The Christmas Tree in the Sanctuary is very nice and simple with its many white lights but it lacks something that often appears on our trees at home.  Most trees are crowned with a Star and the origin of this decoration is to be found in the feast we keep today – that of the Epiphany. 

The story of the Wise men that forms today’s Gospel is one of the most endearing of the Christmas stories and is one of the most popular images on Christmas cards.  Perhaps we like it because it includes the bringing of gifts to the infant Jesus and so there is a link with our own giving and receiving of presents at Christmas.  For many this exchange of gifts is the highlight of our Christmas Festivity, as important as the Turkey on the Table and Her Majesty the Queen on the box. The early Church rather liked Matthew’s story too.  It was much more popular than Luke’s story of the Shepherds who  only came into their own much later.  The Wise men themselves underwent a number of transformations in a process, common in both Judaism and Christianity of popularising the Gospel material and embellishing it for purposes of devotion and increasing piety as well as encouraging faith.

At the end of this service we shall sing the popular Carol We Three Kings  which turns the wise men into Royalty – a process which began in the 2^nd Century and was fully established by the 5^th.  In part this is because the Isaiah text which we heard as our Old Testament lesson speaks of Nations coming to see the light of Christ and of Kings  being drawn to the brightness of your dawn.  Because Isaiah is clearly seen as a prophecy of Jesus as the Light who comes into the world through whom we see God’s glory – a theme taken up, of course, by John’s Gospel in its Prologue – then it is natural that Kings would pay him homage.  So it was an easy step to turn the Magi  into Kings

It was equally easy to decide that there were 3 of them because they brought three gifts though in the early drawings etched in the catacombs or caves under Rome there were only two and in another 3^rd century wall painting they had increased to 4.  In Eastern Christianity this was taken to greater excess and 12 Kings are referred to in some Eastern traditions, usually with names.

Quite early on the 3 Kings are given names – quite a variety of them actually but we know them by the names given to them by the Venerable Bede of Northumbria who, in the 7^th Century, told us both the names and the meaning of their gifts -  

The first was called Melchior. He was an old man, with white hair and a long beard; he offered gold to the Lord as to his King. The second, Gaspar by name, young, beardless, of ruddy hue, offered to Jesus his gift of incense, the homage due to Divinity. The third, of black complexion, with heavy beard, was middle-aged and called Balthasar. The myrrh he held in his hand prefigured the death of the son of Man

The  three names have endured as have their characteristics.  More importantly, the gifts themselves have taken on the significance Bede gave to them – Jesus was recognised as Lord of Humanity and as being Divine – a central message of the Incarnation – that God became as we are – and through the suffering of the Crucifixion when Jesus opened for us the way to eternal life – made it possible for us to share in his Divinity.  Or as St. Irenaeus put it:

God became what we are that he might make us in the end what he is.

So Matthew’s story has taken on a life of its own in Christian imagination, devotion and theology. 

It is only comparatively recently that there has been a note of discord – and there are some scholars who would inevitably spoil our Christmas by saying that Matthew’s and Luke’s stories about the birth of Christ were simply that – stories-without historical foundation. Nice but not true.  There are always such spoilers who like to make a name for themselves and even money from books which seek to discredit aspects of the Christian tradition.  One of those who proclaimed that there were No Magi! was surprised to receive a hand-painted Christmas card which showed three very angry Kings with their camels, knocking on the door of his study and demanding to see him.  As with many of those who try to discredit the Gospel stories they are unable to dent the strong hold it has, even on those who do not profess much faith but for whom Christmas and Easter still has some meaning.  There is a powerful witness of Truths that endure  and after 2,000 years the observance of Christmas still has its centre in a birth in a manger in Bethlehem and shepherds & wise men are still sung about whether it be in the Church’s Christmas services or through loudspeaker systems in supermarkets.

