The Star and The Word

Matthew 2:1-12

In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, 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." 

When King Herod heard this, he was frightened, and all Jerusalem with him; and calling together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born. They told him, "In Bethlehem of Judea; for so it has been written by the prophet:  'And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who is to shepherd my people Israel.'" 

Then Herod secretly called for the wise men and learned from them the exact time when the star had appeared.
Then he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, "Go and search diligently for the child; and when you have found him, bring me word so that I may also go and pay him homage."
When they had heard the king, they set out; and there, ahead of them, went the star that they had seen at its rising, until it stopped over the place where the child was. 

When they saw that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy. On entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother; and they knelt down and paid him homage. Then, opening their treasure chests, they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for their own country by another road.

John 1: 1-18

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

He was in the beginning with God.

All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people.

The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.

There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.

He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him.

He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light.

The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.

He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him.

He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him.

But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.

And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father's only son, full of grace and truth.

(John testified to him and cried out, "This was he of whom I said, 'He who comes after me ranks ahead of me because he was before me.'")

From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.

The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father's heart, who has made him known.

This is Epiphany Sunday, the Sunday closest to the day that we commemorate the arrival of the Wise Men to see Jesus. We understand from the scripture story that they found their way to him by following a star, the brightest star in the sky.

When I googled the word “star”, the description that I got from  Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, is this:

“A star is a massive, luminous sphere of plasma held together by its own gravity. The nearest star to Earth is the Sun, which is the source of most of the planet's energy. Other stars are visible from Earth during the night, appearing as a multitude of fixed luminous points due to their immense distance. Historically, the most prominent stars were grouped into constellations and asterisms, and the brightest stars gained proper names. Extensive catalogues of stars have been assembled by astronomers, which provide standardized star designations.

For at least a portion of its life, a star shines due to thermonuclear fusion of hydrogen into helium in its core, releasing energy that traverses the star's interior and then radiates into outer space.

Once the hydrogen in the core of a star is nearly exhausted, almost all naturally occurring elements heavier than helium are created by stellar nucleosynthesis during the star's lifetime and, for some stars, by supernova nucleosynthesis when it explodes.” 

-- and it gets more complicated from that point on – as if that were not complicated enough.

Then I searched for an answer to my next question:“how many stars are there?,” and this answer came from the Sky and Telescope Magazine’s website.

“We must limit the discussion to what we can observe. Astronomers estimate that the observable universe has more than 100 billion galaxies. Our own Milky Way (that is, one of those 100 billion galaxies) is home to around 300 billion stars, but it's not representative of galaxies in general.

And of course, the stars we see in the night sky are the way those stars were in the past – often in the distant past.

The Hubble telescope site tells us that: “Across our Milky Way galaxy, distances are measured in terms of how many years it takes light to travel. The nearest star is over four light-years away. So when we look at that nearest star, we see it not as it is today, but as it was four years ago. We are seeing the light that left that star four years previously and is just reaching us now.

The diameter of the Milky Way is 100 thousand light-years. So when we look at even more distant stars, we see them as they were thousands to tens of thousands of years ago, depending on how far away they are and thus the distance their light has had to travel.”

So many stars.

There is a new park north of Petoskey, Michigan, that has been established as one of only ten “dark sky parks” in the world – places where there is sufficient darkness to see the stars in the Milky Way in the most remarkably clear view. It definitely looks like it’s worth the trip, and spending the night outside, laying on your back for the best view.

The star that led the magi to the baby Jesus was just one of those stars. And they, too, saw it as it was many years ago, with the light just reaching them when they needed to be guided by it.

That Star, and all the other stars before and since, came into being through The Word, as John’s gospel reminds us. The Word was there in the beginning. The Word was with God, and the Word was God, in the beginning. All things came into being through him. Without him not one thing came into being.

Not. One. Thing. Without him.

So The Star that led the Magi to Jesus? It came into being through him.

The substances that the stable was made from, the wood used for the manger, it all came into being through him. The hay for the manger in which Jesus lay came into being through him.  All things.

John calls Jesus The Word. That from the beginning, he was The Word that called all things into being. So, when God said – God SAID -  Let there be light – the speaking of God, the Word of God – that was Jesus? What a concept, huh?

And the Word – that which brought all things into being – became flesh and lived among us, full of grace and truth.

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But we are really inundated by so many words these days, aren’t we?

Much of the time we can’t avoid them; it’s not our choice.

I watched the Rose Parade on New Years Day, Thursday, and was more than a little annoyed when there were these continual postings of twitter messages across the TV screen from “your average viewer”, so that you could not even see everything on the floats. I’m a twitter user, but I still couldn’t see the point of it. Apparently the TV coverage people must have felt compelled to show that they were up with the latest social media, but all it did was add words to what was a nice picture to look at in the first place.

And then during the bowl games! At one point there were so many additional scores and “alerts / breaking news” items scrolling across the bottom of the screen, that it became hard to see what was happening in the game.

And the commercials! I don’t know about you, but I am especially thankful for the mute button on my remote when the commercials come on.

But even the things we choose to read or hear can quickly become overwhelming.

I have been pulled in more often than I’d like to admit when a new book goes on sale, especially when it’s an electronic version. All I have to do is go “click” and it gets added to my collection of electronic books. And so many of those books are still sitting there in my electronic bookshelf, just waiting for me to read them.

