Following Your Star
Texts: Matthew 2:1-12; Isaiah 60:1-6
It’s January 9th, and we are still online. The tree is still up, the nativity set is still here, and we continue to have the Advent Wreath and the Christ Candle shining together on the table. Last Thursday was Epiphany and Christmas for those who celebrate Eastern Orthodox Christian traditions. For those traditions, it is not so much the birth of Jesus itself that they observe, but rather when the world came to realize it, symbolized in the Wise Men’s visit. The ones who followed the star to the home of the Christ child.
I’ve remarked before that we often try to do too much on Christmas Eve. We try to stuff the whole occasion into a single night without drawing out the various themes and messages of the Season. So we have Shepherds and Angels bumping into Wise Men and their entourage. It’s a wonder that Joseph, Mary and the Christ Child might have gotten any sleep whatsoever.
The reality is, the stories that Luke tells and Matthew’s stories around the birth of Jesus were never supposed to be mashed together. Instead, Luke emphasizes the Christ Child being born into exceedingly poor circumstances, revealed to the unwanted and outcast. On the other hand, Matthew works with a different group of people and a completely different timeline. Therefore, he makes an entirely different point by highlighting a story that would have taken place two years after that first holy night.
Matthew brings in these characters from the east. Mysterious figures, outsiders, but not outcasts like the shepherds. They are genuinely mysterious outsiders. The Greek word for them is Magi. It’s where we get the term “Magician.” They are strangers from far-away land with different beliefs: astrologers who look for signs in the stars.
They embark on a long journey, coming from the east searching for someone, something extraordinary, something new. The Magi had an epiphany, a moment of realization, and their world and their lives changed, and they would travel to new lands to find it.
These moments of realization may not be as dramatic for many of us, but they can be just as profound. They are moments where we begin to see something in a new way. So these moments of epiphany, of seeing things in a new way, are appropriate for this time of year.
Today is the first Sunday in the Season of Epiphany in the western church, drawing that link between Christmas and the rest of the church year. We celebrate the visit of the Magi on January 6th, the twelfth day after Christmas. The visit of these travellers from the east is symbolic of the revealing of Christ to the world. It didn’t happen right away, but it would take some time before the wise men would knock on the door bearing their gifts. These travellers would come from far lands, revealing something powerful and pervasive about this new child to the entire world. Suddenly people would see this child born in a manger in a beautiful new way.
For Matthew, the visit of the Magi is indeed an Epiphany. This link to Isaiah is critical: no longer is the Christ child revealed to a select few, shepherds, and innkeepers. Instead, the very nations come and gather to see the child. The courts of the rich and powerful are brought to their knees. The glory of God is revealed for all to see. Things will never be the same again. It is an Epiphany, we see things in a new way, and our lives will never be the same.
Seeing things in a new way is what Epiphany is about: for the next two months, the stories and scripture that we hear are moments of seeing God in our midst where we have not seen before. More often than not, it’s a discovery that God has been there all along, and we have not seen until a moment of realization. These moments of epiphany happen not only in the Bible but are constantly happening in our own lives. By definition, an epiphany is a sudden intuitive leap of understanding, primarily through an ordinary but striking occurrence.
So here is something to contemplate as we find ourselves back in social-distancing mode. If there has been one small benefit to the pandemic, people have the chance to reflect and re-consider things that we have taken for granted. Maybe this time may help you to see where God may be working in your life or where God is calling you to be. What is your moment of epiphany?
I want to share with you a poem from the artist Jan Richardson:
Following the star is
“not any map you know.
Forget longitude. Forget latitude.
Do not think of distances or of plotting the most direct route.
Astrolabe, sextant, compass:
these will not help you here.
This is the map that begins with a star.
This is the chart that starts with fire,
with blazing,
with an ancient light that has outlasted generations, empires,
cultures, wars.
Look starward once, then look away.
Close your eyes and see how the map begins to blossom behind your lids,
how it constellates,
its lines stretching out from where you stand.
You cannot see it all, cannot divine the way
it will turn and spiral,
cannot perceive how the road you walk will lead you finally inside,
through the labyrinth of your own heart
and belly and lungs.
But step out and you will know
what the wise who traveled this path before you knew:
the treasure in this map is buried
not at journey’s end but at its beginning.” 1
Our challenge is to allow ourselves to be open to those moments of epiphany. To see those moments in our lives where things we have taken for granted suddenly look and feel different. It can be in a spectacular way, but more often than not, it may be from something more mundane. It can be anything from seeing the wonders of the natural world, a smell that connects you with a different moment in time. Ultimately, seeing something in a new light can change how we act and behave. These moments of epiphany can have life-changing results, as God calls us to follow our star.
Arise, shine, for your light has come!
Happy Epiphany!
Amen.
