Monday, December 27, 2010

In Search of Our Bethlehem

"In Search of Our Bethlehem"
Matthew 2:1-11


Maybe some of you have been or will be traveling this week, visiting family and friends.  When you get ready for traveling, how do you do it?

My father was a straight-arrow traveler; which, I think, developed out of his CPA background.  He would travel from point A to point B, with no variations or deviations from the plan.  His thinking was that you can’t have fun till you get wherever it is you are going.  So you should get there as quickly and efficiently as possible.

When he and my mom would come for a visit, three months before the visit was to happen, I’d get in the mail (this was before email) an itinerary of his plans.  Three months ahead of time, he had planned out exactly how far he was driving each day, what city and motel they would be stopping at, how much it would cost, estimated miles per gallon, and what they would be eating for dinner wherever they stayed.

Needless to say, my father liked to be in total control of his life.  He liked feeling like he was in control.  He tried to plan out everything in his life in as much detail as possible.  Especially journeys.  He would come unglued when even one of those details had to be changed by forces outside of himself.

On the other side of the spectrum was one of my friends father who, when it was time for a family outing or vacation, would tell everyone to pack up the family station wagon.  Every piece of luggage, toys, and gear would be strapped to the top, packed in and hanging out the back window that wouldn’t ever fully go up.  You couldn’t see out any of the back windows, but that’s what mirrors were for.  They would drive to the first stop sign two blocks from their home.  The father would turn around to the family and ask, “OK; where would you like to go?”  No itinerary three months, or even three minutes ahead of time.  No plan.  No organization.  No map.  No budget.  Just go.  It was the first time I realized there were other options for how life could be lived.

So, where do you fit in the continuum?  How do you like to journey through life?  Point A to point B, to point C, and so on?  Or, do you like to wander, rambling across the countryside of life, falling into one circumstance after another?  Maybe you’re a blend of both:  you meander, but you have a map in one hand.

When Christ began to take me on, I read a lot in the Bible to find out what the Christian life was all about.  My grandmother, when I was baptized as a 12 year old, gave me a copy of Hurlbut’s Storybook of the Bible.  Has anybody read it?  I felt like that would be an easy place to start, since I wasn’t much of a reader, and it had pictures.

What I discovered as I read my way through the Old Testament stories was that God sent a lot of people on journeys.  God never told them much about where they were going, or why they were supposed to be going there, or how long it would take.  No maps.  No charts.  No budget and expenditure ledger sheets.

There was Noah, who was told by God to build a floating zoo.  The earth was going to be made into one giant sea.  Noah, his family, and every kind of animal would float around on that sea.  A lot of us wished Noah hadn’t taken the mosquitos and other blood sucking or venomous critters.
“When’s this going to happen?” Noah asked God.
“Soon.”  God is good at one word replies.
“Where are we going?”
“Just drifting with the wind and tide.”
“Where are we going to land?”
“Somewhere.”
“Okayyyy.”

And then there was Abraham.  God comes to him out of the blue and says, “Leave your country, your relatives, and your father’s house.”  See, even adult kids lived with their parents way back then.  Then God continued, “..and go to a land that I am going to show you.”
Abraham asks, “Uh, which direction is that, exactly?”
“Just go.”
“Does this land have a name?”
“It will be the land of my promise.”
“Okaaaayyy.”

I read story after story in my Hurlbut’s Storybook of the Bible about men and women who God would put on the road and not tell them too much about where they were going, or when they would get there.  They knew there was a destination out there somewhere, but had no idea if they’d recognize it when they got there.

The story of the wise men in search of the Newborn Savior is one of those stories.  The wise men were astrologers who observed a star on the rise.  A rising star was believed to be a sign of the coming of someone important -- usually a king.  The unusual characteristic of that particular rising star was that it moved.  Usually stars are fixed to one position in the night sky.  God got their attention with the movement of the star and their journey began.

They would be, by their curiosity, put on a trek that would end up making them witnesses to the crowning historical event of all time.  Where that would be, when that would be, how that would be, they had no idea.  All they could do was observe and follow and trust they weren’t on some wild star chase.  Trust, that eventually they would arrive.

