Advent Week Four: Joy

 

When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go now to Bethlehem and see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us.” So they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the child lying in the manger.  Luke 2:15-16

I wonder what kind of GPS did the shepherds have to help navigate them to find Jesus laying away in a manger?  We have conflated and combined Matthew’s story of a star leading the Wise Ones to Jesus with Luke’s narrative.  Re-read the passage above.  Just as there is no donkey and no innkeepers who refuse to rent Mary and Joseph a room; there is no mention of a “star of wonder, star of night, star of royal beauty bright, westward leading still proceeding, guide us to thy perfect sight.”

Moreover, I don’t know about you, but when I go with haste, I tend to make a lot of wrong turns.  When I am in a hurry and life gets blurry that is when I have unforced error after error. 

Moreover, what compelled the shepherds to overcome their fear and go searching?  That is really my question in these dwindling days of December.  How do I overcome the fear that sits and stirs and simmers in my soul to step out faithfully in search of the sacred that is also searching and waiting for me?  It is so much easier to stay where I am comfortable spiritually and intellectually and emotionally.  Our brains are hardwired to tell us to stay put.  Our brains will say things like, “Whoa!  Let’s be careful not to put the cart before the horse.  Slow down there, Wes, do you realize how much work that will be to dismantle your racism?  To try to change the world?  To really let God’s love loose in this world?  Can you really make a difference?  Do you know how many people will resist you?  Why not just binge watch something on Netflix instead?”

My mind might not really say all that, but it does calculate and compute the cost of trying to change and can tend to overemphasize how many obstacles there will be.  The truth is that there will be obstacles to letting hope, peace, love, and joy loose in our lives in these days and every day in 2021.   There are costs.  People will react and respond in less-than-positive and support ways.  We will be called, “Foolish” or “Naive” or worse!  We will feel that foolishness, we will see how long it takes to make a difference, and we may get lost along the way.

I wonder if the shepherds took a wrong turn.  If they had to knock on every barn door, peak and peer inside to see if by chance there a baby was inside or just the curious stares of cows saying, “Hey (or hay), I am trying to eat here!”  And I wonder if the shepherds knocked on wrong doors, “Um, we were just wondering if the Son of God just happened to be born in your barn?”  Confused person who just opened their door to a group of shepherds, “Come again?”

I really want to know did they bring their sheep along with them!!

Perhaps it is good that Luke simply says they went, the shepherds figured it out along the way.  They kept on searching because you and I keep on searching.  The promise of this part of the Christmas story is that in the midst of our wandering we find the wonder of the sacred right there in our lives.  May that truth be encountered and experienced by you and me on this the longest night of what has been the longest year.  And may God’s hope, peace, love, and joy enfold you now more than ever.

Prayer: Guide my feet, O God, while I run this race…help me slow down to a savory pace that lets my soul keep up today.  Amen.