January 5, 2014 ~ A Multitude of Camels from John Knox Kirk on Vimeo.
A sermon preached at John Knox Kirk of Kansas City, Missouri, on January 5, 2014.
Matthew 2:1-12
and Isaiah 60:1-6
The night skies have always fascinated me.
While I no longer can tell you which constellation is which
or what planet is what,
I enjoy staring up into the night sky while driving
out someplace away from the light pollution of the city
or just looking at all the stars on a clear night from my backyard.
When I was younger, maybe around 11 or so,
Haley’s Comet made its once-every-75-year pilgrimage to earth
and I remember trying to find some dark place in Atlantic, Iowa
to peer up at it using binoculars.
And then there was the summer I worked
at Ghost Ranch Conference Center in Abiquiu, New Mexico
about as remote from civilization as you can get, really
and I would volunteer to take 20 rowdy-but-lovely
4th through 6th graders on a campout
just to watch the meteor showers bedazzle the night sky.
Laying there, after the kids calmed down and went to sleep, of course,
I remember the wonderment I felt
as I pondered how God created the millions and zillions
of stars, suns, moons, planets, that
hang in the heavens above us.
I wonder if you have been enthralled this way by the night sky.
SO MANY Little specks of light, in a field of vast darkness….
* * *
Arise! Shine! For your Light has Come!
And the Glory of the LORD has risen upon you.
So starts our reading from the Prophet Isaiah this morning.
There is an old Chinese proverb that goes;
Better To Light a Candle, than to Curse the Darkness.
I used to dream, as a small child,
that those stars were really candles
filling up a sky that needed …. SOMETHING
to make it breathtaking, beautiful.
During this darkest time of the year,
I often feel like this is a time of SEARCHING for light
LIGHT in those around us,
LIGHT in the heavens above us,
and perhaps even LIGHT within ourselves,
and Epiphany is a good time to pause
and think about that search, that QUEST.
And, at Epiphany, it all starts out with a star.
* * *
Earlier this week, my parents took my daughters and me out to dinner
and as we were leaving one of my girls
immediately pointed up to the sky and said:
There! IS that the first star?
Star light, star bright, first star I see tonight;
I wish I may, I wish I might, have the wish I wish tonight…
What is it about stars that set us to dreaming so?
A child gazes up at the night sky,
and makes a wish for a new bicycle or doll or video game.
A teenager looks up
and wishes for that boyfriend or girlfriend or just good friend to come along.
A grown-up is drawn to the vista of the evening sky,
stars all a-twinkling,
and the urge to make a wish still stirs within us.
It’s in our genes, I suppose, to be moved when we see the stars.
In our genes, if our genes do carry a sense of history,
because our ancestors in the ancient world were moved by stars.
They believed that the stars played a part in announcing
the birth or death of a great and powerful leader.
Maybe that was their way of explaining the phenomena of comets
and supernovas and shooting stars.
Or maybe, indeed, the heavens are telling the Glory of God.
According to Matthew, some wise people
– astrologers maybe, rulers maybe, Zoroastrian priests maybe –
they looked up into the sky and saw to their west a brilliant star
one they had never seen before.
To them,
something significant had happened in the world of power and might.
Someone important had been born.
And they had no choice but to FOLLOW that star.
This story of the journey of the magi is a classic QUEST story, in a way:
a sign is given,
a journey made
the destination reached.
The sojourners respond to what they find,
and they return home after their quest, their lives changed.
* * *
And Quests are BIG BUSINESS, it would seem.
Look at the recent success of the Hobbit,
and its predecessor film trilogy the Lord of the Rings,
or the wildly successful Harry Potter stories.
with the books they are based on flying off the shelves,
all clues that quests are certainly ‘in’ these days.
And that’s not a bad thing at all.
Its not a bad thing that children and grown-ups alike are once again
drawn to these kinds of stories,
being involved in some unknown journey
that will be for the benefit of not simply a few,
but for all who fight on the side of the right, the good.
Almost invariably, here’s how they tend to go:
A seemingly ordinary person – Someone like you or me –
is entrusted with an expedition of some kind,
and on the way to fulfilling that destiny, she meets companions
who must be judged as trustworthy or malicious.
HELP comes from unexpected places, as does DANGER.
And as formulaic though these quest stories may be,
they can teach wise lessons.
We learn that life is not always fair.
Sometimes the innocent suffer and the guilty go unpunished.
Sometimes the good characters suffer
BECAUSE of their goodness and bravery and truthfulness.
Sometimes what one finds when reaching the destination
was NOT what was expected.
And we learn that those who have made the journey return home
with their world and their lives changed FOREVER.
* * *
As a child, I loved these kinds of stories, and in some way
I longed to find a real-life quest to undertake,
in which my own bravery and loyalty and goodness
could be lived out,
but for all my striving,
I never did receive a magic-ring to destroy
nor did I find an exiled monarch to return to the throne
nor was I commissioned to find a holy grail.
Such are the travails of an imaginative childhood.
The magi of Matthew’s story, though,
were fortunate enough to find a quest,
an IMPUSE to follow a star.
So they journeyed from Persia to Jerusalem
and on the way encountered King Herod.
They had to judge if he was good or bad, friend or foe.
He appeared so learned, so encouraging, so interested.
But, in truth, his heart was full of malice.
The magi left the glitter of Herod’s court,
and journeyed on a few miles to Bethlehem,
and reached their destination, their place under the star.
They found not a palace befitting newborn royalty,
but the humble stable,
the temporary home of Mary and Joseph and baby Jesus.
They saw no royal court paying homage to the newborn king,
but simple, rough shepherds kneeling before him.
