Ted Lasso, Wise Man
The Reverend Shearon Sykes Williams on the Second Sunday after Christmas, January 2nd, 2022.
So many people have told me over the course of the last year, “I can’t believe you haven’t seen Ted Lasso. You have to watch it. You would totally love it.” So I finally succumbed to peer pressure and got a free 7 day trial of Apple TV a few days ago and we’ve been binge-watching the first season ever since. It is funny, inspired and full of wisdom.
The main character is an American football coach who is unexpectedly hired to coach a British soccer team. He doesn’t know anything about soccer, but he knows a lot about the most important things in life, hopefulness, patience, forgiveness and humor. People are always underestimating him because of his folksy ways, but his relentless kindness, determination, and ability to inspire, lead to the transformation of the team and everyone associated with it.
As he and his assistant coach are on the flight to England, he asks, “are we nuts for doing this?” and the assistant says “yes, this is nuts.” And he replies with one of my favorite Ted Lasso-isms so far: “Taking on a challenge is a lot like riding a horse, isn't it? If you're comfortable while you're doing it, you're probably doing it wrong." Never a truer word was spoken.
And as we reflect on our Gospel for today, we could substitute “camel” for “horse”. I can imagine one of the wise men looking over at the others as they travel for miles and miles across the desert, and saying, “Taking on a challenge is a lot like riding a camel, isn't it? If you're comfortable while you're doing it, you're probably doing it wrong."
What the wise men did makes absolutely no practical sense when you think about it. These were very learned men, probably from Babylon, the center of astronomical studies in the ancient world. They had spent their entire academic lives studying the skies and trying to understand what they were seeing. And they were so fascinated by the new star that appeared, that they packed up and travelled almost 1700 miles across difficult terrain from Babylon to Jerusalem, to try to figure out what it really meant. And that’s the key, isn’t it? It is one thing to have something unexpected happen. It’s another to see what you can learn from it.
We have all been riding an extremely unruly camel these past 2 years, and here we are continuing this Covid odyssey that we really wish would just be over already. There has been so much suffering and chaos. And that is no laughing matter. Every time we think we might be coming to the end, a new variant pops up that nobody fully understands and we have to change course yet again. The estimate, as best the experts can predict, is that we will have it in some form or fashion for at least another 2 years. Raise your hand if you are overwhelmed by the thought of that. I’m imagining a sea of raised hands and a chorus of amens right now, even though we Episcopalians don’t normally do too much of that.
We are all weary, bone-tired, there is no doubt about it. But holding on to hope and channeling our inner “Ted Lasso Wise Man” is key to our spiritual health as we go forward. God led the wise men with a star in the sky and a light in their hearts and that same light has burned throughout the ages leading faithful people forward and it still lights our way forward today, step by step by step. We will get through this, together, and our faith will continue to keep us strong, flexible and resilient. The Christ Star is within us and beyond us and it never burns out.
Perilous journeys are a central theme in our sacred story. The ancient Israelites travelled in stages across the wilderness and went through all kinds of challenges and were often tempted to give into despair, but God was with them through thick and thin and brought them to the Promised Land. And the wise men continue that theme, and represent the spread of the Good News of Jesus to the ends of the earth. The fact that they were foreigners, who didn’t have the benefit of Hebrew prophecy to interpret the birth of Christ is important. What they did have was a star and a burning hope. Their journey wasn’t comfortable, it wasn’t easy, but they embraced the challenge and their lives were changed forever. They were the first non-Israelites to see the Christchild. They offered him gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh and they received a gift far more precious, the gift of incomprehensible joy.
During these 12 days of Christmas, we celebrate Immanuel, “God with us” and we pray that God will give us eyes to see and hearts to receive the gift of inexhaustible joy and the grace to share that gift with others.
“In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, asking, ‘Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we observed his star at its rising, and have come to pay him homage….When they had heard the king, they set out; and there, ahead of them, went the star that they had seen at its rising, until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy…”. Matthew 2: 1-12