When local authorities want to discourage motorists from speeding, they place a narrow strip of asphalt across the width of the road. It’s called a speed bump, because it creates a jarring bump if you drive over it too fast. Speed bumps make you slow down and pay attention. They can wreak havoc on the suspension of the vehicle, and throw you off balance for a moment.
Sometimes when we read scripture, we run across passages that have the same effect on our reading as the speed bumps have on our driving. Within the context of our Bible studies, we often get sidetracked, and I call these “tangents”.
Lately, one of our tangents led us to a discussion of dreams. Are dreams from God? Do they have a spiritual meaning, if we even remember what we dreamed? God spoke to many in dreams in the Bible, are they relevant today? These are questions with not such a simple answer. For example, have you ever received a message or a visit from a recently deceased loved one. By the way, however you answer the question, it’s normal.
Almost all of the people who have experienced the death of a close loved one or friend had an experience in which they appeared to receive some sort of communication from them after they died. Such phenomena are not necessarily acceptable so we are very careful to explain that it was a dream, or that we were just waking up from nap when it happened. Many will say that it was a strong feeling, or that it was just a stray thought that had entered into our minds. Some even wondered if bereavement had caused them to lose their grip on reality for a short time.
On the Sabbath after the crucifixion, we find Jesus’ disciples hiding like cowards, fearing that the Romans would torture them to death for being Jesus’ associates. Only fifty days later on Pentecost, we find them publicly proclaiming the resurrection of Jesus Christ, which for most of the apostles guaranteed the very fate they were trying so fervently to avoid in the first place.
The resurrection of Jesus Christ was something quite different from those heart-warming anecdotes you read about people receiving encouragement from loved ones who have passed on. The resurrection of Jesus Christ was so substantive, so stupendous, so shocking, that it transformed cowards into evangelists. In less than two generations, despite persecution, opposition, and adversity, there were Christians as far west as Spain and Britain and as far east as India.
St. Paul reminds us that there is both a physical and a spiritual world. Just maybe the window is opened for a brief glimpse when our loved one dies. Maybe within a dream we can get an answer to a problem. Are you paying attention? Is God speaking to you?
Have you seen the rabbit? Have you seen Jesus, and are you leading others to see Him too? As Jesus is the mediator, let your light shine that others might see Him through you. A comedian once noticed that scientists had determined the speed of light, so he wondered, “What is the speed of dark?” The answer, of course, is that ‘dark’ doesn’t have a speed, because it doesn’t even exist; ‘dark’ is just our word for the absence of light. To make a room brighter, you increase the light. To make a world brighter, you increase the Light. What are you doing to make your world brighter? Share the love of Jesus with all whom you meet, and the reason of the Hope that you have. GO, LIGHT YOUR WORLD! Without Jesus, it’s really DARK out there!
Pastor Bob