Impossible Dream

Impossible Dream

December 20 2020

Let us pray. May the words of my mouth and the thoughts of our hearts, be

acceptable in your sight O Lord, our strength and our redeemer.  Amen

Two years ago some of you saw your dream unfold

in this building because you believed that the dream was possible.

and in a couple of days the completion of the auditorium and I honour you this

morning.

And I want to encourage others who have a dream –

and you know it’s of God

but you’re not sure if it’s possible for you.

And if you are here today and you think you are no good and you’re not worth

anything, I want to tell you that that’s a lie.

Remember the message to Mary?

God says to her you will have a child

you will name him Jesus

he will be the saviour of the world.

And she says ‘That’s impossible!”

and God says – nothing’s impossible for me.

And she believed!

If God had said it – it must be possible.

And so she sees the possibilities and she cries in joy,

“My heart praises the Lord,

my soul is glad because of God my Saviour.

He has remembered me, his lowly handmaiden.

He has remembered to show mercy to His people."

So how do you come to the place in your life

where you believe: I have a purpose?

How do you get the self esteem that allows you to

do great things with your one life?

And no matter where you have gone

just remember, God hasn’t let go of you,

and maybe this morning he is inviting you to come home.

And maybe you are lost

but He is there.

So you begin to believe

that you were created just a little lower than God

And the impossible dream begins to grow in your mind and heart.

A positive self-esteem is the internalization of the Love of God.

So this illustration

from the musical: Don Quixote – Man of La Mancha.

Based on the book by Cervantes

In the story, Don Quixote, like Jesus, has the ability to see in others

what they can’t see in themselves.

and like Jesus

he is able to see in the mundane and the ordinary

great beauty - and in people who are rejected and the damaged

persons of great possibility.

And so for Don Quixote every place and every person is sacred.  

He sees everyone and everything –

not as what they have become but as what

they can be; what they are in the heart of God.

In the musical Don Quixote sings a song, The Impossible Dream.

“This is my quest to follow that star

no matter how hopeless,

no matter how far.

And the world will be better for this that one man,

scorned and covered with scars,

still strove with His last ounce of courage,

to reach the unreachable stars."

And so Don Quixote’s journey leads him to meet

Al Donsa.

She is a prostitute.

Don Quixote refuses to see her as a prostitute.

He can only see in her the lady she was born to be.

Every knight has a Lady and so he says:

‘Al Donsa, you will be my Lady.’

And he treats her like a Lady.

She laughs at him - he's crazy.

But he insists that she is a lady

and he gives her a new name. He calls her Dulcinea.

While everyone else tells her she is garbage

he tells her she is a lady!

Every time he sees her he builds this picture in her mind:

You’re not what you have become,

you’re not Al Donsa

you are Dulcinea!

In the play the curtain rises.

The stage is deserted. Off stage you hear her scream

as she being brutalised by a gang of men.

She enters and her clothing is torn, and she is bleeding

and dirty and she is crying.

Don Quixote sees her and He calls, "My Lady".

And she can't stand it anymore. She can’t take the love he has for her.

She cries out

"Don't call me a Lady.

Look at me. Don't you see me for what I am? I was born in a ditch.

My mother left me there, naked and cold, too hungry to cry.

She left hoping I'd have the good sense to die.

Don't call me a Lady. I'm only a kitchen slut, reeking with sweat,

a whore that men use and forget.

Don't call me Dulcinea.

I am only Aldonza. I am nothing at all."

She runs off stage, and into her night of self-destruction and self-loathing.  

And Don Quixote calls after her, “But you are my Lady, Dulcinea.”

Later in the play, the curtain rises for the last scene.  

Don Quixote is dying,

of a broken heart.

To his death bed comes a Spanish lady, mantilla, lace.  

She kneels and prays.

She calls to him, "My Lord."

He looks. He doesn't know her.

She calls to him again:

“Remember me? My Lord, you must remember me.

You sang a song,

The Impossible Dream?  

O my Lord, look at me. I beg you to remember.

You gave me a new name.  

You called me Dulcinea.”

The reality is what you believe about yourself

is in the end what you will be.

If your dominant thought is: I’m a nobody

that’s who you will be.

So we need someone to see in us what you can’t see in ourselves!

We need someone to remind us that we were created for greatness

so that we can rise above

any negative things that people have said about us

and be free to believe what in the mind of God we were born to be.

Al Donsa becomes Dulcinea because one person saw within her the possibilities;

saw within her the real person that was in the mind of God before she had lost her way.

So for you and I every day we attempt to sell ourselves to another.

Our spouse

our children

the people we meet.

And every day you and I project on the outside what we feel on the inside.  If on the

inside, we feel we are nothing

it will show in the way we live and love.

The gospel tells me that within each of us is this polished diamond;

the beauty and purpose of God within

and so Jesus would say, “You are lights for the world, you are salt for the earth.”

You are my beloved – created just a little lower than God.

He sees in each one of us, world class potential.

Saying to us, with me, nothing is impossible.

Saying to the outcasts and so-called sinners, I would eat at your table.

To children and their mothers, you are welcome in my arms.

And then sending us out into the world to say to the Al Donsas of life,

you are ladies!

That’s what it means to spread the gospel – the good news of God.

And so you and I transformed by the love of God

begin to believe in ourselves

we begin to believe that when we do something for others,

good will happen.

Sensing that people always feel better about themselves

when you are with them

and feel they are more than what they have become

simply because you are there.

You make a difference not because of what you have

but because of what you are within.

You are becoming the leader that God has called you to be

and you discover that leadership is stewardship

and the highest form of leadership is simply to be a servant

because people learn by example not by what we say.

What does it mean to be a Christian? Well for one thing to be a Christian is to be a

follower of

this one Jesus Christ

who knows our worst sins,

and we know that He knows,

but He treats us as if we were perfect.

Who sees the potential within us that no one else sees

and puts a dream in our heart;

and believes in us

so that we may rise up on eagle’s wings!

So we listen to Him when he calls us a Lord or a Lady

a prince or a princess

and we believe, we are His beloved.

And His love heals the  

damage of the years.

And we begin to see the possibilities

in our lives. And then the seeming impossible becomes possible for with God nothing

is impossible.

Now unto God the Father, God the Son and God, the holy Spirit, be all the honour and

glory, world without end. Amen

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