On a Journey
Towards Christmas and into the January holiday period we see people planning for trips away from home. They might be going for a holiday, or just for Christmas Day yet in small and large ways we see an exodus with people setting out on a journey.
The theme of going on a journey is strong in the scripture readings in the seasons of Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany. Whether it is the journey of Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem, and in one gospel also the flight to Egypt, the journey of the Magi seeking the sign of the nascent star that points to the birth of a new ruler, or the hurried journey of shepherds leaving their flocks to seek the baby called Jesus. Each story illuminates a leaving of the familiar and a seeking of something that God will reveal to them.
Journeys can incite a range of emotions and heightened states, anxiety, anticipation, hope, sadness, and excitement for there are new and risky possibilities. They often take planning and checking that we know where we are we going, with GPS or street directories on hand to see if we are going in the right directions and decisions about what mode of transport to take. And what about the places we choose to stay, to rest and pause to take in the view or find sustenance.
The inward journey and the outward journeys go together.
For the last 38 years we have travelled to my husband’s immediate family for Christmas lunch.
The travel time has often been at least an hour as we join the heavy traffic of others going to their family gatherings. This year will be different, the immediate family will be coming our way, and we meet with the extended family separately at another time. A journey will still be happening, yet this journey will be like in the story of the Magi taking ‘a journey home that is different from the usual way.’
I invite you to contemplate your own Advent and Christmas journeys this year—what might be different? What do you notice that reminds you of the gospel story’s characters who take a journey leaving what is familiar and trusting in the news that God will bring?
In this Holy Season we might ponder anew what are the deeper lasting things that sustain
our inner lives, Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love.
Let us take a journey in this Holy Season where our inner longings match our outer experience, to find Christ anew amongst us with family, companions, and strangers. Let
us look beyond the tinsel to see and hear God is present in vulnerable humility, in blessed disturbances that unsettle us and in revelations of glorious light.
May our inner and outer journeys in this Holy Season of Advent and Christmas help us to
find new insights that can shape our future and enliven our faith.
Blessings and Peace to all.
Rev Lynette Dungan