"A Road Less Traveled"
Matthew 2:1-12
January 4, 2009
St. Paul United Methodist Church
Rev. John A. Fleming
I like to tell the story of what a friend of mine from seminary said to me as his church was preparing for their Advent and Christmas season. My friend's name is Clarence. Then and now he lives here in Little Rock. At the time I was a Tennessean living in exile in Texas. Tennessee, as you know, is just east of Arkansas. You will need to remember that.
What Clarence said to me I bought hook, line, and sinker. With all seriousness, he said, "John, it looks like our church won't be able to have a Christmas pageant this year." My friend looked troubled. We were great friends. I drove him to and from the airport each week so he could go to school and pastor his church. I felt like I had a stake and a claim to his congregation and so I asked, "Why, Clarence? What's wrong? Are there not enough kids? Will no one step up to the plate to direct the pageant and to make sure it happens?" Clarence reeled me in when he said, with a straight face I might add, "Oh no, none of that. It's just that we could not find three wise men from the east!" I smiled and told him to walk to the airport!
Our scripture lesson for this morning does have those wise men coming from the east, bearing their gifts. It is a story that is so full of magic and wonder. It let's your imagination run wild. Most Christmas pageants aren't complete without three of the youth coming down the center aisle in their homemade robes and impressive turbans, holding in their outstretched arms what is supposed to be gold, frankincense, and myrrh. As they walk they sing, "We three kings of Orient are; bearing gifts we traverse afar, field and fountain moor and mountain, following yonder star."
The problem is that these men weren't kings and whether there were three of them is up in the air, too. We assume there were three because there were three gifts. Barbara Brown Taylor, one of my favorite preachers to read writes this, "So much has been made of this story about which we know so little." I think she is right. Matthew gives s very little to go on, telling us only that after Jesus was born, wise men from the East appeared in Jerusalem with the question on their heart, where is the child who has been born king of the Jews?"
Matthew doesn't tell us who they were, where they came from, or how many of them there were. Matthew doesn't give us a glue about how long the journey to Bethlehem took them or how old Jesus was by the time they arrived. Some say that when the wise men arrived in Bethlehem, Jesus was already a couple of years old. I'm not sure about that! If I believe that, then it ruins the manger scene that has lived in my heart all these years. We're also not altogether sure about the famous star.
Matthew doesn't tell us about any of these things. He leaves it up to our imaginations and in the mean time artists and song writers and preachers like me have tried to fill in the empty spaces
What I do know is that even though they followed the star, the wise men decided it best to stop by Herod's palace in Jerusalem. I guess they figured that if a new king was going to be anywhere, he would be there.
Matthew tell us that their question, "Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews?" riled up Herod and all of Jerusalem. Herod, after all, was King. Royalty flowed through his veins. He had gotten used to the job and the title as had Jerusalem. Herod was also smart, so he commissioned a royal Bible study and asked the scribes to see if there was anything in the scriptures about this sort of thing. They scoured the passages and found a little passage from the prophet Micah, one that had been around for years and years. It read, "And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel." Yikes!
Herod had a plan. Since the wise men had come this far, he commissioned them to go a little farther, to find this king, and then to stop back by the palace and their way back east so that the old king could meet the new one. And so they set out. They caught a glimpse of the guiding star again and followed it until it stopped over a house in Bethlehem. Matthew tells us the men were filled with joy when they realized they were in the right place, at the right house. House, that is the word Matthew uses, which, again, wrecks my manger scene!
When they saw the child, they knelt down and worshiped him and offered up their gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. That night they slept and they slept well. You would, too, after such a long journey. As they slept they dreamed. All three had the same dream. In those days God spoke to others in dreams. Listen to how Matthew speaks of that dream, "And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for their own country by another road."
They went home a different way than whence they came. Hmm. That is rich soil for a preacher, especially one preaching on the first Sunday of a new year. Here is what I would like to do with the time we have left in our sermon this morning. On our way to the communion rail, I would like for us to think about a new road home. We have been at this manger scene for a couple of weeks now. What road will we take home?
Well, first, I hope you will consider taking a high road, a road of integrity, home. I know, I know, the word integrity is a word that gets a lot of use these days. We talk about it the way we might talk about the weather.
What is integrity anyway? What does it mean? I think that it means being honest and truthful. I think it means showing honor and reliability. I can tell you from personal experience that there is not as much traffic on the high road.
I am preaching to everyone today, but I especially want our children, youth, and young adults to listen carefully. Some time ago I heard the words of a song that sing, "If you don't stand for something you will fall for anything." Don't do that! Stand out in the crowd. Don't do something because everyone else is doing it. That excuse never worked with my mother. She would pull out her Parent's Manual to the page that deals with this. The parental response is always something like this. "If Tommy jumped off a cliff would you?" Or this one, "Well, not everyone's doing it because you aren't!"
Our Bibles tell us not to be content with the world. Paul writes to the Romans, "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds." At the beginning of a new year, we must decide not just to talk the talk, but to walk the walk. Integrity, among other things, believes that goodness is worth it. Integrity means doing the right thing for the right reason. It means looking in the mirror and in the eyes of your children without any problems at all.
Someone I know pointed me to Robert Frost's poem about roads and journeys. Maybe you remember his words, "I shall be telling this with a sigh. Somewhere ages and ages hence two words diverged into a wood and I, I took the one less traveled by and that has made all the difference." It can make a difference in your life this year.
Let me quickly lead us down a second road home, the road of faith. The wise men decided to take the road less traveled. It was a road they didn't know. There was no global positioning device. In fact, there was no road and that is the nature of faith. The preacher of what we've come to call Hebrews says that faith, "…is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see." It is faith that helped Noah build a boat when there was not a cloud in the sky. It is faith that enables Abraham to head out for a promised land. And it is faith that sends us out into the world.
Faith is the path we travel when someone we love dies. Where do we go? Which way do we turn? We turn towards God. Faith is the path we travel when the job we've loved to have isn't as fulfilling as it once was and so we're looking for something else. Faith is the path we travel with our children.
Personally, I've rather live by sight than by faith. I have told you this before. I don't like surprises. I like goals and strategies and plans. I like what one little boy said to his dad when they were traveling, "Dad, when we get where we're going, where will we be?" Good question young man! Unfortunately a lot of life is just setting out and trusting that the God who has led us safely time and time before will do it again.
M. Scott Peck wrote a book a few years ago whose title is The Road Less Traveled. Do you know the first line from that book? The line has three words. These are the words, "Life is difficult." You don't need a book to tell you that. You already know that, but you also know that life is a joy and a gift and that life is filled with peace and new opportunities and new roads. Let's take one of them home this year. Let us pray.