We may wish for a more devoted and faithful following of Jesus Christ but we must never despise the pull of folk religion nor doubt the power of God to work through popular custom to reveal the timeless truth of the Incarnation that God in Jesus has come into the world as one of us to save us from within.  The Wise men are part of folk religion but they are also signs of the Gospel reaching out to the world.  Amongst his own people, Our Lord’s birth was largely ignored even though they had been prepared through Prophecy and expectation. Yet three sages from foreign parts travelled considerable distances to pay him homage.  Is Matthew himself being a prophet here – telling Judaism a truth they failed to grasp – that the Light coming into the world was for all people – and if Judaism rejected him then no matter – the world at large would receive him. 

Here is the beginning of the future mission of the Church to reach out to all the world.  In the light of the subsequent mission of the Church those 3 wise men become significant.  They were drawn by a sign in the heavens to seek Christ out – to present him with gifts and kneel in worship.  Apart from the Shepherds they were the first to be drawn to the light and love of Christ.  Unlike the shepherds they were representatives of a wider world than Judaism – a world which was later to receive the Good News of Salvation.  A world to which we belong.

In the visit of the Wise men we can see a sign to us and to our present world that, despite all the darkness which pervades our world today, there is a light shining which nothing can extinguish and which still draws people to its saving glory.

Which brings me back to the star.  It has not escaped my attention that the omission on our tree has been rectified by its appearing on our Rood Screen.  We can still lose sight of it in the story of the wise men. we can concentrate on the gifts, the worship and the devilment of Herod but we mustn’t forget what drew those travellers to Bethlehem. They observed his star at its rising.  It’s a wonderful image.

The other night I was travelling down the M11 at dusk.  The Moon was but a sliver of light and near to it was a bright star-like light. According to the Jodrell Bank website, what I saw was Venus or possibly Neptune.  Looking at it, being drawn to it, by its brightness and beauty it was not difficult to imagine what it must have been like for those ancient star gazers.  They saw a bright star in the West and because there was little distinction in those days between astronomy and astrology they recognized that something of great importance was happening.

Those, by the way, who believe that astrology has no place in Christian thinking should visit Waltham Abbey and look at the ceiling there – or Canterbury Cathedral or Chartres Cathedral or many medieval foundations where the Zodiac is a feature.  Astrology in this sense is not about fortune-telling but about interpreting signs in the physical world – signs of God’s activity.  The Star was for the wise men what the Angel’s announcement was for the Shepherd to whom it was said This will be a sign for you.  God who is Lord of all creation, including angels, stars and planets, uses his heavenly illustrations to illuminate the human soul. 

When I saw the bright light on Tuesday night, I was curious – hence my visit to the Jodrell Bank website - but those eastern wise men went beyond curiosity, interpreting the sign as heralding a significant activity of God.  They saw it as an announcement that God had acted decisively in our world and had come to be born among us.  This awakened more than interest. It awakened a faith – and their gifts proved it.  They set off in search of a King who was God.  The star led them to the centre of faith and they knelt in homage.

So, I’m wondering – what kind of stars have brought you to faith.  I doubt if few of you were led by a star as such.  Yet, each one of us, if we search our souls deeply enough will be aware of signs that have come to us about Jesus, about his meaning for the world, and especially about his meaning for us.  Some stars will be events that have happened to us which have led to personal revelation of God; some will be good things that have happened, some perhaps not so good – and sometimes it will have been  unexpected – a light penetrating the ordinariness of life and quietly opens us to be more aware of God’s activity within us.  Those stars shine often when we are at prayer or reading scripture or some Christian book, or something beautiful in art, nature, music - when the penny drops and a flash of light fills our mind and warms our heart.  I often think of John Wesley sitting in an ordinary service is Aldgate Chapel, listening to scripture and probably expecting not a lot to happen – when he felt his heart strangely warmed.  That was a star moment for him.  What have been star moments for you?  For many, the stars will be in the shape of people whose souls have shone so brightly for us that we have been drawn to find out what lights them up.

And so – something we can aim for in 2009 – We can be a star for others – a sign of God’s love, activity, presence to someone else.  So we can be used by God to bring his brightness to others so much that they actually want to travel to meet him and bow down before him and give him the gift of their lives.  That’s called Mission but it’s other name is Epiphany ­– a showing of Christ to others.  God doesn’t need a night sky to announce his Christ – but he does need our faithful hearts, our lives and our souls.