THE JOURNEY WILL TAKE US WHERE?

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1 January 3, 2016 Rev. Robert Kerr Let us pray, As we reflect on your Word now, great God, illumine our hearts with the radiance of Christ s presence, that our lives may share your love in this weary world. Keep us faithful in your service into all the days ahead, all in response to your immeasurable love for us in the gift of Jesus, the Christ-child, in whose name we pray. Amen. THE JOURNEY WILL TAKE US WHERE? It s one of those subjects on which there is always great debate; which is more important, the journey, or the destination? It seems that there are two very definite schools of though on this, and some of it has to do with personality. There are those who believe that it is the destination that matters; that the only point of the journey is to get where you are going. It s all about just getting there, in the minimum amount of time, and with the least effort, and as little interruption, as possible. There are even people who suffer from what is called Destination Anxiety. All they can think about is getting there, wherever there might be. And anything that delays, or gets in the way of, that can cause them considerable anxiety or stress. Then there are those who believe that the real value lies in the journey itself;

2 in the actual traveling. They put great store in the potential to learn, and experience, all kinds of interesting things along the way. They will get to where they are going when they get there. And in the meantime, they want to enjoy all that they can see, and do, on the way there. There are even some who look at journeys in this way, who feel that it doesn t really matter if they ever reach a particular destination. They just enjoy the trip to wherever they end up. Does the journey matter more than the destination, or does the destination matter more than the journey? Our Gospel lesson today, from the beginning of Matthew chapter 2, was about a group of men who set out on a journey. Tradition has it that there three of them, but that may have more to with the number of gifts they presented than anything else. Scripture doesn t actually say how many there were, Matthew simply tells that After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea...Magi from the east came..., Magi being another word for Wise Men. And anyway, it wouldn t just have been the three of them. A group of men like this would have had a whole entourage with them, others looking after all their needs and concerns. The Wise Men would have had their people with them. This group of men set out on a journey, from Persia, an ancient kingdom set in the territory of what we know today as Iran; a journey from Persia, west, over many hundreds of miles, which, even traveling by camel which could be reasonably speedy, would still have taken a considerable amount of time; likely many weeks. The Wise Men set off on their journey, and they did not know, for sure, just what their their destination would be. While we don t know the details, they

3 are not recorded for us, we can imagine that they learned, and experienced, all kinds of interesting things along the way. From Persia, the Magi were believed to have been part of a tribe that originally had political ambitions, and tried to overthrow the leadership of the nation. Their attempt failed, and from then on they evolved into a tribe of ceremonial priests, men seen to be of great holiness and wisdom. By tradition, no sacrifice could be offered in worship unless one of their number was present; not unlike the historical tribe of Levi in ancient Israel. Skilled in philosophy, medicine, and the natural sciences, they were held to be diviners of the truth, interpreters of dreams. With that, in those times, everyone believed in astrology, the study of the movement of the stars. It was held that the stars could foretell the future, and that a person s destiny was settled by the star under which they were born. It s the origin of your daily horoscope, in which so many still put store! The Magi were also believed to be experts in reading the stars. In the culture of that particular time there was an indefinable feeling of expectation; people were looking for some significant change, both in the world itself, and in their own circumstances. And that sense of expectation, seemed to jell around the idea of the coming of new king. And that was what it was, that caused these men to go on the journey they did. They set out to follow the course of a new star they had seen in the sky, one which they believed to be very significant. From what they could figure out, it seemed that this star did, indeed, indicate the birth of a new king, the king of the Jews. And that s how Matthew begins his record of their visit which we read today, After Jesus born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod,

4 Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him... While we don t know where else they may have stopped, or what they may have experienced, along the way, as time went on, and the journey continued, it seemed that Jerusalem was to be the destination. That would make sense, after all, if you are looking for a new king of the Jews; to go to the capital city of the Hebrew nation; Jerusalem, where the Great Temple was, and more importantly where the royal palace was, the home of the current ruler, King Herod the Great. They would soon learn that Jerusalem was not to be the place however. Their enquiry about a new king there, simply caused upset in the whole city. As Matthew tells us, When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him.. They needed to travel on, they had not reached their destination yet. Herod called his advisors, the religious aristocracy, and the theological scholars, of the day; he brought them together to get their sense of what this might mean, and they determined that Bethlehem was where the Magi needed to be, for that was what the prophet Micah had suggested. Out of Bethlehem would come a ruler who will be the shepherd of my people Israel.. Jerusalem was not where it was at. The Wise Men needed to continue their journey, just a few more miles, until they reached their real destination, where they would find what they had been searching for, the gift of God in the Christchild. And so they came to the stable in Bethlehem, where they knelt and offered their truly sumptuous gifts; three gifts, which have always led us to believe there were three Wise Men; gifts so lavish, and costly, that Joseph and Mary would, no doubt, never have seen anything like them before.

5 Those gifts each had particular meaning. Gold was the gift for a king; frankincense was used by a priest, an offering to bring us to God; and myrrh was used in the burial of the dead. The gifts foretold just who Jesus would be; the King of all kings, the perfect High Priest, and the One who would die to redeem the world. Having offered their gifts, and paid homage to the new king, the Wise Men then set out on another journey; home this time, but not by way of Jerusalem, to avoid the vengeful King Herod. A journey on which they very likely shared, with all who would listen, all that they had learned and experienced along the way. Paul made a number of significant journeys across the world of his time, to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ as far, and as wide, as he possibly could. Paul believed he had been called by God, to take the Good News of God s love in Jesus beyond the Hebrew community, and into as many places as he could reach. We read to day from his Letter to the Ephesians, which was really a kind of circular letter to a number of churches in the area, of the which the faith community in Ephesus would have been the largest and most important. Here Paul addresses this idea of sharing the Gospel in ever-new places. His argument is that before Christ came, God s promises had been largely confined to the Hebrew nation, and God s plan for the rest of the world wasn t really specified. Now through the journeys God had commissioned Paul to make, God s promises were being shared in all the world. As people of all nations are brought together in Christ, they demonstrate God s power and wisdom, and that the scope of God s purpose is simply breathtaking. As Paul expressed it in our reading from Ephesians chapter 3, His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known....

6 Paul s great missionary journeys, across the Middles East, into Asia, on into Europe around the Mediterranean, were all about serving God s purpose, that people might learn of, and experience, the gift of His love, along the way. We have now begun the journey of this new year, It will be a journey into great change for all of us; for you as a Church Family, and for Anne and me. It will be a journey that, after a while, we will no longer continue to travel together. Where that journey will take us, what we will learn, and experience, along the way, and what all of that will mean for us, we do not yet know. What we need to do, is continue to trust in, and continue to follow, the light of God, shining in our lives in the gift of His love in the Christ-child, born to be our Redeemer. The journey will take us where? We don t know what the destination of the journey into this new year will be. But this we do know; we go with God, and we will learn, and experience, great, and gracious things, along the way, with Him! Let us pray, Eternal and ever-loving God, by a star you led the Wise Men on a journey to worship your Son. Guide us by the light of your love into each day of this new year. Help us to see the way before us, as we seek only your Will and Purpose, and help us to be open to all that we may learn, and experience, on the way. As we seek only to be your faithful people, reflecting your love, here and in all the world; through Jesus, the Christ-child, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for evermore. Amen.

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