by Steve Mueller
When was the last time you really noticed the stars? I remember once when my son had a homework project to look at the night sky and find several stars and indicate the constellations to which they belonged. As I held the flashlight so he could draw the configurations, I realized how much we have lost by not being star-gazers.
As Christmas approaches, we are reminded about some important ancient star-gazers—the Magi. Their close attention to the stars led them to discover the surprising presence of God in a newborn child. Their experience and example can help us discover God’s surprising presence in our lives too. So let us examine the star that lured them on their journey and led them on their way to find the newborn king.
Star of Wonder
The word Magi, meaning “wise ones,” was an ancient Persian description of those who searched for wisdom. This wisdom search was guided by the presupposition that the divine realm, the heavens above where God dwelt, was much more perfect and powerful than our own earthly realm. The wisdom teachers recognized that in the beginning the divine creator had established the hidden order of our world. So by examining the workings of this order, they thought that they could discover the fingerprints of God’s activity and then live their lives in harmony with it.
In their world, since human power and technology could not change their lives in any really significant ways, they concluded that the heavenly powers controlled events in our world. The divine influence carried out through the planets and the stars (considered to be powerful living beings and not just chunks of inanimate matter) flowed downward from above to cause and control events on earth. Thus what first happened in the sky revealed what was happening and would soon happen on earth. The Magi’s attention to the stars and their discovery of a new star was the important clue that God was doing something new and extraordinary that would change our world order.
What does it take for us to notice the new and extraordinary breaking into our lives? Like the stars in the sky, so much is going on in our lives that we often fail to notice the underlying directions or configurations of events. And even when we do, we usually do not associate these events with God’s power at work. So we are not well attuned to the discovery of God present in our ordinary life.
To learn from the Magi, we might ask ourselves some questions. Where is your new star, the event happening in the midst of your everyday activities that lures you beyond the ordinary? Where is the bright light that draws your attention, that catches your eye, that causes you to stop for a moment and wonder? Is it something in your situation at home or at work? An accident or a diagnosis of a serious illness? Is it the face of a beloved? The antics of a child? When was the last time you were simply caught short of breath by a sunset? or music? or the beauty of the world? Events like these are similar to the star of the Magi. These are events that cause us to wonder about our self or our life. Where are we being drawn? How is the one beyond our ordinary calling us forth to venture on a journey to God’s very self.
Star of Light
Seeing the new star was an event that apparently only some careful star-gazers like the Magi noticed. But more importantly, even this new sky event was just a happening until the Magi were able to figure out its significance. Their new star, like our lives, was an event in need of interpretation. Unfortunately, so much of what happens to us everyday goes without our finding much significance for it. Like the Magi, first we need to learn to notice, to pay attention to what is going on in order to discover God’s presence with us.
Simply seeing a star is not yet a recognition of its meaning. The star is just a star until it becomes a sign for something else. So how does a star become a sign? The star becomes a sign when it is brought into juxtaposition with something else. We give it a meaning by letting the star point to something more than itself. When the star becomes a pointer to the presence of God, then it means more than it simply is. We move beyond the star itself to discover what it points to.
The Magi associated this surprising new star with the birth of a “newborn king.” The star was not simply a light in the night sky, but a light to illuminate an event that was happening in our world. They connected the newly appearing star that revealed God’s new order with a newly born child who would reorder life on earth. Finding the star was the clue for finding the newborn king. The star was not only interpreted in connection with the events of their lives, but it also allowed them to discover the meaning of events going on around them.
But even when the star became a sign for them, the identity and significance of the child were still obscure. The meaning of events could be further clarified only when the Magi sought the help of the Jewish scripture scholars to specify what remained unclear. By seeking from those who knew the meanings of scripture, the Magi were able to learn the identity of the child as the Jewish Messiah, that is, the promised figure whom God would send to deliver Israel.
