January 2, 2022: Home by Another Way

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, 2 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.” 3 When King Herod heard this, he was frightened, and all Jerusalem with him; 4 and calling together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born. 5 They told him, “In Bethlehem of Judea; for so it has been written by the prophet:

6 ‘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.’”

7 Then Herod secretly called for the wise men and learned from them the exact time when the star had appeared. 8 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.” 9 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. 10 When they saw that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy. 11 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. 12 And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for their own country by another road.

______

“I see life as both a gift and a responsibility. My responsibility is to use what God has given me to help his people in need.” These are the words of Millard Fuller, the founder of Habitat for Humanity International.

“From humble beginnings in Alabama, Millard Fuller rose to become a young, self-made millionaire at age 29. But as his business prospered, his health, integrity and marriage suffered. These crises prompted Fuller to re-evaluate his values and direction. His soul-searching led to reconciliation with his wife and to a renewal of his Christian commitment.

The Fullers then took a drastic step: they decided to sell all of their possessions, give the money to the poor and begin searching for a new focus for their lives. This search led them to Koinonia Farm, a Christian community located near Americus, Georgia, where people were looking for practical ways to apply Christ’s teachings.”[1]

There at Koinonia Farm, Fuller initiated several partnership enterprises, including a ministry with affordable housing. Taking his family to Africa, Fuller tested a model for partnership housing with these principles: modest houses, sweat equity in which future homeowners participated in the construction process, zero percent mortgages with payments placed in a revolving fund to continue the cycle. After three years the Fullers would move back to the States and Habitat for Humanity would be born.
I looked up Millard Fuller’s Wikipedia page, and there is one word that needs to be changed from the introduction sentence, see if you can figure out what word needs to be changed:

“Millard Dean Fuller . . . was the co-founder with his wife Linda Fuller and the former president of Habitat for Humanity International, a nonprofit organization known globally for building houses for those in need.”[2]

It’s a little preposition that needs changing . . . the word “for.” You see, Habitat for Humanity doesn’t build houses for those in need—it builds houses with those in need. You recognize the difference there, right? Building houses for those in need may provide housing, but it does not provide honor. But you build a house with someone in need—you put a hammer in a future homeowner’s hand, you have them may a mortgage at zero percent with those funds going to help another future homeowner, you provide training in financial management and homeownership skills—suddenly you’ve shown someone how they can be part of the solution!

The Habitat for Humanity model provides a “home by another way.”

In our scripture lesson today, we read the story of wise men who, after traveling a great distance to find the Christ child, went “home by another way.” We sing about “Three Kings,” but they weren’t kings, and we don’t really know how many men made the journey. We get the number “three” from the three items the wise men brought as gifts: gold, frankincense, and myrrh. These weren’t terribly practical gifts. You’ve probably heard the old joke about this:

The three wise men brought gold, frankincense, and myrrh. If it had been three wise WOMEN, they would have brought diapers, wipes and formula, and a casserole to boot!

Much has been made out of the three gifts; some suggest the gold represents royalty, the frankincense represents divinity, the myrrh (used at the time for burial rights) represents humanity. Others comment about how expensive all three items were, especially the myrrh at the time. Still others wonder if these expensive items might have helped fund the holy family’s escape to Egypt upon learning of Herod’s plan to kill all the newborn males.

But what I want to focus on is the end of the pericope today—the part where the wise men were warned in a dream not to return to Herod. The scripture tells us that “they left for their own country by another road.” Other translations say, “they went home by another way.” In other words, they changed course. They altered their plans. They took the way of wisdom instead of the way of convenience.

My 8-year-old noticed after church one day recently that I was taking a different way home. You see, I’ve lived in Pinellas County long enough to know the traffic patterns—on a sunny day in December, I avoid the roads that lead to the beach at certain times of day. And even though there was a shorter route home that recent sunny day after church, I knew it would not be the quickest way home.

As I was explaining all of this to him, he asked, “So are there only two ways home?” “Not at all!” I replied. “There are countless ways home. We could drive to Alaska on our way home if we wanted to, but that wouldn’t be very smart, would it?” He laughed, and the conversation went on to more important matters, like whether we could eat ice cream for lunch.

The wise men had undoubtedly planned to go home the quickest way. They had called up AAA and gotten their “TripTik.” Since they appeared to have been wealthy, certainly some 5-Star accommodations in Jerusalem were a part of their itinerary. But a dream prompted them to change course. A nudge from God—a whisper from on high. The way they were planning was most convenient, but it was not the way of wisdom.

