Maxwell Anderson, in his play Valley Forge, shows us George Washington in a time and place where dreams were impossible. No food to eat, no money to pay the soldiers – cold, sickness, and desertion. He goes to his knees and prays to God in the play. And then Washington, after the prayer, says, “What I fight for now is a dream … something that’s never been on earth since men first worked with their hands … the right of free men to govern themselves in their own way … If you’ve lost faith in this cause of yours, we’ve lost the war … and the men we’ve left on the battlefield died for nothing whatever, for a dream that came too early … and may never come true.”
Washington was a dreamer whose dream would ultimately come true. Those cold and starving soldiers didn’t stop until the dream came true.
“Your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams.” Peter says on Pentecost, quoting the prophet Joel to interpret the miracle of wind and fire they had all just witnessed. I know there are times when you feel like giving up, like our dreams, like GOD’s dreams for US are impossible and will never come true. I feel like that too, sometimes, but maybe that’s the time when you and I most need to take a trip over here, to the church.
There’s really nothing in human history that can explain this place. We believe that this building came as the result of miracles – Jesus’ birth, Jesus’ resurrection, the wind and fire of the Holy Spirit. I guess that makes us dreamers, too.
On the shoulders of the dreamers for God, the prophets like Joel, the courageous apostles like Peter, and the hosts and generations of brave women and men of faith has the church of Jesus Christ been built. The Holy Spirit did not abandon Christ’s people after Pentecost. In fact, the Spirit still comes today to bring us surprises; to bring us dreams. With God’s help, those dreams can come true.
Your friend and fellow dreamer,
Rev. Steve Savides
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