The wise man's journey
There will be no camels;
we are going on horseback,
at least for some of the way.
And we won't arrive there
a few hours after everyone else.
It will be weeks, perhaps -
or months.
We are not in a hurry.
That is not the way we work;
we are not Europeans.
We will discuss the phenomenon - the star -
and if it does not go away,
and if we still feel curious,
we will travel.
We will look in the wrong place.
Yes, I admit that,
because wise men, potentates, intellectuals -
call us what you will -
are not infallible.
We expect a new power
to emerge from the side of the old one.
We expect the destination we seek
to resemble what our common sense deduces.
We will be upset, angry even,
to find that Herod is ignorant
and that his residence is not the birthplace.
We will find it hard
and intellectually demeaning
to bow the knee to the son of refugees.
And all this...
all this upset will be compounded
when it comes to journeying back
and we discover
we have to go home by an alternate route.
That is the trouble with God.
He does not let you leave as you came.
He sends you back,
stripped of your presumptions,
making for home by an alternate route.
From Cloth for the Cradle: Worship resources and readings for Advent, Christmas & Epiphany, by the Iona Community- Wild Goose Worship Group
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