But the magi were wise enough to know
that however rustic the surroundings,
the king had been found.
And they responded in the only fitting way: by presenting their gifts,
Gold and Frankincense and Myrrh.
paying honor before this child who would be our Loving Lord.
Matthew clearly is inspired by our Isaiah reading,
where God’s LIGHT, when found,
inspires such JOY and such celebration
that the response is overflowing:
gifts of gold and frankincense
and a multitude of CAMELS even
the gift to make all gifts PALE in comparison
for this nomadic culture
these gifts: signs of rejoicing and commitment and hope.
After all of…THIS
the Magi returned home, DIFFERENT than they had been before.
As Gentiles who had seen the promised King of Israel, they were SHAKEN.
They were now part of a DIFFERENT story—witness to the newborn King.
They could no longer trust in the power of Herod
and the powers-that-be.
And they returned home wondering
if all that they had thought about their world was true!
* * *
This year, as we celebrate the start of 2014 and look back over 2013,
the story of the magi leads us to consider:
What quest has been set before you and me?
And how might that journey challenge us, change us?
Whether you are here this morning,
having been made a part of this story of our faith
because of circumstance of birth
or conviction of belief
or some experience of the divine
in the midst of this community
it is safe to say that we are all of us a seeking people.
Why else would you have braved this miserable cold and snow this morning?
We’re all looking for something true and lasting and beautiful.
Something brilliant to behold and guide us,
Something magnificent to believe in.
Something wonderful to share.
It isn’t too much to suggest, I hope,
that the life of faith we are all about here is a sort of journey,
a kind of quest
where we are seeking out a star
to experience and to share with another
where we, like the magi long ago,
seek out Jesus Christ among us.
Jesus: our star to follow, the sign of our quest.
It might not be a physical journey like those Magi,
but ours will be a real journey nonetheless,
made through prayer and worship and study and service.
And in our own lives,
along the way we will meet strangers, and will need to determine
if they are friend or foe, if they will hinder or help the cause of God
—the cause of love and peace and justice and reconciliation
—wherever we are.
On our adventure we will encounter hardship, yes,
and unexpected blessings too.
The good news is that God has given each one of us talents and abilities
that we will need on our journey of faith.
God sends us companions along the way,
teachers and family and friends, to challenge us and to support us.
And in Jesus Christ, we believe that we have a beacon
by which God leads the way
through uncertain times.
Rev. Elizabeth Merrill once wrote about
what it means to try to be faithful in today’s world:
We may undertake only one spiritual quest in our lifetime,
and we might not reach the destination before we die.
We may undertake several such quests,
each leading us to new and deeper understandings
of God’s nature,
of God’s purpose,
of our response to God.
It is an awesome adventure,
to follow in the ways of Jesus Christ.
There is no higher calling than to be a Christian,
if we take that calling very seriously.
Our quest is to choose right over wrong,
to follow God even when that appears to be the more difficult way,
to love even when that seems
the most ridiculous response in the world.
We too have a star to follow, and his name is Jesus Christ.[i]
Friends, exactly what Journey
God has for you this New Year I do not know.
I don’t even know what God has in store for me.
Or for us as the body of Christ in this place..
But I do know that like the Magi, having seen a glimpse of the star
We are drawn to follow in that light
Searching, like the Magi
for the joyous, marvelous irruption of Love
in our lives and in our world,
and when we encounter it,
we can expect to be changed forever.
* * *
Let me suggest, these first few days of 2014,
that we keep our eyes on this star,
this wonderful star of God,
revealing the wonderful Gift of God-Among-Us
to a tired, hurting, weary world.
This life of faith, this journey or quest to be in communion with God
to experience, deeply, truly, what life is really all about,
is finding light in the darkness,
food for the hungry soul.
friendship for the lonely.
What better metaphor could there be than a shining star,
a bright candle in the night sky
guiding us home.
In a meditation about Christmas giving
and a lifetime of journey towards a Star, Ann Weems,
the Presbyterian Poet, wrote these words:
What I’d really like to give you for Christmas is a star!
Brilliance in a package,
Something you could keep in the pocket of your jeans
or in the pocket of your being.
Something to take out in times of darkness,
Something that would never snuff out or tarnish,
Something you could hold in your hand,
Something for wonderment
Something for pondering,
Something that would remind you of
what Christmas has always meant:
God’s Advent Light into the Darkness of this World.
But Stars are only God’s for giving,
and I must be content to give you words and wishes
and packages without stars
But I can wish you life
as radiant as the Star
that announced the Christ Child’s coming,
and as filled with awe as the shepherds
who stood beneath its light.
And I can pass on to you the love
that has been given to me,
ignited countless times by others
who have knelt in Bethlehem’s light.
Perhaps, if you ask, God will give you a star.[ii]
* * *
Star light, star bright, first star I see tonight;
I wish I may, I wish I might, have the wish I wish tonight…
On this day of Epiphany, on this first Sunday of the new year,
where we look back upon the year past
and look forward to the coming year,
my wish, my prayer,
is that God will give you a star. Brilliance in a Package.
God made Flesh.
A Star Indeed. Amen.
Sermon includes material revised from earlier sermon preached at Southminster Presbyterian Church, January 4, 2006, and elements preached by The Rev. Mark Ramsey that have been lost to time.
[i] Shared on Ecunet, nd.
[ii] Ann Weems, “Star Giving” in Kneeling in Bethlehem (Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1980) p. 71.
Image: icpress.cn, found at http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/business/greenchina/2013-11/12/content_17100532.htm (accessed January 5, 2014)
Leave a Reply