To sleep, to dream: Bob Ward’s Thought for the Week

‘What are our Quaker dreams, our visions?’

Drained, no doubt, by his life as an itinerant preacher and healer, Jesus sometimes felt the need to step aside to pray for the spiritual strength to continue his mission. In Luke 9:28-36, he wanted to be alone to do this. He asked certain disciples to keep watch, so that he might not be disturbed. Returning, he found that they had nodded off to sleep. He scolded them, but perhaps they too were justly wearied by the demanding life they led.

Then, after the Last Supper, when Jesus had gone to the Mount of Olives, something similar happened. This time the disciples were rebuked with: ‘Why sleep Ye? Rise and pray, lest Ye enter into temptation’ (Luke 22:46).

This pulls me up short. My local Friends provide a Zoom facility for those of us who can’t manage to scramble to the Meeting house on a Sunday morning. I am grateful for that. Nevertheless, there is a disadvantage. In the comfort of home, although I struggle to remain alert, all too often I drop off to sleep for a while during worship. It’s not an ordinary sleep, mind you, because there are no dreams, whereas my nights bring a stream of them.  

‘All too often I drop off to sleep.’

There are many references to dreams in the Bible. The story of Joseph in Genesis unfolds around his ability to interpret dreams. Then, in the book of Job (33:15ff), dreams appear as direct messages from God, when human ears are opened. 

In modern usage, the term ‘dream’ is also used figuratively. In the wake of the US civil war, Walt Whitman, whose mother came from Quaker stock, wrote an essay in which he envisaged ‘inspired achievers’ in the arts revealing the true character of the country, its potential not reliant upon European example. ‘I have dreamed’ this coming about, he says. Surely, Whitman here is the source of that elusive sense of ‘the American dream’.

In his celebrated speech of 1963, Martin Luther King Jr claimed that he, too, was ‘deeply rooted in the American Dream’. But his dream was ‘that one day this nation will rise up and live out the meaning of the creed “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal”’. All people, whatever their race, should be at one in a peaceable community.

So, with a world in perilous turmoil, what are our Quaker dreams, our visions? What can we aged folks do to support younger and active Friends in formulating activities to be pursued in line with our precious testimonies? If nothing else, we can provide loving support as they respond to the demands of the living spirit. Please don’t hold back from nudging us awake.

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