There’s
something so inspiring in the story of the Magi. Following a star on a long journey that must
have taken years to complete, one step ahead of another without a map or
invitation. On a hunch that they got
from staring up at the sky. Pretty
amazing. There must have been times when
they felt tired, discouraged, maybe even doubtful or depressed, and yet they
continued on.
I
felt discouraged this week, as Council discussed closing the church to in
person worship again. We have always put
the health of the congregation as our top priority and been prudent and
cautious. But there was a part of me
that selfishly wanted to keep seeing people in the sanctuary to talk to and
worship with. Thank goodness that we
work together to come up with the difficult decisions that are for the greatest
good of the community. I imagine that
the magi also faced similar conversations and conundrums, especially when
debating how to return home. It would
have been easier to take a familiar path back, be treated like royalty in
Herod’s palace, perhaps soaking in a hot tub to get rid of the smell of the manger
and the sheep and cows. Instead, they
heeded that niggling voice that suggested they turn off the beaten path and
skip Jerusalem on the way home.
It’s
hard to know when to heed that niggling voice and when to ignore that
voice. Christians call this discernment,
and it’s not easy. We sometimes talk
ourselves into doing something we shouldn’t, or talk ourselves out of doing
something we should, and it’s hard to tell what is ego talking and what is God
talking. There have been times when we
talk ourselves into doing things and regret it, and other times when we
discover that our hunches have been very helpful.
I
once got a gift of a simple notebook that someone had taken the time to fill
with inspirational quotes but left plenty of room to add my own quotes to it as
I found them. She doodled and copied and
scrapbooked probably 30-40 quotes into it and I have added some every time I
find a quote I want to remember. I also
started to give notebooks of quotes to folks I knew that were getting ordained. I now have a file of quotes and prayers for
ministers on my computer, so I can print them off, glue them into the notebook,
hand copy the shorter ones and send it on.
Last May someone from AST was getting ordained and I got another
notebook out, but for whatever reason, I kept procrastinating on putting the
quotes in. Life was busy, it went to the
bottom of my to do list, and I never got around to sending it. Last November, I finally made time to put it
together and sent it off to the new minister.
Imagine my surprise when I got a hand-written card back thanking me for
the perfect timing. It had arrived in
the mail just when the minister needed a little encouragement. The quotes hit home and inspired them to
remember that they were not alone. We
all need a little inspiration once in a while, and we all find inspiration from
each other. I think it’s not a
coincidence that the magi traveled in a group.
Jesus said, “where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there”,
and whenever I am struggling to know what is wise, I know that gathering two or
three, talking to our church council or one of our committees, is the best way
to come up with new solutions or ideas.
New ways of working through challenging decisions, new inspirations, new
hopes and dreams.
Scripture
can be like a third person in the conversation, the wise words of experience
that can guide us into new paths. It can
form and shape and inspire us. It can
surprise us when we least expect it to.
I was quite surprised to see that Psalm 148, the reading we started our
service with, mentioned snow and frost, for example. I struggle with the idea that God controls
the weather, as I think this cold snap is no more caused by God than the floods
in BC or the heat bubbles in Alberta last summer. If God so loved the world, it doesn’t make
sense for God to punish the world, or at least Western Canada with these huge
temperature swings. Much more likely for
us to be experiencing the natural consequences of global warming from too much
carbon in the air than an angry God micromanaging the polar vortex.
So
while we treat scripture with respect, we also recognize and wrestle with its
shortcomings. Scripture didn’t
understand bacteria or viruses, scripture didn’t know about oil and gas or
machines or factories. Scripture
couldn’t see through telescopes to realized that Mars and Jupiter weren’t stars
but planets. Scripture is one of our
partners in the discernment conversation, but not a voice that shouts to drown
out the other voices. John Wesley,
founder of the Methodist Church, firmly believed that such conversations needed
to include scripture, and community wisdom, but also logic and emotion. That
can be a pretty crowded conversation, to weave all these aspects into
decisions.
Yet decisions made together this way can lead to great wisdom, just like the wise men taking a different route home. Wisdom speaks to us and helps guide us into decisions that might not be popular or easy but most loving. Wisdom can inspire wonderful new ideas and creative solutions. Wisdom can discover new opportunities that we didn’t know about. When we look to wisdom to inspire us, and discover wisdom among us, we can find God leading us in new exciting directions. Our Song of Faith puts it this way, “In and with God, we can direct our lives toward right relationship with each other and with God. We can discover our place as one strand in the web of life. We can grow in wisdom and compassion. We can recognize all people as kin. We can accept our mortality and finitude, not as a curse, but as a challenge to make our lives and choices matter.” May we find words of wisdom and choices through discernment to make our lives matter in new and inspiring ways this year. Amen.
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