Can You See the Star?

Matthew 2:1-12

 

            When I was a little girl, I remember grand openings that were announced with a giant light, moving like a windshield wiper, across the night sky.  You could actually drive to the location of the giant light which was mounted on a flatbed trailer and see just what was going on.  Those lights were huge – at least 10 feet in diameter (at least that’s what it seemed like to a little girl).  I’ve always kinda pictured the Bethlehem star to be that big.  It had to be big, for those wise men to see it from afar!

Have you ever wondered why more people didn’t see it?  Just a handful of shepherds and three wise men?  We have already been told that Bethlehem is filled beyond capacity with all those people coming to register for the census.  You’d think that at the very least the inn clientele would have seen it right out in their backyard.

Course, I’m sure everybody had turned in early.  You know how it is with all the Christmas traffic and the long lines everywhere.  And there never is anything worth watching on the television during the holiday break, just a lot of reruns. 

But still I wonder…what did the shepherds and the wise men have that the ordinary people, like us, didn’t?  Had we been there in the hills surrounding Bethlehem, would we have seen it?

There is a beautiful old tradition about the star in the East. The story says that when the star had finished its task of directing the wise men to the baby, it fell from the sky and dropped down into the city well of Bethlehem. According to some legends, that star is there to this day, and can sometimes still be seen by those whose hearts are pure and clean. It's a pretty story.

There are other legends about this story of the wise men from the east. For instance, how many wise men were there? In the old days in the east, they believed that there were 12 men who made the journey, but now most everyone agrees there were three, Matthew never says other than naming three different kinds of gifts…none of them too practical for an infant.

            We really do not know who they were, where they came from and in spite of what we sang earlier, they were not kings…they more than likely were scholars who obviously studied the stars.  While today, January 6, is celebrated as the day they arrived and most all nativity scenes picture them at the manger, we really do not know how long it took them to get to Bethlehem or how old Jesus was by the time they got there.

 One old legend, which the American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow picked up on, tells us the names of the three. Melchior was the oldest of the group, with a full beard. He gave the baby the gift of gold. Balthasar also had a beard, but was not as old as Melchior. He presented the gift of myrrh. The youngest of the three was Casper or Gaspar, who had no beard yet, but did present the gift of frankincense to the baby.

Yet another legend goes on to tell us that after seeing the baby, the three continued traveling as far as Spain, telling the world the good news about what they had seen. These stories bring the wise men a little more to life, and add some color to the story of Christmas. They can also get in the way.

The problem with legends is that sometimes they add color to stories that don't need any additional color. In fact, sometimes legends are so colorful, they are unbelievable, and can end up making the entire story unbelievable as well. Kind of like that star falling in the well.  It makes you wonder.  And even if there was such a star, how come more people didn’t see it and come running?

            And yet when we look at the shepherds and the scholars who did see the star, and it was so bright that none of them could tell if it was shining in the sky or in their imaginations but the point was something beyond them was calling them, and the tug was so strong, it was if they had been waiting for this moment all their lives.

There is a story from a collection of the lives of saints - the saints of Islam - which concerns a king of Balkh (now northern Afghanistan) named Ebrahim ibn Adam. Ebrahim was wealthy according to every earthly measure. At the same time, however, he sincerely and restlessly strove to be wealthy spiritually as well.

"One night the king was roused from sleep by a fearful stumping on the roof above his bed. Alarmed, he shouted: 'Who's there?' 'A friend,' came the reply from the roof. 'I've lost my camel.' Perturbed by such stupidity, Ebrahim screamed: 'You fool! Are you looking for a camel on the roof?' 'You fool!' the voice from the roof answered. 'Are you looking for God in silk clothing, and lying on a golden bed?' " The story goes on, according to Jesuit theologian Walter G. Burghardt, to tell how these simple words filled the king with such terror that he arose from his sleep to become a most remarkable saint.

The camel on the roof raises another question for us, Where are we looking for God?  The scriptures that tell the Christmas story are all in some way a camel-on-the-roof reminder that God is not to be found where the world's princes and powers reside. Each text calls us to be like the king's friend, willing to make a fool of ourselves asking the camel-on-the-roof question to a world busy seeking God in all the wrong places, willing to rouse the world with the message of "Arise, shine, for your light has come."

            If we try to pick apart the story of the wise men, deciding the whole thing must be legend, then we are like another Arabic story of "Seventeen Camels" that tells of a Mullah who died and left his seventeen camels to be divided among his three sons. One was to receive one ninth; one was to get one half; and the third son was to inherit one third of the camels. Seventeen camels, however, aren't evenly divisible by three. Hence the three sons argued long and loud about what to do.

In desperation they agreed to let a certain wise man decide for them. He was seated in front of his tent with his own camel staked out back. After hearing the case, the wise man took his own camel and added it to the other seventeen camels. He then took one ninth of the eighteen, or two camels. To another he gave one half, or nine camels. To the third he gave one third, or six camels. On top of it all, he still had his own camel left.

If we are using reason and looking for proof only, then we are still trying to find God and solve the problems of life by logical, calculating schemes that insure we receive our share. But God is to be found in receiving, not grasping; in giving, not claiming our rights.

God's ministers and followers, the friends and fools of the world, have a light to shine in the darkness, an illumination from God that can raise the roof of the world's kings and princes, presidents and prime ministers.

As we turn over a new year, one thing is sure: more and more people are trying to find a way to God by climbing the ladders of success and power and respectability. In these days, the pursuit of money and power has become one of the most powerful mystery religions ever to show its face in the history of humanity.

Can You See the Light?

This makes it all the more imperative that the Epiphany News is that God is found in incarnation, in the humility of birth in a stable. As startling as a camel on a roof is the Christian message that the vulnerability of a life of homelessness, and the suffering of death on a cross, are heralded as marks of God's most powerful work in the human life.

This is a light more brilliant than the pillar of cloud by day or the pillar of fire by night, more brilliant than a "thousand points of light" shining in the darkness. Can you see it?  Christians are called to offer a ministry of light and a message of illumination to those in power.

Where are you looking for God?  The true light does not come from economics or the wealth of nations.  Not from education or the wisdom of the world. Not from science or technology.

The Wise Men point us to where the world's best hope, the world's only salvation comes: bowing before the Christ who is found and served in "the places that stink and where no one loves,"

Like the Wise Men, for those who have seen the star, it will not easily fade away.