Another Road

Another Road
Sunday, January 8 2012 EpiphanyB Matthew 2:1-12



It was July 1985.

My new used previously owned by a little old lady who never drove it Buick Skylark was packed with all of my earthly belongings, including my guitar, my favorite books, a few clothes, and picture albums. And then, I just drove away, across North Dakota, through Minnesota, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Georgia into Florida, and across the state to the Atlantic coast to my first job ever as a college graduate. And I made it without a cell phone or GPS, which now when I think upon this, is a wonder of all wonders.

And looking back, I am amazed. What was I thinking? A midwestern 20 year old moving about as far away as I could from family and friends and anything familiar. However, in spite of being naive and clueless, I knew that I was being pulled, pulled, yes even guided to this particular job as a youth minister in a Presbyterian Church--even though I was Lutheran, even though I didn’t know what grits were and even though I really had a very hard time understanding people when they spoke with thick Southern drawls. My boss was aloof, (but kind)...even though I had no idea how to be a youth minister in a church (I never even had gone to youth group before) except for some volunteer work in a youth organization in college.

And yet, I think that journey to that foreign land of Florida where it was hot and muggy all of the time, and people were crazy about Gators and Seminole football, and where people actually ATE gator tail and boiled peanuts and pickled pigs feet, well, that journey was to a sort of Bethlehem...a place that changed everything and shaped me. God pulled me there, to that city of live oaks dripping with spanish moss filled with chiggers...I followed a hunch, and it was transformative. Oh my, and once I landed there, there were so many guiding stars that led me on different journeys, on other roads....and my faith was formed and deepened and opened, and somehow, circuitously and over time, that journey finds me here, in this moment...

What about you?
What sorts of roads have you traveled that led you into something that changed you more than you ever thought? How did you get here, today, to this moment? How is it that you find yourself in this place in your life, where being at worship with a Beloved Community, being in faithful relationship in a Christian community matters to you? In short, how has grace lured you here, to this space and time in your life?

Some of you are here because of guiding stars in your lives, and some of you have followed hunches or your guts. Some of you know that God called you here. Some of you maybe have no idea how you got to this place in your life, but you are grateful to be here. Or not. Some of you have been lured to this place by bands of heavenly angels (like the shepherds in Luke’s gospel) ,and some of you in this place in your life because of a weird anomaly, a blip in the sky, (like the Wise Ones).

You see, friends, this is, in part, what the Epiphany story is all about. It’s about Journey, about seeking, about finding, about asking others where you might find, and being on a journey together. It’s about God, being willing to do pretty much anything to be in touch with us--for God wishes to be known, and will pretty much do what it takes so that we might brush up against God’s mystery and be transformed by it. (Crimson Rambler, blogpost, 1.7.12)

Indeed, Epiphany becomes a celebration about God’s revelation to unexpected people-- like the Wise ones from the east.

In antiquity,
these foreigners from the East were NOT models of religious piety.
They were magicians, fortune tellers, star-gazers, astrologers. Heretics. They didn’t worship the Right God. They were the wrong race, the wrong religion, the wrong denomination. They don’t know how to really worship--as in Jewish practices, or Greek practices of the day. The gifts they gave, although lovely, were actually elements used in their magic. In fact, these Magi would have been, much better models of unbelief and false trust, rather than models of faith. And yet, Matthew, makes them the heros of one of the first stories in his book about Jesus the Christ.

Again, dare I say it? Epiphany is a celebration of God’s revelation to unexpected people--magi and shepherd, to outcasts and enemies and those on the margin. Not necessarily to the elite, the powerful, the most religious, the most holy. It’s about God, not appearing in power or spreadsheets or business practices or the most qualified and gifted, but appearing, intuitively, to the least, the lost, and the broken. The most vulnerable. (Bruce Epperly)--and yes, even to us, sitting in these pews, the seekers and the skeptics and cynics and believers. Why? Because God--because Love-- wishes to be known.

Do you have any idea how revolutionary this is?
How incredibly extravagant, no holds barred, risky this is?

So what does this Epiphany message whisper to us, an unruly and tame bunch of New England Congregationalists, struggling to balance a budget, to offer welcome, to be a presence, to love one another, to love the least of these?

It calls to us to look at the Magi, and what it meant to them to to find God’s presence in that stable--they were overwhelmed with Joy, so much so that they fell to their knees with awestruck humility. Meeting the Christ sent them home by another way--a new way, a different way.

The Epiphany message whispers to us that we ought to follow our guts, look for God’s leading in tiny signs and in unexpected voices, so that we might might be transformed by Love. When have we last “risked” with no holds bars so that others (the fringe) might know they are beloved? When have we dared to make a bold decision that might backfire, or might not? When have we listened to our collective intuition, or something as silly as a guiding star?

Dear ones, YOU are in an interim, transitional, liminal place. An Epiphany place, if you will. You are full of God’s grace and love, and yet you are being called to new directions as a church. You are asking defining questions about who you are uniquely called to serve, you are discerning different ways of being in ministry together. You love the journey you have been on, and you love the ‘Eliot Way’ and your fierce independence. And yet, no matter how you got here, there will be other roads to travel as you seek to be God’s people in the 21st century.

But the best thing about this Epiphany, is that God will do what it takes to show us the way--with hosts of angels and a sky full of guiding stars.

Our lives are filled with journeys, sisters and brothers.
Stop for a moment, again, and think about the journeys that have shaped and formed you, the journeys that have brought you to your knees in gratitude and sheer wonder, the journeys that have made you go in different directions and new roads...think about all of the guiding stars and angels that have lead you....

It is the same for our Church, for we are the church. We can look on our past, and marvel at the guiding stars of our past.
The risk-takers that built this building in 1957.
The risk-takers that made bold decisions to become Open and Affirming.
The risk takers that back in 1845 decided to actually become a new Christian Community.
We are full of sacred journeys...
which I would argue is really the point.

There is a new church start congregation whose final words of their covenant I find are incredibly resonant for the 21st century:

In our faithful sojourning

We do not walk alone.
God is present with us.

We have not yet arrived.
God continues to beckon.

We seek no destination. The sacred journey is our home. (UPUCC Covenant)

May our life together continue to be one of new roads and sacred journeys. Amen.