January 3, 2021: Those Who Dream Persevere
Matthew 2:1-12
Rev. Rhonda Blevins
In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, asking, “Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we observed his star at its rising, and have come to pay him homage.” When King Herod heard this, he was frightened, and all Jerusalem with him; and calling together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born. They told him, “In Bethlehem of Judea; for so it has been written by the prophet:
‘And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;
for from you shall come a ruler
who is to shepherd my people Israel.’”
Then Herod secretly called for the wise men and learned from them the exact time when the star had appeared. Then he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, “Go and search diligently for the child; and when you have found him, bring me word so that I may also go and pay him homage.” When they had heard the king, they set out; and there, ahead of them, went the star that they had seen at its rising, until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy. On entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother; and they knelt down and paid him homage. Then, opening their treasure chests, they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for their own country by another road.
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Since it’s the first Sunday of a new year, let’s talk about New Year’s resolutions. Who here made one or more New Year’s resolutions this year? Who made New Year’s resolutions last year? Keep your hand raised if you kept your New Year’s resolutions.
One study tracked those who made New Year’s resolutions in comparison with people who did not make New Year’s resolutions. According to this study, 46% of people who made resolutions were successful—which means over half were not successful. But don’t give up hope, resolvers! You fared better than those who did not make resolutions. Only 4% of people who did not make New Year’s resolutions accomplished their goals. In this study, those who set New Year's resolutions were ten times more likely to change their behavior than those who did not. [1]
Do you know what the most common resolution Americans make each year is? Americans want to lose weight.[2] Last year I resolved to lose weight, so I decided to get a diet coach. My diet coach gave me a piece of advice—she told me to go to the paint store. Want to know why? She told me that’s where I could get thinner.
What separates those who achieve their goals from those who do not? Author and researcher Angela Duckworth studies this very question. What prompted her to study this is that she had been a teacher of 7th grade math. She kept noticing a pattern in her classroom: the kids who were successful weren’t always the kids with the highest IQ. In fact, kids with high IQ succeeded at about the same rate as those with average IQ. So she went back to get her PhD in behavioral psychology to study this. She and her team studied in different settings. Which cadets at Westpoint Military Academy would stick with it and which would drop out? Which kids would advance the farthest in the National Spelling Bee? Which rookie teachers in really tough schools would still be there by the end of the school year? In the business sector, she studied salespeople: who would keep their jobs and who would make the most money? In all of those situations, one quality emerged as the most important predictor of success. It was not IQ. It was not social intelligence. It was not good looks or health or socioeconomic background. Want to know what it was? It was grit.
“Grit is passion and perseverance for very long-term goals. Grit is having stamina. Grit is sticking with your future, day in, day out, not just for the week, not just for the month, but for years, and working really hard to make that future a reality. Grit is living life like it's a marathon, not a sprint.” [3]
Today in our scripture lesson, we meet some pretty “gritty” fellows. We sing a song about these guys entitled, “We Three Kings of Orient Are.” I love this carol, but there are a few problems with it, three problems at least:
1) They weren’t three, to our knowledge. We don’t know how many there were. The text simply says, “wise men.” Could have been three. Could have been three hundred. We don’t know.
2) They weren’t kings. They were astrologers. More specifically, Zoroastrian priests who studied the stars as a part of their religion.
3) They weren’t from the Orient. They were likely from what we call Iran today. Last time I checked, Iran is in the Middle East, not the Orient.
Other than that, the song is great! And to be fair, it would be hard to write a song entitled, “We Indeterminate Amount of Zoroastrian Priests from the Middle East Are.”
Now, let’s talk about their grit. These astrologers see a star and set out probably on foot for a three-month journey to MAYBE find the new JEWISH king. Then IF they find him, they will have to walk another three months home. They know this will be no easy journey. It will be desert most of the way. They have no assurance they will find the child. Their adventure will be difficult, it will be risky, and it will be expensive. Six months. Just for a glimpse of the Christ child. Their journey will demand grit. Their journey will require perseverance. But their dream—the possibility of seeing the Christ child—makes the journey worth their while.
