Calvary Episcopal Church
Memphis, Tennessee
January 5, 2003
Epiphany Sunday

Going Home Another Way
The Rev. Canon Renée Miller

Gospel:John 1:1-18
(This sermon is also available in audio)

So, there they were. Those three priests of Persia. Three men of wisdom who were on a journey to find a baby. Now, it just doesn't make any logical sense to start out on such an arduous journey in the middle of winter to see a baby. Yet, they traveled for miles in the cold winter desert air, encountering all kinds of danger along the way. They thought their destination was the baby, but actually, their destination was returning home after seeing the baby. And their greatest danger was not bandits or wild animals, hunger, frostbite or cold. Their greatest danger was the king who did not want to have his power threatened--even by a baby. This king, this Herod, would stop at nothing, even the murdering of all the innocent children, in order to stamp out any threat to his kingdom. James Taylor puts Herod in context:

Steer clear of royal welcomes,
Avoid a big to-do
A king who would slaughter the innocents
Will not cut a deal for you
He really, really wants those presents
He'll comb your camel's fur
Till his boys announce, they've found trace amounts
Of your frankincense, gold and myrrh.

Time to go home by another way
Home by another way
You have to figure that God's saying
Play the odds
And go home by another way
We can make it another way
Safe home as they used to say
Keep a weather eye to the chart on high
And go home another way.
("Home Another Way," by Timothy Mayer and James Taylor, ©1988 Manor House Music/Country Road Music, Inc.)

There were three important qualities that led and kept these wise men on their journey to the baby and helped them find their way back home again--by another way.

First, they knew and trusted the Scriptures. In a world of technological and material prowess, we may find comfort in the ancient words spoken by the prophets, but it is hard to trust them as being directions for our life. We have little trouble trusting what our money can do for us, or what information our computer can get for us, but really entrusting our lives and the journey of our lives to the words of God in Scripture seems not only difficult, but even simplistic and 'pollyannaish.' This was not true for those three priests of Persia. They had studied those words, reflected on the meaning of those words, discussed with each other the impact of those words, and were prepared to act on the direction of those words--without proof, without certainty, without assurance. Theirs was a faith born in the heart where the words of God and the questions of humans can meet. These priests of Persia were ready to embark upon a journey of danger because those words had become the words of their own souls.

Secondly, these three wise men understood and trusted nature. Of course, people of the ancient world in all religious traditions and cultures relied on the natural elements to help lead them on their way through life. Without modern-day technology they looked to nature to provide clues as to how they were to live. Those who were wise were able to discern God's presence and leading in nature--in the sun and stars, the rocks and ores, the seasons and winds and they let those natural elements lead them to the God beyond all created things. Such were these three wise men from the East. They had trusted in the words from heaven, that we know as being from the book of Numbers, "I see him, but not now, I behold him, but not near--a star shall come out of Jacob, and a sceptre shall rise out of Israel…" They had been searching and waiting for that star to rise. Even though they trusted the holy words, they understood that what would lead them to God was more than holy words found on a scroll, or holy rites performed in a temple. They needed to spend time with necks craned to the darkened starry sky and wait until that one sprinkling of light should break through and cast its guiding rays to earth. And when they finally saw that sprinkling of light, they got up and prepared themselves to follow that light wherever it would take them and for however long it took. They packed their camels, they gathered great treasures to bring along as offerings and they started out. They traveled at night because they did not know which way to go during the daytime. They didn't have flashlights--they had only the star. And the star they followed scattered the darkness from before their feet as they trudged on night after night through that cold desert landscape.

Third, they trusted in the subconscious--the inner life--the land of dreams. We are often unwilling to trust in words that cannot be physically proven, or in natural events that might mislead us, or in our own inner life because it feels unreal and intangible. Like us, they had no real proof that the holy words were true, they knew the world of nature could be deceptive, and their own unconscious could be misunderstood, but they had one advantage over us. They were not so bound to physical reality as we. And it's good they weren't, because it was their trust in the subconscious, the inner life, the land of dreams that saved their lives and the life of the child Jesus. It was trust in dreams that brought them to their destination. It was trust in dreams that got them back home after they had honored the baby.

So, trust in the holy words and trust in the stars in nature led them to God, and trust in dreams brought them home again--by another way.

Have you ever noticed how life requires us from time to time to make mid-course corrections? We think we are moving along one track, and suddenly we find ourselves having to go a completely different way. Sometimes we're avoiding danger, sometimes it's circumstances that occur that are beyond our control and require a different response than we had intended, sometimes other people in our life need us to change direction and go another way. And just as I would like to avoid have my airplane be re-routed most of the time we would rather avoid making those changes, and would prefer to continue on the path we've begun and may not even heed those signs of warning that call us to change our route. Yet, life seems to be a continuous circuitous route between destinations--yet all pointed toward the destination of eternity. That's when we know that it's time to go home--by another way.

We are all traveling to God. We may think the destination is meeting God, but the journey doesn't end when we find God. The real destination is finding our home in God and the journey is not over until we find ourselves in that home forever. Sometimes the journey is no longer than a silent breath and suddenly we know and feel we're home in God. We feel an interior "ahhhhhh". At other times, the journey is long and arduous and we encounter dangers along the way; sickness that steals across our life leaving us afraid and vulnerable, grief that yawns like an empty cavern in the pit of our stomach, suffering that shoots through us until we feel we have no breath left. Sometimes, we are traveling and we actually do find God, but there are dangers unknown to us in getting us back home to God forever, and we need to go home by another way. And I want to tell you something very important. You won't find that other way by looking at your investment portfolio or tapping away on your computer, or logically trying to figure it out in your head. You will need to trust in the same three things as the three priests from Persia. You will need to trust the words of God that you have read and heard, studied and learned. You will have to trust them so much that you entrust yourself to them. Then you will need to trust in the works of God's hand in nature even when it's nothing more than a sprinkling of light in a darkened sky. Finally, you will need to trust your own inner life--that place where dreams are cast in shadows across your mind, that place where your unconscious speaks, that place where silent 'knowing' has precedence over logic and physical reality. The words of God, the works of nature, the land of dreams will lead you to God and back home to God forever--by another way.

O Jesus, while the star of grace
Impels us on to seek thy face,
Let not our slothful hearts refuse
The guidance of thy light to use.
(The Hymnal 1982, #124, ©1985 by The Church Pension Fund)

Copyright 2003 Calvary Episcopal Church

Gospel:John 1: 1-18
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2He was in the beginning with God. 3All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being 4in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it. 6There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. 8He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. 9The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. 10He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. 11He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. 12But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, 13who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God. 14And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth. 15 (John testified to him and cried out, ‘This was he of whom I said, “He who comes after me ranks ahead of me because he was before me.”’) 16From hisfullness we have all received, grace upon grace. 17The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known.NRSV

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