Finding Our Way

A friend asked me the other day what I thought was the most important thing that every person needed for their journey of faith. I attempted to answer his question in the moment, but it has lingered with me over these days as I have thought about my own faith journey and the integral pieces which have brought me further into life with God. When I consider what has made much of the difference for my own faith, a patchwork of faces and moments shared with incredible mentors always comes to mind. I remember times of great anxiety or uncertainty when an encounter with one of these friends helped me to re-cast my anchor into the sea of doubt that surrounded me and threatened to capsize my boat. Often answers to the great questions were not the object of our discussions. Instead, across the table, in the presence of a trusted companion, I had the chance to reorient and find my bearings. In these conversations, I was reminded that Jesus choose the tumult of a great storm to walk through crashing waves and extend a hand to his friends whose faith had been shaken, saying, “I am here. Do not be afraid.”

I have always appreciated the metaphor of faith as making a journey. Our lives with God require us to travel a path with very few signposts or visible markers which point us in the right direction. Instead what we have are stars which shed just enough light to help us through some rather dark times. These light bearers come in many forms. Often mentors and friends have taken time to share their light, holding lanterns along my path so that I may better find my way. Those who have walked this bit of the road before and taken time to mark this place are a reminder that no matter how lost I may feel, someone else has felt this lost, too. One particular practice of pilgrimage is for the traveler to leave stones in different places along the way as a reminder to those who follow that this ground has been already tread. In our wildernesses, where darkness, doubt, and low-visibility reign, even mounds of stones are a welcome symbol that we are never far from God or one another, even when all evidence points to the contrary.

For the next few weeks, our Thursday night small group is going to be reading a book which offers light and aid for our spiritual journeys. In his book, Finding out Way Again: The Return of the Ancient Practices, Brian McLaren discusses Christian faith as a way of life. He urges those of us who call ourselves Christian, followers of Jesus, to understand faith not as a system of beliefs but instead as a refining process which requires our whole life and being. Each week, we will be reading, discussing, and praying about our own journeys of faith, and we will seek to discover the mounds of stones which have been left for us to learn from by those who have walked the road before us. In this process, we may even leave a few stones of our own to share with the pilgrims who are sure to follow.

I am thankful for every lantern and stone which has appeared on the scene just when I needed them. As I have grown older, I have also realized that the time has come for me to put extra oil in my own lantern and look around to notice where other travelers may need the light of a star to guide their way. Learning and sharing, this dance shifts back and forth until the destination has been reached. In memories and words, in stories and traditions left for us like mounds of stones along the path, we find our way home.

Following the Star

From the Sermon by Sara this past Sunday, 1/9/11 - a day when we remembered the journeys of the 3 Magi ... "A Word to the Wise":

In the wave of post-Christmas news reports about shoppers standing in long lines to return their unwanted or mis-sized Christmas gifts, I caught a news report that the giant Internet store of amazon.com has received a patent for a new service they are adding to their online store. It seems that they have figured out a way to convert that unwanted Christmas fluorescent red and green necktie from Aunt Sara into something you might actually want or even perhaps use.[1]

The customer can place a standing “conversion” order so that I could tell them: if anyone tries to send me an “Albert Einstein Action Figure” please convert it into a gift card or a sweater … or something else I might actually like to have. And so the original unwanted gift won’t be sent … and the new one will.

Or, I can also tell them to stop any gift from a particular person. So if Aunt Sara is known for sending you things you don’t want – like bedroom slippers with bells on them or “how to” books to improve your life – you tell amazon.com: “Whatever Aunt Sara tries to send me, please DON’T SEND IT and instead convert it into …” and you can tell them what you want the gift to become instead of whatever Aunt Sara wants to give me.

And, for an additional cost of course, I can also have Amazon.com send a thank you note to Aunt Sara thanking her for the original gift she wanted to give me so she would never know (unless of course she comes to visit and asks where it is … amazon does not have a service for that, at least as of now). Although for those who might feel a tad guilty about this deception, you can have amazon.com send Aunt Sara a note thanking her for the original gift, but letting her also know you converted it into a gift card or whatever.

While Emily Post and Miss Manners did not have many kind words to say about this, our college-age nephews, when I asked them, thought this was awesome … which may explain why gifts from Aunt Sara and Uncle Bob now come in the form of dollar bills.

