Isaiah 9.1-4; Matthew 2.1-12
We’re in the season of Epiphany … a season of discovery … represented by the Wise Men of the East … who traveled long, who traveled far, watching the night sky for a sign …
They came to Bethlehem to lay down their gifts … warned by an angel of Herod’s true intent, they return home by another road … when Herod finds out, he’s mad as hell, and lays waste to the little town and all of it’s children.
What else is new?
Herod’s rage … despotic rulers, those who imagine they can control time and manage the universe with their ruthless and uncaring power - they stop at nothing; will do anything, to protect their power
Thank God:
There is always another way home, after we’ve been to Bethlehem.
I’m reminded of one my favorite Bible stories: Paul and Timothy head to Bithynia, but the story adds: the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them, so … they went down to Troas …
During the night, in Troas, Paul had a vision: a man of Macedonia standing before him, pleading with Paul - Come to Macedonia to help us.
Is there anyone here who hasn’t had their plans upset by the unexpected?
The road ahead blocked … no way forward … stymied, stuck, stalled … the poet says: the best laid plans of mice and men often go astray …
The Book of Proverbs says: The human mind plans the way, but the LORD directs the steps.
Proverbs puts it this way: Prepare your work outside, get everything ready for you in the field, and after that build your house.
In other words, first things first …
Which is easier said than done … we are distracted by glittery things … something of small importance appears to be of great value.
Consumer specialists understand how this works … if it’s not one thing we want, then it’s another … and we need it now, or so we think … before we know it, what we wanted so badly, ends up in next summer’s garage sale …
I’ve been there … the urge to get something at the spur of the moment … from QVC to ads on YouTube, and for me, the best book ever on theology …
Buy it now; it’s so easy - “one-click” shopping - our phones, our computers, linked to our credit cards … boom … just like that, a click away, it’s on its way, delivered tomorrow, at our doorstep.
First things first … I don’t know how to make that work clearly … nor how to say it well … but the words of Scripture prove worthy:
Do not worry, says Jesus, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’ … your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But strive first for the kingdom of God and God’s righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
Part of what we’re doing here, in person, via YouTube, we’re working to have good priorities.
Again, the words of Jesus: Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
We are creatures who make plans … we forecast the future … hold a wet finger in the wind to see which way it’s blowing.
We’re the bowler arcing the ball down for that perfect strike … we’re fly fishing for rainbow trout, and we read the river … we fall in love and dream in technicolor …
But it won’t always work … we know that!
The best laid plans are sometimes thwarted …
The Wise Men were nearly undone by Herod’s evil …
Life, with all of its twists and turns …
Illness pays us an unexpected visit … the loss of a job, the turn of an economy; a pandemic … the relentless march time … circumstances of our own undoing, and sometimes our undoing by circumstances out of our hands.
The suffering in Ukraine … other parts of the world … hopes and dreams smashed, reduced to burned ruble, in the ruins of war … unimaginable heartache and loss … and what a price the children pay.
In the face of such loss, I don’t know what I would do, what I would think, how I would react.
Would I still trust in God?
“Trust in God!” … we say!
Easy to do when the sun shines, and the roof ain’t leaking.
But harder to do when things fall apart …
When death is in the air.
When loss overwhelms us.
There is always another way home …
Over the years, I’ve been privileged to hear stories … folks make it … love finds a way … healing, hope, a new day … as with Paul - if not Bithynia, there’s always Troas … if Herod stands in the way, there’s another way home.
God provides … God provides for Jesus in the wilderness, after 40 days of harrowing deprivation …
The Wise Men were given another way home …
Paul was given Troas.
Hope abounds …
But hope needs reality …
and reality can be utterly daunting:
Not everyone finds their way out …
Not everyone escapes …
The horrors of war, the cruelties of history can win the day.
Little Anne Frank dies in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. And what did she do to deserve that?
A journalist gunned down in Ukraine.
The sun is no longer shining … only clouds and gloom.
Despair fills our souls … fear and trembling at every turn of the hour … faith grasps for meaning … and sometimes faith curls up and dies.
But it’s the consensus of the ages - God proves faithful, even in the midst of hell - the Creed puts it well, if not strangely, he descended into hell - there to break the final power, and establish the kingdom of light … to forge another way home for a whole lot of people who need “another way.”
God’s faithfulness extends far and beyond the boundaries of time … we belong to God, in life and in death … in body and in soul … forever, and a day.
There is always another way home … a route, a path, a highway … a river, a road, a trail … in time, and in eternity, forever and a day … because God is love, and we are loved unto life.
We will get there … and to God be the glory. Amen
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