January 03, 2010

If you worship in a denomination that makes note of the liturgical seasons, you know that Christmas is observed for twelve full days.  You know the season begins on December 25^th with the birth of the Christ child and ends just before the arrival of the wise men which we celebrate on January 6^th with the Feast of the Epiphany.  You know we begin Christmas by setting out the crèche with figures representing the essential participants of the nativity, the angels, the shepherds, Mary, Joseph and the baby wrapped in bands of cloth.  You know the Christmas season has concluded when the greens are put on the fire.  This is how Christmas is honored in the church.  In the world, outside the church, the holiday is definitely, absolutely over tomorrow.  New Year’s has come and gone. The weekend right up against New Year’s Day is passing quickly.  Tomorrow school buses roll again.  Businesses will expect folk at their desks.  Year end reports will be signed.  First quarter projections will be inked in.  Life will resume its focused, quick pace.  The warmth and lightened spirit of Christmas will soon be replaced with determination and deadlines. 

Life in the post-Christmas world is stressful and complicated.  We live complex lives where we make hundreds of decisions each day.  What do I have for breakfast?  Which shirt do I put on?  Do these shoes match these pants?  Will I need this notebook?  Has that meeting been cancelled or is it on again?  Which doctor’s office do I visit today?  We are far removed from the society where we hunted and gathered, where we rolled off a mat, ate the only option in the cupboard, a hunk of bread, and left for the day’s work with only one appointment and one assignment.  Meet with an antelope, bring it home to roast.  No, today we face many demands.  We confront a sea of options.  Our time and our focus is assaulted with possibilities.  We make choice after choice.  We decide and reason, formulate and speculate.  It’s all rather taxing and in the middle of this pressure to make good selections, we sometimes yearn for the easy way out.  Sometimes a clear, simple answer is wanted.  Sometimes we want a yes, no, either, or solution to the presenting dilemma.  In this complex, multidimensional, modern world a few absolutes are appreciated.  Is the switch on or off?  Is the organism dead or alive?  Is the person asleep or awake.  We like those clear dichotomies.  Just trying to give our overly stimulated minds a break, we look for the black and white truths. 

Alas, dear ones, the black and white truths are becoming more and more elusive.  A trip to Home Depot illustrates the point.  On the paint chart wall there are 32 shades of black.  There are 35 shades of white and then there is the scary dilemma of gray!  And not just one gray, but a whole series of shades of not quite black / not quite white!  In our lives, most of the important issues we face are not answered by absolutes.  Like it or not, we spend a lot of time wading through, swimming through the gray.  Because in real life, truths seem to fall on a continuum.  Context, perspective and experience influence our reality, our sense of truth.  If you have a half million dollar mortgage and an $80,000 salary, you feel broke.  If you’ve been sharing an apartment with three friends and land an $80,000 job, you feel incredibly flush.  If you are 6’5”, 6’ isn’t tall.  If you are 5’5”, 6’ is a significant height.  On, off, black, white is not where we live our lives.  Points along the long line of continuum is where we generally reside.

This is true about faith as well.  Now, some people will argue, loudly, pointedly, fervently, that belief is absolute.  Either one does or one doesn’t have a firm grasp on their faith and if one isn’t always and ever in control of their belief, then they are faithless.  In this view, there is no place for doubt, questions, movement or even growth.  It’s an all or nothing, switch on or off proposition.  This construct is neat but it lacks authenticity.  In the world, in the world today and in the world through the ages, people have understood God in various degrees.  They have aligned themselves along a continuum.  On the question of faith, there are atheists who say there is no God, no supreme being, no originating creator.  Further down the line are the deists who believe in a God, who say there is a power greater than man, who brought forth the universe, but this suprabeing is a creating agent and after that work, has little interest in the result.  The Deist believes God made the world and then moved on to other pursuits.  Moving along the line are believers who understand God as a creating force who stays invested in his handiwork.  They see God as engaged with the world and with the activity of human societies.  They believe God cares about the well-being of his creation over time.  He checks in from age to age and intervenes in large pivotal events. 

Following these believers are religious folk who understand God as an active agent in the universe, present at all times somewhere in the world.  When they are in trial or trouble, or in the throes of great joy, God comes to them.  God moves from person to person, important event to crises wherever he is most needed.  God is active, interested, but very busy.  He isn’t to be bothered with the mundane or inconsequential.

Far, far down the continuum are the deeply spiritual folk who understand God as truly omnipotent and omnipresent.  They believe God is not only active and interested in the world he created, but he is intimately connected with every creation he brought forth from the beginning of all time.  In their view, God is big enough, powerful enough that he can be present to every individual, every hour, every minute of every day and still have energy and focus left over.  He can be in devastation of war, bringing calm to scared soldiers, and on the soccer field, taking the SATs, and in the operating room in Dubai and San Francisco.  The great crises and the daily dilemmas are under his purview and he handles them all with ease.  These people see God’s movement in their lives in frequent, tangible ways.  They don’t call on him in moments of distress and exhilaration only.  They look to him in the routine Tuesday activity.  These faithful folk expect signs and direction and they are not disappointed.  In all the decisions that press upon them, they look for good council and genuine care.  They believe God is vested in their well-being.  They believe God is available and pleased to assist in their deliberations.  They pray, converse and wait upon the Lord.

These faithful are open to God’s presence and will in their lives.  They are open to seeing his influence.  They recognize that God is afoot not only in the big signs, the burning bush experiences, the parted seas phenomenon, but also in the pricked conscience and the nagging unease.  They train themselves to pay attention to God incidents.  With practice, they can tell the difference between the voice of their own longing and the better direction God sends them.

We may wonder, are these deeply spiritual folk deluded?  Are they any more reasonable, rational, truth-centered than the atheist among us.  Perhaps they are even less grounded.  Maybe they see signs of God’s presence and interest that come out of their imaginations rather than emanating from divine concern.  Where is the precedent?  What evidence is offered that God is available to us and is actively interested in giving us good council?

Our gospel passage this morning presents one clear example of God’s presence and guidance.  Consider the account.  Wise men, preeminent thinkers, scholars, learned, detached observers are dispatched to collect evidence, to search out and determine truth.  They have a reasoned plan and a clear mission.  They are skilled and confident.  They set out.  They follow a predetermined course.  They find what they are looking for.  They are not surprised or dumbfounded.  Their inquiry is undertaken.  Their expectations are met.  They are about to return to make their report.  Then their plans changed.  These rational, skilled wise men altered their course.  Because these rational, skilled wise men were open, open to the possibility of God and God’s presence in their lives, they received new, unexpected direction.  Apart from their personal discernment, they received new, improved, important insight.  Because they were wise men, they didn’t disregard this unusual turn of events.  They were willing to admit their human limitations.  They were willing to accept the possibility and potential power and knowledge of God.  They were willing to follow this possibility.  They returned home by another road.  They followed another path, a new course, a way given to them by God. Because they were open to seeing God, their lives were changed and the course of human history changed. They departed. They did not report to Herod. Time was given. Mary, Joseph and Jesus escaped Herod’s soldiers and the slaughter of the innocents.  Jesus survived.  The world was changed because the wise men perceived wisely, reacted wisely. 

Friends, wherever we find ourselves on the faith continuum, the goal is to move towards deeper truth.  Our charge is to perceive and act wisely.  Truth is found when we are open to evidence, when we embrace possibilities.  Nearing the close of Christmas, approaching the coming, spreading light of Epiphany, embarking on the New Year in a new decade, let us be as the wise men -- open, alert, willing.  Let us be ready to see, hear and heed God’s call to us.  Let us be prepared to travel with God by another road.

Amen.