Scripture is
full of all kinds of stories – intimate and large-scale, joyful and tragic;
stories of loss and reclamation, of sinning and redemption; of life and death
and then even more abundant life – you name a situation that’s part of the
human condition, and you can probably find it somewhere in the Bible. But ultimately
the narrative of scripture is story of returning: of finding our way back to
God. Ever since Adam and Eve lost their way and found themselves on this side
of Eden’s gate; ever since disobedience fractured the creatures’ relationship
to the Creator, we have all been on a journey: a long, long journey home by
another road.
Most of us
like to think we have our life all mapped out - we are IN CONTROL. Then
something unforeseen happens: we get the pink slip – or maybe the job promotion
- and with either one, life changes for us and for our family. We have
retirement all figured out, where we’ll go, what we’ll do - and then the market
takes a downturn and we lose money; or a troubling diagnosis comes and rather
than traveling, we are forced to spend our time healing - or not – and
grieving. We get halfway through a degree program and realize that the career
we have had in mind is not how we want to spend our future. The spouse
leaves, the grown child moves back home; the list goes on and on. “Best laid
plans.” We have all experienced what it’s like to have to take a detour – most of
us more than once. The
spiritual journey can be like that, too, of course, because for people of faith
our spiritual journey is our life journey, encompassing all those
twists and turns and detours of career and health and family and financial
well-being and relationship. In all of that we trust God to show us the way as
we navigate both the rough patches and the good times.
Matthew tells us that a group of
“wise men” – kings, magi, astrologers, whatever they were – saw a moving star
in the sky and followed it west toward Jerusalem. Did they come with the intention of
worshipping Jesus, or were they simply paying their respects to a future
monarch? Did they have a conversion experience when they presented the gifts? Whatever
their original intentions, the wise men play a brief yet critical role in the
story of Jesus’ infancy. They arrive at their destination, do what they have
come to do and once done, prepare to return home - gifts presented, homage paid
– with just one quick stop on the way to give that great manipulator King Herod
the information he seeks.
And then comes the dream, the angelic vision that arrives in
sleep. And it is at that point – where their plan falls apart and reforms
itself, where they lose control–that their true journey begins. All their best
laid plans could not happen the way they wanted or assumed. And in one phrase,
the evangelist encapsulates the whole of the human faith story: they left
for their own country by another road.
It’s been pointed out that the Bible begins in a garden and
ends in a city. That means that no matter how hard we try we cannot, in the
words of Joni Mitchell, “get ourselves back to the garden.” That path is closed
and the gate barred. Humanity will never again achieve that perfection, that
peace, that particular communion with God. We lost it, our
disobedience caused us to give it up, and we can never get it back. I’m not
sure we were ever meant even to try, and it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter
because God has shown us another way home. Eden is gone. The journey home is
ongoing. Another destination, our true and final home, beckons us forward where
the holy city and the heavenly banquet await us.
Like the magi, we ultimately are not in control of our
journey. But the place where we lose control is often the place where we gain
the most grace. The Incarnation, the holy and miraculous event, promises us
that new path of grace. The magi, those wise men, had seen and experienced that
grace in the person of the young child Jesus. As strange as it may sound, the
road back to God, the true road home, can only be the way forward.
Like the magi, we cannot retrace our steps, but must travel by another road;
back home to our own true country, our own true home in God.
