A Superstar
Second Sunday after Christmas
January 4, 2009
I’m glad of two things that I want to tell you about today. First, I’m glad I have a Christmas tree and it’s still in my window. Drive by at 308 2nd Avenue tonight or tomorrow night and you’ll see the lights. Today is the 11th day of Christmas and it will be up through the 12th. Tuesday is the Epiphany, when we leave the season of Christmas behind and begin to move forward into the year.
The other thing I’m glad of is that 2009 is not an election year. Of the many, many things an election season does, I especially regret the damage it does to our language, to our national conversation. You can’t even be who you really are. Everyone’s either a friend or an enemy, a Democrat or Republican. Simple language no longer suffices. A moderate in one direction is now a radical liberal, and a moderate in another direction is a reactionary right-winger.
It’s not democracy itself that does this to our language, but rather it’s our sales mentality ingrained in our politics. Overstatement is part of the pitch. You can’t have just a product – it has to be new and improved and life-changing, whether it’s a candidate or a box of cereal.
You can’t simply be an actor or athlete anymore. Play in one game and you’re a big-league star. Step onto the boards as a member of the chorus and you’re a Broadway star. Spend a minute on a reality show and you’re a celebrity – a star who’s famous just for being famous.
Everyone, it seems can be a star. Which means the word means nothing. Next will be the age of the superstar. Superstar.
In my mind, there has only been one superstar. Not from Broadway, not from Hollywood, not even from American Idol. But the star – THE star. You know the one I’m talking about. The one that led the Magi to Bethlehem. An actual star that was brighter than any other, remembered even to this day more than any other. That’s the definition of a superstar.
During this Christmas season I heard, as usual, some scientist explaining the latest thinking on what the star may have been. The Discovery Channel and the History Channel are pretty good at taking the intellectual approach to these things. There are explanations that suggest it could have been this star or that nova or perhaps a planet. Sounds good to me, I suppose.
The newest thing for me this year was hearing from an astrologer who explained what star was in what house and what it would have represented to astrologers and soothsayers of that era. Something about kings and rulers, no surprise there.
I don’t put much stock in these areas of scientific and historical research because it suggests a lack of confidence in our story, in our Scripture, in our very faith. It suggests that we need some physical proof that all this took place. That there was a Temple and a King called Herod and a manger in Bethlehem. That in the absence of physical proof, that maybe there was nothing at all. There was something of this in the medieval mania for relics. And there’s a great deal of it in our need to explain, explain, explain.
Well frankly my dear, I don’t give a flip. I don’t need this level of explanation. It’s interesting, but it reminds me of an old joke:
The chief Vatican archaeologist comes to the Pope and says, “Holy Father, we’ve got good news and bad news. The good news is, we’ve found the true tomb of Jesus. The bad news is, his body is still there. No resurrection!” So the Pope calls together the world’s greatest academic theologians and gives them the bad news. They all look at each other and say, “You mean, Jesus really existed?”
I didn’t say it was a good joke – just an old one. It points to how we use proof and what we want to accomplish with it. Do you believe more because there’s a scientific explanation of the star? Or do you believe less if there’s no convincing explanation? Is the message of the star any less true or more true because of this speculation?
I’m not being anti-intellectual here – that’s usually the last thing I can be accused of. Instead, I’m being pro-understanding. The data aren’t important. The truth is. The meaning of the star is undeniable, whether it was a supernova or just a vivid imagination attached to the everyday Evening Star.
The truth is that there was something wonderful happening in Bethlehem. The greatest news ever was being published abroad. And people came to that news. Some came led by the voice of angels. Some came because the shepherds had told them the Good News. And apparently, some came because there was something unusual in the air, a heavenly sign pointing them to the stable, toward the Christ child.
There is no denying that something drew people to Christ. The shepherds came. The Magi came. Something draws people to Christ today. You and I are here.
Then, it was something supernatural. A sign – a star, perhaps. A healing. A miracle. A one-on-one experience with Christ during his ministry.
Today, is it anything less than supernatural? Just as then, it may be a sign, or a even a miracle or healing that brings us to Christ. None of these things stopped with the crucifixion.
People may be led by a sign even today. It could be a literal sign out front that welcomes you inside. But more likely it’s an invitation with a kind word from one to the other.
That sign that leads someone to Christ could be the peace in the eyes of a person who has just buried a parent, full of knowledge and faith in the world to come. It could be the look of satisfaction in the eyes of a person, tired but fulfilled from preparing for others a meal – or three hundred meals, or perhaps the sweat on the brow from raising the roof of a house to be lived in by another.
People may be led by a healing – maybe physical, maybe spiritual. We hope and pray for physical healing, and sometimes it comes in unexpected recovery. We also hope and pray for spiritual healing – perhaps acceptance of a new life situation, perhaps simple understanding of the inexplicable actions of others.
People may be led to Christ by a miracle – yes, a miracle, even today. They don’t have to be big. You may see reconciliation among long-estranged family members. You may see peace in a person whose life has gone disastrously awry. The growth and success of a child who has autism. A job, a home, a family.
Miracles all. Miracles that don’t just happen. Miracles that we pray for. Miracles that can lead a person to Christ.
To Christ because even today, there is such a thing as a one-on-one experience with Christ. Through the love of a neighbor. Through the Gospel proclaimed. Through meeting Christ in others and receiving Christ at the altar.
People may be led by all these. All these things are signs – signs of the power of Christ at work in us. Signs in our lives that bring others to Christ.
When we live in Christ and let Christ live through us, we are living signs – living stars. Stars for others to see, stars for others to follow, stars to lead our neighbors and our world into the life of Christ, into the life of the world to come.
You are the star. So shine.
