Have You Seen The Stars Tonight?

The Rev. Whitworth Ferguson III
The First Presbyterian Church
Washingtonville, New York
January 9, 2005

Have You Seen the Stars Tonight?
Isaiah 60:1-6
Matthew 2:1-12

I have in my possession a powerful instrument:
an instrument that humanity has sought since the beginning of time.
It is a scientific tool, a great invention, that allows me to peer into the future.
With this extraordinary discovery, I can tell beforehand
whether the lottery ticket I am about to buy will be a winner.
I can predict whether I can expect to be successful
in my desire to lose 20 pounds by summer.
I can even tell whether the Publishers Clearing House
Prize Patrol is on its way to my house.

What is this magical marvel,
this incredible invention,
this covetous contraption, you ask?
Well, I will show you:
here it is, the Magic Eight-Ball.
Such an ordinary looking device,
yet ask it any question about the future and it will give you an answer.
Here: let me show you:
“Will we complete this service on time and allow Jan
to get to the Blooming Grove Church without having to rush?”
And the answer is: “Outlook Not So Good”

Since the dawn of time, we have tried to predict the future,
we have tried to divine the future.
Did you know that God forbade such practices?
God expects us to have faith,
faith in him, faith that no matter what comes our way,
we’ll be able to handle it with strength that comes only from God.

But those words Jesus spoke to Peter are just as applicable
to every one of us: “O you of little faith”.
And so we try to peer into the future;
We want to know what lies ahead of us:
Will good fortune come my way?
Will she get the job…
Will he marry the girl…
Will they win the big game?

Did you know that one of the most popular sections of any newspaper
are the horoscopes?
We can’t resist them, can we?
Those little scraps that tell us whether
we can expect good fortune, or an ill wind to come our way,
all based on the alignment of the stars.

I don’t know how astrologers ply their trade these days,
it is getting harder to see the stars in the night sky.
Even here in Washingtonville artificial lights wash out the sky,
making the stars more and more faint.
Long before we filled our lives with electric lights, car lights
lights in our homes and on the streets,
the night sky was ablaze with stars.
Countless stars.

When I was young, I used to go to summer camp up in
Algonquin Park in Northern Ontario, and there,
hundreds of miles from the nearest town,
the sky was filled with God’s handiwork:
stars glittering across the heavens.

The night sky I looked at in the mid 1960s
was not all that different from the sky
that a group of astrologers looked upon some two thousand years ago.
But one night they noticed something different:
a star they had not seen before,
a star brighter than anyone had ever seen:
It glittered like a jewel,
brilliant, radiant, luminous.
For those astrologers who followed the stars,
something like that had special meaning.
But what? Why such a star?
What did it mean?
The star seemed to beckon;
It seemed to point the way to a place...
But where?
And so the group of astrologers decided to follow the star,
to find out why such a star might be shining so brightly.
And those astrologers, those Wise Men, those Magi, set out;

The Bible is skimpy on details.
We are not sure from where they began their journey.
We don’t know how they traveled,
or how long they traveled.
We don’t know how many there were, or their names.

We have filled in the story over the years.
We have concluded that there must have been three Wise Men,
decided that they must have come from the Orient,
and we have even given them names:
Caspar, Melchior, and Balthazar.
We have also substituted the word King for Magi,
and so we think of the Three Kings coming from the Orient.

And where did the star lead those Wise Men?
To “a house” Matthew tells us.
There is nothing in Matthew’s story about a manger or a stable or an Inn,
Matthew just tells us of “a house, a home”;
But there in that home they found a young woman,
and a baby,
a baby who by then was probably more than few weeks old
perhaps even a few months old.
Again, we are not sure.

All we know is that the star hung high in the sky and
sent its radiant light down upon the house, the mother,
…. and the child.
And the Wise Men knew that this child was someone special:
A King;
And so they paid the baby homage,
worshiping him on bended knee
And then they opened their treasure chests,
and offered the child gifts.
Such strange gifts to give a baby:
Gold,
Frankincense,
And myrrh.
But they were fitting gifts:
Gold for the baby born to be King;
Frankincense for the baby born to be the Priest for all humanity;
And myrrh,…such a poignant gift:
perfumed ointment used to anoint the dead.
But then the child’s father knew his son, his only son,
would die so that all his children might have life.

On that dark night those three Wise Men
knelt there in the glow of the stars that filled the heavens.
Three older men, dusty and tired from their travels,
one young mother, wondering why these strangers were at her door,
and the child, the baby, with pink and wrinkled skin,
wrapped in swaddling clothes --
the King of Kings,
the one of whom Paul would one day write:
“God … gave him the name that is above every name,
so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue should confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.” (Phil 2:9)


Our Christmas season comes to an end with Epiphany
and the story of the Wise Men’s visit.
Vacations are over, visiting relatives are gone home;
decorations put away until next year.
A new year has begun.

But in that baby born on that day,
new life has begun, new life for you and me,
and for all God’s children.
A life filled with hope,
even in seemingly hopeless situations,
such as those we have witnessed the past two weeks.
For in that baby’s birth came love and grace.
How else can we explain the outpouring of concern and
money for all those families and communities
devastated by the forces of nature?
At last count, $4 billion pledged, money from people like you and me,
money from every corner of the world,
to help people we don’t know in a part of the world
that seems so far away and so foreign to us.

Someone was asked on television whether that disaster might have been
God at work.
What a foolish, faithless question!
God’s hand was not what moved the tectonic plates
deep under the ocean.
No God’s hand is what moves us, his children,
to donate money for food, medicine, water, and clothing, for our hearts.
God’s grace through Jesus Christ fills our heart and calls us to act.

Come to this table like those astrologers of old
with head bowed,
and give honor and glory to our King.
Come to this table and give him your gift,
the one he wants more than any other gift,
your heart, your heart.
For he is our King, who rules not with crown and scepter,
not with sword and shield,
but with love and mercy,
forgiveness and grace.
whose throne is in our hearts (Van Dyke)

“Arise, shine, for our light has come,
and the glory of the Lord has risen upon us
Lift up your eyes and look around,
and then you shall see and be radiant....”

AMEN