thoughts on the wise magi

I've been thinking a lot about the magi for that last few weeks, partly because I preached on it last Sunday and partly because this is one thing I think about every time I get a nativity set out.  I'm pretty sure there is an old post about what the Bible really says about the magi - so this isn't gonna be about that.

This year with all the uncertainties and my hopes for an answer from God quicker then I feel it is coming...I focused instead on the journey the magi took.

I have always been really impressed by the magi for one reason they without giving second thought had faith in the star and themselves to follow it...they trusted that God was going to take them on an important journey and left - leaving for a several year journey that would be dangerous and at the end take them home on a different path, perhaps a longer path.

Trusting in the journey and giving up to God our lives is really hard - especially for people who want to know what is going on.  It takes a lot for us to put our trust in the divine and to ultimately follow without confirmation - and for the magi this journey was several years!

God doesn't just appear to us and give us all the answers - and for those who are seeking for the first time a Creator, there isn't instant gratification.  But instead, by trusting our own intuition which tells us that indeed there is something greater in this world, a power that we would like to know or something beyond ourselves, we can be lead on a journey.  Like the journey the magi's took.  A journey which could lead you to Christ.

For me, an already believer, I need to remind myself that when I trust God and go along the path that my creator is lighting for me - I'm on God's time, not my time.  It might take a longer then I'd like for God's plan to be revealed to me and there are plenty of times along this path that I would like to leave it for my own.  But if I persist by putting my trust in the Divine power, I know that the God's plan will be revealed and as the magi came to stand at the foot of the savior - I too will have my epiphany moment.  I just must trust and believe.

Some theologians believe that you don't actually have to have faith to begin going to church or becoming a Christian - for if you begin by doing all the things that a "good" Christian does: praying, reading the Bible, studying, worshiping that eventually these will lead you into belief, into an epiphany or ay-ha moment when you realize that indeed God's presence is all around us.

Let us all challenge ourselves this year - to live into our faith putting trust not in the moment now but in the path that will lead us to the moment when God's self is revealed - perhaps for the first time or perhaps once again! 

the difficultly that lies in lies...

I'm starting this one out with a confession of sorts.  You see, my family (extended family that is) has been lying to one member for the last 2 1/2 years.  We had a death and at the same time this person was in a difficult place and emotionally pretty depressed.  As we were trying to help this person, we felt that the news of the death wouldn't be good - these two hadn't seen each other in a while and it isn't like they talked on the phone.  So it seemed pretty harmless to just neglect to tell them.  Well 2 1/2 years later, we as a family have still failed to bring this up - partly because there are still some difficult times and partly because we have dug ourselves into this hole and we don't want to be alienated when we admit the truth.  For most of us (myself included) haven't been truly involved in the lie, we know about it and continue to keep up the facade.  But we are being asked a lot - for I feel incredibly guilty and in trying not to have to lie about the lie I avoid topics that could lead to conversations that would result in the question "so how is ----- doing?" Luckily I only see this person a few times a year!

The reality is that no one should have lied - but you see technically no one did...we have just fail to tell the whole story - we have failed to reveal knowledge that we have and have covered up an event. And I think that is one of the worst types of lies...

Lies break down relationships and get in the way of us being able to have full and meaningful relationships with people.  And it isn't just the lies that come out of our mouths - like lying about the car you drive or where you work, cause those types of lies usually are revealed.  It is the smaller white lies or the things we omit from our stories that are the worse types of lies.  It is the silence that our relationships are broken down or worse it is in the rumors that the silence creates.

In my current work at two churches, we discovered a misappropriation of funds.  One church was misusing the relationship and the funds that were generated by this relationship. As realities of this situation began to unfold the fall-out has become quite personal.  As always the messenger is usually the one who takes all the bad emotions or the grunt of the pain.  As we are still working this out, we have had mediators and advice from those "higher up."  But in the end, the congregations have mostly been left in the dark.  I have been left to believe that I'm not to say anything, as if I do it looks like personal attacks on the individuals at hand - even if it is factual truths.  When I preach, I am accused of scolding people from the pulpit (hmmm is my sermon hitting home?)! And so I was asked to not preach for several months...

Now, because of the silence and not speaking - giving is down, attendance is down and those who continue to bully are feeling justified because to them this suggest people are siding with them.

But the sad truth is, the relationships are broken because of the silence, because within that silence rumors have prevailed.  Because within that silence the "death" has not yet been proclaimed and yet everyone knows that things are different and not the same. 

Because we have two churches and this is only happening in one, things are made worst because I am being accused of giving favor to one church - which all-be-it I probably am.  But not because I like them better, but because I wasn't asked to stop preaching there. 

At the end of the day, even if the "lie" or the silence is kept in order to spare feelings, or to help subside a situation - relationships still pay for it.  And it can still eat away at a good thing.  At then end of all of this, it is better to be honest and to tell the truth then to continue allowing the silence to rule and the "death" to go unattended or addressed.