Star Words

Rev. Jen Auger

REFLECTION 

Have you ever wondered who these Magi were who came to visit Jesus in this story? Maybe like me you were told they were astronomers from the East, but that was about it. And then a little while ago I was watching a documentary on Iran and Zoroastrians and the Sacred Fire… and I went down a rabbit hole.

Now, I am not a historian, and I am not a theologian - so bear with me. But this is what I gather: There is a belief that the writer of this birth narrative in Matthew was referring to a class of priests of Zoroastrianism - who were called Magi. Also considered ancient Keepers of the Fire, they lived in what is now known as Iran. Some believe Zoroastrians believed in a singular Divinity, and the dualism of good and evil, even before Judaism existed. To this day Zoroastrians in Iran keep the sacred flame burning and pray facing fire and light, believing that goodness is born out of the light.

So in this story, we have a people, priests, who feel deeply called to a sacred mission - to keep Sacred Fires burning - leaving that particular call to follow something new. A different light. One that they believe indicates a new birth of goodness. And when I look at stories recorded in scripture, I like to wonder about the details that are not included, and let the imagination wander and fill in the blanks between the lines. 

Like with this story - I wonder what must the conversations have looked like in the community as these priests prepared to leave their sacred calling for something different? How does one choose between honouring what has always been, and answering a sense of calling towards something new and unknown? Was there a fear that in breaking their traditions they might somehow break a sacred trust with God? 

The story does allude to the fear they would have had after their meeting with Herod and the visions they had to return home another way - but I wonder if their fears and worries wouldn’t have started long before that. In the moment they felt nudged to break with the way things were and turn their eyes towards the way things could be.

That is a fear that I think many of us can understand deeply. It is a fear that I think we see around us in the news causing deep strife, and sometimes what feels like illogical reactions. That knee-jerk reflex when there is the suggestion that there might be something equal but different to what we have come to understand as “true”. And we see this fear play out across history in movements that, driven by fear, seek to silence any new narratives or attempts to create space for equal but different ways of living.

And I wonder how often we recognize these reflexive reactions as fear? And how often do we instead trick ourselves into cementing habits into unchangeable traditions and narratives by telling ourselves it is honouring, or respectful. Rather than admitting it is scary to leap into an unknown new story. It is scary to wonder how our own sense of self might be changed and morphed by allowing our experiences to be stretched and become more expansive. 

I know we often fall into this fear trap as the church. We hold onto traditions and practices like Keepers of the Flame. We feel the tension between being keepers of the church as we have known it and reaching towards a new star: expanding beyond ourselves towards the unknowns. 

Yet I would challenge that we short change God when we believe that people can only connect with God through our pre-determined practices, or when we think that church can only be defined in the ways that we have defined it before. 

God is bigger than those definitions. God’s artwork is more expansive than even our imaginations. And we do a great disservice to God by boxing God into our traditions, our rituals, and our comfortable ways of thinking.

I wonder, if we could better name that sense of pulling back from change as “fear”, and honour the vulnerability that comes with that, could we maybe better tap into that same sacred courage that drove the Magi to leave their position by their Sacred Fire and follow the pull of a different light?

Because while our traditions are a strong foundation and a source of great wisdom, much like the sacred flame the Magi were entrusted to keep, these should be our starting point, not our endpoint. And like the Magi, we must also still reach out towards the light of the star. Because the light of the star might just move us in ways that invite transformation.

And yes, there is fear involved in that. But that is where faith comes in. It wasn’t a star that blindly pulled the Magi like a magnet - It was the deep faith of the Magi that carried them through their journey in the face of the many dangers. And that faith allowed the Magi to return to their community, their eyes opened to a bigger picture: to seeing God at work in different ways in the world, and to seeing value and beauty and sacredness in all of it.

So that brings us to the other side of this story - because we are told that the Magi do in fact return to their home. They don’t leave their place by their sacred fire forever. They go home by a different way, but they do go home. And I wonder - is their experience of their Sacred Fire then expanded by their travels? How does their experience beyond their traditions impact the people that they return to? Because change does not just have to happen for those who are willing to push the boundaries completely. Change also happens for those who are willing to re-embrace. To be touched by the expansive experiences of others and allow those experiences to open their hearts as well. 

God has spoken to and through people across the ages. Not just to those folks whose stories and poems and letters are recorded in Scripture, but through prophets and visionaries, humanitarians and artists, children and grandparents, gentle souls and difficult personalities. 

Not everyone in the Magi’s community had the capacity to go on the star pilgrimage. But that doesn’t mean they were left out of God’s story - because there are other ways to be touched by the story and the experience. And today, if we are open, we are still capable of being touched by the story. Not because a star might appear in the sky for us to follow. But because we might be open to learn from the courage and the faith we hear about in the story. 

We may be among the community that stayed behind to guard our own sacred flames - but we can still be transformed to see how those flames might be of importance beyond ourselves. How we might be able to carry those flames in different ways to be shared beyond ourselves. How others might have flames that are worth honouring and become part of God’s bigger picture.

Today you were offered Star Words for the year ahead. These are not resolutions. These are not judgements on things that must be given up in order to move forward. You might have those for yourself, and that is fine. But these Star Words are meant to be expansive, not restrictive. To be invitations for you to be more intentional about how these words might add to your life, your experience, your relationships, your being. We start from the foundation of the Sacred Fire - God’s unending burning love for you, because you are a child of God - and then we reach towards the Star.

How might these words help you to better receive, to better open yourself to God’s nudgings and God’s expansive story.   

I want to imagine that when the Magi encountered dangers and fears on their journey towards the baby Jesus, that they looked up at the star in the sky and they were reminded of the sacred fire that continued to burn, kept strong by others in their absence, and that the moving ball of light in the sky kept them strong in their faith and God’s presence with them. And in that journey they learned that God was not tied down to one place - but God was expansive beyond their imaginations. 

Thanks be to that expansive God, who is not limited to what we can imagine or define, but invites us beyond the boundaries of our own fears and limitations.

Invitation:

If you would like to have your own Star Word please email Rev. Jen and she will pick one out for you!