The Journey - From Ashes to Easter

Each season of Lent seems to have a different theme, a different purpose.  I imagine it -not to be disrespectful - but to be similar to the journey that was made up to Jerusalem each year by the faithful - coming to celebrate Passover.  The physical journey would be different every year.  Of course the hymns would be the same.  I can only imagine the echo over the roads and valleys as God's words lifted up and melodies danced on the wind.  From the time they were babies, even the smallest children would be able to join in the chorus.  Strangers, pilgrims traveling, journeying to meet with God again.  The journey would be a bit different ever year - but some land markers the same for them.

I believe the same is also true for us.  The familiar hymns.  The Wednesday evening services, dinners.  And what of the preparation for the great feast?   In the same way that the journey was a bit different each year as people gathered for the great feast, so too, has this Lenten journey taken on a different theme.  Lent is always a time of waiting, but this year even more so.  Along the way, the familiar sights and smells...  I haven't noticed them as much as I have noticed a people who are waiting.  Waiting for the promises of God to be fulfilled and crying out, "how long O Lord?"  For those who are caught in addictions.  For the family members that love them.  For those waiting for healing.  For those waiting for family.  For those who are thirsty who are waiting for just a single solitary drop of water to quench their thirst.  For those who have been waiting on God their whole lives and aren't sure if they can endure another foot step on this arduous journey.  This year has been surrounded by waiting.

And I suppose - they are in good company in some ways.  The veil is so thin some days.  You can hear all of creation crying out, groaning for God.  Waiting for restoration.  At the same time, you can hear the throng of angels as they encircle the throne - the rejoicing over salvation.  As God's holy and redeemed people, we are waiting for mouths to be fed, wars to cease, peace to begin, injustices to be righted.  In the same way, God's children had waited for a Messiah - since the very first promise.  We wait for his return.  Are we so different from the children of Israel centuries ago?  The faithful that waited for his return.  And those who gave up waiting and assumed that God has just left us to fix it ourselves.

And so a different time of waiting happens this week.  One that echoes what happened in the very beginning.  For it wasn't just the Jews who were waiting for the Messiah.  We read in the annals of history, that the world was crying out for a great king.  From the mouths of those who had no belief in Yahweh - we read that for some reason, it was even imprinted on their hearts that this king would come from Judea.

The wise men of the ages, the most intellectual and well educated - the ones that spent their time in the throne rooms of the kings and rulers of the day.  They were always waiting for this great king to come.  No one wanted to be caught unaware of this new great ruler who was just waiting to be seen.  We romanticize history - but it was bloody, violent, and full of betrayal.  Usurping one authority for another - and those that suffered were the people under the ruler's command.

And so it happened -in that day and age, people believed we were governed by stars.  So the smartest people were the ones that knew the most about everything, including that.  While we may scoff - just wait, 50 years from now what we believed to be the smartest, most intelligent thing will be laughed at  by the grandchildren and generations to come as they look at us for being "backwards."

All of the sudden, a cataclysmic event happened.  We read in the annals of history and the logs of the kings that on May 29th - Saturn and Jupiter came together.  In the sky, it looked like a great star.  So the throngs of wisemen took to Judea because the sign in the sky must have meant a great king was born.

Upon reaching Jerusalem, no one there knew of the pagan rituals and "signs" in the sky.  After all, throughout all of Scripture - God forbid his people from having anything to do with this.  These people were a byword, dirty and sinners.  But the cataclysmic event happened again, recorded in the annals of history on October 3rd and mentioned in Mathew 2.  Herod called together all of the chief priests and teachers of the law.  They didn't know anything about a star, but they could speak of what God's word had said in Isaiah about the coming of a great king.  They knew this King would be born in Bethlehem.

If only it were so easy as all of our modern day songs speak of "following a star."  But Matthew describes all of these events clearly - if it had been that easy, wouldn't Herod just have gone to Bethlehem himself?  Or would the wise men have needed to inquire?  Rather - this cataclysmic event happened for the third and final time that year on December 4th, coming to rest on the place where Jesus was.

And the wisemen brought in their gifts, fit for a king and didn't simply bow down, but we read in Matthew 2, that they worshipped.  It was not that they had seen a great miracle - like the feeding of the five thousand, lepers being healed or Lazarus raised from the dead.  They didn't hear Jesus' teaching.  They simply saw a baby and the Holy Spirit stirred in their hearts.  Their entire lives had been spent seeking wisdom and waiting.   In an instant, they realized all of their strivings and studying had brought them to true wisdom, the wisdom of God found in Jesus Christ:

"For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written:

“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise;
    the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.”

Where is the wise person? Where is the teacher of the law? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of Godand the wisdom of God." (1 Corinthians 1.18-24)

So for those who are waiting, longing for Christ's return.  When the road markings on this journey don't seem to make any sense to you - find great hope and consolation that you are not waiting alone. Faith is truly made whole in community.  When you don't have the power to sing, we will sing for you.  When you can't make the trek up to Jerusalem this year, we will do it for you.  When you can't darken the steps of a church to celebrate, we will come to you.  When you don't have the strength to take one more step - we will carry you to the table.  The table where bread and wine, the forgiveness of sins will sustain you in your waiting-the very wisdom of God.  

For God is putting all things right, reconciling the entire world to himself.  Even when people cry out for salvation and don't understand what they are asking for and the Savior who rides in on a donkey ends up crucified just a few days later.  Sometimes nothing seems to make sense - but take heart, for the tomb really is empty.  Your journey is not in vain for what men have meant for evil, God means for good.  For the redemption and salvation of his beloved.