That Old Familiar Road
“In the time of Kind Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, asking, “Where is the child who had been born king of the Jews?”
Matthew 2: 1-2a
Almost every year, our family packs up the car on Christmas Day, travels “over the river and through the woods,” and heads to be with family many miles from home. The mythology was that nobody travels on Christmas Day, and that we would have the roads almost to ourselves. The truth was, there was still traffic around Seattle; many things were indeed closed, but those gas stations and food establishments that were open were often crowded with anxious and often weary travelers.
It was like that at the first Christmas in Bethlehem. Everyone was traveling. Mary and Joseph took what a Dr. Dudley called a “90-mile donkey ride” from Nazareth to Bethlehem. The shepherds left their flocks to go see the Christ child, and as Matthew relates, the Magi traveled from modern day Iraq all the way to Israel to see what God was doing in their world.
The greatest journey, however, belonged to God. God came from heaven to earth, was born as a baby as we all were, died to save us from our sins, and after three days was raised again. Of all the journeys that people took on that first Christmas, God’s was the most arduous. God took that journey to reach out to us, to claim us, and to show us the Way back to God. In Isaiah 53, quoted by Mr. Handel, it says that all we, like sheep, have gone astray. We have wandered away from God, and only Jesus’ example can show us the way back.
Wherever we have wandered during the last 12 months, Advent invites us on a journey back to God, with Jesus and the prophets as our guide. The journeys of so many characters in the Bible, and in the pews around us, have led them back to God. The miracle of Christmas is that we can see God in the flesh, living in our world.
In fact, the only people who did not see God more clearly on that first Christmas were the people who refused to take any kind of a journey at all. King Herod refused to travel the five miles from his palace to Bethlehem to see what God was doing, even after he was alerted by the Magi. How many other shepherds saw the pretty light of the Star, and dismissed it as all there was, a little added beauty in the night, because the way to Bethlehem was too difficult?
This Advent season, I invite you to make the effort, take the time, find your way back to the meaning behind all the hoopla and lights and music you’ve heard hundreds of time before. Travel that road with us to Bethlehem, and a child, a new life that has been heralded by wise folk for generations. Our families may be traveling different highways this season, crowded or lonely, smooth or rocky. We may be venturing far from home, or headed back home. Yet we do not have the road to ourselves. We are all on the journey of life together, looking to one another for directions and company.
Shalom ~ Chris Grewe
“In the time of Kind Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, asking, “Where is the child who had been born king of the Jews?”
Matthew 2: 1-2a
Almost every year, our family packs up the car on Christmas Day, travels “over the river and through the woods,” and heads to be with family many miles from home. The mythology was that nobody travels on Christmas Day, and that we would have the roads almost to ourselves. The truth was, there was still traffic around Seattle; many things were indeed closed, but those gas stations and food establishments that were open were often crowded with anxious and often weary travelers.
It was like that at the first Christmas in Bethlehem. Everyone was traveling. Mary and Joseph took what a Dr. Dudley called a “90-mile donkey ride” from Nazareth to Bethlehem. The shepherds left their flocks to go see the Christ child, and as Matthew relates, the Magi traveled from modern day Iraq all the way to Israel to see what God was doing in their world.
The greatest journey, however, belonged to God. God came from heaven to earth, was born as a baby as we all were, died to save us from our sins, and after three days was raised again. Of all the journeys that people took on that first Christmas, God’s was the most arduous. God took that journey to reach out to us, to claim us, and to show us the Way back to God. In Isaiah 53, quoted by Mr. Handel, it says that all we, like sheep, have gone astray. We have wandered away from God, and only Jesus’ example can show us the way back.
Wherever we have wandered during the last 12 months, Advent invites us on a journey back to God, with Jesus and the prophets as our guide. The journeys of so many characters in the Bible, and in the pews around us, have led them back to God. The miracle of Christmas is that we can see God in the flesh, living in our world.
In fact, the only people who did not see God more clearly on that first Christmas were the people who refused to take any kind of a journey at all. King Herod refused to travel the five miles from his palace to Bethlehem to see what God was doing, even after he was alerted by the Magi. How many other shepherds saw the pretty light of the Star, and dismissed it as all there was, a little added beauty in the night, because the way to Bethlehem was too difficult?
This Advent season, I invite you to make the effort, take the time, find your way back to the meaning behind all the hoopla and lights and music you’ve heard hundreds of time before. Travel that road with us to Bethlehem, and a child, a new life that has been heralded by wise folk for generations. Our families may be traveling different highways this season, crowded or lonely, smooth or rocky. We may be venturing far from home, or headed back home. Yet we do not have the road to ourselves. We are all on the journey of life together, looking to one another for directions and company.
Shalom ~ Chris Grewe