Sermon 1-2-22
Grace and peace to you from God our creator and from our Lord and Savior Jesus the Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit, amen.
We all know this voice: “In one thousand feet, take the exit on the right. Continue for three quarters of a mile. In one hundred feet, turn left. Turn Left…..TURN LEFT. Recalculating route. Make the next legal U-turn. Recalculating route.”
Have you ever felt that life can be like following the directions on your GPS? Everything seems to be going just fine for a while – when suddenly you pass the exit you were supposed to take, or are told to take a turn that doesn’t exist. That’s how this last year - or two - may have felt: like one big recalculation, and you ended 2021 in a part of the map you weren’t expecting.
Today is the second day of the new year of 2022, but we are also celebrating the Day of Epiphany. While the rest of the world has already finished up the after-Christmas sales and put away the lights and decorations, and already forgotten their New Year's Resolutions, today WE are observing the final element to the Christmas story: Wise men from the East arrive, following a blazing star that told them of the birth of a mighty ruler.
These wise men or magi from another country made it their business to study the night sky. But do you remember the last time you looked up at the stars? Often we are too busy to look up at the stars anymore, and we no longer need them for navigation and time keeping, thanks to our fancy GPS and digital watches.
But when spending the summer as a camp counselor in rural Wisconsin, you get to see them A LOT. At this Lutheran camp I worked at, one night during every week, every cabin pitched tents in the woods for a camp out. After dark, 8 teen girls and I would go on a hike on the trails to find a nice dark spot. We would stop and then… I turned the flashlight off. After the initial shock, our eyes adjusted to see a sky FULL of stars.
To their astonishment, I would tell my campers of the time before cars and GPS or even reliable maps, when people used the stars to find their way, using the North Star here in the northern hemisphere. Now, the North Star is NOT the brightest star nor the easiest to find. However, while all the other stars travel around the sky during the night, the North Star stays fixed in place… making it so very helpful to find north. And this star too has found its place more than once in history: For enslaved people in the southern part of our country over a hundred and fifty years ago, the North Star was both a beacon of hope and a map to show them their way to freedom.
Each of those teenage girls in my cabin lived in a constantly changing world, while figuring out their identity and direction. They were trying to find their way in a world that was often not very kind. But while everything around them swirled and shifted, I would tell them that the love of Jesus will never change, would never shift or falter or dim, like a kind of North Star shining in our night sky.
In many ways that world hasn’t changed, then and now - the world the wise men navigated was just as full of disasters, tragic events, scandals and bad news as today.
Perhaps the wise men who followed the star wondered if their star GPS was working properly, when they finally arrived in Jerusalem. They expected to find a young prince, amid the trappings of power and wealth. They certainly found a ruler all right, but it was wiley King Herod, appalled to learn there was someone out there who would dare threaten his position.
For people like Herod, the status quo he benefited from was just fine - and any threat must be found out, either through intimidation and brute force, or cunning and manipulation.
But the wise men saw through Herod’s sneaky ways, took a detour, and recalculated, following the star instead. The light stayed with them until they arrived at their destination – the boy Jesus, found in unexpectedly humble circumstances.
The life of this Jesus when he grew up seemed to take a few detours, too. He did not grow up to be the king that others expected him to be. Instead of wearing fine robes and dining in palaces, he broke bread with poor and homeless people, hung out with fishermen, talked to tax collectors, and healed the sick. Instead of wielding a sword as a warrior, he used his words to teach and to heal and bring peace.
Instead of being crowned and venerated as king of his people, he was worshipped and given gifts by wise men from another country. And later, he was crowned with a crown of thorns and enthroned on a cross… and throughout Jesus never wavered. The light that he brought into the world blazed on, and could not be snuffed out.
These days in the season after Epiphany will continue to grow brighter, bit by bit, by precious minutes each day. But while we’re in the midst of it, this increase can be hard to notice. We all need reminders of this - especially right now in the thick of Omircon.
For the wise men, this reminder was a star. But for us, in these days, it can be something smaller and less interstellar. It can be something physical, perhaps something that you use often or see every day.
You may have heard of a somewhat recent Epiphany tradition called “Star Words.” Star Words are like the opposite of a new year’s resolution – it’s not a goal you choose for yourself because you feel deficient in some way. Instead, a star word is a gift that you receive, it's a word NOT of your own choosing, which you carry with you for your whole year. It can set the tone for your year. It’s a way to listen to how God can be speaking to you in 2022.
Originally, we had planned to hand these star words out during communion, but it turns out that 2022 has other plans for us. But never fear! We recalculated. You can still get your word at any time. We’ll still have some here at the church building if you are here to drop off supplies for Hypothermia or for a small group activity. You can also receive one online at a special Star Word generator at www.wordoftheyear.me. That’s what I did. I got….
Take this star, and write down the word, OR you can screen shot the word you got, either print it out, or use it as the background picture on your phone. Share this word with others, or keep it to yourself: it’s up to you. Post it in the facebook comments today. Hang it somewhere you can see, so that you may be reminded in the coming year that God loves you.
The Herods of the world don’t want us to remember that Jesus arrived into this world to give life and love to all of us – even the dim bulbs and the broken lights that we may feel like sometimes. Even when we feel lost and our lives are in constant need of U-turns and recalculations and detours.
May this star word, and the coming light of this Epiphany season, give YOU some illumination this year. May Jesus enlighten your life in 2022, and guide you as a light that never dims, never wavers, and will always brighten whatever in your life seems dim and hopeless. Thanks be to God. Amen.
