Read: “Promised Land, Promised Time”
I like McLaren’s metaphor of the Bible as a dream book. Maybe it is because I sat before the television to watch Martin Luther King Jr. deliver his “I have a Dream” speech, and saw how it immediately galvanized many in our nation to become what we today call the civil rights movement.
McLaren’s image of the dream and its power to inspire action fit right into my experience as a teenager in the ’60’s. But that image also goes a long way in reminding us this Advent that Joseph took action relative to Mary and the baby in her womb because God gave him his own “I Have a Dream” experience.
This week’s reading invites us to consider our dreams, to see whether we have treated them like sub-conscious wisps that evaporate when we wake up, or whether there are at least some given to us by God so that we can turn a hope into a reality.
Obviously, we cannot process dreams we have forgotten. But we can pay closer attention to those that have lingered. Advent gives us time to do that, and if we do, we may find a pearl of great price hidden in the field of dreams.
Oboedire 