Then there are the Google searches that offer you pages and pages of links to your subject of interest. It might take less than a minute to type your question, but the choice of responses can keep you going for many many minutes. Quite the diversion.

And then the news articles that link to other related articles of interest. And the video clips. And the radio stations, and Syrius radio, and Pandora, and Spotify, all with so many song selections and themes and genres you can choose from.

So many words.

And then there is the whole category of words related to our faith.

There is the Bible, of course. There are 66 books in the Bible, so it’s really more of a library than one book. And the Bible comes in many translations, which when studied together can actually help us to understand the original text better. And there are study versions with lots of helpful notes on the bottom of each page.

And the commentaries on scripture abound! There is a 12-volume set called the New Interpreters’ Bible that you will find on practically any preacher’s bookshelf. And there are many other collections – mostly organized by book of the Bible, but some are set up by scripture reading across the three years of the lectionary.

And then there are all the primary text writings of all the theologians who have spent their lives studying God and writing about their studies, from the early days of Christianity all the way through to the present time. All these writings are rich with questions and answers that then provoke more questions, about who God is, and who we are, and our relationship with God.

Then there are the creeds and confessions – each one an outgrowth of the writings and conversations and questions and challenges of their time. Each one offering a timeless message for us about what we believe and why.

And then there are devotionals, and studies, and books, and articles, and papers, and letters, and journals, and prayers, and liturgy, and more and more and more.

So many words.

All written by people who love the Lord Jesus Christ and who seek to serve him by helping others understand who God is and who we are.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I love words. Words are the foundation of my vocation these days, as a Teaching Elder in the Presbyterian Church in the USA. And even THAT is a mouthful of words!

My days are spent in reading, and writing, and listening, and talking, and thinking, and praying. Words are my medium for all of that.

And really, it is no different for any of us – the way we communicate, learn, ponder, connect, express our feelings, is through the use of words.

But. The way we put words together makes a significant difference in the message that we deliver, or that we hear or take in.

There’s a book by Roald Dahl called “The BFG” which stands for Big Friendly Giant. It’s one of my family’s favorites. The BFG speaks in words that are a fabulous blend of nonsense and common words rearranged in an unusual way. His language is called “gobblefunk”.

And as he explains it to his new friend, a little girl named Sophie, he says, “Words is oh such a twitch-ticking problem to me all my life.”

And I say Amen to that.

The way we say things can sway people in many different directions.

The Monday morning Honey-Doers group and I have been studying a book by Rev. Adam Hamilton called “Making Sense of the Bible”.

Rev. Hamilton offers two consistent themes throughout the book – first, that the Bible was written by fallible human beings who were inspired by God, and second, that human language is insufficient to express the glory and wonder and power and love of God. God is beyond any human expression. If we could contain God in words, then God would be limited, and God is not limited. God is infinite.

But – and he says this over and over and over again – Jesus Christ is the one and only unmitigated Word of God.

Let me say that again.

Jesus Christ is the one and only unmitigated Word of God.

Now, if you’re anything like me, you are wishing right now for a definition of “unmitigated”. It’s ok, I needed to look it up myself, just to be sure I fully understood what it was telling me. Unmitigated means “absolute” or “unqualified”. Jesus Christ is the one and only absolute, unqualified Word of God.

The Bible is the best written resource we have, but it is not as good as Jesus Christ himself.

The Bible is the best written resource we have, but it must be read with a mind and heart that is open to the work of the Holy Spirit, or else it is not the living Word of God.

Everything comes from Jesus Christ, the Word.

Without him not one thing came into being.

So all the stars in the sky.

All the possessions we think we own and we earned outright.

All the trees that make all the buildings and the mangers and the books with all the words.

All people. All creation.

All things manufactured from the creation.

All came into being from and through and because of The Word.

And, in order for us to truly know God, to truly know God’s love, to truly experience and accept God’s redeeming love…

The Word became flesh and lived among us.

The Word that was there from the beginning, that created everything.

That Word became flesh, was born as a baby, was discovered by the wise men through a star of his creation.

I don’t know if you remember that last year at Epiphany you were given a star with a word on it, to be your “word-gift” for 2014.

Perhaps you lost track of it, or perhaps you recognized its meaning through various experiences or meditations or prayers about it through the year.

My word for 2014 was “discovery”.

And just as the Magi discovered the star, and through the star discovered the baby, the King of Kings, the Prince of Peace, so I have discovered this past year that Jesus Christ is in all things, in all experiences, in all the everyday moments and all the really special ones too. And that the more I open myself up to realize this, the more I am able to discover Christ in all things, in all people.

I have these Star Word gifts for you again this year. 

Each word describes a gift that we are given by the grace and truth of Jesus Christ. They will be given to you as you head back to your seats after coming forward for communion. I encourage you to let these words lead you to new experiences and reflections on how Christ is with you, how the Holy Spirit is guiding you, and how very much God loves you.

One more thing.

The star was not the light that came into the world.

John the Baptist was not the light that came into the world.

They only pointed to the light.

And that is what all the words that try to describe aspects of God for us are doing; they are pointing to The Word, The True Light, The Messiah. That is what the Bible is doing too – pointing to the Messiah. And that is what we are called to do as disciples – to point the way to Jesus. And then God will do the rest through us.