New Paths for New Days
A
Sermon on Matthew 2:1-12
For
Epiphany Sunday (Jan 5, 2020)
For
the Beloveds of First Austin: a baptist community of faith
Incarnate and Coming Christ, we ask
that you once again take the Word and transform it into a living and breathing
new reality we can all together experience. Make us aware of your presence here
in this space and in these words God, for if we are present to you then nothing
else will matter, but if we are not present to you then nothing else will
matter. In the name of the Creator, the Christ and the Comforter. Amen.
I
always feel like a joy kill this particular day, the bearer of bad news when I
have to remind us of a very important truth: we know very little about the wise men and what we think we know is largely conjecture and myth. For instance,
they were not at the manger; they come to Jesus not when he is a newborn, but
when he is a toddler, which means almost every nativity set in this country
needs to be 3 pieces fewer. Which, speaking of three, we don’t know there were
three; we just know there were three gifts. And then the big one – there is no
evidence to say that they were kings. In fact, the best title we can give them
based on the evidence we have is they were stargazers.
It’s
an interesting group of folks who are included at the beginning of Jesus’
story. You have the shepherds, the nobodies, who get there first and that is book-ended by these stargazers. Perhaps they did have the title Wise Men, but if
they did it’s because they were actually good stargazers – they knew how to
read and interpret the skies and the stars, they knew how to read fortunes and
how to write horoscopes. This is fascinating because of how many times in the
Old Testament we are warned against folks like this. Oh, and to add to it, they
are Gentiles too, adding a whole other layer of exclusion.
And
yet, those who should be excluded… well, they are included – chains shall he
break. The Gospel begins by breaking the rules and including those we have been
cautioned not to include. Which means,
if we are looking for God in our world today, one of the first places we might
begin is with those whom the church and the world is excluding… because often
that is where God is.
And
not only are the stargazers included, they serve as some sort of example for us.
There is something about them and their actions that need to inspire us and our
actions. This is where it gets really complicated for me. Most of you know I am
very Type A. I am someone who immensely enjoyed reading and doing the work of The
Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up. I am someone who keeps a running to-do
list and a calendar of when things are due and when I need to be working on
things. I am very organized; go look at my office bookshelves anytime. I prefer
to keep my email inbox empty and I love a well-organized system. It’s sickening
and exhausting.
And
stargazers are about as opposite of that as you can get. It’s literally a
‘which way is the wind blowing’ type situation; it’s an openness to anything
and everything that might be possible; order is thrown out the window,
predictability is gone, control is gone. Patterns are there but it’s a bit
chaotic. Order is there but order includes seeing a new star that you have
never seen and that you know nothing about and suddenly going on a trip that
you were not planning on so that you can figure out what that star is all
about, and being ready to go on that trip in no time and you are not really sure
where you are going or what you are going to find and you don’t know how long
you are going to be there or what the weather is going to be there or what type
of dining and activities to expect. This is not me. I mean, how would one even
write a packing list for that trip? And that worry of mine shows you all you
need about how far I am from a stargazer because I can promise they did not
write a packing list. They would probably look at me as confused and perplexed
by that suggestion as Abby did the first time we packed together, and I asked
her where her packing list was.
But
off they go, with all these unknowns. And they travel day by day by day getting
closer (they think) to the star. Until eventually they reach Jerusalem; so
close but so far at the same time. They are off by about 9 miles. However, this
makes sense. After all, they don’t have Waze and Google maps; they have a star.
And
as people who would have been aware of a lot of religious information,
Jerusalem makes sense. It’s a thin place in our world, a place where it seems
the veil between our world and the divine is quite thin. However, when they get
there, it’s not there. Even though they don’t know what it is yet, but whatever
it is, it’s not present there.
And
then one night they are up late, studying the stars again and talking about
where they find themselves, and one of them remembers that prophesy from the
Wisdom literature and Prophets, one of the many religions they have studied,
about a star and king of the Jews. So, they start asking around, who can help
us make sense of that? Now talking like that gets them more noticed by the
current king, King Herod, because that language of a new king is treason (kings
don’t like people vying for their position of power). So, it does not take long
for the king to discover there are these guys looking for the new king.
So,
he calls them to his palace and asks all sorts of flattering questions, and
then he makes it official: can this be a King’s errand? Can they go and find
this new King and then report back at once to him because he can’t wait to go
find this new King and worship him, he says with manipulative eyes.
So
off to Bethlehem they go, and it’s there they find Christ. And we don’t know
much about the encounter, except it changes them forever (of course, what more
is there really to say beyond it changed them forever? If you can’t say that of
a Christ encounter, maybe you need to ask if it was a Christ encounter). And
they go home another way, they do not go back to the king, they go a new route
on new roads.
