Some thoughts on Journeys and other Biblical adventures.

Matthew 2:1-15

The magi see a star and they decide it means something important. They just don’t know exactly what it means so they pack up the camels and head out on a long journey. I think that’s rather amazing. This isn’t an easy journey like riding in first class or in the car. Its the walking, camel riding kind, not take the train, kind of journey from Persia, now known as Iraq, or even further east like China or who knows. Suffice it for our purposes this morning - The Magi set out on a long, long, long journey to get to this morning’s story.

This means that not only are they moving toward something, they are also moving away from something else: home. That’s the problem with going on a journey - and there are several journey’s in this mornings passage. It means leaving home. And not just for a few days or weeks, in this case it means years. Lots of things can happen in a year or two. Not just to the Magi, but also to the place they left - their “home.” Folks get used to them being gone, their positions on the Magi Recreational Softball Team will be filled, and buildings on the town square will be torn down, remodeled, or rebuilt. When they return, everything will be different and whatever it was that made it “home” may not be there any longer.

When you travel, everybody is a stranger. And you a stranger to them. Again, that’s not always a bad thing because new friendships grow out of first encounters but when every day is another few miles down the road, how do you grow a relationship if everyone is just moving on? And yet, knowing all this, the Magi still set out on their mysterious yet goal focused journey, looking for the child announced by the Star.

How did they do that? I find myself wondering if they laid awake at night thinking that maybe they were crazy and that at first light the next morning they’d just get right up and turn those camels straight back the other way because I’m pretty sure I’d be thinking that. More then once on a journey I’ve been filled with such a deep homesickness that I’m packed up and standing by the door before the sun rises. And then its turns into such a good morning that it all seems to be okay enough to maybe go ahead a bit farther down that road. And sometimes, its too expensive to change the flight and I just have to tough it out.

I wonder if they got into fights with each other about what drive-thru to eat lunch in or which freeway exit would be the best route into town? Or where they filled with such certainty about their journey’s purpose that there was no wavering, no distractions, just day after day of camel feet stepping across sand, dirt, mud, grass, hard rock and then more sand.
I wonder if the selection of the gifts tucked away in the saddle packs made any sense to them. Gold - sure, Gold is always a great gift, like universal gift cards, accepted everywhere but Myrrh and Frankinsense? Not exactly stamped with the Baby’s First Steps Toy brand are they?

We don’t know because none of those kinds of details are in this morning’s story. Stories that have to be committed to memory or carefully copied by hand tend to condense down to the most essential level. Only the exact number of words to make the point and not one word more.

So we’re left with Magi marching through the night following their star and Joseph and Mary and Baby Jesus packing it all up and moving to Egypt just because he had a dream. Would you move to Nevada if you woke up one morning from a Dream instructing you to load up the U-haul? Would your family move with you? On the other hand if your child was God Incarnate then I’m guessing we’d all be a bit more likely to act on the preposterous. Joseph dreams and the family moves to Egypt.

Its not the first time Joseph has committed to information sent by God in a dream. He gets engaged, she’s a nice girl, but then she’s pregnant and its not his kid. So, he’s done. He’ll be nice about it and all, but Mary has a problem and this isn’t going to work for him till the angel shows up in the middle of the night. In a dream. You know how sometimes when you wake up and you can’t quite separate what was real and what was a dream? I wonder how that morning was for Joseph. Did he jump up and run down the street to pound on Mary’s door saying, “Mary, Mary I get it! We’re going to be a family!” or did he pour himself a cup of coffee and stare out the window trying to clear the cobwebs in his head that wouldn’t go away?

So, perhaps its not surprising that Joseph is willing to head off to Egypt based on little more then a second dream. On the other hand, Herod’s bloodthirsty reputation is well known and it may not take much to convince any of his subjects to quietly slip out of town while slipping is still good. One of the traditions around this story is that Joseph and Mary used the Magi gifts to finance their sudden extended trip to Egypt. The idea behind this tradition is that the Magi Gifts are actually God’s gifts, arriving just in time before Herod gets specifically focused on the Holy Toddler threat to his power. We don’t know what Joseph and Mary actually did with the precious herbs and anointments, its not in the story. Its a lot like the tradition that there were three wise men who have names and faces and racial heritage. Not in the story but one of the ways people filled in the gaps over the centuries. But it makes sense. You gotta pay for the trip one way or another. And its nice to think that gifts from God always come just in time.

A few years go by, and then, in another dream, naturally, God sends Joseph the all-clear message for the family’s return. Yet, before they reach the old home in the old alleyway, still a third angel-dream redirects them to safety in obscurity in the town of Nazareth. I can easily imagine Mary, the next morning, saying, “Nazareth? Are you sure? That’s like getting transfered to Bakersfield or Fresno!”
And then, as far as we read here, the dreams for Joseph stop. Does he go to bed each night hoping for another wonderful and fearful encounter with God? Does he awaken in the morning disappointed yet again? Does he start to wonder if he’s been abandoned by God since he no longer dreams of angels and great travels? Or is he relieved because he’s getting tired of packing up the old donkey one more time?

Do we all wonder sometimes if God has abandoned us? We want to be important. We want to be useful. We want to know if we’re doing the right thing but how do we know?

The theology of my American Lutheren Synod childhood taught me that (and I want you to hear the capitol letters) God Has A Plan For Your Life and if I obeyed God and God’s instructions then I was going to have a very happy and fulfilling life. If I didn’t follow God then I was going to be miserable. Kind of a Goofus and Gallant message - you know the two boys, one wise and polite and one boorish and foolish from the old Highlight Magazines.