Dear friend,

Sometimes, maybe even most of the time, we aren’t meant to take the shortest route from A to B. In today’s lesson from the Hebrew Scriptures, the Israelites have plotted a direct route to the promised land of Canaan; it happens to go through Edom on a north-south thoroughfare called the King’s Highway. But the Edomites aren’t having it. Not even if the Israelites promise to stick to the main road, not straying to the right or the left, and to pay for any water their animals drink. Confronted by hostile Edomite forces, the Israelites are forced to take a very roundabout route to their destination.

In today’s Gospel reading from Matthew it seems we’re also on a meandering route: our lectionary has us going backwards to Palm Sunday and Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem. And Jesus is also not on a straightforward trajectory. Despite the hosannas and palm branches he is going not to earthly triumph but to a disgraceful death on the cross. As the collect for Fridays reminds us, God’s “most dear Son went not up to joy but first he suffered pain, and entered not into glory before he was crucified.” (BCP 56)

The journey that we’re taking through this time also strikes me as anything but straightforward and well-marked. On the contrary, labyrinths seem a better image for our lives (though still a hopeful one, because eventually you arrive at the center): we can’t see into the future, we can’t plan, we can’t pull out our Rand-McNally roadmaps to find the shortest route to get where we think we’d like to go. That applies not only to life in the pandemic but also to the work of healing the injustices of racism and poverty. For me it’s clear I have to be part of that work, but the role I should or can play is not always so clearly laid out.

In the Epistle to the Romans Paul says that we “were buried therefore with [Christ] by baptism into death ... .” This time we’re living in is like a long submersion in the waters of baptism; things under water are murky and muted and, well, very fluid. But we have been baptized into death with Christ “so that as Christ was raised from the dead ... we too might walk in newness of life.” Our hope as Christians is to find our footing on this walk into newness, by God’s grace and in God’s time. It’s seldom a straight shoot on the King’s Highway. But we have another King calling us to begin the walk, and then to keep walking.

Susan Erickson
Deacon

Scripture used in this Daily Bread:
Numbers 20:14-29
Romans 6:1-11
Matthew 21:1-11

Deacon Susan Erickson