Matthew 2:1-12
“The Stuff of Stars and Dreams”
January 2, 2022
I still remember that field trip back in elementary school to the planetarium in Schenectady.
A couple of busloads worth of kids rowdily piled out onto that sunny day after the 20-minute ride.
We jostled and joked with each other as we made our way inside to our seats, instructed by our teacher to stay with our own class.
When most of the commotion died down, the lights went out and we were told to look up and there it was – a darkened night sky full of more stars than you could count – all happening at 10:00 in the morning.
If awe is something you can measure with dozens of 10-year-olds simultaneously shutting up and then bursting forth with “wows” then we were an awesome bunch.
The director of the planetarium then gave us a guided tour of the Milky Way identifying constellations and sharing ideas about how best to look at the night sky on our own without a professional close by.
This field trip was mere months before Apollo 11 landed and Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin took their historic moonwalk.
The night sky, the one we share with all creation, continues to be the place we can look to for assurance that we are not alone and that we are a piece of something so much bigger than any of us.
There is not too much known about these three wise men who looked up into the night sky and saw a star that pointed them to the Messiah which moved them enough to seek him out and to honor him.
Most scholars describe them as astrologers, and they probably called Persia home.
Back then, lots of astrologers were also priests which is most likely why they are often known as Magi.
Their job was to interpret dreams for the royal family of Persia but they themselves would not have had any royal blood, so they really weren’t kings.
We have no idea how many of them there were except to assume at least 2 since Matthew refers to wise men plural.
Just as you can’t tell how many guests you have at your birthday party by the number of gifts you get, so too there could have been 5 or 10 or any number of wise men who made that trip.
The number 3 has stuck over time and in nativity scenes and in our opening carol just because there were 3 gifts.
The relevance of the gifts was not in how many men came bearing them but rather what they said about Christ.
Each gift was intended to speak to a part of Jesus’ life.
The gold spoke of his identity as a reigning king.
The frankincense symbolized his earthly ministry.
While the myrrh was meant to foretell his death and resurrection.
By the 1500s, writers took it upon themselves to give the “three” wise men names – Caspar, Balthazar, and Melchior – and had made them into kings which we’ve enshrined through our depictions of them today.
In Greek the word Epiphany means manifestation.
Today we begin the season of Epiphany when we will see all sorts of manifestations of Christ as we make our way toward Lent two months from now.
Just as we saw during our pageant 2 weeks ago, the wise men are dressed like fancy kings – the better to make everyone sit up and take notice.
But what are we noticing – a child.
We are reminded four times, in this passage alone, that this King, and anointed one and teacher and shepherd begins life as child – this manifestation as the humblest and even most vulnerable of humans – speaks to a Messiah no one would have expected.
How did these wise travelers know this was the one?
It was a star that pointed him out.
And once they had paid him homage how do they know not to go back to Herod?
A disturbing dream.
So many wonders and signs and we’re reminded by this story of how often we as church over the course of history have relied on certainty while we know that for each of us, we have a faith that got its roots from a place where dreams were critical and stars led the way.
Signs and wonders are often relegated by some to those who describe themselves as “spiritual but not religious.”
Yet we know that the manifestation of Christ comes in many forms.
For some of us it will come in those feeding our hungry neighbors.
For others it will be the ones who create a safe home for the Afghan refugees about to move into our area.
There will be those who will see the manifestation of Christ in foster parents who open their homes at all hours of the night and day.
Dreams offering visions.
Stars pointing toward goodness.
After a year of hardship and pain and loss, let us live as the manifestation of the one we seek, the one we follow.
May our gifts that we bear to honor Christ be something like Steve Garnaas-Holmes had in mind when he wrote:
Gifts
I offer the gift of my gold,
my generosity.
May all that I spend be done in faith.
May every dollar reflect my love for you
and your will.
I offer the gift of my frankincense,
my prayerfulness.
May all I do be in mindfulness of your presence.
May I treat every person with reverence,
every moment with gratitude,
every action with trust in your grace.
I offer the gift of my myrrh,
my mortality, my being.
I shall one day die;
meanwhile my life belongs to you, not me.
May I spend my short time in this life
with love and humility.
I willingly surrender my life to you,
that I may enter into the new year
not as a self-protected individual,
but as a generous, trusting, joyful member
of the Body of your Love.
Here. Receive me. (Steve Garnaas-Holmes Unfolding Light www.unfoldinglight.net)
Amen.