Let Us Be Star Light

The Epiphany      January 6, 2013

Is.60:1-6,9      Ps. 72:1-2,10-17

Eph. 3:1-12   Matt. 2:1-12

Lectionary Link

  Imagine for a moment young children watching a Disney cartoon with kings and queens and talking animals.  The children can take immediate delight in this production of the imagination.  As they enjoy the entertainment, the question does not occur to them as to whether the events in the Disney Cartoon are real or accurately depict life.  If you ask them if it were true, they would probably say “yes, it is true,” meaning that it is true that it is a cartoon video so don’t ask such a dumb question.  One might call this immediate appreciation of the cartoon a primary naïveté; a description that was offered by Paul Ricoeur. It is a ridiculous observation to tell children that their Disney Cartoons are not true.  At the same time, when a child is away from the cartoon the child learns to make a contrast between the animal in the cartoon who speaks actual human words and the child’s pet dog that does not speak.  If a child were to demand that the dog speak human words, then one would be concerned.  But the child learns levels of interaction between language and experience.  On another level of discourse one is suspicious about the reality of speaking dogs.   One’s pet dog may not speak and yet that does not deprive one from enjoying depictions of animals speaking.  And then on a third level there is the Disney creator who imagined and created the art of the cartoon for entertainment, artistic and aesthetic enjoyment and does so not only for children but also for adults who have the child-like ability to appreciate the truth of art without demanding that it be a perfect mirror reflection of actual animals.  This third level of understanding is what Ricoeur called the Second Naïveté.

  These three levels of perception are embedded in our human use of language and discourse and we simultaneously apply them all of the time.  We can however sometimes fall into confusion if we misapply the level of discourse which we are operating in.

  Today is the feast of the Epiphany and the story of the day is the story of the magi.  This story has taken on some interesting assumptions in the history of its presentations.  They became kings and not magi because of their association with verses from the ancient Psalms and Prophets.  So the magi had to be these kings with camels and their expensive gifts would give indication of their royalty.  And if they were royalty, it would only enhance the proclamation of Jesus as the King of Kings.  The story has gotten altered because of Christmas Pageants too.  Every Christmas Pageant director has to make editorial choices, not having the time or the budget of Oliver Stone.  According to most Christmas Pageant scripts the magi are three kings and they arrive at the stable in Bethlehem along with the shepherds and angels.  And of course the moving star is always fixed over the stable.  Whereas the actual Gospel account relates that the magi, after consulting Herod in Jerusalem go to Bethlehem and follow a moving star that stands still over the place where they find Jesus.

  Do you see the sort of problem one can have as a modern person?  But it really is not a problem unless one confuses the codes in understanding this story.

  In the mode of the primary naiveté we can appreciate this lovely story as a child would with the simply wonder of a nice story that forms our identity as a worshipping community and that endears us to a God who is presented as being present within the most vulnerable of all human beings, a baby.

  In our adult commonsense we are not going to tie our faith to a belief in an actual moving and hovering star that is so precise that can hover over a particular house in Bethlehem.  Our commonsense minds understand the difference between journalistic eye-witness accounts and the faith literature that is written to promote the adoration of Jesus Christ.  Our adult minds can study the context for how various kinds of literature were written.  Jesus is presented using the story themes from Hebrew Scriptures.  Jesus is presented using the common type of literature that was also used to encourage Roman citizenry to venerate their Emperors.  At the birth of Emperors, there were reports about the appearance of comets, all after the fact when the Emperor had plenty of propaganda writers to promulgate his image in the Empire.  Understanding this too, will help us understand this story of the magi as a political statement, even daring to present a fantastic birth story to compete with the stories about the Emperor’s birth.  On the level of our logical minds and our suspicion about actual hovering stars we understand how the literature functions in its context.

  So we have experienced primary naïveté and moved to adult suspicion of the literal but there is another level that we experience.  We experience a second naïveté when we move beyond a suspicion that would prevent us from having faith.  We experience the orientation into mystery and meaningful faith.  In this phase of interpretation we understand the significance of the early Christ-communities: they in no uncertain terms were beginning the globalization in the presentation of God’s love through the particular person of Jesus Christ.  Heretofore, the actual practice of Judaism tended to be limited to the ethnic community, in spite of the ancient prophets’ call for the universal invitation of God to all.  This universal invitation became more significantly achieved by the early Christ communities.  The magi are foreign pilgrims to the birth of Christ.  This was the story form of the globalization of the meaning of Christ.  The Epiphany or Manifestation or Showing of Christ meant that God was available, always and already to all people.  This is what Jesus Christ made known about God.  And this is what came to distinguish the practice of Christians from the other faith communities of their time.

  Evangelism simply means that God is globalized and no one can control access to God; no one can put limits upon whom God is available to.  Yes, indeed communities with imperfect and biased and small-minded and controlling people can limit access to their communities but they cannot deny access to God.  God is manifest to everyone, God is available and accessible.  And if we understand this we can enter into the second naïveté regarding the story of the three magi.

  So today, on this feast of the Epiphany, please don’t get tied up into a pretzel regarding belief and truth about the magi.  We simultaneously can live in the childlike wonder of the story; we can be true to our scientific suspicion about hovering stars; and we can enter the second naïveté and plumb the meaningful event of faith and spiritual pilgrimage that is affirmed and encouraged in this story.

  Let us be star light today shining the places of our lives to the event of the birth of Christ that is available to all.  It is not forced; it is available.  Let us be star lights as we help others to be wise persons, magi regarding the fact that indeed God is with us, God is with them, God is with all.  There are no foreigners to God.  Amen.