¹In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, ²asking, “Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we observed his star at its rising, and have come to pay him homage.” ³When King Herod heard this, he was frightened, and all Jerusalem with him; ⁴and calling together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born. ⁵They told him, “In Bethlehem of Judea; for so it has been written by the prophet: ⁶‘And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who is to shepherd my people Israel.’” ⁷Then Herod secretly called for the wise men and learned from them the exact time when the star had appeared. ⁸Then he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, “Go and search diligently for the child; and when you have found him, bring me word so that I may also go and pay him homage.”

⁹When they had heard the king, they set out; and there, ahead of them, went the star that they had seen at its rising, until it stopped over the place where the child was. ¹⁰When they saw that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy. ¹¹On entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother; and they knelt down and paid him homage. Then, opening their treasure chests, they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

Have you ever wondered how some of our Christmas traditions began?  I have.  Two of the most amazing traditions are the Christmas tree and Christmas presents.  These are huge economic industries.  Real Christmas trees sales have been steady for the past 20 years in the 30 million tree range.  The National Christmas Tree Association assures us that we are doing fine since 350 million are being grown for that purpose.  Probably the most famous of these trees is in Rockefeller Center in New York.  It is about 80 feet tall and has a huge 550 pound, nine and a half feet in diameter Swarovski star on the top of it.  That is about 18 inches wider than the McCollum star that Will McCollum created for our tree this year.  You can see it in front of the church.  There are a lot of theories, stories, and myths about the tradition of the Christmas Tree, but there is no doubt where the idea of the star was born.  We just heard that story.   Christmas presents account for about 450 billion dollars of commerce in this country.  How did it go from this beautiful beginning born in Bethlehem to an economic machine made in Manhattan?  I am not so sure, but I am sure where the idea began.  We just heard the story.

You will see a lot of stars and presents in the next few weeks.  Wouldn’t it be great if these served as reminder bells of the wonder of Christmas instead of stress alarms about the nearness of Christmas?  They can, if we stick with this story.  Here we can find everything we ever needed.
 

The Star Still provides Direction

This is an amazing part of the story.  Magi, wise men, come from the east asking around town, where the King of the Jews was born.  They saw some celestial phenomenon so impressive that they followed it all the way to Jerusalem.  We make a sharp distinction between astronomy (the science of studying stars) and astrology (considered by many to be a pseudoscience that looks for messages in the stars and their alignment).  The first century world knew no such distinction.  Magi were stargazers.  We get our English words magic and magician from the word.  Rick Larson, a lawyer and law professor, has spent many years and lots of money researching the phenomenon that he believes occurred on December 25^th 2011 years ago.  He will present his conclusions once again at Rudder Auditorium two weeks from tonight.  It is worth the time to listen to him.  The amazing thing to me about this story in the Bible is that God met the Magi where they were and spoke to them in their language.  Alexander the Great, Caesar Augustus, and Nero the Emperor all claimed some kind of stellar attestation to their ascension to power.  The Magi knew the stars and they knew that something was significantly different about them, so they left their land and followed the star, which by the way, lead them directly to the house where the child was. 

Wouldn’t that be great?!  If we just started following the star and it led it to the exact place where we need to be.  I talk with a lot of students in the sanctuary, the welcome center, the coffee shop, and on campus.  Do you know the number one question asked of students by non-students?  “What will you do after college?”  Is there any question that provokes more anxiety of the heart and soul than this one?  We have a son who is a freshman at Texas State University, with an undeclared major.  He doesn’t know.  Our daughter is a first year Clinical Psychology graduate student in Houston.  What is she going to do with that degree?  She is not sure – researcher, teacher, counselor.  Now that the nest is empty, my wife and I are thinking about retirement in the next 15 years.  Where will we do that?  What kind of shape will Social Security be in?

Direction would be a great gift to get this Christmas.  How wonderful it would be to know where we are going.  Maybe though it’s not entirely a matter of destination.  Maybe it’s all about direction.  That’s what most of this story is about.  It is about the journey and how the magi followed the star.  The star still directs us and if we follow it we will find everything we ever needed.
 

The Star Still produces overjoy

I am not sure that overjoy is a word, but it should be, because it is the only thing that comes close to what verse 10 describes.  Our translation reads, “they were overwhelmed with joy,” but the Greek text of this passage uses a verb, a noun, an adjective, and an adverb to describe the response of the magi when they saw the star stop over the house where the child was.  The literal translation of this phrase is, “they rejoiced extremely with great joy”.  Matthew pulled out all the stops, using every possible modifier to describe the joy that the Magi felt.  They were overjoyful.