Three months into their journey, they find their way into Jerusalem. Here’s where they made their big mistake, just like most of us to on the way to achieving our goals. We make mistakes, we get off track, but those with grit don’t let that stop them. The wise men ask King Herod, the Roman-appointed king, where the new king is. That doesn’t seem very smart, does it? Perhaps they think they are looking for Herod’s son or grandson, there in Herod’s own home. Wrong! When Herod finds the answer they seek, that the new king is to be born in Bethlehem, Herod instructs them to return to him and let him know where the baby is, so that he can pay homage. The wise men seem find this a perfectly reasonable request. They are naïve to think that the sitting king is happy to pay homage to a new king outside of his own family. But apparently that’s the case. They aren’t aware of Herod’s ill intent until warned in a dream. The last we hear from the wise men, they are planning to return home another way, undoubtedly a longer way. A detour. Rerouting.
Do you remember when GPS was first becoming a thing in cars? Now most of us have GPS on our cell phones, Google maps or iPhone maps or Wayz. But before that, there was Garmin and Tom-Tom. And whenever you took a turn off the mapped route, the female robot voice would say, “Rerouting.”
I remember one time I was with a group of folks at a conference out of town, and one of the fellows had his brand-new Garmin with him. We all thought it was the fanciest thing. It was helping us find our way to a restaurant someone had recommended. The Garmin directed us to this seedy section of town where there was some road construction, and the Garmin couldn’t handle it! It kept sending us in circles, around and around and around, backing us into the same dead-end street over and over again. And every few seconds, it would inform us “Rerouting . . . rerouting . . . rerouting.” We were ready to “reroute” that Garmin outside the window.
Like the wise men, we all want to find our way home. And like the wise men, sometimes we must take an alternate way home. A detour. We are constantly rerouting, adjusting to what life throws our way. Like the wise men, we do this work. We adjust, accommodate, reroute, because that’s what we do to find our way home. Like the wise men, those who dream persevere.
I have some goals this year, some for myself and some for the chapel. And in the same way that the wise men did not travel solo to Bethlehem, I need help to reach a couple of these goals. Specifically, I need your help. I know I’m going to need grit to achieve these goals. And if you join me, you’re going to need grit as well.
I’m setting a goal for myself not to get COVID. Some of you have already had it and recovered, telling me it’s something they wouldn’t wish on anyone. My reason for setting this goal is part selfish, and part unselfish. My primary reason for not catching COVID is so that I don’t then share COVID with my family and with you, my church family. The only place I go where I could catch COVID is here at church, which leads to another goal I’ve set—that no one catches COVID by coming to church here at the Chapel. You see we all want to get home—we all want to get back to the COVID-free world we remember. But in order to get there, we must take this detour. We must constantly adjust and adapt to what life is throwing our way.
Winston Churchill famously said, “If you are going through hell, keep going.”
Our detour has not been fun. Some of our church members haven’t been back to church since March. I miss going out. I miss seeing family and friends. I know you do too. Some of our safety measures we’re taking at church aren’t very fun.
But we keep the dream of home before us—a COVID-free environment in which we can hug and sing and eat in a restaurant for crying out loud. But until that day comes, and it is coming, we must persevere. We must continue on this alternate route. We must show resilience. We must demonstrate grit.
And when we get home, all of us together, we will look back knowing that we both followed a star and made it home, having traveled home by another way.
Those who dream persevere. And in a few months, dear friends we will make it home. In a few months, we’ll look back on the journey, we’ll look at one another with a newfound respect, knowing that it was pure grit that got us there.
I have other goals for 2021. You probably do as well. Maybe you want to lose weight or take that trip or get more exercise or quit smoking or pay off debt or eat in a restaurant for crying out loud. My other goal for the Chapel, not a new goal, but something to continually strive for, is this: that by participating in the Chapel we would become more loving versions of ourselves.
Whatever it is you want to accomplish in 2021, I wish you luck! No, scratch that. Whatever it is you want to accomplish in 2021, I wish you grit. You got this Chapel! Happy, gritty, New Year!
[1] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11920693/
[2] https://www.dhs.gov/employee-resources/blog/2020/01/07/new-years-resolutions
[3] Angela Duckworth, “Ted Talk.” https://www.ted.com/talks/angela_lee_duckworth_grit_the_power_of_passion_and_perseverance/transcript?language=en