Creating Another Way Home

It is now a "new year." We have observed all the attendant rituals – of light entering again into our lives, of retrospectives of the year that has past, of predictions for the year to come. Perhaps some of us have made or renewed covenants, created resolutions, or just hoped for something better to happen in our lives this year. Resolutions concerning the new year may, indeed, be born from privilege, and a sense of agency to create change in our own lives. For those whose resolutions concern the good of our planet and all who call it home, may those hopes, dreams and plans come to fruition.

I am reminded on this day (January 6, 2012), of three wise ones who sought light and change, and who dreamed dreams. We are told, in Matthew 2:12, that after they encountered Jesus, Mary and Joseph, "They were warned in a dream not to return to Herod, so they went back to their own country by another route."

James Taylor has written a song entitled "Home by Another Way" that portrays Herod as those who and that which would deceive us through the illusion of power and/or friendship. Both the scripture and JT's song remind us that following God often means choosing to walk away from illusions of power, illusions of friendship, and illusions of goodwill.

When the wise ones chose another route home, they most likely saved their own lives. When faithful people on the justice journey encounter injustice, wrapped in the illusion of power and goodwill, we are called to many actions: speaking prophetic words of love and inclusion for all; creating and sustaining relationships of mutuality and sharing; actively challenging structures of oppression; dreaming and visioning a planet where there is not only enough, but also creating the structures necessary to implement fair distribution of resources. In these actions, we may be part of saving lives by the hope, the solidarity, and the true power of love that we wield and share.

As the Church Within A Church Movement, the "home" we seek can only be found by going another way. Read our Theological Statement. Please, really read it. I am stunned sometimes by the audacity of it. In it resides a call to each of us who name this Movement our vehicle as we seek "home" – to challenge ourselves and our assumptions, confront our differing places of privilege, and create mutuality and equal access for each one. And with each "new year" I meet more folks who find hope, and home, in our Theological Statements and Core Values. And yes, there is room for all who share our dreams and visions. We began as those who dreamed and then walked "another way" – a way of inclusion, a way of relationship, a way of mutuality. We continue as those who, like Jesus, confront power and cry out for justice.

May we each listen to our dreams in this "new year" seeking to create "home" by another way.