Going Home Another Way; Matthew 2:1-12

 One of the big pieces of local news for December was the opening of the Havelock Bypass.  Anyone been on it yet?  We went on part of it.  It’s definitely been a lot easier to get around town, but this coming week is full school and base traffic, so we’ll really see what kind of difference it makes in traffic patterns.  Is Miller going to get busier, like they think?  We’ll see.  When I travel, I like to take the scenic route when possible, especially if I can avoid the busy parts I-40 and I-95.  There are parts of those highways that are so crowded and scary that even going a slower road doesn’t make much difference in time.  Whenever I go to Fayetteville, I take backroads, and the difference is at most 5 minutes, but it sure is a lot more peaceful and scenic.  Jim’s cousins moved from Raleigh to Wilson.  Sometimes we take the interstate way to Wilson, but take the more rural highways home.  Again, it’s generally not more than a 5-minute difference, 15 if you get stuck behind the big farm equipment on the two-lane road.  In our gospel reading today, we see the wise men needing to go home another way.  In the life of our church, we are finding ourselves in a position of needing to go another way and getting ready to embark on that journey. 

            There are different reasons we find ourselves needing to go a different way.  Sometimes, we are forced to go a different way because of construction detours.  Sometimes, it’s a traffic accident.  It may be because of a washed-out road.  Sometimes we go a different way for peace and beauty.  Sometimes a different way saves us time.  For the magi, they were specifically warned in a dream not to return to Herod.  We don’t know how many of them had the dream, but it was probably more than one.  We don’t know what details they got in the dream, but they were convinced not to go back to tell Herod what they had seen and heard.  They didn’t go back through Jerusalem at all.  Because they didn’t go back via Jerusalem, it bought time for the Holy Family to flee to Egypt, even though it wasn’t very much time at all.  An angel appeared to Joseph in a dream that night telling him to flee immediately and take Mary and Jesus to Egypt because Herod wanted to kill the child.  They didn’t get much of a head start before Herod figured it out and made sure all the male babies 2 and under in Bethlehem were slaughtered.  Still, it was enough time for them to get far enough away to be safe.  They stayed in Egypt 3 or 4 years before resettling in Nazareth.  The magi’s going home another way was a life-saving detour for Jesus.  But I’m sure there were other benefits of the magi going home by another way.  Like the shepherds, I bet they told people of what they had seen. 

            We are called this year to go a different way.  We are embarking on a new journey as Trinity Presbyterian Church.  Some people in here are being called to go a different way in their personal lives.  2026 is bringing major changes.  Going a different way can be nerve-wracking as well as exciting.  It’s an unfamiliar road for most of us, and new for all of us.  It is a road we were called to take.  Part of it is life-saving.  We were getting a point of financial insolvency and possible dissolution.  We could have reached that point much sooner.  It wasn’t looking good on paper, but by your generosity, the session’s frugality, and God’s grace, we have been able to meet all of our obligations.  It’s been like the widow’s jar of oil that never ran out because she was faithful to take care of Elijah, the prophet of God.  But we are called not to survive or to coast but to thrive.  We have an opportunity to thrive.  We can be generous.  We can look outward.  We can try new things, and we must.  We will have to learn where to focus our attention.  We will need to decide what to take on the journey and what to leave behind.  We will meet new people along the way.  And we need to be prepared to see unexpected blessings. 

            There was a time when going a different way for me proved to be an unexpected blessing.  I was on my way to a concert in Ithaca, NY coming from seminary in South Hamilton, MA.  I had never been to Ithaca before, so I gave myself an extra hour of time, hoping to get there early and check-in to my hotel before the concert.  I was on a toll road interstate.  This is before cell phones and GPS.  I missed my exit due to poor signage, so I figured I would turn around at the next one.  That adds toll to the route, but I did it.  Then I missed the exit again! I was not going to pay that extra toll a third time, so I ended up getting off at an earlier one, pulled out my map and planned a new route, and commenced to driving on twisty, two-lane backroads.  As I was going up a hill, I noticed a ton of smoke in my rearview mirror.  Thankfully, when I go to the top of the hill, there was a gas station.  I pulled in.  And immediately 3 men came out of the gas station to help me with the car.  It was clear that a hose going to the radiator had burst.  An easy fix if you can get the part.  I always kept tools in the car.  If I had been on the interstate when that happened, I wouldn’t have been able to pull over easily and get help.  One man offered to take me to the auto parts store to get the new hose.  On the way to the store, we stopped by his house, and I got to meet his family.  In the car, he told me his life story, and I got to share a little bit about Jesus to him.  We got the part, and he helped me get it back on, which was much harder than getting it off because you had to trim the hose and wrestle it on the fittings in freezing weather in which snow had started falling.  We topped off the antifreeze, and I was on my way.  The time it took was all the cushion time I had allowed in my trip. It was getting dark by the time I arrived in Ithaca.  I pulled in to the concert venue just as it was about to start, not having checked into the hotel ahead of time. But I didn’t miss any of the show.  There was so much of the hand of God in what happened.  I didn’t end up broken down on the highway.  I had people to help me.  I got to witness to the stranger who showed me kindness. We don’t know what the unexpected blessings will be, but we can trust that God will give them to us.

            But there are also blessings that God has and is already giving us as we go another way.  Some of us have more experiencing the less travelled routes than others.  We aren’t given a GPS, but we have God to guide us.  We have the Holy Spirit to gift us.  The magi brought gold, frankincense, and myrrh to Jesus.  Joseph could’ve come home and thought their financial struggles were solved, but that gold was needed as they had to relocate to Egypt and live there for a number of years.  God’s timing was perfect.  God gives us gifts for the journey as well. How will God call us to use the financial resources He has given us?  I hope that you are still praying about what God wants us to do.  How does God want us to engage next with the Matthew 25 Vision of eradicating systemic poverty, dismantling structural racism, and building congregational vitality?  What new vision might the Lord be giving?  God has also already given us other gifts.  But there are some gifts we know that we don’t have, but we are going to need.  I have given you two footprints.  On one of your footprints, I want you to write a gift that you have that you can offer that might come in handy as we go another way.  Think of one word or a short phrase.  Maybe you have the gift of patience, enthusiasm, of being a calm presence, creativity, encouragement, friendship, evangelism, hospitality, networking…It can be anything you think that you have to offer.  During the offering today, I will collect these footprints, and we will offer our gifts to God and to each other.  But none of us have everything we need for the journey.  Think about what you don’t have that you need.  Maybe it’s patience, peace, courage, positivity, creativity, love, curiosity, guidance…again, a word or phrase that comes to mind.  This route is not necessarily a shortcut.  It might be the longer route.  What do you need from God to sustain you?  I’m going to collect these shortly and redistribute them.  Make sure you don’t get your own footprint, but you may receive a footprint from someone else who needs the same thing you do.  We are going to spend a couple of minutes in prayer for one another using these footprint words.  You don’t necessarily need to know whose footprint you have, but I guarantee what is written is something that is needed for the journey.  Maybe it’s a gift that you have.  As you pray for the person who needs it, thank God for what God has already provided.  I hope that you will take the footprint home that you have received and continue to pray about it this week.  Put it in a place where you will be reminded to pray.