IF  YOU  GOT  A  DREAM, 

SCREAM  IT! 

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this 16^th Friday in Ordinary Time is, “If You Got a Dream, Scream It.”

In looking up some stuff for a homily for today for the gospel story of The Parable of the Sower, I found a quote from the prophet Jeremiah that I never saw before: “Let the prophet who has a dream, tell the dream....” Jeremiah 23: 28.

Let me basically say some words about that text for a homily for today.

The simplicity of that quote grabbed me. On second thought, for me the word “dream” comes with great baggage. I think of Doctor Martin Luther King Jr’s “I Have a Dream” sermon and Langston Hughes “A Dream Deferred” poem.

“Let the prophet who has a dream, tell the dream....” Jeremiah 23: 28.

So that dream theme text is my homily thought for today.

That text has the possibility for a sermon about the reality that we have our dreams, expectations, and our hopes. 

More dreams - less nightmares.

Nightmares are too much with us. Just watch and listen to the local evening news at 10 PM every night - out of every big city. We notice the first 5 stories are 5 murders, shootings or fires. It’s not the stuff of dreams, but the stuff of nightmares.

I dream that TV stations do more work - crime stories are easy to be had - and tell us the Good News happening in our cities and neighborhoods each day.

THE CONTEXT OF JEREMIAH 23: 28

Jeremiah 23:28 is not today’s first reading, but that was the text that hit me while beginning some research for today’s gospel about the Parable of the Sower.

Next, I looked it up and read the whole verse from Jeremiah where we these words about voicing our dreams are located. They all grab me. Listen carefully to these words from Jeremiah:

“Let the prophet

who has a dream,

tell the dream,

but let him who has my word

speak my word faithfully.

What has straw in common with wheat?

says the Lord” (Jeremiah 23: 28)

I had never remembered hearing those words before - including that last question about, “What has straw in common with wheat?”

I’ve gone through Jeremiah many times in life, but I wondered, “Maybe I’m used to other translations, that don’t use the word, `dream’?”

Surprise! Most translations of Jeremiah 23: 28 use the word “dream”. So I guess I’m like the soil that the seed of the word can’t penetrate. I guess I’m that hard earth that Jesus is talking about in today’s gospel when it comes to seed germinating.

DIFFERENT TRANSLATIONS

Let me hit you with some of the translations of Jeremiah 23: 28.

The Jewish Study Bible puts it this way: "Let the prophet who has a dream tell the dream; and let him who has received My word report my word  faithfully! How can straw be compared to grain? - says the Lord."

The Jerusalem Bible puts it this way: “Let the prophet who has had a dream tell his dream as his own. And let him who receives a word from me, deliver it accurately! What have straw and wheat in common? It is Yahweh who speaks.”

As already indicated, The New American Bible puts it this way: “Let the prophet who has a dream, tell the dream, but let him who has my word speak my word faithfully. What has straw in common with wheat? says the Lord” (Jeremiah 23: 28)

The King James Bible puts it this way: “The prophet that hath a dream, let him tell a dream; and he that hath my word, let him speak my word faithfully. What is chaff to the wheat? saith the Lord.”

The New English Bible puts it this way: “If a prophet has a dream, let him tell his dream; if he has a word, let him speak my word in truth. What has chaff to do with grain? says the Lord.”

The New Revised Standard Version puts it this way, “Let the prophet who has a dream tell the dream, but let the one who has my word speak my word faithfully. What has straw in common with wheat? says the Lord.”

JEREMIAH 23:28b-32

I then noticed that the words that follow after that text have power as well.

The Jerusalem Bible states:"Does not my word burn like fire - it is Yahweh who speaks - is it not like a hammer shattering

a rock?" "So. then, I have a quarrel with the prophets - it is Yahweh who speaks -that steal my words from one other.  I have a quarrel with  the prophets- it is Yahweh who speaks - who have only to move tongues to utter oracles.  I have a quarrel with the prophets who make prophesies out of living."

It goes like this in the King James Bible, “Is not my word like as a fire? saith the Lord; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock into pieces? Therefore, behold I am against the prophets, saith the Lord, that use their tongues and say, He saith. Behold I am against them that prophesy false dreams saith the Lord, and do tell them, and cause my people to err by their lies, and by their lightness; yet I sent them not, nor commanded them; therefore they shall not profit this people at all, saith the Lord.”

The New English Bible goes like this, “Do not my words scorch like fire? Says the Lord. Are they not like a hammer that splinters rock? I am against the prophets, says the Lord, who steal my words from one another for their own use.  I am against the prophets, says the Lord, who concoct words of their own and then say, ‘This is his very word.’ I am against the prophets says the Lord, who dream lies and retell them, misleading my people with wild and reckless falsehoods. It was not I who sent them or commissioned them, and they will do this people no good. This is the very word of the Lord.”

