Do you ever have strange dreams? I used to have this dream where I could bounce really high – not flying exactly but bouncing kind of like the Hulk. I could leap tall buildings in a single bound. When I woke up I never tried bouncing. I realized it was just a dream and not part of reality. My guess is that I am not unique — we all have dreams that we dismiss as fantastic creations of our imaginations and not meant to be taken seriously… which causes me to wonder about Saint Joseph in the gospel passage from Matthew’s Gospel. He had a dream – it was pretty fantastic too. According to the dream his fiancé was pregnant “through the Holy Spirit.” That dream is an even bigger stretch that leaping over buildings. Who could believe such a thing? But according to the Gospel, St. Joseph did not dismiss the dream as a fantasy but believed the dream “and took his wife into his home.” Let’s look at the text closely to discover what enable Joseph to trust in the angelic dream and then see the dreams we need to take seriously in our lives.
First thing to notice is that Joseph had to give up his own dream if was going to believe the new dream that God had for him. I have no doubt that Joseph dreamt about living a nice, normal life as a working man in Nazareth. He would have his wife and children around the supper table, work at this carpenter’s bench, pray at the synagogue and probably have a glass of wine or two at the local pub talking trash about the Romans on weekends. A good dream, a normal dream – a dream that was taken from him according to the plan of God. People could add up to nine as easily in that time as in ours. He knew that tongues would be clucking that either he had fooled around or he had been fooled. His dream of a normal life fitting into his neighborhood was irrevocably changed. Similarly, heeding the dream God has for us often requires giving up our own dreams. We can dream of finding our soul mate and growing old together having his and her matching cups for our false teeth in the old age home. We can dream of a brilliant career which is personally satisfying, financially lucrative, and provides lots of time for leisure activities. (Good luck with that.) We can dream of keeping vigorous and healthy well past the Biblical three score and ten. All good dreams – but often these dreams are taken from us when reality bites. We must be open to God’s dream for us even when it involves being alone, being tedious, being sick.
The second thing, the dream God has for Joseph is addressed to him specifically: “Joseph, son of David.” The divine plan flowed from who he was and could only be fulfilled by him. The son of Mary needed to have a son of David as his father according to the prophetic message. Similarly, God’s dream for us is not generic – oh, I guess you’ll do – no, God calls us each by name. And God’s plan depends on who we are. As much as I might want to I can be sure that God does not want me to be a jockey in the Kentucky Derby weighing in at 230 pounds. You can be sure that God won’t expect you to be a rocket scientist if two plus two equals four exhausts your math skills. What God dreams for us expresses who we are and who God has made us to be. Anything beyond that cannot be from God.
Thirdly, Joseph could recognize the dream as from God because he was familiar with the ways of God. The angelic message resonated with the words of the prophet: “the virgin shall conceive and bear a son.” Because the dream was consonant with inspired revelation, Joseph could find reason to believe that his dream was more than a product of his own imagination. For us to tell what God wants of us we too must be able to discern what reflects the patterns of God that we have come to know. Any dream God has for us will include love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, compassion, forgiveness, mercy. Anything which does not reflect the characteristics of God cannot be from God.
With that as background, what enabled Joseph to trust that the dream he had was from God and so act upon it? The basic answer is faith. Joseph made an act of faith in the dream. But this wasn’t blind faith. This was informed faith, a faith based on a lifetime of walking with God. He was a righteous man, the gospel reports, a commandment keeper, someone who tried to do the will of God in the little things of life. He could step out in faith in this big thing because he had so often trusted in God in the little things. And, St. Matthew points out, he was “unwilling to expose Mary to shame.” He doubtless looked into her eyes, the eyes of someone he loved and planned to marry, and found there the same loving and lovely person he always knew her to be. The biological fact of a coming child, however, outweighed the instinct of his heart; hence, his plan to spare her any disgrace. The angelic dream confirmed the feeling of confidence that he had in his relationship with Mary. It was faith in that relationship as well as his faith in God which empowered him to believe in the dream.
What about us? How can we tell if a dream if from God or not? The answer is the same for us as for Joseph – that God with us. We can be sure that there will be joys and sorrows, good times and bad, as part of God’s plan. We hope for happiness, tenderness, delight and kindness in life. We can expect grief and loss and loneliness and illness and guilt and misunderstanding because we know these things are also part of every life. But if no matter what we are going through we experience that God is with us, then we are following God’s dream for us. Emmanuel, God is with us in all things and through all things — that is the true meaning of Christmas.
