“Starlight” Colchester Federated Church, January 7, 2024, Epiphany Sunday (Matthew 2:1-12)

 “Look, the star they had seen in the east went ahead of them until it stood over the place where the child was.  When they saw the star, they were filled with joy . . . Because they were warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they went back to their own country by another route.”[1] 

On Epiphany Sunday, we journey with the magi following the light of a star to find Jesus the Christ Child in Bethlehem.  It’s a wonderful Gospel story with some unexpected twists and turns along the way.  In the Christian tradition, we sometimes refer to the magi as “kings.”  Our Closing Hymn is “We Three Kings of Orient Are” after all.  There is a reason why we may imagine these folks as royalty with robes and crowns and the whole look.  Though it was nice that our Christmas Pageant here at CFC featured the “Wise Women” this year.  The thing is, it’s common to picture the magi, the wise ones, these folks we encounter in Matthew’s second chapter—as royalty.

Though this popular retelling may misinterpret who these adventurers truly were.  Knowing who the magi may have been makes their story even more remarkable.  Professor Elisabeth Johnson relates that the magi were most likely astrologers, maybe even Zoroastrian priests who came to Bethlehem from Persia (modern-day Iran).  We know for certain that they were Gentiles, and they didn’t seem to know much about the Jewish Scriptures.  Johnson writes, “But they do know how to read the stars. God reaches out to them and leads them through what they already know. In the ancient world, stars and other signs in the heavens were thought to signal important events. In this case, a bright star rising leads them to discern that a royal birth has occurred in Judea. So they come bringing gifts fit for royalty – gold and frankincense and myrrh.”[2]  The word “magi” means those who interpreted dreams, astrologers, fortune-tellers, or anyone who possessed secret knowledge.  These were probably not royal people showing up with an entourage.  The CEB Study Bible explains that these particular magi are “portrayed as astrologers who can read signs in the stars and planets that point to the birth of a king.”[3]

Okay so these astrologers from Iran come to Jerusalem.  It’s not as catchy as “we three kings of Orient are” but it’s probably more accurate.  The magi first chat with King Herod.  The magi ask where the newborn king of the Jews happens to be because they have seen his star in the east and they’ve traveled a long way to come to honor him.  Herod consults with the chief priests and the legal experts.  Everyone is troubled about this news.  Herod secretly calls for the magi to share more information, specifically more information about when the star first appeared.  Herod sends the magi to Bethlehem with the instructions, “Go and search carefully for the child.  When you’ve found him, report to me so that I too may go and honor him.”[4] 

The magi are guided by faith and trust and starlight, finding Jesus with his mother Mary in Bethlehem.  They fall on their knees and honor Jesus, giving gold, frankincense, and myrrh.  Though they do not return to Herod as instructed, doing their best to protect the child.  Because the magi had been warned in a dream not to return to Herod and go back to their own country.  Meanwhile, the holy family flees to Egypt after the magi depart.  Because Joseph experiences an angel appearing to him in a dream.  The angel says, “Get up.  Take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt.  Stay there until I tell you, for Herod will soon search for the child in order to kill him.”[5]  Our lectionary text ends at Matthew chapter 2 verse 12.  However, the next verse begins the story of Joseph, Mary, and Jesus escaping to Egypt and Herod’s horrific actions in Bethlehem that are to come.

This story is full of twists and turns, of people who followed God and trusted their own intuition in complex and even dangerous situations.  It’s the kind of story that can make us consider how God shows up in our lives.  It’s a story of starlight and angels and dreams guiding peoples’ actions.  At its heart (and a message that we can take with us) is the invitation to discernment.  The invitation to listen to where God would lead.

Discernment.  That sometimes feels like an overly “churchy” word.  Discernment means the ability to judge well, especially when things are not always obvious or straightforward.  Discernment is a kind of knowing.  Some might call it a gut-instinct.  There’s a book we read in seminary called Grounded in God: Listening Hearts Discernment for Group Deliberations.  It’s a small and powerful book that helps congregations practice spiritual discernment while making group decisions and tending to the ins and outs of running a church.  Do we have to run churches like a business or even follow Robert’s Rules of Order to make important congregational decisions?  Are there other ways that we gather the community together to discern where God would have us go, focusing instead on building consensus?  Grounded in God defines spiritual discernment as “a prayerful, informed, and intentional effort to distinguish God’s voice from other voices that influence us.”[6]  There are so many voices in our lives.  Some of those voices are helpful and some just aren’t.  I am admittedly suspicious of the whole “influencer” movement in our culture.  Mostly it matters that people do our best to practice what we preach.

The reality is that there are voices that influence us, and we are called to distinguish God’s voice from those other voices.  We do this to discern where God may be leading.  There are practical ways to be intentional in our discernment (as shared in Grounded in God and summarized by me).  We can do our best to be settled in God’s presence when contemplating a decision.  If we’re in a group setting maybe we don’t interrupt when someone else is speaking.  Or pause between speakers to absorb what the person just said.  Practice the pause.  We are also invited to not formulate what you want to say while someone else is speaking.  Good Lord, are we bad about this sometimes as we contemplate our witty response instead of focusing on the person speaking and what they are actually saying to us right now.  And we can speak only for ourselves, and not begin with, “Well, some people are saying . . .”  Nope!  That is not healthy.  Perhaps the hardest guidance of all is to hold our own desires and opinions lightly.[7]  No need to get all defensive.  I love the description of holding our desires and opinions lightly in Grounded in God, as the authors relate, “We need not discard our convictions.  But it behooves us to hold them lightly as if they were resting on our open hands.  In this way, we invite God to take them from us to refine them, strengthen them, or perhaps replace them.”[8]

The truth is that there are ways we can improve how we speak and how we listen.  Not a bad idea to keep in mind as we begin a New Year.  Would doing so even help us to better hear the voice of God?  In the end, the magi followed the light of a star to find the Christ Child.  The magi did not return to tell Herod where Jesus and his parents were because they had been warned in a dream not to do so.  Isn’t it amazing to see how these astrologers from Iran were guided by the Spirit and discerned where their paths should go?  Joseph is warned by an angel in a dream to take Jesus and Mary to Egypt to quite literally save their lives.  Maybe God showing up for us will be that dramatic or maybe not.  Though we can listen for God’s voice amid all those other voices that may influence us.  God’s voice calling us to trust and to have faith, to follow the starlight that eventually leads us home.  Thanks be to God.  Amen.

[1] Matthew 2:9-10 and 12, CEB.
[2] Elisabeth Johnson, Commentary on Matthew 2:1-12, Working Preacher, January 6, 2022, https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/epiphany-of-our-lord/commentary-on-matthew-21-12-11
[3] Footnote on Matthew 2: 1 in The CEB Study Bible with Apocrypha, pgs. 6-7 NT.
[4] Matthew 2:8, CEB.
[5] Matthew 2:13, CEB.
[6] Suzanne G. Farnham, Stephanie A. Hull, R. Taylor McLean, Grounded in God: Listening Hearts Discernment for Group Deliberations, Revised Edition, pg. 1.
[7] Farnham, Hull, and McLean, Grounded in God, pg. 57.
[8] Farnham, Hull, and McLean, Grounded in God, pg. 61.

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