Four years ago, I walked into this building for the first time. The late afternoon sun gleamed through those windows over there, pouring gold all over the avocado green shag carpeting that covered these floors. As I stood up here on the chancel for the 1st time that day, I took in the serene feel of this room and envisioned 3 things: The shag carpeting gone, people in the pews, and a door back there, with a porch and a ramp leading up to it.

The carpet & the people were no problem. That all happened remarkably quickly. But the door and the porch and the ramp was not so quick. It took a long time to make that entry happen, and that's a whole other story — one that's not quite done yet, to tell you the truth. But that's not what I want to talk about this morning — I want to talk about visions.

From that first day, every time I walked into this room, through that door over there, it seemed odd to me because I saw a door over there. I saw a door where there was only a window. Every time. I saw the double glass doors there as clearly as I can see them now. I saw an entry to this house of God that everyone could enter, not just people who could climb stairs. And pretty soon a lot of people began to see a door there. It was as if that doorway already existed in another dimension and all we had to do was to pull it out of that one and put it in this one.

And, well, there it is: A door, a porch and a ramp. An entryway that is welcoming and accessible to all, a point of access for everyone. The vision became reality. Not overnight, but it happened. And many of you here have never known another entryway to this place. That's how visions work.

Dreams are not the same as visions, although we often use the words interchangeably. There's an important difference between a vision and a dream. Dreams are most often constructed of the stuff our complicated little brains set free when we fall asleep and drift from the bonds of the gravity of daily life. Although visions can manifest in dreams - and even daydreams, those dozy daylight reveries of fantasy - a vision is neither dream nor day dream. A vision is nothing short of a glimpse into the possibilities of God.

You see, I never dreamed of putting that door in there. It never came to me at night while I slept. No. That door, in fact this whole church, was a vision - not just my vision, but the vision of a whole lot of folks who were wide awake and open to the possibilities of God. That door, this church, is an honest to God vision…It is a view into what can-and will-happen when human beings pay attention to the movement of God in the world.

Back in 1872, just a few years after the Civil War came to a close, Julia Ward Howe, a poet, suffragist, and social reformer, had a vision. Julia envisioned the establishment of a day to honor mothers — women who understood the cost of war and who attempted to bring the brutality and injustice of armed conflict to an end. Some 30 years later, Anna Jarvis picked up the cause. Anna was dedicated to the memory of her mother who had been an activist for peace and reconciliation following the Civil War. Thanks to their efforts, and the efforts of countless others, in 1914, after World War One, "The War to End All Wars", President Woodrow Wilson finally declared Mother's Day a national holiday. Unfortunately the day's anti-war consciousness quickly degenerated into such a maudlin commercialization that its early advocates could only shake their heads in despair.

Today, I too shake my head in despair — not just because Mother's Day has lost its vision, but because this whole country seems to have lost its vision. It has been over a year since the onset of "Shock and Awe"-remember that? Well this week, I have watched with shock and horror as the stories of Abu Ghraib prison have floated to the surface of the cesspool that is the war in Iraq. I know that my feelings of revulsion and outrage are widely shared in this room and around the world, for that matter.

Somewhere, somehow, the vision of America, the good, the just, and the free has been lost. Maybe it started to slip away on September 11th, 2001, but it seems to me that the vision has been slipping away for years. I don't rightly know.

But what I do know is this: The war in Iraq was predicated on lies and it is running on lies. And I know that good men and women: Americans, Iraqis, Brits, Salvadorans, Japanese and others are suffering and dying because of the lies and in defense of the lies.

And as a woman of faith — as a Christian, I stand before you today, on this sacred day of peace and reconciliation to say ENOUGH! Enough of the lies. Enough of the deaths. Enough of the humiliations. Enough of the arrests without warrants and the imprisonments with trials. Enough!! Enough of the lies and the death-dealing vengeance that lies beget. Enough.

