star child

from my message on Jan.5, 2014, when we celebrate Epiphany, from Matthew 2:1-12

I like the way the Revised Standard Version has verse 10, "When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy."

I have long been fascinated by stars.  Growing up in the Panhandle of Texas on a farm, away from city lights, the stars seemed so close.  I got a telescope for Christmas one year.  Not a refracting telescope that uses lenses but a reflecting one that used mirrors to focus the light.  At Texas A & M, I was a physics minor, getting 24 hours in this field.  One of my favorite courses was Astronomy 310.  It was my junior year, in the fall of 1973, when comet Kohoutek was approaching the sun.  In fact this comet came at Christmas time, making its closest approach to the sun on Dec. 28 of that year.

The wise men saw a star in the sky and followed it to a child.  The word for star in Greek is vague.  We don't know if the wise men were guided by a comet, or a star like a super nova exploding in the heavens, ora  conjunction of planets.  This is what we know, some scholars from the East, non-Jews, left everything to go in search for a king of the Jews.

I could just imagine them telling their wives about this adventure.  "Honey, I'm going on a trip"  "Oh, how long will you be gone?"  "I don't know."  "Where are you going?"  "I don't know.  And honey, I have cleaned out all of the gold in our bank account.  I am following a star in the sky."

I am sure this went over well at home.  We don't realize the sacrifice made by the wise men and their families in order to find this star child.

Maybe you know something about sacrificing to follow this star child.  There are other places you could be today, other things you could be doing, but you are here.  We may be giving up our agenda, our time lines, and that most precious thing of all, our control.  To find this star child means sacrificing.

To find the star child means making mistakes.  The wise men are not always so wise.  They go into talk with Herod and basically say, "Say king Herod, can you tell us where to find your rival king?"  This is not the smartest thing the wise men ever did.

We are going to stumble around too, following this star child.  We are going to make mistakes, even sin.  I like what Lutheran theology teaches:  that we are all sinners and all saints, all at the same time.  The star child is going to welcome us, even in, especially in our brokenness, our incompleteness, our sin.

To find the star child is going to be an inexact science also.  We can forgive the wise men for approaching Herod to ask for directions.  How specific is a star in the sky?  Can it point to a house in Bethlehem?  We are going to wander around also.  That may be why we are here today.  It is the beginning of a new year, and we need direction.  We want the guidance that comes in worship, in prayer, in scripture study, in community discernment.  We need help to find the star child.

We are just beginning the Healthy Church Initiative steps, starting with a Day of Prayer next Sunday.  What a great way to start!  We need guidance from God.  We don't have specific answers, just a direction to start.  This is like the wise men looking for the star child.  It will be a journey for them and for us.

They find him and so will we.  To follow the star child is the path of life.  That's the good news I have to share today.