We all know the story.  We know the wise men did arrive.  We know the star led them to Bethlehem, to the place where the child was, held in the arms of Mary; the child who would grow up to be God’s Savior to the world; the child who, unbelievably, was God himself.  God was the one who caught their attention and put them on that journey.  And God was, in all reality, the destination of their journey.

Bethlehem, then, becomes a symbol for the ultimate destination of all our journeys.  As we are in search of our Bethlehem, we know deep inside of us that it is God who put us on this road, and it is God we will find at the end of the road.  We get inklings along the way that God is in charge of, and directing our travels.  We’re following stars, as it were.  We’re following every sign we see, if we’re paying attention.  We don’t know exactly where we’re going.  But we know we will arrive.

That’s what I discovered after reading Bible story after Bible story.  In trying to figure out what the Christian faith is all about, and what it was that Christ was trying to attract me into, the main thing I discovered was that the Christian faith is a journey.  If you are going to find your Bethlehem, it’s simply a matter (as Abraham and all the others found out) of just getting going.  Of putting one foot in front of the other, with your destination -- your Bethlehem -- yet to be discovered.

The only issue is, will you depend on God as you make your journey?  Will you trust that God is leading you, and that the Bethlehem God is leading you toward is significant and life-defining?

Bethlehem, for the wise men, lay far out of their geographical (and probably psychological) comfort zone.  Searching for their Bethlehem led them clear off the map of what they knew.  Because of a lack of familiarity, they had to trust.  But God pushed them beyond their maximum levels of trust.

When Alexander the Great was in conquering-and-adventuring mode, heading east with his armies, they got to the point where the maps they had ended.  The next step they took would put them in unmapped territory.  They would be the map from there on.  Some of the troops were scared to go on because it became a place beyond their knowledge, or beyond the experience of anything they knew.

God may have put us on a journey in search of our Bethlehem that will take us beyond the edges of our maps of comfort.  In fact, in all the journeys I have read in the Bible, that was so.  It’s only when we travel beyond the edge of our maps, of our comfort zones, that we finally arrive at our Bethlehem destinations.  It’s only by traveling off the edge of our maps that we learn trust and dependence on the one who put us on the journey in the first place.

The journey of the Spirit, the journey toward Bethlehem, the journey given by God, the journey towards God, is a journey in which we are given no itinerary, no map, and no arrival time.  All we are given are the instructions to do two things:  trust; and keep walking.

David Reusberger, in an article titled, “Itinerant Every Day,” wrote, “By allowing God to determine our destinations, we open ourselves up to genuine traveling.”  That term, “genuine traveling,” caught my attention.  Genuine traveling seems to be not how my father traveled, trying to control the flow of every moment.  Genuine traveling with God is, instead, the giving up control of the journey to God.

If we are going to find our Bethlehem’s, the direction, pace, and destination should all be left in the hands of God.  Which is exactly what happened for the wise men.  God set the pace, the direction, and the destination by making them follow the star.  Had they become impatient and taken off, ahead of the star, making assumptions about where they thought the star was leading, they would have never found their Bethlehem.  And neither will we if we try to force our journey.

Patience and faith accepts the journey from God for what it is -- for what God wants it to be -- not what you may want it to be.  In fact, and this may sound a bit mysterious, the less we try to foresee the course of our journey, the more certain our footsteps will become.  Only then are we walking in pure trust in the God of our journeys.

There were lots of stars in the sky the night the wise men saw the one star.  But they chose the one.  There are lots of paths you may follow.  Each of them ends up someplace different.  When God shows you the one path, shining his light upon it, you will know where and when to start.  Don’t follow the other paths or get sidetracked.  The path God has given you is the only one that leads to your Bethlehem.

There were lots of small towns -- lots of possible destinations.  But there was only one Bethlehem.  Only one town with the Savior waiting.  Bethlehem is the one destination among the many.  God wants you to find it.  God wants you to come to the Savior.  God is beckoning you, leading you on, to find your Bethlehem.

If you aren’t sure you are on the right path, if you aren’t sure you have really started the journey, if you aren’t sure you have seen the one star, then that is my prayer for you this Christmas:  that the journey toward your Bethlehem begins, now.