“star signs” – an
epiphany sermon
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Reading: |
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“We have seen his star
in the East” (Mt 2:2)
We’ve just heard the very
familiar reading from Matthew 2 –
so just to check you were listening -
How many Kings were there? What were their names?
It is of course a trick question –
Matthew doesn’t mention Kings, he only mentions Magi or Wise Men,
and he doesn’t specify the number, let alone their names.
Gradually, over time, the legends surrounding the Bethlehem story
fleshed out to the story until it became the one we now know so well
from a thousand Nativity plays and a million Christmas cards.
How did Matthew picture these oriental
visitors?
He calls them wise men, and they read the stars –
almost certainly Matthew has in mind astrologers, probably from Persia
Interestingly, when the
Persian armies conquered the Holy Land
in the 7th Century, they destroyed all the Christian Churches except
one –
that at Bethlehem – for there they found Mosaics
showing the wise men in Persian dress,
and recognizing their fellow countrymen,
they left the building undisturbed.
What was Matthew’s view on astrology?
You have to remember the world in which he lived and wrote.
This was largely a pre-scientific age with many more questions
than answers about the world and the way it worked.
In this world, many astrologers would be well respected professional men,
seeking truth about the world by studying correlations
with the movements of the stars and planets in the night sky.
Some commentators have tried to paint the wise men
as wicked or deluded charlatans or trickster-magicians –
but most modern scholars accept that for Matthew and his readers
they represent not a sinister attack on Christ,
but rather they stand for the depth of human thought
and learning as the pagan world then understood it,
finding undreamt of answers to their deepest questioning.
The story of the Wise Men is not about a collusion
between the treachery of Herod and heathen soothsayers
to attack the Christchild –
it is about learned men from the east seeking truth,
and turning away from Herod to find it in Christ.
We of course still have astrologers today –
rather different from the Persian travellers of old,
but look towards the back of loads of tabloid newspapers
or weekly magazines and you’ll find your stars –
and at this time of year you may even find an extra feature
outlining your prospects for 2008 –
I won’t embarrass anyone by asking if you read these –
but I suspect there are few of us who have not at some time or another
cast an eye down the list to see whether
a tall dark stranger or a sudden windfall
might not be coming our way….
And we might ask:
If God led astrologers to Jesus,
does that amount to a Biblical endorsement
of astrology?
The
Archbishop of Canterbury was interviewed by Simon Mayo
on Radio One on Boxing Day –
and one of the questions he was asked was precisely that –
does the story of the Wise Men support the practice of astrology?
Rowan Williams kicked that question fairly firmly into touch
and in fact described astrology as bunk –
The wise
men may have been searching for the truth
in the predestined patterns of planetary and stellar conjugations –
but they were actually led to find the answer somewhere quite different –
in the child of Bethlehem.
Like the wise men of old, it is good to ask questions
-
And the start of a new year is a good time to step back
from the trivia and bustle of everyday life
and ask some big questions:
·
What is important
in my life?
·
What should I
fear or avoid?
·
What does my
future hold?
·
What will bring
me real peace and joy?
All questions which the astrology column in your local
paper
will encourage us to ask.
But as to the wise men of old,
God says
“If you want answers to all these questions,
its no good studying your astrological charts –
whether it is in your Persian observatory
or over coffee and the morning paper.
To answer the big questions
about our world and our future,
you need to follow the star
that leads you into a new way of understanding,
to worship the Christ
and open yourselves to the true light and wisdom of God.
Today on the first Sunday of a
new year,
we think of what God may be calling to in the coming 12 months.
At this time we need to ask God
to show us the star
and lead us again to the one who can
answer our deepest questions in a way beyond all earthly wisdom
and show us the way not only through this life
but also to the world beyond.
It is a dark world we live in
a world where even today Christians
in Kenya
can find their Church torched and their lives taken.
Sometimes things can seem
hopeless -
the flames of hatred and violence can flare up
in our lives and communities so that the flames blot out the stars.
But when the flames are gone, the stars remain.
There is
an old legend which says that when
the star had shown the wise men the way to Bethlehem,
it fell from the sky into the bottom of a deep well.
And – so the legend goes –
the star can still be glimpsed in the depths to this day.
A
fanciful story – and yet of course,
it can indeed be that when we are at our lowest and there seems no hope,
that we catch a glimpse of the glory of God
And remember, it is when the
night is darkest
that the stars shine most brightly.
And if our world is one of
darkness and sorrow,
remember – that is just the world into which Christ came
and for which his star shines.
So as we come to share our covenant service
(So as we begin a new year together)
like the Magi of old, I hope and pray that
·
We may open our
lives to God’s direction
·
We may see
clearly the duplicity and shallowness of Herod
and the powers that be and all who would lead us astray
·
We may see
clearly the road to Christ
·
We may find in
the child of Bethlehem
the answer to our deepest questions and needs
and eternal light for our journey on.
Order of Service
Holy Communion led by Andrew Sails
Hymn 461 “O Splendour of God’s glory bright”
Prayers (Methodist Worship Book p.129)
Responsive Reading: HAP 857 (Psalm 72)
Gospel Reading: Matthew 2:1-12
Hymn 122 “Bethlehem of noblest cities”
Sermon “Star Signs”
Hymn 121 “As with gladness”
Prayers and Lord’s Prayer (MWB p.132)
Peace (MWB p.135)
Offertory
Hymn 128 “Wise men seeking Jesus”
Holy Communion (MWB p.137)
Hymn 646 “Sun of my soul”
Blessing