Thursday, January 4, 2018

Journeys

The Rev. Nancy E. Gossling
Cathedral Church of St. Paul
January 3, 2018

I struggled with a decision for today.
Should I go back to this past Monday, and talk about the Holy Name of Jesus,
which we fondly call New Year’s Day? Or should I go with some other choice?
For starters, I began to think about the many names I’ve been called throughout my life:
Anne Louise, Nancy, Nancy-Jean, Banner Bee, Mighty Might, The General,
Mother Nancy, Fearless Leader, Acting Dean, and most recently trusty Elf.
Some of the names I’ve been called, I’ll leave unspoken and to your own imagination!

Then I looked at a Great Cloud of Witnesses and saw the name of William Passavant,
a Lutheran pastor and prophetic witness who died in 1894.
Knowing that using this book tends to be our tradition for Wednesday mornings,
I read what they had to say about him.
I thought about how you might like to learn about someone new, and then decided “no”, I didn’t really want to go down that road either.

Then in a moment of clarity, I realized, for many reasons, that I wanted to look forward to this Saturday, to the feast of the Epiphany. Yes, I like to look back, and I think that’s important. Yes, I like to stay grounded and centered in the present moment; for I think this is critical to our spiritual lives. And yet, if you don’t know by now, I especially like to “lean-in” to the future. I like to imagine possibilities.

What might the future hold for you and me, I wonder? God only knows!
And fortunately, God has some stories to help us imagine and re-imagine.
In them, God makes suggestions, points out options, and gives us some warnings.
These biblical stories are rich with various actors and actresses,
a great cloud of witnesses, whose journeys give us pause to reflect upon our own.
Through them we can learn a lot about our limitations and future possibilities.
And their journeys often reveal that there is no straight line to the holy city -
at least until every valley is lifted up, mountains are lowered,
rough places are made plain, and Jesus comes again.

King Herod is one of our actors today. Like many of the leaders in our world, he wanted to maintain his power and protect his security. From a position of privilege, he attracted visitors from near and far. When the three wise men came to Jerusalem, asking about the birth of a child who was to be born king of the Jews, Herod responded with fear. He called like-minded people, that is the chief priests and scribes of the city, who were also frightened, for counsel. They reported what the prophets had said before them: from Bethlehem shall come a ruler who is to shepherd God’s people of Israel.

The Cultural Dictionary of the Bible tells me that the use of secrecy was prevalent in the Mediterranean culture for many reasons. It was a means of maintaining power and keeping one’s security. And so Herod secretly deployed the wise men to Bethlehem, in order to get more information, so that, as he claims, “he too might go and pay homage to this child.” Secrecy feeds on lies, false information, and deception. It also is a means of protecting one’s identity and honor. And so secrets often are leaked slowly and purposefully or revealed unexpectedly and suddenly - like the slaughter of the Innocents.

Now the wise men, the Magi, or the three kings from the Orient, whatever you want to call them, have been portrayed in many and various ways. We have several of them here in our sanctuary; and I’m not talking about Alan, Bill, and Gerry. We have two sets of wise men here, three each, one on the left and one on the right. Their presence, their positions, and their journeys to the creche, have all been a topic of great debate. Every day, I would come into our sanctuary and find that someone had moved them, or put them in hiding, or rearranged their configuration, or complained about someone gone missing or that something was wrong.

Just this past Sunday, due to my error, the Chinese community found a new rearrangement of their chairs. They were forced to move the creche scene from the high altar and use this altar in the round. Theresa told me later that they actually enjoyed the change because they were closer to the creche and the altar. I’ve discovered that my mistakes can often be opportunities for grace.

The famous artist Rubens painted the three wise men - shown on the back of your bulletin - as coming from different continents—Africa, Asia and Europe—and representing the three stages of life—youth, middle age and old age. (Like generations X, Y, and the Boomers) Bearing myrrh, Balthasar is depicted as a young African man. With frankincense in hand, Melchior is portrayed as a middle-aged man from Asia. Holding a gold dish filled with coins, Gaspar is shown as an old European man. Truth be told, I suspect that, like Jesus, they were all men of color, and probably similar in age.

Before Jesus was born, our main actress in the Christmas story was Mary, who is honored as a woman of deep faith and trust. She “let it be” in the words of the immortal John Lennon and the ice queen of Frozen. Mary “let it be” throughout her life and during the death of her son. Living faithfully did not mean that she lived passively, or silently, or deceptively. She did not live fearfully, like Herod, always wondering when the next shoe would drop, another king might appear, or when the cracks in the ice would break. Mary knew where the real power lay.

I believe that the wise men lived faithfully as well. At the beginning of their journey, they came with curiosity, asking questions about the One whom they did not know. They obeyed King Herod and went to Bethlehem, dropped to their knees when they met the Christ child, and then unexpectedly changed their plans by taking another route home, possibly putting their own lives in danger. Living faithfully means trusting the holy mysteries of God, who sends us even now to Bethlehem.

Hopefully there, we also can find the Christ child born anew, cradled in Mary’s arms, inviting us to pay homage. (Unless of course you go over to that manger there, where there is no baby Jesus - but that’s another sermon for another day) Despite our imperfections and numerous mistakes, living faithfully means following bright stars, seeking new life, and stopping whenever and wherever we find it. It means paying attention to our night dreams, our day dreams, and the dream of God, even changing our plans and our lives, and then letting it be, according to God’s will.

We’re all starting a new journey this January: maybe we’re coming from the east to Jerusalem, or from Jerusalem to Bethlehem, or from Bethlehem back home. The author of Holy Meeting Ground; 20 Years of Shalem writes, “January is a time of journeys, of crossing over boundaries into new places. It is a time of stars and dreams, and signs that hang between our prayerful perceptions and the reality of our daily lives. It is a place of trust, of following our longing and taking the first footstep from the known and familiar into uncharted territory.”

As you know, the Epiphany means a ‘showing’ or an ‘appearance’ and I am excited about the ‘showing’ of our anti-oppression Epiphany lessons and carols that we will offer this Saturday at our cathedral. As we continue our work to embrace all God’s people, and lean into the dream of God for our world, our Church, and our cathedral, we’ll hear more biblical stories on Saturday about some of these lesser known actors and actresses.

This past Sunday night I had the joy of marrying two men from Los Angeles, one of whom had volunteered and lived for many years with the Peace Corps in Namibia. He told me that the Namibian culture was very different from the South Africans, because the South Africans had to fight for their freedom; whereas the Namibians had been given their freedom by the United Nations. In their country, the apartheid system remained. Kiwan, one of these wise men, said to me before his wedding ceremony, “I think there is real value when we have to struggle for what we want.”

Our road to freedom, our road to Bethlehem, our road to new life will include struggle, diversions, secrecy, and threats. And it will also include wise people, holy mysteries, bright stars, and vivid dreams. How will you and I live faithfully in our own journeys this new year? What will God reveal to us? What parts will we play, what gifts will we bring, and what roads will we take? Amen.




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