Trinity Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)

Sermons 

Title: "Wherever It Leads"

Text: Isaiah 60:1-6

asked a question once of a group of us

that none of us could answer:

If the wise men were from the east, said Louie,

and they saw a star in the east, and followed it,

how come they didn’t end up in Hong Kong?

Think about it.

Did you notice how the New Revised Standard Version deals with the issue?

It no longer says, "we saw his star in the east";

it says, "we observed his star at its rising."

Well, that made me curious, so I went and looked it up,

and sure enough, that is a more accurate translation of the Greek text.

Nevertheless, that begs the question a little …

stars do rise in the east, and if that’s the way they followed,

they still should have ended up somewhere Oriental.

Oh well.

The point of the story of the wise men is not, of course,

geographical precision.

There are many things we can learn from the story,

but geography isn’t one of them,

and it wasn’t intended to be!

Just for example,

to me, one of the most impressive things about the story

is the way that the wise men just hit the road

immediately upon seeing the star.

Granted, they were probably astronomers,

so they knew somethng unusual in the heavens when they saw it.

But how did they make the connection

that that star announced the birth of the king of the Jews?

And why would they care, anyway?

They weren’t Jews.

Yet as soon as they saw that star,

off they went.

Imagine how their wives felt:

"Honey, I’m not going to make it home for dinner …

for a couple of months."

How strange that they knew …

that nothing in their life was more important

than following that star.

It’s not quite as clear for us, is it?

There is not, literally,

a bright star hanging up there in the sky for us to follow,

whether in the east or somewhere else.

We are expected somehow to be able to find the right way

even when the night is cloudy,

and the pathway obscure.

And that can be tiring,

and make us feel some days

like we’d really rather give up.

And please understand,

I’m not talking about following just any old star.

This is not an individualistic star;

it’s not a follow-your-own-personal-dream kind of thing.

It is not a star that will necessarily bring

fame, or fortune, or success,

or that elusive thing called happiness.

It is the star of Jesus Christ.

A star which will sometimes lead us

to green pastures and still waters, praise God!

But which will, on other days,

take us by the hand and lead us

to places we would rather not go.

Like Jesus’ family, being drawn to Egypt to escape Herod.

But how can we know?

At those times when the way is unclear,

how do we keep going?

One thing that I think offers us much help

on this sometimes confusing journey …

perhaps the most helpful thing, in fact,

is to keep in mind the big picture.

Because even though there are times when

God’s leading in a particular instance seems unclear,

nevertheless, the Bible is quite clear

about where God is leading us in the end.

Isaiah described it long before the birth of Christ,

and we heard some of that description already this morning.

All nations shall come to the light of Israel;

that is, they will come to the light of God.

They will come bringing their wealth,

and offer it to God.

And we will see it and be radiant,

and our hearts shall thrill and rejoice.

That vision of the reign of God,

or whatever we want to call it,

needs to be at least at the back of our minds all the time.

So that in cases where the star’s leading doesn’t seem clear,

we can bring the vision forward, and ask ourselves:

Which of the options that I have,

seems most likely to bring me, and the world around me,

closer to that big picture that God has in mind for us?

Another thing to keep in mind …

well, actually, I suppose it’s two things …

The first is that,

because we are all individuals and are all different,

the star is likely to lead us down differing paths

even though we’re all going to end up the same place.

Those who are raising children or grandchildren

will take a different path than those who have no children.

Those who enjoy good health can travel a path with more obstacles

than those who health is poor, or was once good, but is failing.

The star is not going to try to lead you into things

that you literally are not capable of doing.

Other people may try to!

But if a path is one that’s given by God,

it will not ask of you more than you can give.

It may stretch you, and ask more than you thought you could do.

But never more than you are able.

Your path is your own.

It will not look quite like anyone else’s.

They are all different,

because we are all different.

We support and encourage one another, of course;

we are not "alone" in that respect.

But we can’t assume that the answers we have found for our own life

are necessarily the right answers for someone else’s journey with God.

The other thing to remember is that

the star will keep leading us, all our life long.

So that, at times,

the direction of the path may change.

Where the star led us to be at age 15

is not where we need to be at age 40.

And where the star has called us at 40

is not the place where we still need to be at 80.

So that even if you follow absolutely faithfully,

you still are going to face challenges, and decisions,

and will have to make changes and adjustments.

It never settles; we are never "finished."

The journey does not end

until our life’s end.

Several years ago now,

in one of those talking-to-a-stranger-on-the-airplane sorts of conversations,

I met a very interesting woman.

She was probably in her late 40s or early 50s at the time;

she had a daughter and son who were just graduated from college,

and doing well on their own.

She was a nuclear physicist.

And for years she had been doing defense research

on "Star Wars" and other such things.

And she had just recently come to the conclusion that,

as a Christian,

she could no longer justify receiving a huge salary

for helping to design weapons of mass destruction.

She didn’t put herself down

for having done so for a number of years …

she recognized that it had provided her with the means to raise her children,

and send them to good colleges …

and, it had provided her with enough savings so that, now,

without a salary,

she could start to do what she felt God was now calling her to do.

She was in the early stages of starting a prison ministry

of a very specific kind.

She was preparing to go into whatever prisons would have her,

to teach math and science to anyone who wanted to learn,

so that they would stand a chance

of finding a good job when they were released,

and not ending up back in prison.

And she really hoped that some of them

would take on the job of going into other prisons,

to teach others what they had learned,

so that the whole project would just keep spreading

to help more and more people.

She was so excited by this vision of what she needed to do …

And it was inspiring to listen to her.

She had so clearly seen the star,

leading her from one phase of life into another.

And that’s something that we all

must remain open to seeing.

In some respects,

the wise men had it easy, compared to us.

Granted that travel was more difficult for them

than it is for us …

give me my 11-year-old Mazda over a camel any day!

But they had an obvious and bright star to follow,

while our way is often more obscure,

and there are false lights that tempt us to stray from our journey.

And, they got to follow the star,

do their thing in Bethlehem,

and then return home,

whereas we are called to follow the star,

wherever it leads,

all the days of our life.

It is of course tempting for us

to leave the star behind, as well …

like maybe, here in the sanctuary.

Wouldn’t it be so simple if we could just follow it here on Sunday mornings,

but then leave it behind for the rest of the week,

and go on with life as we would like to construct it?!

That’s not an option that’s open to us.

For Christ has come into the world

and into our lives.

And as his people,

we are called to follow his light,

wherever it leads,

every day of the week,

every day of our lives.

For no matter how strange the path,

he will be with us,

Thanks be to God!

Amen.

© 2004 Julie Adkins (e-mail: DrJAdkins@trinitypresdallas.org)