August 6, 2006 Sermon

Dreams and Dreamers
Genesis 40

Today we resume our slow-boat-through-the-Bible series of sermons. We jump into the story of Joseph near its beginning. Joseph is in jail in Egypt . He has hit bottom after a long slide from the top.

Joseph’s father, Jacob, literally fathered Israel . He had twelve sons who in turn fathered the twelve tribes of that nation. Though Joseph was the eleventh of those twelve sons, he was his father’s favorite. Jacob loved Rachel, Joseph’s mother, more than any of the other wives and slaves by whom he had his many sons. His brothers could not stomach this. Using his in-your-face dreams as an excuse, they stage his death then sell him into slavery in Egypt . They tell Jacob, his father, a wild animal killed him. But Joseph is quite alive. He becomes the favorite of Potiphar, his new, rich and important master.

But Potiphar is not the only person in his household to appreciate Joseph. His wife wants to sleep with their slave. Joseph resists her overtures but she persists until finally, when others threaten to discover them in a compromising situation, she accuses him of assaulting her. Potiphar believes his wife’s lies and throws Joseph into jail.

Which is where we find him. But God has plans for Joseph. Pharaoh’s baker and cupbearer languish in jail with him. And they have been having dreams. Remember, Joseph is an old hand with dreams. He volunteers to interpret theirs. (But note that he is careful to credit God with the interpretation—an important point to which we will return.) The cupbearer tells his dream. Joseph gives it a positive spin. The cupbearer will soon go back to bearing Pharaoh’s cups. Encouraged, the baker tells his dream. But Joseph turns this dream into a prediction of the baker’s impending execution.

Both dreams come true. But though Joseph has asked the cupbearer to remember him when he goes back to the luxury of life in the palace, the ungrateful slob forgets. Our chapter ends there. But Joseph’s story does not end the there—and neither do the questions it raises for us. As we follow the narrative through the remainder of Genesis we will find many of the answers. One question, however, begs for attention right now: How does God communicate with us?

I wholly subscribe to the teaching that God communicates with us through the work of the Holy Spirit. But while this says quite a lot to theologians, it does not speak to average people. Who is the Holy Spirit? How does the Holy Spirit work? How can we know when the Holy Spirit speaks to us—and how can we know when somebody is trying to fool us?

“Beloved, do not believe every spirit,” I John tells us, “but test the spirits to see whether they are from God.” Sounds like good advice. But how do we test to see whether the signals we get come from the Holy Spirit? Messages from God come from many sources. The Bible is the source of communication to us from God. Christians have always believed to one degree or another that the Holy Spirit speaks through the pages of scripture. But the Spirit also can come to us through other people. Biblical prophets give us one great example of this; but people in our lives, today, can also speak for God. Literature, music, prayers, contemplating the wonder of nature: all these and many more can become ways for God to speak to us. And what about dreams?

I confess dreams have always seemed to me to be somewhat iffy sources of God’s messages. Many cannot recall their dreams. People will say, ‘I don’t dream,” but scientists have shown that we all dream. Our brains enter a deeper pattern of sleep, usually after about two hours, and the dreams happen. Or we can recall only brief, vague snips of our dreams, and as we grow more awake even these elusive images fade. How can we get reliable messages from God out of such a partial source?

Dreams seem to belong in the same category as horoscopes. We can interpret them just about any way we wish. Let’s say you dreamed you were falling. You have heard, “You can dream you’re falling as long as you don’t hit bottom in your dream, because that means you’ve died in real, waking life.” But who says this is true? Or let’s say you dreamed about a person from your past. Does this mean you feel guilty about something you did to that person, even if you cannot recall what? Let’s say you dreamed you were taking a chemistry test. Does this reveal your insecurity about chemistry? Or does it mean you secretly regret not pursuing a job with Dow Chemical? Or does it mean that you really, really liked your chemistry teacher and you’ve never gotten over him or her?

You see the difficulty. Dreams dodge our waking minds. Even the dreams we can remember defy clear interpretation. Yet the Bible reports that God repeatedly uses dreams to communicate with people. Joseph had dreams that sent him messages. He encountered others whose dreams he interpreted in the name of God. God uses dreams to communicate with human beings. Once we accept this idea it remains only to understand how to handle our dreams.

I said we would return to an important point. Joseph said, “Does not the interpretation of dreams belong to God?” When we suspect God wants to get our attention through a dream, we must consult with God’s Spirit. But how can we consult the Spirit? Through prayer and through the wisdom of the people of God. When a dream troubles you, pray about it. Ask God for an interpretation. Then seek the collective wisdom of the people of God. The traditions of the church give us excellent guidance. These traditions do not deserve the same obedience we owe the Bible, but they do deserve our respect. If you have a dream that suggests something that contradicts the teachings you hear at Bible study, Sunday School and worship, you may want to re-think that dream.

The Apostle Paul had a dream that God wanted him to cross over from Asia into Europe to preach the Gospel. Undoubtedly Paul prayed about that dream. Undoubtedly Paul spoke with his fellow believers about that dream. Undoubtedly he decided God meant it. Because he did what this dream told him to do, Christianity spread farther and faster.

On the other hand, John Wayne Gacy, the Chicagoan who killed 33 young men, believed he was obeying messages sent to him in dreams. Other followers of evil dreams include Lizzie Borden and King Saul from the Old Testament.

Dreams can be messages from God. The Holy Spirit of God can and does speak to people through dreams. But we must test every dream. We must test our dreams through prayer and through comparison with the teachings of the Bible and of the church.

I have learned that people have wildly different backgrounds, expectations and experiences. Some of you listening to this sermon probably completely dismiss the idea of God using dreams to send us messages. Some of you probably completely accept it. But as a Presbyterian pastor with a very traditional commitment to the authority of scripture, I can say only this: the Bible tells us God uses our dreams to speak to us. Maybe we should listen.

God speaks to us in many ways. Any message we get from God will quite likely come to us through more than one path. Do you seek to know what God wants for and from you? Be patient. Listen to your dreams. Pray. Come to Sunday School and learn what the Bible teaches. We cannot all be as wise as Joseph when it comes to interpreting dreams, but we can listen to God like he did. So dream on—but test those dreams.