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Note: In this sermon, I reference the star words we shared during worship on January 8. If you would like a star word they will be available in the sanctuary the next two Sundays. If you would like one mailed to you or an image of the word emailed, please get in touch with me! [email protected]
Matthew 2: 1 – 12
1In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, 2 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.” 3 When King Herod heard this, he was frightened, and all Jerusalem with him; 4 and calling together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born. 5 They told him, “In Bethlehem of Judea; for so it has been written by the prophet:
‘And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who is to shepherd my people Israel.’ ”
7 Then Herod secretly called for the wise men and learned from them the exact time when the star had appeared. 8 Then he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, “Go and search diligently for the child; and when you have found him, bring me word so that I may also go and pay him homage.” 9 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. 10 When they saw that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy. 11 On entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they knelt down and paid him homage. Then, opening their treasure chests, they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. 12 And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for their own country by another road.
How did they know?
It’s a question that I’ve always had, that I still have, and maybe you have, too, about the wise men - the wise ones. How did they know?
They saw the star and knew they needed to follow it. They knew that they had seen Jesus’ star at its rising and that they had to follow it.
How did they know?
Well, throughout time people have looked to the stars for help. For guidance.
Some 60,000 years ago the Pacific Islands were settled, not accidentally, but intentionally, precisely, by using the stars and the wind and the waves.[1] They’re called Wave Listeners, or Wave Pilots.
The North Star, a part of the constellation known to many as the drinking gourd, led countless enslaved people to freedom.[2]
Between 1959 and 1975 part of the mandatory training for astronauts was going to the Morehead Planetarium at the University of North Carolina to learn celestial navigation so they could pilot their craft even if the navigation systems failed.[3]
The Naval Academy still requires potential officers to learn how to navigate using a sextant at the stars[4]
How did they know? The wise ones---
(I like to call them because we don’t really know how many there were and it was likely that there were women in their traveling party - we mainly know that they had three gifts)
The wise ones didn’t just look up and see a star and know what it meant. They were astrologers. The term magi can refer to many things, but most scholars think that they were those who studied the stars. Studied the stars. To learn from them. See in the movement of the stars something of themselves. Predecessors of our modern-day astronomers.[5]
They studied.
Listening to the waves takes time. Like astronauts. Like naval officers. Like people whose freedom depends on it.[6]
The wise men didn’t wake up one morning and know, they made themselves ready.
How do we know?
How do we know where we are supposed to be or which path we are to follow?
How do we step outside of ourselves and ask what God wants – for us, for our lives, for our congregations? Not what we want from God, but what God is calling forth from and for us.
How do we make ourselves open to the stars God places in front of us so that we can be like the Wise Men, whose journey echoed the journey of Moses, and go where we are led? To the place where God abides?
The kind of discernment that doesn’t just happen within these four walls in one hour on Sunday, of course. It’s a whole way of living. My colleague Heather Shortlidge reminds us, “Jesus is discovered through the binding together of pagan astrological signs and Jewish biblical promises. How often do we close ourselves off to the divine mystery that pervades and pushes through our lives because it comes packaged in some unchurchy manner?”
Maybe, possibly, one way you might want to approach this question is with the help of a star word.
In just a few moments, I’ll pass star cards. On these cards is a word. You don’t have to take the first word you choose, but don’t look for a word you like, because you won’t know what this star has to teach you until you get to know it.
Star words aren’t the only way, but it is one way to learn to follow the stars God sends. My social media pages have been a flurry with star word reflections in recent weeks.
“One woman… received JOY last year. Her middle name is JOY. She admits, though, that she had lost her JOY, and forgotten how to live with JOY. The star word reminded her throughout the year about the gift of JOY in all circumstances of life; a JOY that comes from the simple affirmation that we belong to God. Another told the story of a woman who received COURAGE. She was in the midst of cancer treatments when this word was given to her. She took that paper star with her to every doctor's appointment. She kept the word by her side as she entered hospice care and as she passed from this life to the next.”[7]
One woman drew the word pregnant. She and her husband, already parents to two children who had no plans to add to their family, laughed and laughed. And then, 11 months later, they welcomed their third child.
