Beautiful Attitudes

Jeremiah 17:5-10; 1 Corinthians 15:12-20; Luke 6:17-26

Were you one of those kids who always got picked first? Or did you get picked last when gym class chose up teams for a baseball, soccer or dodge-ball game?

It was always good if your best bud was "captain" that day. Then, no matter how good or bad you played, at least you knew you'd get picked early. The disaster days were when your worst sport and your worst enemies came up on the same day. Gradually, all the kids around you would begin to funnel into one team line or the other. You stood there, more and more alone, the wrong kind of stand out -- an obvious reject.

Learning what it feels like to be an outcast is a painful lesson that stays with us all our lives. Having felt the sting of rejection as a helpless child shapes the way we relate to people as adults.

Wonder why some people close down -- avoiding any risk of rejection by never really opening up to others?

Wonder why some people buy their way into popularity and acceptance -- they flatter and cajole, offer foolish gifts and false compliments -- anything, just to make sure they will always find a welcome mat instead of a closed door?

It's fear -- not uptightness, not a genial, generous temperament -- that drives these frantic attempts to achieve acceptance.

Don't waste your breath, your time or your energy on dreaming about being loved and appreciated by everyone you meet. That is a false and puny dream, guaranteed to stunt your soul and suck out your spirit. Jesus offered this week's remarkable list of "blessings" and "woes" to warn against a Lilliputian shrinking of his disciples' outlooks and dreams and to demonstrate what kind of dreams Jesus' disciples should be dreaming.

-- The poor shouldn't just dream about finally getting a roof over their heads or shoes on their feet. The dream-come- true for the poor that Jesus offers is that they will receive nothing less than all the glory that is the kingdom of God. The kingdom is theirs.

-- The hungry shouldn't just dream about a big, juicy steak or a thick slice of pie. The dream-come-true for the hungry that Jesus offers is that they will be forever filled and satisfied at the sumptuous table of the messianic banquet.

-- The weeping and sorrowful shouldn't just dream about their burdens being lifted. The dream-come-true for the mourning that Jesus offers is that they will bubble over with laughter and light-heartedness, that joy will fill their lives.

Ennobled and enrobed, enriched and empowered, satisfied and fulfilled, joyfully alive -- this is the soul Jesus dreams of for his people. This is the DreamSoul Jesus intends for you.

Compare Jesus' vision with your own best hopes and visions for yourself and your future. Are you guilty of starving your soul? Are you dreaming puny, Pygmy, pint-sized dreams instead of the amazing, the outstanding, the out-of-sight, the out-of-this-world dreams that God intends your soul to feed on? Do you catch yourself daydreaming more, God-dreaming less?

One of the most conniving, convincing dreamscapes with which we have tried to satisfy ourselves is the "make-a-difference- diet." The paltry portions of the "make-a-difference-diet" keep so many of our souls skinny and sickly that, like the Kate Moss anorexic-chic of the fashion industry, we have come to accept this look, this dream, as laudable, even noble.

The "make-a-difference-diet" starts out sounding pretty good. Charting our dreams for the future, plotting out our dreamscape, we vow that what we really want to do is "make a difference" in the world.

What's so bad about that? Sounds respectable, honorable, intentional and most of all (here's the catch) -- doable.

But guess what? We were not put on this earth to "make a difference." Jesus didn't offer us the kingdom of God, eternal life, utter fulfillment, the peace that passes all understanding, the joy of the Lord, just so we could "make a difference."

God sent Jesus to die on the cross not to "make a difference in the world," but to make a different world; not to make adjustments and accommodations in the existing order, but to throw out the existing order and replace it with another; not merely (to borrow Bonhoeffer's phrase) to bind the wounds created by the crushing wheel, but to destroy the crushing wheel itself; not to change the diet, but to change the lifestyle.

God sent Jesus to redeem and re-dream the world. As Jesus' redeemed and redreamed disciples, we are to join in re-dreaming the landscape of life -- not to "make a difference in life," but to make life different. If we truly want to be part of God's mission to redeem and re-dream the world, we must stop being hack dreamers. We must get off that "make-a-difference-diet" and start stuffing our souls with God-sized dreams.

What's happened to our dreams, church? William S. Burroughs has said that a society without dreams is a dead society. Are we dreaming anymore, church? Are we ministering by sweet dreams or sour schemes? Are you dreaming anymore, Christian? And if you are, do you remember your dreams?

People leave jobs, not because their work is completed, but because their dream is dead. Institutions, friendships, marriages, corporations fall apart not "at their seams" but "at their dreams."

Why not "at their seams?" Because their dreams are their seams. Dreams are what tie everything together. What's happened to your seam-dreams?

When our kids want to say something is really good, they say it is "bad." Let's borrow our children's language and declare that Dr. Luke is prescribing for us in this morning's text some BAD dreams and some BAD souls -- that is, Big Audacious Dreams and Big Audacious DreamSouls.

In fact, you could say we should really be cultivating in life BHAD Dreams -- Big Hairy Audacious Dreams and Big Hairy Audacious DreamSouls. When we continue to think small, when we labor under the "make-a-difference" mindset, we think that if we work hard enough, do well enough, jump through the right hoops or know the right people, we can get something done. We can make a difference.

In today's list of "blessings" and "woes," Jesus warns his disciples that as purveyors of BHAD souls, they will experience hate, exclusion, rejection and even excommunication from those who would prefer to hear safe "just-make-a-difference" dreams and schemes. Offer the world Jesus' message of redemption, complete re-creation, miraculous rebirth and personal transformation and you will unnerve and disturb those who are satisfied with and invested in status-quo dreaming. BHAD Dreams threaten the small schemes and small dreams that "difference- diet" souls gnaw on.

It's not too late to reinvent your life, recharge your soul with big dreams.

Dream on, disciple. Don't make a difference in the world.
Dream on, disciple. Do make the world a different place.