It is time for every man and woman of every faith to stand up to the lies and stand up for peace. It is time for every one of us to stand up for justice. It is most certainly time for us to stand up and embrace the visions of our Christian faith.

Isaiah 42: "I am God: I am the source of all life—Listen to me!!! I chose you to bring justice. I selected you to bring light and my promise of hope to the world. You will give sight to the blind. You will set prisoners free from dark dungeons."

The prophet Isaiah was writing almost 3,000 years ago, yet what he wrote about the events of his day are every bit as applicable to our day: Wars, injustice, people in authority abusing their power and refusing to accept responsibility for their actions. This kind of behavior was unacceptable to God then and it is unacceptable to God now.

Hear Isaiah again: "God was furious with them and punished their nation with the fires of way - still they paid no attention - they didn't even care when they were surrounded and scorched by flames."

Brothers and sisters, the flames are close, and I am afraid they will get even closer, and I care deeply - and you care deeply. And I pray that it is not too late to quench the fires of war that rage all around us.

These are grim, shameful, sinful times. And if I were not a woman of faith it would be totally possible to collapse in despair or to engage in the hideous game of justification that so many are playing right now.

But I am a woman of faith, and I read the words of my Bible and within these pages I find not only judgment, but hope.

Isaiah also writes: "My name is Yahweh: I will be who I will be. For a long time I have held my temper, now I will scream and groan like a woman in labor." "I will destroy the mountains" - I will destroy all the barriers and obstructions on earth… "I will dry up the rivers and ponds" - I will bring an end to the forces of confusion and chaos. "I will take you visionless people on roads you have never known and guide you on paths you have never traveled. The road is dark and rough but I promise I will show you the way." Those are powerful words of promise of God from the prophet Isaiah.

The Gospel of John today tells us simply: "I am giving you a new command: You must love each other as I have loved you - and if you do that, the world will know who you are and whose you are: people of God."

You see, even in this dark and treacherous time, I absolutely believe that God is with us and is willing to lead us and is wanting to guide us - if only we will step up, open up, and simply love one another enough to do what we have to do to bring justice to this world. If only we can love one another enough to do what we have to do to bring light and hope to the nations. If only we can love one another enough to give vision to those who cannot see the promises of God. If only we can love one another enough to set the prisoners free from the dungeons of places like Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib. If only we can love one another enough.

The visions of the Prophet Isaiah and the visions of Jesus, the one I know to be the Messiah, are powerful visions. But there is one more vision for us to consider this morning - the final vision of a man living on an island some 70 years following the death of Christ. John of Patmos lived in a time of great violence, war and oppression. Yet he saw an extraordinary vision of a new heaven and a new earth -and it is this vision that I hang onto this day. John's vision includes a voice from heaven:

"Behold! God has moved into our world. Even now, God lives in our midst and is making all things new-death and pain and grief and humiliation and suffering and tears - all of these will be things of the past. For God has moved in with us and is making all things new."

I embrace that vision of a new heaven and a new earth. I embrace to that vision passionately and confidently. I embrace that vision and I offer it to you today because if we don't embrace it, we turn our backs on God and everything that God offers us. I embrace the vision of a new earth and a new heaven and offer it to you because if we don't live into the possibilities of God, we will sink into the slime of lies and death.

If we don't commit ourselves to loving one another and doing the things we need to do to right the wrongs that are being done in our name, if we don't just call our senators and representatives, and our president and say "Enough lies, enough killing, enough humiliation, degradation and shame" then who are we?? We are the complacent and the complicit.

On this Mother's Day, let us embrace not the nightmares of greed and vengeance, not the conquest dreams of George Bush, Dick Cheney & Donald Rumsfeld. Let us embrace the visions of Julia Ward Howe. Let us embrace the visions of Isaiah, and let us embrace the visions of John of Patmos. Above all, let us embrace the visions of Christ. And perhaps when we do we will have the capacity to fly, soar in the light of God, and bring some healing to our suffering, beautiful world.

In the name of all the mothers who have ever loved their children, Amen.

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