Joel issues a warning about the coming dawn. Why? Why would he be so concerned about something that is so beautiful and profound as a new dawn?

My family and I are recovering from a three day blitz through North Carolina to see family for the holidays--1000 miles from Augusta, Georgia to Mooresville to Statesville to Raleigh to Charlotte and back to Augusta.

One thing about myself and traveling is that I do not sleep well in hotel rooms. On Friday morning in Statesville, I woke up before dawn awake and ready to go. It had nothing to do with the Doorbuster Christmas Sales at the mall, either, I was just awake. I decided to go ahead and get up, put on my running clothes and go on one of my old routes. Statesville is my hometown and those old routes still mean a lot to me. I wanted to see how things had changed in the twenty years since I had moved away. What struck me, though, was how much had not changed at all. The old neighborhoods looked pretty good. As I ran down the streets I did what most of us do when we get back to an old hometown--I ran through the names of the people who used to live in the houses, even though most of them have probably moved away and the houses changed hands.

The stories and the shared moments ran through my mind. I remember going to that house for a party when I was in high school. I remember being there when that person got a new car for their sixteenth birthday. There was a street that was named for a high school classmate of mine--I hope it’s because he did something amazing rather than the fact that he has passed away. There was the old high school itself and all the memories crammed in there from my time in that old hall.

Dawn rose as I ran illuminating my way more fully and more completely with each passing mile. It was as if the morning sun was reaching into more and more recesses in my mind, bringing out more and more of my past. It felt really, really good, too. Fond memories and warm reminiscences.

What could the prophet Joel possibly be so concerned about? Why would dawn’s ability to bring us so fully into awareness be something to fret about? What was he afraid of?

The magi and Pilate give us a clue. I chose these two readings because they revolve around the same issue spoken in two completely different tones of voice--who is the King of the Jews?

The magi come to Jerusalem asking to see the newborn King of Jews full of wonder and awe. They come because they have seen a miraculous star in the morning sky and they want to know what it is all about. Pilate also stands in the morning light confronted by an extraordinary event. But he is not full of awe and wonder, but rather with raw and bitter cynicism. Something has dawned on both the magi and the Roman governor, but it is so very different.

Like this…

There are a couple of ways to pass through small towns these days. The easiest and fastest way is to burn through them on the interstate. The other is to actually take an exit and explore one’s way through town on state routes and city streets. Pilate meets the dawn on an interstate, while the magi have taken the exit.

I know that sounds like a bizarre analogy, but bear with me.

I ran through Statesville along the sidewalks I ran for years. The motel where we spent the night is right out on the interstate. The other folks with whom we shared the motel were just passing through. Think about how they experienced Statesville. Like almost everywhere, including our own Augusta, Statesville has become a pretty little town surrounded by an awful strip mall. If all one sees is what is visible from the interstate, then one will see only the strip mall, a ridiculous caricature of the community, full of the trash and litter of the modern shopping convenience. If one exits and actually follows the main avenues into town, one will discover streets still lined with well-kept Victorian homes, a downtown that looks like it was lifted from a Frank Capra film, and city lots that are still green spaces with trees and grass.

Pilate encounters Jesus on an interstate. He is just passing time with the figure on the floor before him--a beaten and humiliated rabbi who is beneath contempt. The magi encounter Jesus after having exited to really see what and who this person is to be.

The truth is that in our own lives of faith, we, too, struggle with being interstate versus taking an exit. A lot of us get caught up in the general rush of life and wind up on some sort of spiritual freeway, catching glimpses of what the faith is all about, but not really getting the whole picture. We are kind of like the passengers on the Celestial Railroad, Nathaniel Hawthorne’s creation. In that story, human ingenuity has come up with a way to simplify and speed up the Pilgrim’s Progress of John Bunyan--a railroad will eliminate all the twists and turns and challenges of the way of the pilgrim and will get one home that much faster. The passengers on the train wave at the pilgrims grinding their way along the path, thinking themselves well on the way to the city of God. The sad truth comes far too late. The railroad in its efficiency manages to miss the crucial junction and wind up leading straight into the fiery pits of hell, not a bad analogy for the Super Wal-Mart in the Christmas season. Sometimes there is no alternative to taking the slow road and actually seeing where one is going. The magi take the slow route. They come slowly and surely into the morning light. They will see the light of God. Pilate never leaves home and doesn’t bother to ask the right questions. He simply flies through and makes a mess of things. The lingering dark of night still ensnares him even as the light of God sits at his feet. The prophet Joel asks us to consider who we are as our own moment in the morning sun arrives. Are we interstate faithful or slow road faithful?

We are at the dawn of another holiday season, the fastest time of year. Even here at the church, we will be extraordinarily busy, rushing from one event to another without much time to pause and consider what it is we are doing. Soon enough it will be January, and some of us will be left wondering what it was all about. We will wonder that we never got a chance to really see and hear the sights and sounds of the season. It was all a blur.

The calendar, however, has helped us out this year. Today is a Sunday between Thanksgiving and Advent--it is Christ the King. This moment is ours to get off the interstate and take in the surrounding countryside. What is Advent all about? Christ the King. Who is Christ the King? A savior able to free us from sin and death. A savior able to give us a richness and a depth to life nothing else can offer us. His day is dawning all around us.

But how do we see it?

The prophet Joel warns us to slow down. He warns us to take time and to take care to really see what is happening, to perceive the presence of Christ.

The light of the new rising sun will reveal us as we are and for who we are.

What will it find?