January 4, 2009
I’m glad of two things that I want to tell you about today. First, I’m glad I have a Christmas tree and it’s still in my window. Drive by at 308 2nd Avenue tonight or tomorrow night and you’ll see the lights. Today is the 11th day of Christmas and it will be up through the 12th. Tuesday is the Epiphany, when we leave the season of Christmas behind and begin to move forward into the year.
The other thing I’m glad of is that 2009 is not an election year. Of the many, many things an election season does, I especially regret the damage it does to our language, to our national conversation. You can’t even be who you really are. Everyone’s either a friend or an enemy, a Democrat or Republican. Simple language no longer suffices. A moderate in one direction is now a radical liberal, and a moderate in another direction is a reactionary right-winger.
It’s not democracy itself that does this to our language, but rather it’s our sales mentality ingrained in our politics. Overstatement is part of the pitch. You can’t have just a product – it has to be new and improved and life-changing, whether it’s a candidate or a box of cereal.
You can’t simply be an actor or athlete anymore. Play in one game and you’re a big-league star. Step onto the boards as a member of the chorus and you’re a Broadway star. Spend a minute on a reality show and you’re a celebrity – a star who’s famous just for being famous.
Everyone, it seems can be a star. Which means the word means nothing. Next will be the age of the superstar. Superstar.
In my mind, there has only been one superstar. Not from Broadway, not from Hollywood, not even from American Idol. But the star – THE star. You know the one I’m talking about. The one that led the Magi to Bethlehem. An actual star that was brighter than any other, remembered even to this day more than any other. That’s the definition of a superstar.
During this Christmas season I heard, as usual, some scientist explaining the latest thinking on what the star may have been. The Discovery Channel and the History Channel are pretty good at taking the intellectual approach to these things. There are explanations that suggest it could have been this star or that nova or perhaps a planet. Sounds good to me, I suppose.
The newest thing for me this year was hearing from an astrologer who explained what star was in what house and what it would have represented to astrologers and soothsayers of that era. Something about kings and rulers, no surprise there.
I don’t put much stock in these areas of scientific and historical research because it suggests a lack of confidence in our story, in our Scripture, in our very faith. It suggests that we need some physical proof that all this took place. That there was a Temple and a King called Herod and a manger in Bethlehem. That in the absence of physical proof, that maybe there was nothing at all. There was something of this in the medieval mania for relics. And there’s a great deal of it in our need to explain, explain, explain.
Well frankly my dear, I don’t give a flip. I don’t need this level of explanation. It’s interesting, but it reminds me of an old joke:
The chief Vatican archaeologist comes to the Pope and says, “Holy Father, we’ve got good news and bad news. The good news is, we’ve found the true tomb of Jesus. The bad news is, his body is still there. No resurrection!” So the Pope calls together the world’s greatest academic theologians and gives them the bad news. They all look at each other and say, “You mean, Jesus really existed?”
I didn’t say it was a good joke – just an old one. It points to how we use proof and what we want to accomplish with it. Do you believe more because there’s a scientific explanation of the star? Or do you believe less if there’s no convincing explanation? Is the message of the star any less true or more true because of this speculation?
I’m not being anti-intellectual here – that’s usually the last thing I can be accused of. Instead, I’m being pro-understanding. The data aren’t important. The truth is. The meaning of the star is undeniable, whether it was a supernova or just a vivid imagination attached to the everyday Evening Star.
The truth is that there was something wonderful happening in Bethlehem. The greatest news ever was being published abroad. And people came to that news. Some came led by the voice of angels. Some came because the shepherds had told them the Good News. And apparently, some came because there was something unusual in the air, a heavenly sign pointing them to the stable, toward the Christ child.
There is no denying that something drew people to Christ. The shepherds came. The Magi came. Something draws people to Christ today. You and I are here.
Then, it was something supernatural. A sign – a star, perhaps. A healing. A miracle. A one-on-one experience with Christ during his ministry.
Today, is it anything less than supernatural? Just as then, it may be a sign, or a even a miracle or healing that brings us to Christ. None of these things stopped with the crucifixion.
People may be led by a sign even today. It could be a literal sign out front that welcomes you inside. But more likely it’s an invitation with a kind word from one to the other.
That sign that leads someone to Christ could be the peace in the eyes of a person who has just buried a parent, full of knowledge and faith in the world to come. It could be the look of satisfaction in the eyes of a person, tired but fulfilled from preparing for others a meal – or three hundred meals, or perhaps the sweat on the brow from raising the roof of a house to be lived in by another.
People may be led by a healing – maybe physical, maybe spiritual. We hope and pray for physical healing, and sometimes it comes in unexpected recovery. We also hope and pray for spiritual healing – perhaps acceptance of a new life situation, perhaps simple understanding of the inexplicable actions of others.
People may be led to Christ by a miracle – yes, a miracle, even today. They don’t have to be big. You may see reconciliation among long-estranged family members. You may see peace in a person whose life has gone disastrously awry. The growth and success of a child who has autism. A job, a home, a family.
Miracles all. Miracles that don’t just happen. Miracles that we pray for. Miracles that can lead a person to Christ.
To Christ because even today, there is such a thing as a one-on-one experience with Christ. Through the love of a neighbor. Through the Gospel proclaimed. Through meeting Christ in others and receiving Christ at the altar.
People may be led by all these. All these things are signs – signs of the power of Christ at work in us. Signs in our lives that bring others to Christ.
When we live in Christ and let Christ live through us, we are living signs – living stars. Stars for others to see, stars for others to follow, stars to lead our neighbors and our world into the life of Christ, into the life of the world to come.
You are the star. So shine.
posted by Michael+ at 8:23 PM
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