One of the things that frequently happens when we dream during sleep is that in our dreams we find ourselves in a familiar place or situation. We know where we are, yet for some really frustrating and unknown reason, things are just different enough that we're not really sure. In our dream we're about to open a door only to discover that the door isn't where we know it ought to be. Or perhaps we're about to perform a familiar act, and somehow, we just can't do it, and we can't understand why. We keep trying and the more we try the more frustrated we become. Sometimes the frustration becomes so great that we even wake up.

Reading this story from Luke's gospel has something of that same familiar and yet strange quality. We know it, or it feels like we do, and yet, as we read it, we're not qui…