"Dream Dreams that are Bigger" (sermon)

Two Rivers Pastoral Charge
Sunday September 13, 2026 – Church Picnic
Scripture Reading:  John 14:12-16, 25-31
Dr. Seuss Connection:  Oh! The Places You’ll Go!

This year, we are having a Seussian Summer – each week during the Story for All Ages, we will be reading a different Dr. Seuss book, then pairing it with scripture to see what wisdom we might find within its pages.

 

The book, Oh! The Places You’ll Go! is often given as a gift to graduating students – especially to students who are graduating from high school or from university as they prepare for their next major step in life.  It is a book that offers both deep encouragement – you’ll get there, I know that you will! – as well as a dose of reality – it isn’t going to be easy, every step of the way.

It is a great book to read at the transition points in life – transitioning from high school to college or university, or transitioning from higher education to proper grown-up life.

And this point in time, our September church picnic, is a bit of a mini-transition point in the life of our church.  The summer is always a more relaxed pace around the church, a bit of a sabbath time for many of our groups and committees.  But September is when we tend to jump back in with both feet, jumping back into the business of being the church.  Even though the new year won’t begin on the calendar until January, and even though the new year won’t begin in the church calendar until Advent, the beginning of September always feels like a new year, a fresh start, a new beginning.  So this is a transition point for us as the church, as well as for all of the students and new graduates out there.

And I think that much of the wisdom of this book holds true for us too.  Oh!  The places we could go, as the church!  Oh!  The things that we could do as the church!  We are only limited by our ability to imagine, our ability to dream, our ability to say “yes” to wherever the Holy Spirit is leading us.

What might us back from this?  Maybe sometimes it is fear – fear of something new, or fear of the work that it might take us to get there. Dr. Seuss points out to us that the path isn’t always easy.

Maybe sometimes it is nostalgia for the way that things were.  But the thing about the past is that it has passed.  We can’t go back to the way that things were, but if we get trapped in cycles of longing to recreate the past, then we’ll never get to experience the beautiful future.

And I thought that Dr. Seuss had another very insightful moment in the book, when our character gets stuck in the waiting room – waiting for something to happen, waiting for someone else to do something, waiting for… anything.  But if we, as the church, are only ever waiting for something to happen, rather than reaching out and grasping our future with both hands, then nothing will ever happen.

But I deeply believe, with every fibre of our being, that God isn’t done with us yet, that God has a future for us, and that this future is going to be new and beautiful and exciting.  Oh! The places we’ll go as we dance with the Spirit.

For the Holy Spirit is our dance partner all the way!  We aren’t on this journey alone.  The scripture passage that Rose read for us today comes from the very end of Jesus’s life – we’re in Maundy Thursday at this point, and after Jesus finishes talking to his disciples, they are going to go out to the garden and Jesus is going to be arrested.

But even on his last night alive, Jesus promises his disciples that he isn’t going to leave them alone.  They are going to have an Advocate, a helper, the Holy Spirit.  And through the Holy Spirit, the church is going to be able to do far more than Jesus, just one person, could do in his short life.

Dear Church, you can do this!
I know that it’s true!
The Spirit is with you
in all that you do!
Dream dreams that are bigger
than ever before;
Imagine a future,
and then dream some more!
Oh! the places you’ll go!
Oh! the things you will do!
The Spirit is with you,
She makes all things new!
Let’s dance with the Spirit;
our future – embrace;
leap in with all gladness;
our fears – let’s erase.
Dear Church – you can do this!
It’s plain, and it’s clear!
God’s love, it will guide us,
for God’s always near.