I've just shared a short video
regarding, in part, the Christmas story of the three so-called wise
men, and I've been reminded by the folks here in the room that I've
left a few things out. So here's a re-cap and a continuation, if
you're of a mind to go on with me.
Firstly, what we know and love as the
'Christmas Stories' are not and were never meant to be
understood as history. Like the first
eleven chapters in the Jewish scriptures, the Old Testament, they
were placed there in two of the gospels as timeless stories that told
the eternal truths that were beyond history, that were for all times
and all places. Stories for us to enter into, Stories that set the
stage for what was to follow.
These stories that we tend to look at
as cute and cuddly, for children and nostalgia, are really much more
than that. They are stories that if we look at them seriously,
really challenge and prod us all. If we aren't listening to them
with that seriousness, we are really missing out.
The story we are listening to is about
three people who search for more, for what is most important. They
look in all the right places, as far as the powers-that-be are
concerned. But the answers they seek are not there. Instead, they
are found in the poor and helpless. In exactly the opposite as where
they were expected. That is where we left off. But there is more.
The men were changed by what they
found. In the story, we are simply told that they went home by
another way. They didn't return to the palaces or to the officials
in society or religion. They went home a new way.. Changed. This
is why we now call them 'wise'. They had enough sense to value what
they had found. They allowed the new finding and understanding to
actually change them. If they had returned by the old path they would
have been know as the very first three stooges.
This is a story of warning and hope.
The story urges us on one hand to search, to recognize that there is
so very much more to life than what we now know, and to follow the
star of hope and purpose. But it also reminds us that unless we
accept the challenge to change, our journey will be a waste.
I hope that all of us know that there
is truly more, and that this 'more' is worth our journey. But if you
don't, if you are content, that's OK. Enjoy your lives and do what
you can. If you search and follow your star but decide to NOT be
changed, but to go back to as you have been, how hard that will be
for you, how hard to live with yourself! Don't search for the new
because of any guilt. God loves you just as you are. If you search,
do it because you want more out of life, because you want to NOT
waste any of the gift of life that has been given you, because you
want each moment to be the most that it can. Do it because you know
that the way we are now living is ruining the world for us and for
all of our descendants. Search in the name of what-ever you deem
Holy. It makes no difference as to your theology. The DOING and
SEARCH is what matters. Search with the understanding that the
search is only a beginning, that it will lead to change and
challenge, now and forever. The search and change is also the way of
joy and hope, the way of life. That in itself is enough, no matter
the outcome.
Use this season and this story to lead
us. If not, enjoy the season in the old way. It still has a lot of
offer. But if you want and need more, it's here for us. Again.
Amen!
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