January 2009
Reflections on Matthew 2:1-12
                                 from your Spiritual Director

 It is a familiar passage. We read it every year at Epiphany. So I am not sure why it sounded different this year. The story in Matthew says those wise persons or magi followed a star because it had been written by a prophet that "the king of the Jews," the Messiah, had been born (v. 2). And what better place to find a king than at a palace, after all they were astrologers and knew something about finding their way to the places they wanted to go. So, why did that star or their built-in stellar "mapquest" system lead them to the wrong place?

They ended up at the palace where the king of hate lived not at the place where the king of love had been born. Maybe that is because this ancient story is not about faithful followers who know where they are going, it is about people looking for hope and stumbling upon God in spite of themselves. It sounds a lot like the way most of us have found our way to God - searching and stumbling, looking for the love that will fill our emptiness and make our lives complete. In the end, our search is futile because we cannot follow a map or rely on the stars in order to find love or God.  God finds us. In fact, God never stops searching for us and showing us ways or dropping us hints until we find the love or the light or the hope for which we are searching.

When the prophet says that "the nations will come to your light" (Isaiah 60:3), those magi astrologers were only the first, in a long line of light seekers. The light that they finally come to ends up not being a star or a comet streaking across the sky, but a child who would bring a different kind of light to the world, a different way of loving and of knowing God. This light would fill their emptiness and give them love without them having to do anything. This light would make them into light bearers and star followers and it would happen in spite of hate and deception.

Matthew's story is different from the other Christmas stories about the birth of Jesus. There is no crowded inn or angels singing or shepherds watching sheep. In this version of the story, Christ is the light of the world, and the world slowly awakens to that light. The star child catches the attention of a few people gazing up into the night sky and they eventually find their way to God. After making wrong turns and worrying about how they would survive the trip back home, God shows them the way. When they realize they have arrived at the wrong palace and they are not in control of their God-seeking journey, they find the object of their search in a different palace, in the arms of his mother. It is a story of light and love and hope, and endless possibilities.

It is a familiar passage and it tells our story - of people searching for God but first knocking at the wrong door and looking in the wrong place. And maybe that's why this story sounded different this year. I was looking for hope and I found it, in a story I thought I knew. If wise astrologers had trouble finding the light of God, then there is hope for the rest of us. If we keep looking, we too will stumble upon that light, grown and risen, living among us still, waiting to welcome us, to restore our faith, and to show us where love really lies.