{"id":4438,"date":"2021-12-05T21:32:00","date_gmt":"2021-12-06T02:32:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.durhamfriendsmeeting.org\/?p=4438"},"modified":"2022-05-16T10:16:15","modified_gmt":"2022-05-16T14:16:15","slug":"losing-and-finding-our-bearings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.durhamfriendsmeeting.org\/?p=4438","title":{"rendered":"“Losing and Finding Our Bearings,” by Doug Bennett"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Message given at at Durham Friends Meeting, December 5, 2021<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes when we\u2019re confused, we say \u201clet me just get my bearings, here.\u201d  I may have just woken up from a nap.  Or I may have stumbled on a walk.  Maybe I\u2019ve hit my head on a rafter in the basement and that\u2019s left me woozy.  Everything seems odd; I\u2019m disoriented or muddled.  So I say, \u201cLet me just get my bearings, here.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once I woke up in the middle of the night in a strange hotel room.  I\u2019d been traveling a good deal, changing time zones, and sleeping in unfamiliar hotels.  When I work in the dark that night I didn\u2019t know where I was or what I was doing.  But even worse, I couldn\u2019t quite think who I was.  That was confusing and more than a little frightening. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In those moments when I\u2019m confused, I search for something fixed and clear that tells us who we are or what we\u2019re doing or where we\u2019re going.  It might be a familiar landmark that helps me get my bearings.  It might be any number of things, but it\u2019s something I can grasp hold of that helps us get our bearings.  It needs to be something fixed, something sturdy \u2013 hopefully so fixed its permanent. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That awful night in a strange hotel room, it was only when I tripped over my briefcase that I\u2019d left on the floor of the room that it all came back to me.  I got my bearings.  Suddenly it all came back to me.  Once again I knew who I was and what I was doing there.  The briefcase wasn\u2019t particularly fixed.  I kicked it a few feet when I tripped over it, but there was a familiar object filled with familiar things that put me right again in the world and in my mind.  But often, familiar things aren\u2019t where we should look to find our bearings. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLet me just get my bearings, here.\u201d  It\u2019s an unusual phrase.  It comes from navigation, especially from navigating at sea when there were no landmarks in view and before there was GPS or anything like it.  It comes from using the stars or a compass to find your way.  Hopefully you have a map (or something like a map) that shows where you\u2019re going, and the map shows which way is north.  You use a compass to help you know which compass direction to steer to take you where you want to go.  That direction is your bearing.  It\u2019s the number of degrees away from due north you want to head.  If a wave (or something) knocks you off course, you use the compass to get back on your bearings. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This phrase, this idea, is on my mind because we\u2019re living in crazy-making times.  Every morning there is a fresh load of things on the news that sound crazy to me.  They sound like people have lost their way. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most obviously, there\u2019s a pandemic that\u2019s killing millions.  We have a vaccine that protects against it and is almost sure to prevent serious illness.  But some people won\u2019t take it.  That seems crazy to me.  I can only imagine those people have lost their bearings. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Talk of conspiracies abound.  I\u2019m not eager to wander into politics here today, but if you read the news at all, I think you know what I mean. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It feels like a lot of people have lost their bearings.  They\u2019re confused, or muddled \u2013 or afraid, and they\u2019re looking for something that helps them get their bearings back.  They\u2019re looking for something to grab hold of, something sturdy and solid, that helps them get their bearings. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Where do they look for something to get their bearings?  That\u2019s really what I want to talk about today. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some people try to find their bearings at work.  Their work has meaning for them and they try to do it well.  When they can\u2019t find work, or when their work seems pointless or degrading, it can feel like they\u2019ve lost their bearings.  Other people try to find their bearings in their family \u2013 in the relationships that connect people to one another.  When those relationships don\u2019t work or break down, or when they take a shape they hadn\u2019t expected \u2013 had never imagined \u2013 that, too can feel like they\u2019ve lost their bearings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And some people try to find their bearings in traditions.  They want things to be just like they were when they were growing up, or the way they were for their parents or their grandparents.  Change is hard.  And when comes, as it always does, people feel like they\u2019ve lost their bearings. Maybe they are looking for their bearings in the wrong place. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jesus\u2019s parents lived in crazy-making times.  The Romans had conquered Judea in 63 BC, not long before they were born.  Suddenly the Jews were no longer an independent people.  