When You Wish Upon A Star?

Text:  Matthew 2:1-12

Theme:  "When You Wish Upon A Star?"

The Epiphany of Our Lord

January 6, 2013

First Presbyterian Church

Denton, Texas

Rev. Paul R. Dunklau

 

+In the Name of Jesus+

After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi^[a] from the east came to Jerusalem ² and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.”

³ When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. ⁴ When he had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Messiah was to be born. ⁵ “In Bethlehem in Judea,” they replied, “for this is what the prophet has written:

⁶ “‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;
for out of you will come a ruler
who will shepherd my people Israel.’^[b]”

⁷ Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. ⁸ He sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and search carefully for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him.”

⁹ After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen when it rose went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. ¹⁰ When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. ¹¹ On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. ¹² And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.

In early December, the folks at The Downtown Athletic Club in New York City give out an award called the Heisman Trophy.  Based on a pattern of voting, it is presented to the best college football player in the country.  Already known to the many Texas A&M fans we have among us, the Heisman went -- in December, 2012 -- to Johnny Manziel, who is also known as "Johnny Football".  He is only a freshman, and he certainly has made a believer out of me. 

I saw some pictures from his childhood watching the Cotton Bowl the other night which pitted Texas A&M and Oklahoma.  Long before he achieved national prominence, he was the image -- the epiphany, if you will --  of the all-American kid brimming with hopes and dreams for the future.  More than that, it appeared that he was gifted with the guidance and the commitment to do his part and see if those hopes and dreams would come true.  Well, to a certain degree, they have.

Perhaps when he was a youngster he heard that song with a melody probably as familiar to all of us as are the words, and they read as follows:

When you wish upon a star
Makes no difference who you are
Anything your heart desires
Will come to you

Have you ever walked out on a cold, clear winter's night to see if you could spot the brightest star?  And if you spotted it, did you make a wish? 

I don't want to take anything away from the lovely sentiment of wishing on a star, but I'll risk it anyway:  if all we did was gaze at stars and make wishes, we'd end up with a crooked neck.  We all have hopes and dreams for the new year and for the future.  We want to spend more time doing this (fill in the blank) and spend a lot less time doing that (fill in the blank).  We have every intention for good things to materialize.  We have high hopes!   "Everyone knows that ant can't move that rubber tree plant, but he's got high hopes, right?   We even make resolutions.  Then, later in the year as it often happens, we look back and take stock of how things are going.  The result?  Often we are disappointed.  It's almost as if, with all of this blathering on about new year's resolutions, that we set ourselves up for failure.  We threw our hopes and dreams into a box called "wishful thinking".  We then take a roll of duct tape and secure  it only to set it aside like so many Christmas decorations at the end of the holiday season.  Thus, we go on -- as we did in 2012 and now in 2013 --  doing the same things we've always done while expecting a different result.  Some call that insanity.

Today's Gospel for the Epiphany of Our Lord tells the story of the visit of the wise men to the infant Jesus.  Actually, to be more biblical, they were called magoi, or, transliterated, "magi". 

There is a lot of mystery surrounding the magi; it revolves around how many there were, where they came from, and so on.  But on this there is no doubt:  they didn't wish upon the star, they followed it.  They took deliberate steps -- based on their beliefs, based on what they had learned.  To wit, they made a decision. They saw that star in the east.  They did their calculations.  Sure, there may have been doubts. Sure, they may have been skeptical.  But based on what they believed and based on what they knew, they had enough information to take action.  They were not content to leave it all in a box called wishful thinking.  You might say that they applied for their passports, packed their bags, and hit the road.  As the carol "The First Noel" puts it:  "To seek for a King was their intent, and to follow the star wherever it went."

Their first stop was Jerusalem, the capital city of the Jewish nation.  The visual we get is actually not of three solitary figures riding donkeys and/or camels.  Actually, it looks as though it may have been an entire diplomatic delegation.  They did, indeed, come from the east -- likely Persia or Mesopotamia.  That's what we could call the "Middle East" today. Contrary to the Christmas carol, they were not kings and they were not from the Orient  -- which is the "Far East".  There is historical evidence of a caste, or grouping, of sages.  They were what we today might call "highly educated" people -- tenured professors with Ph.D's, if you will.  In addition, they were deep thinkers and philosophers who dabbled in all kinds of things:  medicine, religion, astronomy, astrology, divination, and even magic.  Historian Paul L. Maier has written:  "Whatever the origin of the Eastern sages, their visit was of great significance for later Christianity:  the Wise Men were pagans, not Hebrews, and the fact that Gentile magi performed the same adoration as Jewish shepherds symbolized the universal outreach for future Christianity."  The prophet Isaiah stated it as clear as crystal in our Old Testament Reading this morning:  "Nations (or Gentiles) shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn."

This is one of the great takeaways of the Epiphany story:  our Gospel and our faith is universal;  it is for everyone!  In the founding documents of our country, it is declared that we are "endowed by our creator with certain inalienable rights -- and among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." These rights were not thought to be the private domain of who were born in Boston, New York, Philadelphia,  Washington D.C., or Williamsburg. Similarly, the Gospel -- the good news of God's love for us in sending His Son -- was not limited to those who live in Shechem, Shiloh, Bethlehem, Jerusalem, Rome,  or even Denton some two thousand years later.  The grace of God is truly for everyone -- of all times and places!  Indeed, this is a great takeaway.

But there's another takeaway that's not as familiar.  But, in my view, it is  taking on increasing if not massive importance for life today.  I've already stated it, and it bears stating again:  the magi did not wish upon a star; they followed it.  They didn't wait until they had all the information.  In fact, they didn't even know where the Messiah, the infant Jesus, was to be born.  "Where," they ask, "is he who has been born King of the Jews?"  They knew he was born; they just didn't know where he was.  Their information was incomplete, but that didn't stop them from acting.  There are tons of people out there today who have incomplete information about Christianity.  Yet, contrary to the magi, they do not act.  They're left with their wishful thinking, some vestigial thought,  that there may be a god and that this god may have some good ideas on how to live and behave, but that's really about it.  They've determined that there's nothing to decide, nothing worth acting upon. Then they wonder, in their honest moments, why so much despair has gripped them, why they are so disturbed.

Meanwhile, King Herod was disturbed -- and all of Jerusalem with him, we are told. They didn't know of any royal birth. They were too busy with other things.  Herod consulted the Jewish religious establishment.  They dusted off their Old Testaments and concluded that the royal birth was to take place in Bethlehem!

That was good enough for the magi.  They bid farewell to King Herod and headed down the road to Bethlehem!  Shortly thereafter, we are told that they were "overjoyed".  Why?  Because they saw the star again.  It led.  They followed.  In the end, it was mission accomplished. They found something; they found someone infinitely more precious than an infinite number of Heisman trophies. They bowed down and worshipped the child. 

Do you see this phrase in smaller print on the front of your service folder?  It says "Growing in God's Grace."  My question to you is this:  does that statement come under the heading of wishful thinking?  If it is, then we are setting ourselves up for failure.  But if it comes under the heading of something to decide about and to act upon, then we are in league with the magi and have learned the lesson of their story. 

What needs a decision in your life?  What action needs to be taken so that you can grow in God's grace?  You don't need perfect faith or perfect knowledge.  The magi didn't.  But they had enough -- as do all of us -- to decide, to act, and to follow the grace of God wherever it leads.  Happy New Year!

Amen.