You see, had they gone through Jerusalem and reported back to Herod the Christ child’s location, would we have ever heard the name of Jesus? Would Herod have killed Jesus before Jesus was even weaned from Mary’s breast? What might have been the outcome if the wise men had ignored the whispers of God? If they had discounted their dream? If they soldiered on with their plans, dreams be damned? How is the world different because the wise men went “home by another way?”

Here we are, the first Sunday of a new year. Some have made resolutions . . . “I was going to quit all my bad habits for the new year, but then I remembered that nobody likes a quitter.”[3] Just kidding! I don’t have anything against New Year’s resolutions—in fact, I think it’s a good thing from time to time to take inventory of our lives and hit the “reset” button in certain areas. New Year’s Day is like a “reset” button built into our yearly calendar.

But I’d like to offer a reframing of New Year’s resolutions, and to do so in terms of helping us think about hope, about expectation, and the difference between the two. “Hope looks to the beginnings and expectation looks to the endings,” writes Gerald May. He goes on to explain that expectation is rigid and closed off, while hope is flexibility and openness, ready to bend and adjust and meet the moment as it presents itself.

Some of you are golfers. I worked at it for a while, took several lessons, but I never really enjoyed it. Because I was taking lessons, I expected to do well out on the golf course, like, with every swing. And when that wasn’t the case, I would get really frustrated, articulating words they don’t teach you in seminary. My husband tells me the trick to enjoying golf is expecting to do poorly, so that if you hit an occasional good shot, you’re elated.

Expectations set us up for disappointment. When there’s a pattern of expectation ending in disappointment, that’s the recipe for cynicism. The reason, I believe, so many people leave the church or even faith altogether? Expectations. The church, the pastor, even God fails to meet some expectation. Disappointment follows. Rinse, repeat. Cynicism.

Hope, on the other hand, meets the day with optimism. You can hope to shoot a good round of golf without expecting to birdie every hole. Remember: “Hope looks to the beginnings and expectation looks to the endings.”

New Year’s resolutions, therefore, are helpful if they’re hopeful. This is not true if your resolutions are expectations.

The Star Word you received as you entered the sanctuary is a word of hope for the year ahead. It’s not magical—I don’t really believe that the hand of God reached down and handed you the word that was predestined from the beginning of time to be your word for the year. No, like hope, your Star Word is lighthearted, even playful. It’s open and flexible, ready to lend a little light to help you meet the new year with whatever the new year may bring. It doesn’t expect anything from you, it isn’t demanding. Rather, it’s an invitation to wonder, to muse about its meaning for you. It’s an invitation to be open to the ways the word might inspire or challenge.

Like the star above Bethlehem pointing the wise men to the Christ child, your Star Word is given as a gift to help point you in the way you know you should go. That’s all.

The star over Bethlehem guided the wise men on the first half of their journey, the hope they found there gave them strength to find their way “home by another way.”

Millard Fuller helped us discover how to build homes “by another way.”

What about you in this new year? We’re all on our way home, and like I told my 8-year-old, there are a million ways to get home. But sometimes we know we should take an alternate way home. To change course, in small, and sometimes large ways. Here at the beginning of 2022, is there a course correction you need to make to find yourself on the way of wisdom?

I close with a poem by Amanda Gorman entitled “New Day’s Lyric”:

May this be the day

We come together

Mourning, we come to mend,

Withered, we come to weather,

Torn, we come to tend,

Battered, we come to better.

Tethered by this year of yearning,

We are learning

That though we weren’t ready for this,

We have been readied by it.

We steadily vow that no matter

How we are weighed down,

We must always pave a way forward.

This is our door, our portal.

Even if we never get back to normal,

Someday we can venture beyond it,

To leave the known and take the first steps.

So let us not return to what was normal,

But reach toward what is next.

What was cursed, we will cure.

What was plagued, we will prove pure.

Where we tend to argue, we will try to agree,

Those fortunes we forswore, now the future we foresee,

Where we weren’t aware, we’re now awake;

Those moments we missed

Are now these moments we make,
The moments we meet,

And our hearts, once all together beaten,

Now all together beat.

Come, look up with kindness yet,

For even solace can be sourced from sorrow.

We remember, not just for the sake of yesterday,

But to take on tomorrow.

We heed this old spirit,

In a new day’s lyric,

In our hearts, we hear it:

For auld lang syne, my dear,

For auld lang syne.

Be bold, sang Time this year,

Be bold, sang Time,

For when you honor yesterday,

Tomorrow ye will find.

Know what we’ve fought

Need not be forgotten nor for none.

It defines us, binds us as one,

Come over, join this day just begun.

For wherever we come together,

We will forever overcome.

[1] https://www.habitat.org/about/history/habitat-for-humanity-co-founder-millard-fuller

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millard_Fuller

[3] https://www.newyearwiki.com/hilarious-new-year-resolution-jokes/