Their king was not really their king.  Jesus was born into a world at a time and in a place where many people had lost their bearings. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Where should we look for our bearings?  That\u2019s really what I want to talk about today. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Think about the \u201cthree wise men\u201d who have a starring role in Matthew\u2019s account of the birth of Jesus.  Who were these \u201cwise men?\u201d Who were these men who felt compelled to follow a star \u2013 something that itself seems a little crazy.  But it felt right to them \u2013 and it was right.  Who were these guys?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We generally call them Kings, or the Magi. (\u201cMagi\u201d is from the same root as the word \u201cmagic.\u201d)  It\u2019s a word from the Persian language and that\u2019s where we think these Magi came from. I\u2019ve been reading a new translation of the Gospels, this one by Sarah Ruden, a Classics scholar who has been drawn to worship among Friends.  Here\u2019s how she translates the verses in Matthew 2:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Jesus had been born in Bethlehem in Judea in the days of Herod the king, look, diviners from where the <\/em>sun<\/em> rises appeared at Jerusalem, saying, \u201cWhere is the King of the Jews who has been born? We did see his star at its rising and have come to prostrate ourselves before him.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDiviners\u201d is how she translates the word.  What makes these men \u201cwise\u201d is that they took their bearings from the stars.  They took them from something much more fixed and solid than work or family or tradition.  These three were skilled at reading the stars, and they saw in the stars the signs of divine things. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDiviners.\u201d  They were not Jews and of course they were not Christians (Jesus was just about to be born).  They were probably Zoroastrian priests, but they took their bearings from the stars and that led them \u2013 compelled them \u2013 to come a long distance to worship a baby they\u2019d never me \u2013 whose parents they\u2019d never met.  They took their bearings from the stars \u2013 from divine things.  And the Ruden translation says:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 \u201cWhen they saw the star there, their joy was heaped on joy, in great abundance.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It wasn\u2019t dizziness they felt.  It wasn\u2019t confusion.   It\u2019s because they took their bearings from divine things, not from earthly things, that this strange long journey they took filled them with joy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s easy to get caught up in earthly things.  It\u2019s easy to try to find our bearings in those earthly things.  But those earthly things \u2013 work and family and tradition \u2013 are unlikely to give us a long-lasting and joy-filling sense of who we are and what\u2019s right to do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those Diviners followed a star.  They followed it to Jesus at the point of his birth.  And his birth can point us towards a way of finding our bearings. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s why we celebrate Christmas.  That\u2019s why we find an abundance of joy in Christmas. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

How do we find our bearings in divine things?  That\u2019s why Christmas is only the beginning of the story.   There\u2019s a long road to travel to find our bearings, but we have to look to divine things to travel that road. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also posted on River View Friend<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Message given at at Durham Friends Meeting, December 5, 2021 Sometimes when we\u2019re confused, we say \u201clet me just get my bearings, here.\u201d  I may have just woken up from a nap.  Or I may have stumbled on a walk.  … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":213,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sfsi_plus_gutenberg_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_show_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_type":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_alignemt":"","sfsi_plus_gutenburg_max_per_row":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4438","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-message"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9rLvf-19A","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durhamfriendsmeeting.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4438","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durhamfriendsmeeting.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durhamfriendsmeeting.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durhamfriendsmeeting.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/213"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durhamfriendsmeeting.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4438"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.durhamfriendsmeeting.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4438\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4914,"href":"https:\/\/www.durhamfriendsmeeting.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4438\/revisions\/4914"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durhamfriendsmeeting.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durhamfriendsmeeting.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durhamfriendsmeeting.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}