Onstar sermon 1.13.08 Rev. Lynn James, LMHC Mt 3:13-17 You know, Epiphany Sunday would not be happening this many days AFTER Christmas, if the wise men had a Garmen, or an Onstar or as the joke goes, if they had been with their wives, their wives would have made them stop and ask for directions. Actually, they did have a kind of Onstar: they had the star in the east lighting their path and the voice of God giving them directions in their dreams. Ok, don t laugh, but I just about cried the first time I saw an Onstar commercial on tv. Do you know the ones I m talking about? First we hear a strong, gentle voice reassuring that help is on the way, asking if everyone is ok, and then realize as the fuzzy image on the screen comes into focus that it is the scene of a car accident and we are hearing what the occupants of the crashed vehicle are hearing. They are not alone, and even if they are unable to call for help, help has automatically been dispatched and is on the way. That s how it is with God. Before we pray, before we even know that we are in trouble, God is on the scene right there with us and is sending us additional help in many forms. How many of you have a GPS? I was talking to someone recently who had received one for Christmas and was telling us about how precise it is. He lives in rural Indiana outside of Lafayette and was amazed to discover that it recognized even back roads. At one point, it had plotted a course for him from work to a friend s home, but, he instead of following its instructions, he took the short cut he always takes. The helpful voice on his GPS calmly suggested a U-turn, then repeated the suggestion please turn around, you may turn around at the next intersection, then after about a mile of trying to talk him into turning around gave up and instead stated: Reconfiguring, reconfiguring, keep going, straight ahead estimated arrival time 3 minutes. I found myself thinking about how many times that is similar to the echoing voice of God telling us to turn around, turn around, even putting up detour signs, stop signs, uneven surface ahead signs, but when we stubbornly disregard all of those and end up lost, instead of abandoning us, giving us the silent treatment for disobeying, God simply helps us find our way from there, reconfiguring, reconfiguring. The Magi had to reconfigure their journey as well. Many scholars speculate that the Magi were most likely Persian priests, who were sometimes kings themselves and sometimes assistants to kings. They would have been outsiders to the world that Matthew, a Jewish scribe, was speaking to and was part of; they were Gentiles, Pagans. They were philosophers who devoted themselves to the study of the sciences, especially the study of the stars. In addition to looking upward, however, they also looked inward, interpreting dreams.
Throughout both the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures, dreams are considered to be a primary message system from God to humanity. The ancient kings always had wise sages on their staff whose job it was to listen to and interpret dreams. Last week we read about God warning Joseph in a dream; this week God warns the magi in their dreams, not to return to Herod. One of the most sacred aspects of my counseling work, is the privilege of listening to people s dreams. I am in awe of the deep wisdom, guidance, and healing that emerges when people are sleeping. In the gospel story we find a God who speaks in the night sky as well as the human brain, in the conscious as well as the unconscious. There is a guiding star above and a guiding star within. The entire bible is filled with dream images, poems, songs, morality stories, ancient scientific ideas, fears and feelings, urgent and universal questions as well as many different responses to those questions; in addition there are also some historical facts. Like the magi, we too must interpret and make sense of information from many different sources. We must look inward as well as outward, listening to the deepest places within our dreams and our souls, as well as scientific discoveries and the far reaches of the universe where the Hubble telescope is exploring. Like the Magi, you and I have been given our own unique GPS, global positioning system, but instead of orbiting satellites beaming information to us, we are guided by the light of the Spirit who is the Source of all light. When I first began driving I was terrified of getting lost. I don t have a very good sense of direction; in fact I think I have a kind of spatial dyslexia. I am not able to follow spatial sequences or maintain a visual sense of where one point in on a map is in relation to another point. I don t have to be driving either-it happens walking out of an office in a building-i forget which way I came from, whether the elevator is to the left or the right. To compensate, I have learned to identify objects, landmarks, to remind me which way to go. Instead of left or right, my directions coming out of the doctor s office go something like: Walk toward the picture of the children laughing, past the water fountain and take the elevator to the main floor. Walk toward the potted plant-no not that one, the one, oh darn, there s potted plants everywhere, ok, there s the door; Now, where did I park the car? Maybe this inadequacy comes from growing up in a farming community where all addresses were RR1 because there were no street signs; the postal carrier simply knew by the name on the envelope which mailbox it went into. I grew up where directions from one place to another were never given in numbers or names but in stories: Head out toward Johnson s barn-it s half red and half wood because that lazy son of his hasn t finished painting it yet, and then you ll go by the creek, yep, my 9 year old daughter caught a rainbow trout there last spring and no-one s seen any since! Then turn left where the pine trees cut across the wheat field-got me a good one last Christmas, so tall we had to cut it off at the bottom to get it thru the door!
