The Dream Has Come True
John 1:1-5, 14
December 18, 2005
When our kids were in Jr. High School, we took them to Disney World for the first time. We spent a couple of days there. They, of course, loved every minute of it. They did all of the scary and wild rides, ate more junk food than I could ever imagine, and were disappointed when the days were over. I, on the other hand, was hot and grumpy most of the time, wouldn’t go near any of those crazy rides, and wanted a hamburger that didn’t cost seven bucks. The best time I had was when we went on that tram ride that spirals up inside the big EPCOT golf ball thing. The EPCOT Center was full of great stuff that I enjoyed, but the kids didn’t. I have always said that I wouldn’t mind going back now with just Toni so we could spend a whole day at EPCOT.
In 1965, Walt Disney purchased forty-three square miles of property in the Orlando vicinity because he had a dream of building a model city. He called it EPCOT, or “Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow.” When he died, his dream was reworked and EPCOT became sort of a permanent World’s Fair. Disney’s original dream didn’t come true. He wanted a climate-controlled, glass-domed city, which would make it very comfortable for people to get around. One of the afternoons we were there, we got drenched in a pouring rainstorm. So much for controlling the climate.
Today is the fourth Sunday of Advent, and we are reminded of some dreams that have indeed come true in the birth of Jesus. Let’s be reminded of what those dreams were.
Back in the Old Testament, things were not going very well for King Ahaz. He and his people were afraid of the future and didn’t know what to do in the present. God said through the prophet Isaiah, that Ahaz shouldn’t be afraid. In fact said God, here is a sign that things will turn out all right. In chapter 7 verse 14 of Isaiah’s prophesy, he said, “The young woman is with child and shall bear a son, and shall name him Immanuel.” There’s the dream; the son that would be born and would be named Immanuel, God with us.
. In chapter 9, Isaiah continues with the dream.
The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who lived in a land of deep darkness – on them light has shined…For a child has been born for us, a son given to us; authority rests upon his shoulders; and he is named Wonderful Counselor; Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. His authority shall grow continually, and there shall be endless peace for the throne of David and his kingdom. He will establish and uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time onward and forevermore (9:2b, 6-7).
There’s the dream: One that will sit on the throne of David and establish justice and bring peace.
Again, in chapter 11, we read:
The wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them (11:6).
Do you catch the excitement and wonder of the dream? Christmas is just a few days away. Christmas is the time when dreams come true. What was once just a dream has now become reality. Immanuel, God with us has come. The child born in a manger is also the royal occupant of the throne of David. Salvation is found in the baby born to take away the sins of the world.
John the Evangelist testifies about the dream’s fulfillment.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not overcome it…
The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory… (John 1:1-5, 14).
The word “dwelling” is more accurately translated as “tent” or “tabernacle.” In other words, God has pitched his tent in our presence.
Let me take you back to sometime during the second millennium BC, when the Israelites were slaves in Egypt. They prayed to God for relief from their suffering and God heard their groanings, lifting up Moses as the one to lead them to freedom. After they had left Egypt, they were camped at the foot of Mount Sinai in the desert. It was there that God began to give them instruction. The Ten Commandments came first and then, directions for building a sanctuary. Exodus 25:8-9 says:
And have them make me a sanctuary, so that I may dwell among them. In accordance with all that I show you concerning the pattern of the tabernacle and of all its furniture, so you shall make it.
The dwelling place of God was a tent. It was portable. It could go where the people went. They never had to be cut off from the tabernacle of God because it was always in their midst. Wherever they found themselves during the long forty-year walk to freedom, and even after they had entered the Promised Land, they had the tabernacle, they had the tent.
A few hundred years later, they had conquered the land and were living in relative peace. King David was on the throne. After many years of war and struggle, he had finally been able to consolidate his power. Things were good for the king and the kingdom.
Now when the king was settled in his house, and the Lord had given him rest from all his enemies around him, the king said to the prophet Nathan, “See now, I am living in a house of cedar, but the ark of God stays in a tent.”
But that same night, the word of the Lord came to Nathan: “Go and tell my servant David: thus says the Lord: Are you the one to build me a house to life in? I have not lived in a house since the day I brought up the people of Israel from Egypt to this day, but I have been moving about in a tent and a tabernacle.” (II Samuel 7:1-2, 4-6).
Although he wasn’t the one to build it, David held on to the dream, the dream of a new home for God. That dream was fulfilled in Jesus, the Word become flesh who pitched his tent among us.
If you remember the last week in October of this year, the leader of the Iranian government gave a speech in which he said that Israel should be wiped off the map. Now think back about 2,500 years ago or so. When the people of Judah were in captivity in Babylon, the Lord spoke through the prophet Ezekiel. At a time in which it looked as though the Lord’s people had been wiped off the map forever, God had other ideas.
In the thirty-seventh chapter of Ezekiel, the prophet reported that God was not finished with the people yet. They would be restored. They belonged to God. “My dwelling place will be with them; I will be their God, and they will be my people (37:27). The dream has held. The dream has come true. God has come to dwell among God’s people. Dreams really do come true. The Word has become flesh and has come to dwell among us. God became human and came to live among us. God has pitched God’s tent in our midst. The twenty-dollar word is “Incarnation.” It is the central truth of the gospel. God became a human being in Jesus Christ. Jesus has become the perfect incarnation of the dream, which God’s people have had for centuries.
I don’t know if you like tent camping or not. When Toni and I lived in Denver, we bought a two-person pup tent. As often as we could, we loaded up the camping gear in my old Jeep and headed off to the high country. Our favorite spot was up above Georgetown, Colorado. We found a place where we could pitch the tent next to a flowing stream, which lulled us to sleep at night with its rushing water.
There’s nothing better than sitting around a campfire on the Continental Divide, watching the flames lick the darkness. As we sat there in the silence of the mountains, it was as though God spoke to us through the breeze. The starlit skies revealed the glory of God. God was present with us in our tent.
In the tent, you are separated from the world by only a thin, nylon membrane. Sometimes in the night, we heard shuffling outside, and we wondered what it could be. On the other side of the nylon, it was probably only a raccoon or a squirrel. We tried not to think about the possibility of mountain lions. The experts told us that bears were long gone from that part of the Rocky Mountains, but every now and then there would be reports of a bear sighting. We snuggled deeper into our sleeping bags to wait for the morning when the shadows would disappear and we would greet the dawn with gratitude and new expectation.
God has pitched God’s tent in our midst. Jesus has come alive. The Incarnate One is now at hand. Into a dangerous world, Jesus has come to take away our fear until we wonder what it was that scared us so. God has made his tent our home. The dream has come true. God is no longer distant. God is no longer “out there” somewhere. God has come to dwell with us and in us. God has come to show us that we are not alone. God has come to show us just how much he loves us. God has come to offer us new life.
The One who came from the throne of heaven resided in Mary’s womb until the right time to enter our world. God has come into our midst, pitched his tent with us in order to bring us safety, love, and grace. The dream has come true. God has pitched his tent among us. In that tent is life. This life is the light of all people. It is a light that shines in the darkness, and the darkness will never overcome it. My prayer for this season is that Christ may abide in our tents, now and forever.
