Happy
New Year! Did you mark the day with any customs? Did you walk down stairs
backwards? Did you begin the day by saying “Rabbit, Rabbit.”? Did you eat
black-eyed peas for prosperity? Did you make any resolutions?
It’s
almost a truism that we will fail every resolution. The gym is full now, but it
won’t be in a month. We make these resolutions because we want to be better or
to have a better life. We often fail because we are afraid or unwilling to make
the necessary changes to our values or our purpose. (We want to be more fit
without changing our diet. We want to save money without changing our
lifestyle.)
God
seeks much more for us than our good image. God seeks more for us than comfort
and ease – than safety and confidence. God wants to bring us home – to our true
home. The cost to us is that we have to leave this home behind. We have to risk
what we know for what we hope.
The
Holy family is in danger. Jesus is experiencing all the danger and hardships of
his day. He faces the threat of evil Herod, who is willing to spill innocent
blood to hold onto his power. This causes Mary, Joseph, and Jesus to become
refugees. Where have we seen this before?
We
see this in refugees displaced by danger and war all over the world. We see
this in the wanderings of the poor and the struggles of the unemployed. We see
this in families destroyed by addictions. It is a very common and contemporary
story.
We
also see this in the stories of scripture. There is an ancient Joseph who is
sold into slavery in Egypt by his brothers. After a time, God uses his dreams
to save his people. They come to live in Egypt to escape famine. Later, they
too become slaves and are powerfully delivered into freedom through the exodus.
This
great journey of freedom becomes a story of hope. When the people are again
cast into exile and they live far from home, Jeremiah sings a song of return.
The people will be restored and they will return to the home God has prepared
for them. These stories of deliverance and return become stories of hope for
the people of God whenever they find themselves trapped or lost.
Psalm
84 is a song of praise, centered on the joy of worshipping in the temple. It is
a song sung by any pilgrim who climbs up the road to Jerusalem and the temple
mount. It becomes a song of praise for anyone entering into worship – long
after the temple is gone. It is a song we can sing because we are also called.
We are invited to come to God, as people of God, saved through love even though
we are the wrong race and a distant people.
Jesus
enters the journey with us – no matter how we have ended up on this road. Jesus
is in the exodus. He is in the return of the exiles. He is with the frightened
refugees fleeing violence. He is with the lost, the frightened, and the poor.
Jesus
invites us on a journey. But be careful, this is much more than our timid
attempts at self-improvement. We have to begin by admitting that wherever we
find ourselves, it is not our true home. We have to admit our need to get
moving.
What
is our displacement? In what wilderness do we find ourselves? What keeps us in
bondage or fear? We are invited to leave it behind. (We may not wish to because
we are more comfortable with the devil we know.) As we leave the past behind,
we may lose certain markers that make the landscape familiar. We may have to
learn our way as we go.
Jesus
isn’t calling us to what we already know. We already realize that the familiar
doesn’t work (that’s why we make resolutions to try and change.) Jesus is
calling us home. To get to our true home we have to travel though unfamiliar
ground. It is the journey that changes us. It is the discovery that gives us
joy. It is our trust in God along the way that gives us the peace we seek.
Where
will we go this year?
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