# The Way Day 1 > Come to Stillness: Take a few minutes to allow your mind and heart to be still before God. ### Opening Prayer: *Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts, see if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. (Psalm 139:23-24)* #### Psalm for the Week: Psalm 25 #### Teach Me Your Paths *[a] Of David.25 To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul.2 O my God, in you I trust; let me not be put to shame; let not my enemies exult over me. 3 Indeed, none who wait for you shall be put to shame; they shall be ashamed who are wantonly treacherous. 4 Make me to know your ways, O Lord; teach me your paths. 5 Lead me in your truth and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation; for you I wait all the day long.6 Remember your mercy, O Lord, and your steadfast love, for they have been from of old. 7 Remember not the sins of my youth or my transgressions; according to your steadfast love remember me,for the sake of your goodness, O Lord!* *8 Good and upright is the Lord; therefore he instructs sinners in the way. 9 He leads the humble in what is right, and teaches the humble his way. 10 All the paths of the Lord are steadfast love and faithfulness, for those who keep his covenant and his testimonies.11 For your name's sake, O Lord, pardon my guilt, for it is great.12 Who is the man who fears the Lord? Him will he instruct in the way that he should choose.13 His soul shall abide in well-being, and his offspring shall inherit the land.14 The friendship[b] of the Lord is for those who fear him, and he makes known to them his covenant.15 My eyes are ever toward the Lord, for he will pluck my feet out of the net.16 Turn to me and be gracious to me,for I am lonely and afflicted.17 The troubles of my heart are enlarged; bring me out of my distresses.18 Consider my affliction and my trouble,and forgive all my sins.19 Consider how many are my foes, and with what violent hatred they hate me. 20 Oh, guard my soul, and deliver me! Let me not be put to shame, for I take refuge in you.21 May integrity and uprightness preserve me, for I wait for you.22 Redeem Israel, O God, out of all his troubles.* #### Scripture for the Day: Matthew 2:1-12 #### The Visit of the Wise Men *2 Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men[a] from the east came to Jerusalem, 2 saying, “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose[b] and have come to worship him.” 3 When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him; 4 and assembling all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born. 5 They told him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for so it is written by the prophet:* *6 “‘And you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;for from you shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.’”* *7 Then Herod summoned the wise men secretly and ascertained from them what time the star had appeared. 8 And he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, “Go and search diligently for the child, and when you have found him, bring me word, that I too may come and worship him.” 9 After listening to the king, they went on their way. And behold, the star that they had seen when it rose went before them until it came to rest over the place where the child was. 10 When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. 11 And going into the house they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh. 12 And being warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed to their own country by another way.* #### Reading for Reflection: **I had rented a car at the airport and dived recklessly into rush-hour traffic in a city I knew not at all. I had glanced hastily at a map but (in my hurry and carelessness) had assumed that the way to my hotel and dinner with old friends would be more or less self-evident. Within a quarter of an hour I had no idea where I was. However, I knew I didn’t want to be there. Once I left the interstate (which had seemed a good idea at the time) I found myself in a sprawling maze of dark warehouses and derelict tenements with bars on the windows and grates over the doors. There were few other cars (and no people) in sight.* *Finally I saw in the distance the lighted sign of a 24-hour coffee shop. I plunged toward it with the desperation and relief of a shipwrecked sailor sighting a lighthouse on the shore.* *Inside, when I asked for directions to get downtown, the waitress shrugged apologetically and said she didn’t know the way; she had never been that far. My heart sank. On a rising tide of panic, I began to fear, as one does in a nightmare, that I would be lost forever.* *But then a man who had been sitting in a back booth—camping there apparently: a bedroll and various bags were tucked in the corners—approached me. His face bore the marks of a hard life; he had no teeth; his eyes were kind. “Can I help you, ma’am?” he asked.* *Once again I explained my predicament. This time, thank God, someone knew not only where I was, but also where I was headed, and how to get from here to there.* *“You’re just off Broadway here,” the man told me. “You can be on it in a minute. Once you get on that road, you just stay on it.” He spread my crumpled disregarded map on the counter, and traced the way with his finger. “The name of the street will change, but don’t you mind that. You’ll come to train tracks by the river, and it will be confusing, but don’t you mind that either. You just keep going forward. You’ll come to a bridge. Go over it. Stay on that street. After a while, you’ll see signs for downtown. Then pretty soon you’ll see the name of the street you want, and you’ll turn left. But till then, you just keep going on the road you’re on.”* *“Do you mean,” I exclaimed incredulously, “that all I have to do is get on Broadway at the next corner and then just go straight to my hotel?”* *He shook his head. “No, ma’am,” he corrected me firmly. “It ain’t straight at all. Ain’t nothing straight about it. But you just keep going forward, and you’ll get there all right.”* *I thanked the man, got back in the car, found Broadway, and stayed doggedly on it for many miles. The way twisted and turned, as he had warned me it would. The name of the road changed; it bumped over railroad tracks, flung itself across a wide river. Once on the other side, I was in a less desolate landscape, and finally, as promised, I found the place and the friends I had been seeking.* *Everyone has had the experience, one way or another, of suddenly not knowing where one is, or which way to turn, what road to take. The journey, which at first appeared straightforward, reveals itself to be full of unexpected dangers, unmarked crossroads, bewildering choices, discouraging setbacks.* *At the beginning of his Divine Comedy, the great Italian poet, Dante, finds himself in a similar situation, alone “in a dark wood” having lost “the straight way.” Beset by terrors on every side, he is rescued by the Roman poet, Virgil, who guides Dante through Hell and Purgatory to the very edge of Paradise. My own loss of “the straight way” in the “dark woods” of north Kansas City taught me a great deal that Dante also learns at the outset of his adventures. Remembering that experience has helped me whenever I needed to find a way out of the dead ends and wrong turns that I continue to encounter along my pilgrim way.* *We are all on our long journeys home; we all get lost along the way. We will need to ask for help. We have to learn to recognize the help we have asked for when it comes. We must not expect that the way will be easy. We will need to be sure of our destination and take responsibility for the path we have chosen. Then—and only then—we will have to keep going until we reach our destination, or need to ask for help again.* *None of which is as simple as it sounds. (Though the Way Be Lost by Deborah Smith Douglas, Weavings, Volume XXV, Number 3)* #### Reflection and Listening: silent and written #### Prayer: for the church, for others, for myself #### Song for the Week: Come and Welcome *From the cross uplifted high* *Where the Savior deigns to die* *What melodious sounds I hear* *Bursting on my ravished ear* *Love¹s redeeming work is done* *Come and welcome, sinner, come.* *Sprinkled now with blood the throne* *Why beneath thy burdens groan* *On my pierced body laid* *Justice owns the ransom paid* *Bow the knee and kiss the Son* *Come and welcome, sinner, come.* *Spread for thee the festal board* *See with richest dainties stored* *To thy Father¹s bosom pressed* *Yet again a child confessed* *Never from His house to roam* *Come and welcome, sinner, come.* *Soon the days of life shall end* *Lo, I come, your Savior, Friend* *Safe your spirit to convey* *To the realms of endless day* *Up to my eternal home.* *Come and welcome, sinner, come.* *Come and welcome, sinner, come.* ### Closing Prayer: *May those without hope take heart in you, O Christ. May those with no home find shade at your right hand. May those near the end see beginnings; may those at the last become first. At the foot of your cross, O Christ, I come in prayer. O Christ, be my help, O Christ, be my hope. Amen. (Pamela Hawkins, Weavings Volume XXVI, Number 2)*