I got it good for you…I got it bad for you—means the same thing. A similar problem in English comes from the fact that one word can have both good and bad connotations.

“That guy? He’s never going to amount to much. He’s just a dreamer.”

“That gal? She’s something special. She doesn’t just accept the status quo; she’s a dreamer.”

Nine of Joseph’s brothers used the word “dreamer” negatively: Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebulon, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, plus brothers Don and Phil who later wrote that rock ‘n roll song. When they saw their brother Joseph, they said, “Here comes this dreamer. Come now, let us kill him and throw him into one of the pits…and we shall see what will become of his dreams.”

That’s how we treat dreamers, isn’t it? With disdain and suspicion, with hostility and slander. After all, we want our views to remain in authority. We don’t want some dreamer coming in and usurping our place in society, our popularity, our standing. That was why Galileo, the father of modern science, spent the last years of his life under house arrest by the forces of the Inquisition. The Church taught that the earth was the center of the universe and all heavenly objects revolved around our planet. Conversely, Galileo taught that the earth revolved around the sun. “Heresy! Arrest him!” Jesus taught that love is more important than law. “What a dreamer! Let’s kill him and throw him into a tomb.” Ghandi taught that the whole world could choose to live in peace. “Delirious dreamer! Assassinate him!” Martin Luther King Jr. dreamed of a time when “one day, right there in Alabama, little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls and walk together as sisters and brothers. I have a dream today.” And into the pit we threw him. We kill the dreamers not just with bullets and crosses but with words, with resistance, with slander, with a deluge of negativity, forcing them into the pit. Dreamers are noisome nuisances, terrifying troublemakers.

But what if, instead of striking them down, what if we listened to them? Joseph had dreamed of binding sheaves in the field with his 11 brothers and his sheaf rose up and theirs bowed down to him. What? One of the youngest more powerful than all the rest? To the pits with him! Joseph had dreamed that the sun and moon and 11 stars bowed down to him. And his father rebuked him, “You think your mother and I and all your brothers will bow down to you? Not likely!” But Joseph wasn’t dreaming of glory for himself, he was dreaming of rescue for his family. If you know the rest of the story, in Egypt Joseph rose to great prominence because he could interpret dreams. Pharoah’s troubling dream, interpreted by Joseph, predicted seven years of plenty then seven years of famine. Joseph administered a nationwide grain storage program that saved Egypt from a great famine that attacked the whole known world at that time. And his brothers, hungry and helpless, came from the land of Canaan and received grain from the one they had cast into a pit as a worthless dreamer. They bowed before Joseph and they and their families were saved from starvation. His dreams had shown them the way to survive the famine. It’s a good thing they didn’t kill him or they would have all starved. Can we listen to the dreamers today? What will we be missing if we toss them into a pit? They may have a path into a better tomorrow.

And not only listen to them, but be a dreamer yourself! George Bernard Shaw wrote a motto that Bobby Kennedy used in his run for the presidency before he too was assassinated: “You look at things as they are and ask ‘Why?’ I look at things as they never were and ask ‘Why not?’” Up until his last years Galileo taught and discovered and dreamed and our entire system of scientific fact is based today on his conclusions. Ghandi is still a spiritual guide to peace-loving people decades after his death. I dare say we have all been drawn here today because of the love of Jesus. And thanks to a black preacher from Atlanta, a civil rights revolution has swept our country in the last 40 years. Though we are hesitant to admit how far we have come for fear that we will stop there, we have made great strides. Let’s keep dreaming; we have some distance yet to go. A couple of months ago I listened to a local radio talk show and the topic was, “Is Kentucky a racist state?” After several good, tough questions from callers, the host fielded a call from a man who asked, “Well, what’s wrong with being a racist state?” The host was so floored that she struggled to find a starting place to answer his question. We also ought to be shocked; we ought to formulate an answer; we ought to keep dreaming.

In Louisiana I pastored a church with a Minister Emeritus in the congregation. We asked him to keynote an Elders’ Retreat and he spoke eloquently about the need for a vision for every church, a dream of where we want to be, what we want to achieve. Then he turned from his notes, locked his eyes upon one elder and then the next all the way around the room and he asked the question that left us all as silent as that radio host. He asked, “What is your vision? You do have a vision, don’t you?”

What is your vision for Crestwood? Where do you want this church to be in ten years or twenty or fifty? To what do you want us to give our time and energy and resources? Where do you feel that God is calling us? You do have a vision, don’t you? If not, it’s time to start dreaming. Let’s get beyond the routine, out past the mechanics of the institution, out into that hazy, abstract area of divine calling and total commitment. Let’s dream of a church that really does touch lives from our doorstep to the ends of the earth. Let’s define ourselves not as the Everly Brothers might as “dreaming our lives away,” but as Joseph might as visionaries seeing the beckoning hand of God and following that lead.

Joseph’s brothers said, “Here comes this dreamer. Come now, let us kill him and throw him into one of the pits…and we shall see what will become of his dreams.” To their great benefit, they did see what became of his dreams. Now let’s see what becomes of ours.