The Bible is the most realistic of books. Human society is shown in all its complexity. Everything is there: wars, murder, sexual infidelity, political corruption, incurable diseases and idolatry with spiritual perversions. Ecclesiastes summarized it long ago: “The days of trouble come, and the years draw near when you will say, ‘I have no pleasure in them’.” (12:1) If you are old enough to be out of primary school, then you know something of what life ‘dishes out’. The Bible reflects life and has some surprisingly relevant insights.

How can we say something honest, real and of some practical benefit?  Facile is easy; tough minded is hard. But it is a task I will attempt in this brief sermon.

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Today I have brought in my bible, which I requested as a gift for graduating high school. It is embarrassingly underutilised, and I wish I could blame the accessibility of online translations. But I’ve brought it up here because it is a parallel bible, and shows each verse as both the NIV translation, which was the norm in my childhood, and the Message translation, which is known for being a tonal translation more than a literal one. This is something I requested because my mum’s bible is like this, and I really liked it.

Part of why I like having both is that I feel that being asked to sit with the imprecision of translation is good for us. Our protestant tradition is built on the legitimacy of translation, of access, and I would argue that that can be a graceful reminder of the complexity, of the historical context, of the living word.

As well as the value of being reminded that our holy text is very old and very alive, I think that the differences of translations can add something to the reading. Blue and red 3D glasses are low tech compared to whatever is going on in the cinema world nowadays. But I think we understand how they work: We have two offset versions of the same image – one visible through the blue lens, one through the red, and when wearing one on each eye we can see a depth that wasn’t there before.

All of that is the long way to say, I am going to read some of the verses we have already had today, but in two translations.

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Introduction

When we think about dreams, there images that strike us as strange, unreal and even frightening. Dreams come from a different place and speak a different language. We can recognise that dreams speak the language of the unconscious.

Robert Johnson makes the point that we can experience our unconscious either in a voluntary or involuntary way. We can have explosive negative reactions to people or even overly positive responses ? this was a way that our unconscious can influence us without our choice. Or we can choose to listen to our dreams or other manifestations of our unconscious life (such as Freudian slips of the tongue, daydreams or active imagination). Johnson makes an interesting point, “All the forms of interaction with the unconscious that nourished our ancestors-dream, vision, ritual, and religious experience – are largely lost to us, dismissed by the modern mind as primitive or superstitious. Thus, in our pride and hubris our faith in unassailable reason, we cut ourselves off from our origins in the unconscious and from the deepest parts of ourselves.” (Page 9-10). The Jungian take on all this is that if we don’t open ourselves to the unconscious it will return as neurosis.

Reflect: do you have a sense of your unconscious and its importance or otherwise? In what ways do you notice this dimension.

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Sermon 1 The Bible and Getting Ready

Every night we have strange visitors. We sleep, we dream, but often we are puzzled and even confused. Do we think about our dreams or forget them? I will argue that they can be like angels, who sometimes bring messages from God.

The Bible reflects the way people valued dreams as a way that God spoke to a pharaoh, pagan kings, prophets and apostles. In the 20^th century psychoanalytic thinking saw dreams coming from the unconscious with important implications for daily living. I will preach four sermons on how to understand your dreams from a spiritual perspective. Then I will offer a Saturday afternoon workshop for you to share a dream with others – perhaps gain further insights.

Early in the year we had some study groups on dreams, but I thought that there might be wider interest in the topic, hence this series of sermons and a workshop.

Dreams were important in the Bible. This is obvious in the Genesis passage of Jacob’s dream, “There was a ladder set up on earth, the top of it reaching to heaven and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it.” (28:12) My first thought is of Bath Abbey and the portrayal of this dream in stone on the west face. (overhead image) But Jacob was given a more spiritual interpretation with the land as a promise to him and his descendants. God said, “I will not leave you until I done what I have promised to you” (28: 15). However, I am not the only person to remain puzzled at the link between this dream and that promise.  Jacob at least understood “this is the gate of heaven”.

Perhaps like Jacob we have mysterious dreams, but find it hard to make any sense of the experience, and somehow find any relation to ‘everyday reality’.  

Illustration When I was a young man, before my conversion to Christianity, I broke off an engagement as a result of a dream. Has a dream ever influenced your actions?

Abraham Herschel had a dream in the late 19^th century of the Jews returning to the promised land. This led to establishing the Zionist movement and the eventual Jewish state.

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Reading: Luke 2:1-14

In this sermon I would like to ask one important question and provide a surprising answer.

In the gospel reading Luke provides a picture that we most associate with Christmas: the baby Jesus in “swaddling clothes” and a “manger”. And a host of angels appear to shepherds in the field singing, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among us with whom he is pleased.” (2:14). Usually, the wise men make an entrance, but sadly not in this gospel reading (see Matt 2).

Now my question: “Why the big fuss?” When you think about it, we all had a birth scene. When I was born 72 years ago, I think my parents were excited by the event, but it caused no ripples beyond my immediate family. It was not particularly notable, just a sanitised hospital, no manger, shepherds, wise men, or angels. Handel or Bach did not compose music, neither Leonardo da Vinci nor Rembrandt paint my nativity scene. There may have been a line or two in the newspaper (I suspect not) but that was it. Completely forgettable except that I’m standing here today!

But the birth of Jesus led to an excitement which has lasted 2000 years. You can visit the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem and countless churches throughout the world similarly dedicated. The artistic and musical legacy has enriched our Western civilisation. I think of libraries such as St Mark’s filled with books, universities such as Harvard which started in a pastor’s study, even wars have been fought in Jesus’ name. Today, right now, we gather… and the fuss continues.

It is reasonable to ask why? Can we offer an answer that does justice to this birth of one child in relative poverty, with a hint of scandal (Mary was pregnant before marriage), not of royal blood and in a context of world events ? insignificant.

What kind of event has such an impact? We need to come up with an answer that does justice to it. And that is no easy task.

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