Epiphany; January 6, 2008; Bethel Lutheran Church, Rochester.
Matthew 2:1-12.

Dear Friends in Christ, Grace to you and Peace, from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus the Christ. AMEN.


Snow avalanches on Colorado mountains have been in Minnesota news the past few weeks. Last Monday a Kasson man was snowmobiling in Colorado when he was buried by 3-4 feet of snow. He knows he is fortunate to be alive. A young man from Rochester and a friend of some Bethel members was not so fortunate in early December. Luke Oldenburg had been in more than one avalanche in Colorado, but in early December he was buried for more than 10 minutes and, though there was some hope early in his hospitalization, he didn’t survive the accident.

"Back country" boarding and skiing become more popular every year. But it is these off-the-beaten-track excursions where the most serious danger of avalanches looms. When tons of snow start to slide nothing can stop its breakneck blast down a mountainside. You cannot outrun an avalanche. For those lucky few who have survived being buried in a snowy tomb the biggest problem many survivors recount is not knowing which way to dig out. After tumbling end-over-end, round-and-round, one literally cannot tell "which end is up."

To start frantically digging "down" would be a disaster, worsening an already dire situation. One survivor remembers moving his head back and forth until he had hollowed out a breathing space. Rather than waste precious breath melting some snow, he spit in the hole, knowing that saliva should head downhill, which gave him an idea of which way is up. What his own senses could not tell him the force of gravity could. Even under several feet of snow, water does NOT drip up. Re-oriented to which way was up, the buried boarder was able to dig himself out. It seems a strange survival skill, but if you're buried in an avalanche and can move any of your body parts, the first thing you need to do is spit so you can determine "which end is up."

This same not knowing "which end is up" is what killed John F. Kennedy, Jr. almost 10 years ago (1999). In the midst of fog and haze, you lose sight of the horizon. And when that happens, the distinction between sky and sea became a murky blur. Convinced he was heading into the clouds, Kennedy plunged his plane into the ocean instead. You can get killed if you don't know "which end is up."

But if you know which end is up, you can be richly blessed. Which brings us to the star-gazers of our Epiphany story today from Matthew. The wise men who came to visit Jesus knew which end was up. They looked into the sky, and they saw a rising star that was different from all the rest. For centuries people have tried to explain what it was—a confluence of planets that made it so bright, a comet, some other manifestation of outer space.

Does it make any difference? Think about it. Were the wise men the only ones to see the star? If we saw some brighter than ordinary body in the sky tonight, would only a few see it, or would it be the subject of much conversation? Yet only the wise men decided to follow the star. They looked up, and they had vision. Probably thousands saw exactly the same thing that they did. But they acted on what they saw. They knew which end was up.

For some reason they came to a proverbial fork in the road, and they sought direction in Jerusalem. I know that there are some women in the congregation who check out of the story at this point. You know that men never stop to ask for direction. But these men were wiser than most. And they got what they needed from the chief priests and the scribes. The King of the Jews was to be born in Bethlehem. They had the vision to seek out the wisdom of others as they journeyed. Their vision was not only theirs. It belonged to the people.

Eventually the star would stop over the place where the child Jesus was. We believe it was some while after the birth, so it would no longer be a stable. But it would likely be the modest home of a carpenter. Would the wise men be disappointed? Did they expect a palace for a king and have to settle for a humble dwelling? But they had vision. Matthew reports that they were overwhelmed with joy when the star stopped. The entered the house and offered their expensive gifts. They knew which side was up.

And they had one more piece of vision. King Herod, jealous of the possibility of a new king, had wanted to know precisely where he could find this young rival, presumably so he could kill him. He asked the wise men to make a report on their visit. But the wise men had been warned in a dream, or another vision, not to go back to Herod. Herod was not on the up and up.

Many of us have people whom we admire—people who have added wise direction to our life. One of those for me is a man with whom I rode in an elevator at the Mayo Clinic when I was about 13 years old. I have seen him often on television. I have read his books. I have learned about evangelism from him at his retreat center in Asheville, North Carolina. But I have never officially met the man.

In October, 1989, an new star was added to the 1900 stars on the famed sidewalk on Hollywood Boulevard. The new star was placed near the stars of Julie Andrews and Wayne Newton. The new star, as curious as it seems, was evangelist Billy Graham, who has preached the gospel to more than 100 million people around the world. Forty years ago he refused to have his name on a star, but he reconsidered it in 1989. He said, "I hope it will identify me with the gospel that I preach." At the unveiling he added, "We should put our eyes on the star, which is the Lord."

Billy Graham knows which end is up. He has been preaching that message of the true star faithfully his entire adult life. His vision includes paying close attention to the light of the world—the light that overcomes darkness. His vision includes the wisdom of others. His vision includes attentiveness to the written Word of God.

I suspect that there are people in this very room who are looking for clarity of vision today. For some, looking for the star in the sky is as unlikely as finding a diamond in the snow. Life is swirling at an incredible pace. For some life is swirling like water in a toilet—and that may be exactly how life feels. Especially in these weeks, politicians who would seek to become president find themselves in a whirlwind. A few may feel the breeze at the back, things are going so well. Others feel like they are marching into a 50 mph headwind at 20º below zero. We don’t know if the market is going up or down. We worry about $100 a barrel gasoline. We wish we had peace in the world. We hope that boy or girl will stop bothering us at school. We are desperate for a little love in our homes. The pressures at work are intense.

Not for everybody. For many. And it is hard to hold one’s head up and see the star, the light of the world. That is why the star points to the child, the one who became flesh. You see, the wise men with great vision did not offer their gifts to a heavenly body. They offered them to an earthly being who came to us that we might know God’s great love.

We don’t have to follow stars anymore to find the Christ child. Jesus is amongst us in the Spirit. We do, however, need vision. An old hymn says, “Be thou my vision, O Lord of my heart; naught be all else to me, save that thou art; thou my best thought both by day and by night, waking or sleeping, thy presence my light.”

Yes, the light of the world is our vision, and our Savior. May God give us the vision of wise men and the light of the star. AMEN.