By the time you know where you are going, you also know the history of the community. History does provide important information on our GPS screen. The Magi also used the Hebrew Scriptures to connect the star to the infant Christ, and the meaning this birth had for the world. It is one thing to locate ourselves and know where we are headed; it is another to know why, the meaning of our journey. We learn essential things about where we are going, like what pit falls to avoid, as well as what patterns to repeat, by learning the stories about where we have come from. Betty Herbert and Virginia Spelbring have both told me stories and brought pages and pictures of this community s history. I look forward to learning more and with you figuring how this information from the past might help us understand God s call and vision for ministry here in the present and future. Have you ever been lost, really lost? You know, the kind of confusion where you literally don t know if you re coming or going-if you ve gone past your destination or not arrived there yet or even if you have ended up somewhere completely off the path! I remember the first time this happened to me. I was a new driver and had gone beyond where I had been before. I called my stepfather, Gary, in tears because I didn t know where I was and I was scared. He first calmed me down by reassuring me that being lost doesn t mean something dangerous is going to happen, I was lost, but the place was safe, just not the place I intended to be! Then he promised that he would help me find my way. To do this I first had to take a good look around and figure out where I was. Then, he had me drive back to a landmark that might have the name of the town on it, then he had me start naming streets. This was before cell phones, so I would have to stop and call from pay phones as I went. Pretty soon, he had located me on a map and was able to guide me from there. I learned then that it was ok to go beyond my comfort zone, to risk the unknown, because I had a personal GPS-someone who loved me. I learned that in life it is ok to ask for directions, it is ok to need help when we are exploring places that are unfamiliar. Now I call my husband, and after being together for 20 years, he is great at helping to orient me when I am confused and unsure about which direction I am headed in; supporting me both on literal roads as well those confusing moments on the life journey we share. Sometimes, even when we are on a well worn path, our life may make an unexpected curve; we may find ourselves stopped in the middle of nowhere because something broke down. Sometimes we take an alternate route and it works, other times it proves to have been a dangerous detour. Our child or a friend might marry someone we warned them against, and then after the fact, discover they are in a terrible situation. Could you imagine the Onstar voice coming through the speaker saying, You wouldn t be in this situation if you had paid attention to my directions! That s not God s reaction either; instead, like us, I believe that God is
relieved that they have seen the truth and found themselves and then is immediately trying to help them create a path out. Or perhaps we find ourselves lost, as we hear the doctor diagnose lung cancer for a loved one who smoked cigarettes for decades despite many attempts to quit. I believe that God joins us in compassionate embrace, weeping with us instead of lecturing on about the warning on the box. I had a client in this situation tell me that she believed the lung cancer was God s judgement on her smoking. I told her that I don t believe this is how God works. Look around at all the mean people who live long lives. Sickness is not God s will for our lives. In addition, we all make mistakes; it s just that not all of us get addicted and not all of us get sick from them. At the same time, I believe that God is actively guiding those who are suing the companies who purposefully poisoned generations of our loved ones, and God s righteous anger is channeled through those who are challenging their advertisements aimed at our young people. To those who are suffering from the toxins in their bodies, from any illness of mind or body, God simply says, I love you; now let s see what we can do together, what healing is possible within this tragic reality. Perhaps we feel lost and without any light to guide our way when we discover that our expenses are bigger than our paychecks. Then a shimmer of starlight finds us as we recall that no-where does God promise prosperity as a sign of blessing. God does not use poverty to punish, or bankruptcy and bounced checks to banish us; they are simply problems that God wants to help us solve. God s gifts are more valuable than material belongings and are free and generously poured out into our lives at every moment. In addition, Jesus message was not merely spiritual, but practical. Like the Psalmist proclaims, the reign of God is a kingdom of justice and God is calling to those in power to remember those who are working long hours for little pay, in demeaning conditions under tyrannical or obnoxious bosses. The light in the darkness is carried by those who write letters, who march, who vote, who lead, demanding that those with power save the children of the needy and deliver the afflicted who have no-one to help who fight for fair wage laws and worker s rights. Most of us have had experiences when we have had to suddenly change routes. Perhaps a job didn t turn out the way we hoped. Maybe we had our lives all mapquested or AAA outlined, all planned out, but then we reach midlife and our list of goals is longer than the time we have left. Or years go by and we recognize that we have to let go of something we ve been hoarding, saving, and if we don t share it, it will turn to dust. Or maybe we went took a wrong turn, but wanted to see just a little bit more of what was on the path, just a little bit farther down, until we ended up lost and broken down in the middle of nowhere. When we don t end up where God intended for us to be, what does God do? God reconfigures, God creates a plan B, another path, and God continues to love us, to stay with us, and to guide us on our journey from there to where we need to go.
The Magi are part of the ongoing biblical witness to the reality that we are always, no matter what, located within the presence of God and God always will help us plot a way out and will be with us guiding us onward. Like the Magi, all of us are on a very difficult journey; we all have to learn how to live and how to die, how to love and how to let go, how to cope with sorrow and heartache as well as how to savor and pass on the abundance of beautiful and joy-filled gifts that surround us every moment of every day. So, God sends us one another; God sends us dreams and hopes; God sends us angels in every day clothing, orienting lights in the darkness within us as well as outside of us, and epiphanies that dawn on our awareness even in the darkest of times. May it be so for you in 2008 and beyond. Amen (copyright 2008, Lynn James, all rights reserved)