Overjoy is to joy what belly laughter is to laughter.  You know the difference between a smile and a chuckle and a roll on the floor laughing until you cry.  This is why I love live nativity scenes.  Anything can happen when you put a bunch of teenagers together with live animals.  Our daughter assured me that she was going to attend the Live Nativity at First United Methodist Church in Pasadena this year.  She wants to return to the scene of one of the best Live Nativity presentations ever.  She was in her junior year of high school and was playing the role of Mary.  Joseph was played by Doug, her boyfriend at the time.  Doesn’t it always seem to work out that way?  They were making their way from Nazareth to Bethlehem, or as we saw it the north end of the lawn to the south end.  All of a sudden the donkey got the stories confused.  Instead of being the donkey shaggy and brown who carried Mary to Bethlehem town, he thought he was Balaam’s donkey described in the book of Numbers that refused to go another inch along the path.  Doug pulled the donkey, but the more that he pulled the more stubborn the donkey became.  Doug was an offensive lineman for his high school football team and he was not going to be shown up by a donkey.  He pulled so hard and the donkey resisted so much that there may still be ruts in the grass made by the immovable hoofs of the donkey and the brute strength of a buff Joseph.  Finally, the owner of the donkey stepped into the outdoor scene and convinced the donkey to get his self to Bethlehem.  The donkey once moved refused to stop pulling the same young man that had tried to pull him.  They would have gone all the way to Egypt if the set and the speakers had not slowed them down.  The usually reverent crowd was out of control with laughter.  Many tears were shed that night, but I am afraid they were not tears of serenity.  They were tears of belly laughter.  Lest you think that this was not a holy moment, I was reminded by the young man who played Joseph, that it was a very spiritual experience for him. As the donkey raced past the makeshift stable he looked directly into the manger and prayed, “Dear Jesus, help me! Let those who brought these animals take this animal.”

I love this kind of laughter.  I love this kind of overjoy.  When I feel it, I am aware of nothing else.  I am not stressed about the next assignment.  I am not obsessing about fractured relationships.  I am only here and feeling only this.  It is a great gift. The star still produces overjoy.  If we follow it we will find everything we ever needed.
 

The Star Still provokes giving

There is something satisfying about giving.  It does something in us that receiving can never really do.  When the Magi finally saw Jesus, they knew that this was the time to give.  They knelt down, opened treasure chests and gave extravagant gifts.  All the evidence indicates that Mary and Joseph were poor people.  Some commentators believe that these gifts sustained the young family in their flight to Egypt from the angry Herod.  Some will discuss the symbolism of these gifts for the king, priest, and savior of the people.  I am not sure about all of that, but I think the reason that Christmas presents are so popular is not because of our insatiable list of wants.  It is because of our divinely implanted desire to give.

One of our traditions is to read stories every night of Advent.  One year we read the book, Christmas in Harmony, by Philip Gulley.  It is a great story of Sam Gardner, a Quaker pastor in the fictional town of Harmony, Indiana.  There is scene in the book where Sam was tucking his son into bed.  At that moment he remembered a time twenty years earlier when he found his father out in his grandfather’s garage.  Charlie Gardner was cleaning out the garage after his father had died.  Sam heard a sound that he had never heard before.  It was the sound of his father crying.  Awkwardly, Sam, a college student at the time, placed his hand on his dad’s shoulder.  Without turning his father said, “All these years, all I wanted was for him to tell me he loved me, that he was proud of me and he never did.  And now he never can.  It was the only thing I ever wanted.”

Then Sam’s dad turned toward him and said, “I don’t want you to ever feel this way.  I want you to know I love you, son.  I’m proud of you, awful proud of you.  Have been since the day you were born.” 

Sam Gardner reflected on those words as he tucked his son into bed, “It was the best Christmas present he ever gave me, those words.”  Then he looked at his boy and said, “I love you, son.  I’m proud of you, awful proud of you.  Have been since the day you were born.”

I did not get through that story that night with dry eyes.  I turned toward my son and echoed those words, “I love you, son.  I’m proud of you, awful proud of you.  Have been since the day you were born.”  Since that night there have been so many times when he has whispered to me, “I love you, dad.  I’m proud of you, awful proud of you.”  It feels as good to hear as a parent as it does as a child.  I hope it is a gift that you can give to your parents and a gift that they will give to you.  The star still provokes giving.  If we follow it we will find everything we ever needed.

The thing that I have a problem with about the Swarovski Star on the Rockefeller tree or the Star of Bethlehem in Professor Larson’s presentation is that they are confined to a place and a time.  The Star that I encounter in this story is still leading.  I see it every time laughter breaks out, every time someone is prompted to purchase a Net and save lives from malaria.  I see it every time someone decides to worship Jesus.  The star is still leading and if we follow it we will find everything we ever needed.

·         Giving

·         Overjoy

·         Direction

If an acronym will help you, then remember that the first letters of these gifts spell GOD.  God with us is always where the star will lead us.  Amen.