But let me take an informal poll this morning: how many of you think this is an awesome idea? How many of you think it’s an awful idea? [NOTE: an overwhelming response by our congregation was in the AWFUL category … but there were some who agreed it was awesome … and I wonder if people were afraid to raise their hands to say it was a terrific idea! Lots of peer pressure in worship … ]

An informal online poll at National Public Radio had 65% of people responding saying it’s awesome and 35% saying it’s awful.

Given that up to 30% of gifts given are returned each year – the costs to the retailers run in the millions and perhaps billions of dollars to process a returned unwanted gift and then exchange it for something else. In our challenged economy I suppose it was only a matter of time before someone figured out how to do this to save money. I can understand and even applaud the cost-saving idea behind this, even as I line up on the awful idea side of this one.

Yet, as all of us struggle to figure out what to do with all the “stuff” we have, most of which we no longer want or need … maybe this isn’t as heartless and callous as it first sounds, but is actually a step toward good stewardship for both the giver and the receiver of the gift.

I can understand the enthusiasm of our nephews: What if we only got what we actually wanted?

But that’s the real question, isn’t it?

What if we only ever got what we actually wanted?

And not just getting that new book we’ve been wanting to read or a sweater that fits … but to get everything we want: peace on earth, let alone peace of mind, or healing for our loved ones and answers to the questions that keep us up at night. What if we could send back everything in our lives that we don’t like?

My “convert this gift” list could be endless.

But we know that life is not like that and we do not always get everything we want.

That was clearly brought home to me as I read the journals that have traveled with our 3 wise men these past 2 weeks. I had asked those who had “hosted” one of the wise men overnight to share what wisdom they had learned in their lives and what words they would use to describe their own journeys of faith.

It became very clear to me that no one has ever found that they had always gotten everything that they wanted – but along the way they found that they had received gifts that they could never have imagined … the kind of gifts that unfold and surprise us over time. Again and again, people spoke of learning along the way that in whatever circumstances, even in adversity, they also found hope, comfort, trust, contentment, courage, they learned to live with mystery and to experience doubt as a partner with faith.

In the end, maybe that’s what we are to remember each year at Epiphany. For the word “Epiphany” simply means “to reveal” … as Jesus Christ is revealed as Savior and Son of God first to the wise men from the East … but then to all generations and to each of us. So we continue to receive from God’s hands, through Christ, gifts we may never have asked for, but which continue to surprise us … and sustain us … for our own journeys along the way.

We are met here with the gift that is nothing that we could make happen. A gift that is the fulfillment of more than everything we could have hoped for or dreamed of.

A Gift that continues to be revealed to us in all of its mystery – in Word made flesh, in cross and resurrection, and in countless ways throughout our lives as God’s Holy Spirit makes a home among us, and within us, and through us.

So in honor of Epiphany, I want to send you home today with a gift. (At this point in the service, the Ushers distributed the offering plates with paper stars in them … with words written on them.)

There is no return or exchange policy on this gift … and unlike amazon.com, you can’t convert it into something else. And, while you certainly have the option to refuse it, I hope that you will consider receiving it instead.

In a moment, while we sing our next hymn, the ushers will be passing baskets among us. Only you won’t put anything in the basket. Instead, you will take out something: a star – one per person.

On one side of each star is a word … a word that is a gift to you for this coming year. Take a star … without looking at the word first … and let it be a gift to you to remind you throughout the year of God’s continuing presence in your life.[2]

It may be obvious from the moment you look at it what the word means to you … or maybe not. Maybe its significance has yet to be revealed and it will only take on new meaning for you over the coming days and months.

I encourage you to put the star somewhere where you will see it and over this year I would love to hear from you what the word means for you in your journey.

But for today - simply receive this word as a reminder of God’s presence in your life. And to remind you of our generous, giving God who keeps giving, and keeps breaking through our darkness … one star at a time.
May it be so. Amen.

NOTE TO READERS of the Blog ... Because of the randomness of selecting a "star" if you would like a "star word gift" - please email me at: pastorsara@verizon.net and I'll send you a word ... randomly chosen of course!
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[1] There are numerous articles online about this new patent. Articles can be found online at The Washington Post (http://www.washingtonpost.com/ – online article by Michael S. Rosenwald (12/26/2010) “Amazon patents procedure to let recipients avoid unwanted gifts”); or at National Public Radio (http://www.npr.org/ – online article and recording of radio news report by Mark Memmott (12/28/2010) “Amazon Could Let You Return a Gift Before It’s Sent”). A search online will turn up other business news articles about this new patent.
[2] This is modeled on the “Star Gifts” of East Woodstock Congregational Church in East Woodstock, CT, shared in the journal Reformed Worship no. 93, p. 36-38.