The
world was one way and then in one meeting suddenly the world was another way.
To quote Hamilton, the world turned upside down.
I
think the same thing can apply to us today. We find ourselves at the dawn of a
new decade; suddenly we are in the 20s. And 2020 looks so different than 2010.
Just think, in 2010 Netflix was a company that delivered us movies in the mail,
and this year they will likely win an Oscar for the movie they produced and
created with Martin Scorsese (just think about that, the red envelope DVD
service changed so quickly to a film company and had the power to work with the
greatest director of our time). Or think about Facebook in 2010. For most of us
it was a place we shared photos of our vacation, and it has now become so
powerful we don’t know how to regulate its powers over our democracy. Think
about the phrase “Me Too,” and how it has improved workplace politics. Think
about Tinder and how it has transformed modern dating. Think about hashtag – in
2010 it was known as the pound sign. And then there are all the changes we have
seen in politics; think how different our world looked 10 years ago. And then
there are all the changes we have seen in religion; just think how different
our church looked 10 years ago.
The
world has turned upside down; we are in a new world and a new place. And for
some of us we celebrate this because this all feels so right, and there are
things worth celebrating. And for others of us we feel lost all the time and we
can’t keep up and we fear we are moving backwards. What we all feel is the
newness and the change.
And
to both of those we have an invitation this day – find Christ anew and find a
new path forward, to be a stargazer.
And
to be a stargazer, we must see which way the Spirit is blowing… seems like we
have heard that somewhere before, like the third chapter of John from the lips
of Jesus. We must remember that part of the call of faith is an openness to
anything and everything that might be possible… seems like we have experienced
that before with the Resurrection. We need to remember that patterns are here
and there, but the pattern is love and love dances a strange, big dance. We
must remember that there is order, but it’s chaotic at best and messy as can be
(see the church in the New Testament).
Today
calls for a new way of Christ-following. Just think about church again. How we
have done things is not working anymore. The old ways of doing evangelism are
gone. The ways of growing the church have ceased to grow the church. The old
schedule of times for when church could happen have been taken from us. Our
language for how to describe church is gone – just think, when people ask you
to describe this community, how often do we fall into that horrible trap of
saying who we are not? Our position of power is gone.
And
maybe it goes even deeper than that; I expect it does. Maybe the old way you
prayed is no longer working. Maybe the way you once related to God does not fit
quite as well anymore. Maybe your spiritual practices are no longer filling
you. Maybe the theology you grew up on has sprung a leak. The questions you
could put aside are now central and can’t be put aside any longer. The God and
Christ and Spirit you thought you knew seems to be shifting.
Today
calls for a new way of Christ-following. New wine in new wineskins, again from
the lips of Jesus in three of the Gospels.
And
to be honest, even though it’s scary and goes against my type A personality, I
am okay with this calling for new work. After all, the story that we are
celebrating this season is all about a world that was quickly changing,
political power was shifting, the way things had been had lived beyond their
expiration date. The world of work, politics and religion was shifting quickly…
and in the middle and the midst of that, God chose that exactly then was the
perfect time for Love to be born in a manger and for a star to appear, the star
that our wonderful poet Dante described with these words: “the love that moves
the stars.” It was a time of mass change, that Jesus came to us.
New
paths for new days. New wine for new wineskins.
Which
means our call is to listen; our call is to imagine; our call is to be open;
our call is to pray; our call is to stay committed; our call is to keep loving
and to follow the stars. God is going to lead us where we need to go, and it
might not happen as fast as we want. It’s going to happen with us continuing to
say yes to God, and it’s going to continue with every small act of love
that we commit. It’s how God has always worked, and I anticipate that this is
one thing that is not going to change. A call to listen, imagine, pray, stay
faithful, keep loving, to follow the stars, to say yes to God and to do small
acts of love.
And
we will look up and those new paths will have taken us exactly where we need to
go.
Yes,
as a type A person, I wish I had a better answer and plan. I like a map with
directions and the whole journey laid out. It’s Anne Lamott who once wrote that
she prefers a spotlight when it comes to what’s next, a spotlight that would
shine from where she currently stands to where she is going; however, God gives
us a flashlight and it’s not even a great flashlight. It does not shine across
the room, but it shines to right in front of our feet, lighting up the next
step we are called to take.
And
yet, here is the hope: step by step, each step fully lit, we get to exactly
where we need to be.
So
may be stargazers, because stargazers change the world by faithful small steps
into the unknown. Amen and Amen.
*artwork: The Three Kings, painting by Miki De Goodaboom, miki-fonvielle.pixels.com
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