How many of you have ever been on a road trip? I know I have! It seems all of us have, packed in our memory bank, an infamous road trip somewhere around Thanksgiving or Christmas. It might not have been on a sleigh like the singers of this famous holiday song: “Over the river and through the woods to grandmother’s house we go. The horse knows the way to carry the sleigh o’er the white and drifted snow.” But almost all of us have that one trip that we talk about for the rest of our lives. For Mary and Joseph, it wasn’t just one trip, but two!
For them, the first trip was a 9-day trip from Nazareth to Bethlehem to pay taxes and be counted. And then, perhaps 6 months later, an even longer trip from Bethlehem to Egypt.
For Cyndy and I and our family the big road trip this holiday season has already happened. We flew 13 hours on a plane to Seoul, South Korea for a wedding…all eight of us! Like Mary and Joseph, our trip included meeting shepherds who showed up unexpectedly (thanks Victor!) and magi bearing gifts and telling stories (Juen’s sister’s story at the wedding) . Why we even met an angel (And if you don’t believe me, take a look at this picture of Juen in her wedding dress...she is literally “beaming” bright with joy from the inside out! Just like an angel!)
Why, we were even with child—be it a 6-yr-old version! (Check out this pic of Emerson wearing her “Hanbok”
(a traditional Korean dress)!
But as I place our road trip beside Mary and Joseph’s trip in the gospel of Luke, it’s not the similarity’s that pop for me…it’s the contrasts. Mary and Joseph, for instance, weren’t traveling for enjoyment. They didn’t go to Bethlehem for a thanksgiving meal or a wedding, they had to go to Bethlehem. They were forced by Ceasar Augustus! They didn’t have a choice!
Think about it…when was the last time you were forced to travel! When was the last time you were forced to do anything?! I remember sitting at the dinner table when I was 7 and “being forced” to eat “stewed tomatoes” (yuck!). Mom wouldn’t let me go out and play basketball with my friends unless I at least tasted those tomatoes. I sat there for 2 hours and cried. But eventually, I won! I never once took a bite! Mom learned quickly that Brook is not going to be forced to do anything!
But that feeling I had at the dinner table can’t even come close to what Mary and Joseph were going through! Ponder for a minute (like Mary must have pondered) just what it felt like to “be forced” to travel to Bethlehem. What does it feel to be a part of a political chess game where all the players are kings and queens, and you are just a powerless pawn? What did it feel like to “have to” travel from Bethlehem to Egypt, this time not just to pay taxes, but instead to save the life of your newborn child? What does it feel like to literally run for your life?!? Can you imagine?
What was Mary and Joseph’s 2nd journey like…that journey from Bethlehem to Egypt? We know that their trip from Nazareth to Bethlehem took them on one of the most dangerous roads in Israel. We know it took them 9 or 10 days, if everything worked out right, to get there! But how long was their journey from Bethlehem to Egypt? How many different languages did they have to navigate? How much more dangerous was that journey?
When we went to South Korea, we were greeted by Juen (Ben’s fiancé) and friends with the familiar sound of our language…English! This last year I have been working furiously to learn a bit of Korean and felt absolutely elated to “show off” a couple of Korean phrases like “Kamsahamnida” (thank you) and “Anyounghaseao” (hello). I was over the moon when I went to the store and asked a young Korean teenager “Youngeo Hasayo?” (Can you speak English?) and she responded, “Sure! How can I help you?” The folks in Korea were so helpful and hospitable. They bent over backwards to make us feel welcome! Did Mary and Joseph receive hospitality like that?
Well, one can wonder and ponder that, can’t we? Mary and Joseph were going back to Joseph’s hometown. Surely Joseph’s family would have taken them in in this circumstance, right? But Mary and Joseph were expecting a baby, and they weren’t technically married yet. Did these circumstances prevent hospitality? Were their cultural morals back then that shut them out? Why did they end up in an “inn”? Maybe the innkeepers, in this situation, were actually the ones showing amazing hospitality when no one else would?
One thing we do know is that Mary and Joseph not only found a place to lay their head in Bethlehem that night, but countless “someone’s” must have showed them mercy and kindness on their way to Egypt, too?
And that leads me to the big question on my heart this morning. I can’t stop pondering this question. Well, actually two questions. On your journey through life, who have been some of the innkeepers in your life? Who, on your journey, has shown up at your doorstep unexpectedly bearing gifts of gold and frankincense and myrrh? Who in your life has been a part of that “life-giving” thread that has helped you navigate from your Nazareth to Bethlehem? Your Bethlehem to Egypt?
And then the challenging question for me: Where are you offering that kind of grace and kindness and shelter for others? Where can you offer that kind of hospitality today?
Riverton Park UMC in Tukwila, WA is hosting now over 400 modern-day Mary and Joseph’s in their parking lot. Families who have been “forced” to travel from places like Venezuela “for fear of their lives”. Is there a way we can offer shelter and kindness to these folks? Thousands of people are displaced by war in Gaza and the Ukraine, is there a way we could help?
Lake Washington UMC has a “safe parking” program that offers shelter and food to families who our forced by economic conditions to be “house-less” during the holidays. We are collecting money to buy these folks rain gear. On Sunday we will be providing them a meal. Can you find it in your heart to offer up a prayer for them this Advent/Christmas season? Can that prayer connect your heart to your hands or feet or pocketbook?
As a Christian, I hold this story of Mary and Joseph close to my heart. It is a part of me. I have let it become a part of my heart-story. Like Mary and Joseph, it has become “my story” too. Every Advent/Christmas season I take it out, like a precious ornament, and allow it to open up my heart again to new wonders along the way. May my ponderings be an invitation for your own “ponderings”.
Your pastor and friend, thankful to share a bit about “our story”, Brook