Sometimes the words lead us to something we did not anticipate, and might not have wanted. A man didn’t know what to think about healing until he was diagnosed with diabetes later in the year.
Or it might be a word that carries us through a hard time. A college student got assurance, which helped her remember God’s love and the love of her congregation during a year when she was far from home and dealing with illness in her family.[8]
Before I filmed the sermon on Thursday I put my hand in the basket and drew my word for this year (there are more than 500 star cards and 255 different star words this year). I drew the word “Beloved”
Thursday was also the day that some stickers I had ordered several weeks ago arrived –
Stickers that say “Beloved.”
And there is the story shared by Peggy Grant. The word she received was: “Compassion.” She writes:
I thought, “God wants me to become more compassionate.” I set about praying for compassion with this in mind….
At some point during the year, though, I realized that something else was going on. Primarily, this happened through some tremendous examples of compassion that people demonstrated toward me. One Sunday after worshipping…. I was overcome with emotion and feelings of intense sorrow, grief, and loss. I went to the chapel, closed the door, and wept as I had never wept before….
After a long time, I regained enough composure to open the chapel door. And there was Cheryl, holding the flowers she had purchased for our worship that day, in honor of her mother… she handed them to me – sensing I needed them more…. Compassion is not just feeling sorry for someone, but feeling another’s sorrow on such a deep level that one is strongly motivated to try to alleviate the other’s suffering. Cheryl gave me compassion along with the flowers that day.
Gradually I began to realize that [this word wasn’t so much about me learning to be compassionate as learning to accept that] Jesus was offering me compassion.
Some say that it is more blessed to give than to receive….. I maintain that it is more difficult to receive than to give. In order to receive Jesus’s compassion, we must become vulnerable….admit our neediness and face our darkness… trusting Jesus to wash our emotional scars with his miraculous love.[9]
What word will you receive and what will it mean to you? How might it lead your prayers, your devotion? Maybe just a little. Maybe a lot. But however this word journeys with you, we do so with the faith that the star was never the point, the star was the sign.
As Bishop Curry, the presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church tweeted, “When the three kings returned home without informing Herod of Jesus' location, they were no longer following the star-- they were following the God who created the stars.”[10]
And that is the goal for all of us. For the elders who will be ordained and installed in a few moments. For the life ahead for this congregation.
May we be led by a star and follow the God of all creation, the Christ of all love, the Spirit of justice and truth. Alleluia. Amen.
[1] http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/20/magazine/the-secrets-of-the-wave-pilots.html
[2] http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4p1535.html
http://www.pbs.org/black-culture/shows/list/underground-railroad/stories-freedom/underground-railroad-terminology/
[3] http://moreheadplanetarium.org/about/history
[4] https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2016/02/17/why-naval-academy-students-are-learning-to-sail-by-the-stars-for-the-first-time-in-a-decade/?utm_term=.4d81f722402e
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/checkpoint/wp/2015/10/13/after-two-decades-sailing-by-the-stars-is-back-at-the-naval-academy/
[5] Brown, Raymond Edward. "Meaning of the magi: the significance of the star." Worship 49, no. 10 (December 1975): 574-582. ATLASerials, Religion Collection, EBSCOhost (accessed January 6, 2018).
https://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?t=kjv&strongs=g3097
[6] http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/Pacific-%E2%80%98wave-pilot%E2%80%99-passes-on-ancient-skills-to-next-generation/article17047911.ece
[7] http://pres-outlook.org/2016/01/star-words-a-spiritual-practice-for-epiphany/
[8] http://pres-outlook.org/2017/01/words-from-the-spirit/
[9] http://pres-outlook.org/2017/08/star-word-surprising-vulnerable-gift-compassion/
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