These recent years some Christian scientist have gotten to work trying to explain the star that led the Wiseman to Bethlehem.   They came up with a complicated and no doubt plausible astronomical theory about how a certain brilliant star might have appeared about the time of the birth of Jesus.  Astronomers tell us it is possible that the star that led the visitors to Bethlehem was a super nova, or a rare conjunction of planets, possibly even Halley’s Comet.  Whenever the phenomenon occurred the thought of travelers from the East following a star to pay tribute to a great ruler would not have struck the early hearers of the Gospel as preposterous.  There were accounts of similar events circulating the culture of the Middle East at that time.

Matthew’s wondering star is not really though about astronomy.  It’s religious shorthand for describing how the heavens preside over and guide the events of the world.  The image of a star is used in similar ways in the Books of Deuteronomy, Numbers, the Prophet Isaiah and the Psalms.  This entire feast is all about symbols and not science.  Recorded as early as the third Century, it is celebrated 12 days after Christmas, the number itself echoing what the 12 tribes of Israel longed to see.

The Wise men’s star is on a par with the other images the Gospel of Matthew uses.  At the center of each of the first three chapters of his Gospel, there is an extraordinary event.  In Chapter One Joseph hears the message of an angel in a dream.  In Chapter Two the Wise men find Jesus by following a star.  And by Chapter Three the heaven’s open and God speaks at the Baptism of the Lord.  By any standard it’s quite an opening to a biography!  It’s all about the manifestation, or Epiphany, of God’s glory in the world.

But let’s look carefully at where and for whom this glory is revealed.  The first instance is to Joseph while he is in bed asleep.  The second is to Gentile Astrologers who, by reporting their news to Herod, set up an immediate threat to Jesus.  The third instance is to all those Jews who were coming to hear John the Baptist.  Within three chapters of Matthew’s Gospel, the circles of God’s glory revealed in Jesus become more public and change lives.  The lives of Joseph, the stargazers, John the Baptist, and those who heard Jesus preach will never be the same again.

The Feast of the Epiphany is not an ancient version of Halley’s Comet.  No, it is rather about how God’s glory changes human hearts. And we believe that God’s glory was not revealed to the power and might of armies, princes and priests.  It came to us from Mary, a Galilean teenager who said yes to God, through Joseph her husband who refused to see her publicly disgraced, and uniquely in a baby, who changed our world forever.

These days we talk a lot about stars.  Hollywood stars, sports stars, and even those who are stars in our family.  At their best they can be role models giving their all in such extraordinary ways, that our ordinary lives are transformed, at least for awhile.  Jesus is not stalked by a star in Bethlehem.  He is our star.  He is the role model once and for all, who shows us that in the Father’s eyes we are all stars, and can bask in His reflective glory. 

And so today we need to ask our self what is the significance of the feast for us.  The story of the magi potentially has a greater significance.  Why?  Because we are the Christian descendents of Matthew who still receive visitors from the East.  These visitors come not as kings or magi, but rather as Hindus and Muslims and Buddhists.  Sometimes they come in a hostile manner.  But they often come attracted to our way of life with its freedoms and material comforts. 

The question however we ask ourselves on this weekend of the Feast of Epiphany is:  Do the visitors from the East still seek Christ, the Son of God, in the one place He must be found today?  That is, namely, in the hearts of His 21^st Century followers.  Do they recognize Christ in us?  Do the modern day magi, the contemporary kings of the Orient, still find Christ, not in a stable in Bethlehem, but in each of us?

We all profess to be Christians.  This means we hold ourselves out as being close imitators of the Son of God Himself.  And if visitors from the East do not see Christ in us then we have to ask: “Where have we gone wrong?  And if visitors from the East did not find Christ in us, where will they find Him?  Will they realize the richness of Christ by their encounter with us?  Or will they simply return to their country by yet another way?”

So we pray today that our feast continues to change our hearts that we might be born anew to God’s glory which shines through us to others. 

Amen.  Amen.