The New Revised Standard Version goes like this, “Is not my word like fire, says the Lord, and like a hammer which breaks a rock in pieces? See, therefore, I am against the prophets, says the Lord, who steal my words from one another. See, I am against the prophets, says the Lord who use their own tongues and say, `Says the Lord.’ See, I am against those who prophesy lying dreams, says the Lord, and who tell them and lead my people astray by their lies and their recklessness, when I did not send them or appoint them; so they do not profit this people at all, says the Lord.”

WHAT DOES THE QUESTION ABOUT STRAW AND WHEAT MEAN?

Next, each time I read the 23:28 text, I  wonder about what that  part of the text mean when it compares wheat and straw?

Before going to a commentary, I got an answer when I read the Good News for Modern Man  translation of this section of Jeremiah. With the addition of a few words it made the whole thing make more sense to me. In the first few translations I thought the word dream was referring to something good. We all have our dreams. Well Good News for Modern Man translates the text as follows:  “The prophet who has had a dream should say it is only a dream, but the prophet who has heard my message should proclaim that message faithfully. What good is straw compared with wheat? My message is like a fire and like a hammer that breaks rocks in pieces. I am against those prophets who take each other’s words and proclaim them as my message. I am also against those prophets who speak their own words and claim they came from me. Listen to what I, the Lord, say! I am against the prophets who tell their dreams that are full of lies. They tell these dreams and lead my people astray with their lies and their boasting. I did not send them or order them to go, and they are of no help at all to the people. I, the Lord, have spoken.”

That made it a whole new ball game - a whole new understanding of the text.  

It was the same with The Way. They put it this way, “Let these false prophets tell their dreams and let my true messengers faithfully proclaim my every word. There is a difference between chaff and wheat! Does not my word burn like fire? asks the Lord. Is it not like a mighty hammer that smashed the rock to pieces? So I stand against  these `prophets’ who get their messages from each other - these smooth-tongued prophets who say, `This message is from God!’ Their made-up dreams are flippant lies that lead my people into sin. I did not send them and they have no message at all for my people, says the Lord.”

JESUS THE PROPHET: JESUS THE DREAMER!

Jesus was a dreamer. Jesus was a prophet. His dreams and his prophecy are not false! And at the age of 30 or so he began to tell his dreams - his dreams for the human race, his dreams about how we can begin to live the dream of God. He had a dream about a Kingdom where all people would be foot washers and all would stop to help their brother along the way. He had a dream of a kingdom where brothers and sisters wouldn’t throw rocks, but would forgive 70 times 7 times.

Boom. He experienced the horror of not being listened to.

But he didn’t give up.

PARABLE OF THE SOWER

So he dreamed up the Parable of the Sower. He wanted his listeners to look at themselves - to see which of the 4 types of people they were.

Early Church dreamers and prophets took that same parable and used it to understand their own loneliness in not being heard or not being followed up.

HERE WE ARE TODAY

We today sit here.

Our brains are like a field - and lots of everyday words and experiences are being thrown at us - as if we were a field.

Today’s gospel challenges me to ask what’s sinking in? What am I hearing? What am I missing? Do I still realize Jesus is dreaming big dreams for me?

We have our everyday patterns - our regular ways of doing things - things we never even think of. Eating, drinking, brushing our teeth, our schedules, our robotic things. 

Part of us is shallow. It looks good, but underneath is rock - rock solid patterns that can’t be penetrated or changed.

Part of us is good soil, so good we got our best stuff going and growing there.

And part of us very good soil, soil that is or can be producing 30, 60 and a hundredfold.

Now in those areas where we are robotic, if there are self-destructive patterns or eating or drinking or scheduling, to change is almost impossible. We need conversion there - changing of roads, stop living by rote, stop being a robot. Instead the call is to change our regular patterns that are us. Our grooves, our ruts, must go, that is if they are self-destructive.

In the areas where we are shallow, obviously, we need to purge ourselves - rip up and move out those big boulders of habit that need to be removed - our stumbling blocks, etc.

In those areas where we are alive, we have to look for any weeds that are flourishing, but detrimental to our well-being.

And in those areas where we can or are producing 30, 60 and a 100fold great. More!

CONCLUSION

Jeremiah said, “Let the prophet who has a dream, tell the dream.” Jesus has a dream, have we heard it yet, or are we stone deaf. Or do we have so many rocks or weeds growing within us that we never have time to uproot them as well as planting in our rich soil.