Stars (The Epiphany of Our Lord)

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Often, when Gospel writers relate a story, they want to emphasize certain events and specific things that important characters say.  And so I often suspect that they leave out many details that the writer doesn’t think need to be there.

And I highly suspect that’s what happened with the story of the wise men.  Matthew tells us that “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.”

And the next thing that happened – almost certainly – was that everyone who heard this question said, “What do you mean a star?  There ain’t no star in the Bible as a sign that a king is born!” 

And indeed, sometimes people read this story and imagine that buried somewhere deep in a part of the Old Testament that we haven’t read or don’t remember, there’s a prophecy about a star appearing when the Messiah is born.  But there isn’t!  Stars really don’t figure into any Old Testament prophecies.

And when Herod hears about the question these guys are asking, he isn’t afraid because of the word “star”. He’s afraid because of the word “king.”  And he calls together his advisors to ask them NOT where the Bible talks about a star, but where the Bible talks about the birthplace of the Messiah – the promised messianic king.

Honestly, Herod doesn’t care about a star.  That’s a pagan thing for these astrologers from the East to worry about.  And besides, if there had been a big and significant star, everybody would have seen it.  But just in case these weirdos were on to something, he wanted to make sure there wouldn’t be any threat to his throne.

And so this is an odd story for Matthew to tell about the very first people to find out about Jesus after his birth.  It begins with a star, which is not something that Matthew’s mostly Jewish Christian readers would relate to, either. The star is not a Jewish thing.  The star is not a Christian thing.  It’s a Zoroastrian pagan thing!

And yet, there’s something significant about that, too.  Apparently, right from the beginning, God is so interested in the Gentiles finding out about Jesus that God uses a Zoroastrian thing – a star – to guide these unlikely wise men to find Jesus.

But of course, it didn’t stop with the star.  The star was the first thing.  These guys could have said to themselves, “hey look, there’s a star that means that there’s a new king born over in Judah.”  And then they could have gone back to whatever else they were doing.  But they didn’t.  Apparently, God can be very intriguing even when using Zoroastrian methods!

And so the story of the wise men finding out about Jesus – which is what the word “epiphany” really means – happens because the wise men:

• Pay attention to the world they live in – they probably had never heard of the Torah, and probably believed in many strange things, including that the stars would reveal all kinds of secrets.  And so it was that God used the world of stars that the wise men were familiar with to show them something they wouldn’t have seen otherwise; but it didn’t stop with the star; to find Jesus, they also needed to

• Talk to others and ask questions – somehow, the star only got them to the general vicinity.  This has always amazed me, because later on in this reading the star is said to point them to the exact house Jesus is in! But in order to find Jesus, they apparently need to talk not just to Herod but to average people in Jerusalem; and they also need, indirectly, to talk to the scholars who do know what that star might mean, even though the star isn’t mentioned in the Bible; and most importantly,

• They need to be committed to a journey – and that journey isn’t simply the one that got them eventually to Bethlehem; they also have to be committed to a longer journey than they thought, because they get warned in a dream to go home by a different route, which is not as easy as it might seem.  But even then, their life journey is never going to be the same, because of the impact this particular journey had on their lives…

And so the real meaning of this story for us isn’t about stars, either.  It’s rather the first in a series of many stories Matthew tells us that encourage us to be open to the ways in our lives we’re being called to experience Jesus and to be on an active journey with Jesus in our lives.

And while these wise men may seem like unlikely role models, like them, it’s often the case that we find out – or find out more – about Jesus in our lives when we’re:

• Paying attention to the world in which we live – that is, when we’re open to the regular stuff each of us pays attention to in our lives, whether it’s because of our work, our neighborhoods, our schools or community organizations.  Often, the ways God motivates me to look more closely at something, or to consider something I hadn’t before – is through things I’m tuned into that others might not be.  So what are the “stars” that you watch because you’re just interested in them or because you have to pay attention to them for work?  Sometimes, God can be pointing you to something new in your life, even if others don’t see it…

• Willing to discuss what we see or feel or experience with others – simply trying to discern God’s will in your life by sitting back and meditating (while a good exercise in and of itself) doesn’t get you to where you need to be.  And it’s often the case that people find meaning and purpose by sharing their “visons” with each other and figuring out together where God is leading them.  That’s actually a good definition of what being a congregation is all about, too…!

• Committed to a journey that keeps going, even when it seems to have reached an end.  After all, what the wise men figured out was that finding Jesus wasn’t just the end of their journey; it was also the beginning of the next journey.  And as we begin a new year, we know what that feels like.  We just reached the end of the old year, and now we begin a new journey into the future – a future filled with God leading us into new places…

And that’s the real message of the Epiphany.  As with those wise men, the promise of Epiphany is that God continues to journey with us into the future as we look for new ways forward in a new year. The promise of Epiphany is that God will continue to be part of our conversations and discernment with one another as we search more deeply for what God has in store for us. And the promise of Epiphany is that, no matter where our journeys take us, God will continue to journey with us giving us strength and guidance as we move forward.

Amen.