Isaiah 63:7-9; Matthew 2:13-23
January 1, 2023
- Heading in a new direction in a new year
Well, friends, we did it. We made it to a new year. Congratulations! Now what?
In Welwyn, England, there is a town called Hitchin. On one of the commonly used routes into Hitchin, there was a junction which often confused travelers, causing them to make a wrong turn. The resulting route was nine miles longer than the correct route into Hitchin.
This common mistake was sufficiently irritating that the local people waged a campaign to have a new signpost erected at the junction. After due process, the signpost was installed, and the local people showed up for the installation, holding a sort of mini-festival of celebration.
The local newspaper reported the event with the following headline: “A Hitchin Sign Saves Nine”
If you did not follow that sign remark, here is another: alongside a river prone to flooding there was a sign that read, “If this sign is underwater, crossing is dangerous.”
If you did not follow THAT sign remark, the last one I have for you is the ominous road sign at the entrance of the cemetery: One-Way Traffic.
I’m not going to help you anymore with that. We are at a junction today that seems to beg a sign. As we embark on a new year, that would seem to make sense. I doubt any of us wants to take the long way, the dangerous way, or the way that only goes in one direction. The world always waiting for help is also always changing in its need with a wide openness that begs our answer, but it is up to us to determine our mission, our ministry, our direction in 2023. That is where a sign comes in and can help guide us into time that we have never lived before.
Have you ever marched into uncharted territory before? Like the time you ventured to Antarctica? Well, if anyone here has been to Antarctica, I would certainly be impressed, but I am thinking more the times when we enter new phases of life – a new location, new home, new job, new family member, new life stage, new physical challenges. We have all stepped out into times we have never known, and it took at least a little bit of faith to do it.
The prophet Isaiah and the Gospel of Matthew are two regular conversation partners for us as we get into new territory of 2023. They are paired together in the suggested readings of the lectionary, but they are also both reflecting times that demanded signs, too, times that were far from easy, yet God promised hope. In Isaiah, the people of God in the southern kingdom of Judah are hauled off to Babylon as slaves, but they also get to return to Judah after a generation or two. Matthew spoke to Jewish Christians who are struggling to follow Jesus in the very time when Rome is pressing them. Jews who did not believe in Jesus are also pushing their cousins out. At the end of Matthew’s Gospel, however, Jesus promises to remain with us always even to the end of the age in what we call the Great Commission.
As much as we can use a sign today, something to point us on the way we need to go as a church, they were much more in need of help back then. The world was literally falling down around the people back then. As tough as we might have it today, we cannot begin to imagine a foreign people really invading us and taking our children as slaves. We cannot imagine the government going around and killing all the boys around who were two years or younger. The picture is beyond tragedy. That’s when something new happened.
Immediately after the magi or wisemen left Jesus and his family with some very fancy presents, the family of Jesus is warned through daddy Joseph’s dreams to hit the road quickly. They are not moving to the next town but to another country. He listens and they go as you heard, but what is remarkable is what Matthew tells us about all of these steps. Three times Joseph is given dreams as signs to direct their way. Three times the family of little Jesus travels and great distances at that. Three times things happen that Matthew sees as fulfillment of prophecy. Three times God intervenes in this rolling sequence of events. It is almost as if we are meant to see a greater message in this.
Of course, that repetition is meant to show us just how much God was at work and invested in their lives, in their journeying, and in the unfolding of events around them. All of this was part of God’s larger story for them. Again and again, God is steering the boat. Again and again, this is something God had in mind for a long time. Again and again, this is something obvious to Matthew that he wants us to see, too. It is as if we are supposed to see just how much God is with us every…single…step. Matthew is jumping up and telling us, “Here is a sign; here it is, again; here it is, again”.
Why is it that we are often too thick to get the message? Matthew is writing this story to show us what he desperately needs us to know. Yes, he is writing for a Jewish audience that has questions about Jesus, but it is just as much for us, today. What should be obvious escapes our notice, too. We have walked around looking for the keys that are in our hand or the glasses that are on our face.
This is one reason why we have church officers – not to help us find our keys or glasses, necessarily, but to show us those obvious truths as we look for God’s path. Our Elders together as the Session are a working voice for God trying to lead us into new places and times. No one of them or us has all the answers, but together they are taking up the matters of our church family in prayer and stepping out in faith. I know we are grateful for those who have heard God’s call to serve this way and responded. We are glad to have this help.
When the wisemen saw a sign and took off on their great journey to find the young Jesus, they did not have to create the path. God showed them the way. They did not have to figure out who was king. They saw it in the stars that God gave us a Savior among the Jews. They did not have to wonder what a fitting gift for Jesus might be. He was King so he received kingly gifts that interestingly also point to Jesus’ place as priest and sacrifice. All the wisemen had to do was make that trip. All they had to do was walk the path that God showed them with commitment and faith, not even faith in God but faith that they would get there. The wisemen were not Jews or part of Abraham and Sarah’s family, but if they did not believe they would end up in the right place by divine providence, they would never have left.
So today, I would love to say that there is one path, one direction, one ministry, one way that we need to find or figure out – something spelled out like runway landing lights or South of the Border highway signs, but the truth is that God has already laid out the path for us. We do not need to find it as much as live it as long as we walk in faith. We will get where we need to be because it is God who leads us. We will get where we need to be because we have good friends walking with us like the Elders. Just as the magi followed that new star so many years ago and walked right into Jesus’ home, we are seeking a new star today in this new year. And it begins with walking in faith. We may well make mistakes, but we cannot fail. In love and grace, God has all of this worked out in our following God in a new year. The dreams we need to heed today are dreams of new ministry, passions to serve those around us, our inspiration for being God’s people here. Our sign is less a direction and more our willingness to walk in faithful love together. Our guiding star is our love as a church family for God, for each other, for our neighbor, and even for those who are against us.
This goes for us as a church and as individuals. One of the benefits of being in Christ is that we cannot leave Christ. No one falls out. No one gets left behind. No one becomes lost. He holds us and connects us and keeps us. We do not need to fear as we step into a new year; we just need to let the love of our Lord lead us. To God be the glory. Amen.