December 29, 2019 - First Sunday of Christmas - God's Direction and Dreams

Faith and reason are hard to balance when exploring the nature of our relationship with God.  This understanding at present is different than described in scripture. Maybe we are different in how we perceive God than at many other times in humankind's history. Currently some might say they have a personal relationship with Jesus and that they can sense either his or God's physical presence.

I have some sympathy for, and I’m tempted to pursue, the physical relationship they describe. Maybe my personal experiences of God moments could be stretched to relate with that description but I choose not to. Yet I have never "heard" God's voice directing me to take some action. The closest I have come to feeling God's presence is a glowing, spiritual affirmation that some action I may have taken, even with some trepidation was, in fact, God working through my life.

The reason for this reflection, confession and the detailing of my belief is in this week's Sunday Gospel. Here we have Matthew's account of God appearing to Joseph in three of four recorded dreams. In the first dream an angel announces to him that he was to take Mary as his wife and that their son was conceived of the Holy Spirit. In these dreams Joseph learns his family must flee to Egypt; in another the family is to return to Israel; and, finally, to make their home in Nazareth. Joseph faithfully follows what God directs him to do.

Given life at this moment, I am left diligently searching for and imagining details that are not in this Gospel. I add the "at this moment" because I am in  a different life situation and these are first days of 2020.

Considering our dreams as a potential way God communicates is a choice. I am currently in a situation I have not been in before. My position at work was eliminated and my 65th birthday is in May. I am in a position to continue to look to God for guidance as to what is next for me, retirement and / or a different kind of engagement. So I am paying attention to ways God may communicate as to what is next. I am learning how to be faithful in paying attention and trying to determine what are distractions from communications and avoiding those distractions.

Lauren Winner once wrote something that has currently taken on a new meaning:

You have a choice:
see God as here or not;
see salvation, or see only
human courage; see the divine
subtly at work or see chance.

Pastor Ray's sermon today rightly pointed out that Joseph's resolve to quietly divorce Mary was already a more compassionate response to the situation than many would have given. It is not usual to talk about the reaction Joseph would have received from the communities he lived in about the proper thing to do, particularly with the first dream. Certainly a reaction was given yet he must have borne their advise and opinions with an unusual resolve to do what the Lord asked him to do.

In his heart, Joseph must have known he was interpreting his dreams correctly. This mirrors another Joseph who correctly interpreted dreams in Egypt. Discerning God's message in dreams is a gift, Knowing they are from God is a gift.

Knowing when to give up your dreams for God's dream for you is a gift.