INTRODUCTION
When I was young, one of my favorite tv programs was the Jim Nabor’s show. Jim Nabors played a young marine by the name of Gomer Pyle, a spin-off of the Andy Griffith
show. In this new program we watched the antics of the good natured, innocent but bumbling Gomer Pyle. It was a fun show to watch, though not what I would call high quality programming. That is, until the day I heard Jim Nabors sing. The young marine Gomer Pyle is discovered to possess a quality singing voice so he’s volunteered to compete against other marines. At the conclusion of the show he stands upon the stage and sings “to Dream the impossible Dream.” On that day I fell in love with that song. Do you recognize this song, it was written by Mitch Lee for the musical production of “Man of Lamoncha.’ In this story, the character Don Quihote is an elderly man who dreams of being a Knight traveling the land doing great acts of courage and chilvary, and so he does. The problem is that he has a tendency to mistake windmills for giants and bar maids for royalty. As far as those around him are concerned they see him as a fool who is missing a
few things upstairs and so they seek to bring him back to reality. This song, “to Dream the
Impossible Dream” is Don Quihota’s longing to see beyond reality, to see the unseen, to
touch the untouchable, to truly live.
To dream the impossible dream
To fight the unbeatable foe
To bear the unbearable sorrow
To run where the brave dare not go
To write the unwritable wrong
To be better by far than you are
To try when your arms are too weary
To reach the unreachable star
This is my quest, to follow that star
No matter how hopeless,
No matter how far
To fight for the right
Without question or pause
To be willing to march into hell
For a heavenly cause
And I know if I’ll only be true
To this glorious quest
That my heart will be peaceful and calm
When I’m laid to my rest
And the world would be better for this
That one man scorned and covered with scars
Still strove with his last ounce of courage
To reach the unreachable star
But all around us society is telling us to be practical, to use our commons sense, to stay with reality. For what star, they ask, could motivate us to dream impossible dreams. To fight the unbeatable foe. To bear the unbearable sorrow. Or to run where the brave dare not go. What star could do all that? And a star rose up in the East and wisemen came to King Herod saying, “Where is he who has been born King of the Jews? For we have seen his star in the East and have come to worship him.” In sending His son into the world God forever connected our common reality with the divine kingdom of the unseen. Through Christ’s death and resurrection God revealed to those who would believe in Christ a heavenly mystery hidden in ages past. In Colossians 1:24-27 Paul reveals this mystery,
“hidden for ages and generations but now made manifest to his saints. To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.”
The hope of glory? What is Paul referring to? What is this glory? In Genesis 1 we read of how God created mankind in God’s own image. We were created to be like God, to reflect God’s glorious nature. What things do you hope for? What do you desire in your heart of hearts to have take place in your life? Financial security? A promotion at work? An increase in your salary? Good grades for your children? But then the problems set in: you over extend yourself financially, you’re laid off from work, your children have difficulty in school. Whatever it might be there is some group, corporation, program out there, claiming that they can help you get back on track, restore you, to where you once were before tragedy befell you. There are: money lenders; credit managers; job head hunters; programs to improve your children’s grades. You name it, it’s available, and they may even be able to do what they claim. There is just one problem, no human agency can restore your soul. When sin entered into the world that divine image in which God formed us was broken, it was damaged, was marred. “For all have sinned,” says Paul, “and fallen short of the glory of God.” But Christ came into the world to restore us to our original glory. To remold us in the image of our creator. To bestow upon us divine grace.
"Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in our hope of sharing the glory of God"
Christ came to give us eternal life. An eternal life that is more then simply spending eternity with God. It’s about sharing God’s eternal nature, His glory. If you think the song “to dream the Impossible Dream” is just a vision of a foolish old man then listen to this,
"Lo! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable nature must put on the imperishable, and this mortal nature must put on immortality."
I Corinthians 15:51-53
This is the hope that God calls us to put our faith in a hope that is found in Jesus Christ. For Christ is the first fruit of the resurrection of the dead and the Holy Spirit is our downpayment until that day. “hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit which has been given to us.” To dream the impossible dream. To fight the unbeatable foe. That’s us, fools for Jesus Christ. We see the unseeable. We hear the unhearable. We touch the untouchable. We wait for that which can not be proven yet we know is truth. Lewis Smedes wrote,
“Is there a hope when hope is taken away? Is there hope when the situation is hopeless? That question leads us to Christian hope, for in the Bible, hope is no longer a passion for the possible. It becomes a passion for the promise.”
The Navy has a slogan to draw young men and women into it’s ranks, “be all that you can be, in the Navy.” But what happens when all that you can be falls far short of all that you wanted to be? When all your dreams, hopes and expectation come crashing down around you. Then it is time to turn away from hoping in the possible and to turn instead to hoping in the promise. For God has promised that those who place their faith in Christ will become all that God created them to be. The apostle Paul writes,
We know not what we will be like
but we know that we will be like Him
For we shall see Him face to face
Here and now God is changing us. Here and now God is transforming us “from glory to glory,” says Paul. That is the work of God’s redemption, to cleanse us from our sin, not to whitewash it. That is what Christ’s sacrifice means to do. To purify sinners by putting sin to death on the cross and raising us to new life in the Spirit. In a small cemetery in a parish churchyard in Olney, England, stands a granite tombstone with the following inscription: “John Newton, clerk, once an infidel and Libertine, a servant of slavers in Africa, was, by the rich mercy of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, preserved, restored, pardoned, and appointed to preach the Faith he had long labored to destroy.” You know him. John Newton wrote the hymn Amazing Grace. And it was amazing. He had followed his father in a life at sea. A life filled with rebellion and debauchery. A life that gave him of his own ship A slave ship, that trafficked in the capturing, selling and transporting of black slaves to the plantations in the West Indies and America. A slave ship that trafficked in human suffering and degradation. But on March 10, 1748, God got a hold of John Newton. He was confronted with the power of God in a storm at sea, and the wonders of God in a book named “the Imitation of Christ.” John Newton cried out, “I am undone”, and then he was remade in Christ. Following his conversion Newton left the slave trade and became a clerk. After many years he became an Anglican Priest. And to the end of his life he fought for the abolition of slavery. In 1807, the year of Newton’s death, the British Parliament fulfilled his hopes and abolished slavery throughout all of its domain. John Newton never ceased to marvel at the mercy and grace of God that had so dramatically changed his life. This was the dominant theme of his preaching and writing. This is what he had to say, “Amazing Grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now I’m found was blind, but now I see.”
Beloved of God. Be all that God created you to be, then recreated you to be in Christ Jesus. That you might claim as Paul claimed, “I am crucified with Christ, it is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me.”
I Wish You Jesus
I could wish you joy and peace
to last a whole life long,
I could wish you sunshine
or a cheerful little song;
Or wish you all the happiness
that this life could bring,
But I wish you Jesus, but I wish you Jesus,
But I wish you Jesus, more than anything.
I could wish you leaves of gold
and may your path be smooth,
I could wish you treasures
or that all your dreams come true;
And I could wish you paradise
that every day be Spring,
But I wish you Jesus, but I wish you Jesus,
’Cause when I wish you Jesus,
I’ve wished you everything.
’Cause when I wish you Jesus,
I’ve wished you everything.