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Sermon for Sunday, January 6, 2008
Pastor Sara Kay Olson-Smith
The Epiphany Of Our Lord
Texts: Isaiah 60:1-6; Psalm 72:1-7; Ephesians 3:1-12; Matthew 2:1-12
Grace to you and peace from God our creator and from Christ Jesus, who is our light and our way.
It is the new year, when many of us write out lists of resolutions for the new year, and look to the priorities of what we hope to be about in the coming year. In this past week, I, too, have spent some time in prayer and reflection about my own priorities for my life as pastor with you here at St. Peter’s. I wanted to share those things with you - for your feedback and your participation in them with me.
My primary priority for 2008 is to focus on outreach and hospitality, to work towards ways to create a place of welcome to all people (something we already do well), to spend a lot of time in getting to know people in our neighborhood, to find opportunities to tell folks about Jesus and and what God is up to here and welcome them to this place, to encourage all of us to witness to God’s work in our lives, and to find ways that we can be a dynamic presence of God’s love here on the corner of Mercer and Grove. This is the primary priority for my work - and for our shared work in the coming year.
There are some other things I hope for in 2008: to continue to deepen participation and leadership from the youngest to the oldest of us, to create spaces of moral deliberation in this election year, and to continue to have vibrant, God-centered worship. I also know that this year, we will have to have honest and intentional conversation about the future of St. Peter’s, and how we can best serve the mission of God. Together, we will continue to wonder and discern what the way forward is for us.
My last, and probably my most important priority this year, is to listen, to listen carefully to each one of you, to our neighborhood, but mostly, to listen to God. As we move into this next year together, I am resolved to spend a good deal of time in prayer, in study and conversation together around the Bible, which is the primary way God speaks to us. As we look together, and individually, at these words, God will make way forward for us. It will no longer be my agenda, or any one of your agendas, or even our agenda, but in our listening to God, we will live God’s agenda for us. In this, God will line up our priorities with God’s own priorities.
God will make our way for us. Our Gospel story today bears witness to this truth. The wise men in our story made their way to Jesus, only because God showed them the way. They didn’t have a map, or Mapquest, or a GPS, all they had was this star - a star which moved, a star which told that a King had been born, a star which rested over an out of the way, po-dunk town in the hills of Palestine. We read that the wise men got lost. They went to Jerusalem. That would make sense, of course, because Jerusalem was the big city, where the temple was, where the rulers were. If there were to be a King born, of course he would most certainly be in Jerusalem.
However, Jesus, the King of Kings, the Messiah, was not there, but in Bethlehem. God chose to be born in an out of the way town. God chose to come to our world, as a King born to all, to the poor, to the outsiders, to the little ones, even to the foreign strange wise men who searched for him. God did everything God could do to bring people to Jesus, and God still does this...
The wise men got lost, but God would not give up on them. God used even the evil King Herod to make sure those wise men would make their way to Jesus. With the help of some knowledgeable biblical scholars, the wise men were directed toward Bethlehem. The wise men learned that they were lost. In fact they were nine miles away from their destination. So, with the help of even Herod and his advisors, the wise men got back on their way and followed the star.
Then, as Matthew writes, “They set out; and there, ahead of them, went the star that they had seen at its rising, until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy.” They were overwhelmed with joy. They had set out following the star, following the way God made for them, and eventually made it to the stable, to this place where Jesus was. God did not give up on them. Even though they got lost, even when they went to the wrong place, God kept leading them. God kept showing them the way, until they found it.
This is good news for us, who daily turn the wrong way in our lives and in our life together. This is good news for us, who are not sure where to go, afraid that those ways might be the wrong ways. This is good news for us as we daily make decisions about our lives and our futures. We can trust that wherever we go, God will not give up on us. God will continue to lead us. God will not abandon us on our journey. God will make a way for us.
The trouble is, it’s not a map. God does not give us a GPS. Instead, we are given a star. Instead we are given this savior Jesus, and this Bible which bears witness to him. Instead, we are given each other. But this is enough. It is more than enough, for God will use all these things to lead us into ways of being who we are called to be.
As we continue to discern and plan what God is calling us to do, how we are called to be church, there is no easy plan that will put us into being a thriving vibrant church. There is no map with clear directions. There is no answer, or program, or the mythical magic bullet. However, we have something much more. We have each other, and the wisdom, and insight, and gifts that each one brings. We have this community and neighborhood. We have this Word, which tells of God and the ways that God works in our world, which will teach us and lead us and inspire us. We have this meal of wine and bread, Christ’s own body to nourish us, to remind us who we are, and who we are called to be.
We have a God who will not abandon us, who will continue, through the work of the Spirit, to guide us. Therefore, we are freed to try things and take risks with courage, because even if we get lost, God will not abandon us and will use whatever it takes to lead us to where we are to go. Our God, who made the way for the wise men, will make the way for us - as a congregation and for each one of us in our own lives - as we wonder what to do, and how to do it. As our God did for those wise men years ago, God will make a way for us.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
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