The Magi thus remind us that the events of our own lives are also in need of interpretation. Although “stuff happens” as the bumper stickers proclaim, still we need to discover the meaning of the stuff. How can the events of our lives become signs pointing to God’s presence? Like the Magi, we can arrive at an initial set of meanings for our lives. But we can only gain fuller insight by searching the scriptures for the deeper meaning. The events of our lives remain only vague and unspecified until we juxtapose our personal story with the scriptural story of God present with us to save us. When we recognize that this salvation story is also our own life story in relation to God, then we have the right clues to discover God’s presence in our midst and cues for how to respond to God. We need to learn to read the scriptures if we want to learn to read our lives.
Guide for Our Journey
The Magi’s star is not just a source of wonder and illumination but it is also the guide for their journey. They follow out the implications of what they have found and let it guide them into a new perspective. A journey is a good way to discover a new meaning for ourselves. As we move outwardly toward our goal, we are changed inwardly by the trip. The Magi follow their star and finally find the child in the lowliest of surroundings.
It requires “eyes of faith” to affirm that this vulnerable child in ragged swaddling clothes is the great king whose birth will change the course of the ages. So even though they are not Jews, they are smart enough and willing enough to acknowledge his royal status, pay him homage, and pledge their lives to him. Their commitment is expressed in their gifts. Having found and identified God present in their lives, they offer gifts that stand for themselves. They offer the treasures of their realms—gold, frankincense and myrrh—as signs not only of their reverence for the greatness of the royal child but also of their willingness to give themselves. As the poet John Greenleaf Whittier says, “It is not what we give, but what we share, for the gift without the giver is bare.”
Once their gifts have been given, the Magi return to their land and their previous lives. But their discovery of the star and the journey it led them on would certainly change them, as T.S. Eliot’s imaginative poem about the Magi makes so wonderfully clear. We too will be changed by our desire to discover the divine in our midst. Like the Magi, once we have experienced God’s surprising presence in us and around us in the events of our lives, life can never be the same again. We will see the same old things, but in a brand new way. When we wonder, when we illuminate our lives by using scripture, and when we dare to follow our star to find God in our midst, we certainly will be changed forever.
Matt 2:1-13
(1)When Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, in the days of King Herod, behold, Magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem, (2)saying, “Where is the newborn king of the Jews? We saw his star at its rising and have come to do him homage.”(3)When King Herod heard this, he was greatly troubled, and all Jerusalem with him.(4)Assembling all the chief priests and the scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born. (5)They said to him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for thus it has been written through the prophet:(6)’And you, Bethlehem, land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; since from you shall come a ruler, who is to shepherd my people Israel.’“ (7)Then Herod called the Magi secretly and ascertained from them the time of the star’s appearance.(8)He sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and search diligently for the child. When you have found him, bring me word, that I too may go and do him homage.” (9)After their audience with the king they set out. And behold, the star that they had seen at its rising preceded them, until it came and stopped over the place where the child was. (10)They were overjoyed at seeing the star, (11) and on entering the house they saw the child with Mary his mother. They prostrated themselves and did him homage. Then they opened their treasures and offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. (12)And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed for their country by another way. (13) When they had departed, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Rise, take the child and his mother, flee to Egypt, and stay there until I tell you. Herod is going to search for the child to destroy him.”
Focus on Source of Hope
Hopeless! How often do we hear this as the description of our life. We feel overwhelmed at how complex our problems are. Our young people are confronted with the specter of being the first generation of Americans whose lives may not be better than that of their parents. Social problems like broken families, poverty, homelessness, graft, greed and corruption seem insoluble. We want to throw up our hands because there seems to be nothing that we can do. Where can we find some good news that will give us a source of hope?
As Christmas approaches we are invited to find some meaning for our lives by juxtaposing the scriptural story of Jesus’ birth to our own situation. Can the good news as Matthew proclaims it offer us any help for our hope? Since we are people looking for something, I suggest that the Magi, the wise persons who also were looking for something, can become models for our search.