Christmas Eve, “A Star Is
Born”
Please say again with
me, “The stars in the sky / looked down where he lay, / the little Lord
Jesus, / asleep on the hay.” Our Advent theme, “Mountains and Plains, Highs
and Lows: Wait and Watch, Imagine and Dream,” leads us tonight to look from
the highest of places, the stars in the sky, upon the lowest and smallest of
persons, the little Lord Jesus, asleep on the hay. And we know by the
viewpoint of space, we are the lowest and smallest of planets as well, what
astronomer Carl Sagan calls “a pale blue dot,” and so we cradle the globe
tonight just as we cradle the child. For our fates are connected,
infinitely, with theirs.
When we say there are “stars in our
eyes,” what do we usually mean? We’re in love! The birth of Jesus is God’s
way of inviting us to fall in love with God all over again! It may not be
easy to love some old distant concept of God. But it is impossible to
resist God made as small, as fragile, as vulnerable, as us! Tonight we
pretend we can see through the eyes of the stars. We see the whole world,
the earth, as seen from the heavens this night.
Carl Sagan encourages us, “Look again at
that dot. That’s here. That’s home. That’s us. On it everyone you love,
everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of . . . . on a mote of dust
suspended in a sunbeam . . . . To me it underscores our responsibility to
deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and to cherish the pale
blue dot.” Audrey in our office, mother of just two year-old Madeline, says
Sagan’s image and our care for it makes her think of “Horton Hears a Who”
from Dr. Seuss: “’I’ll help you,’ said Horton. ‘But who are you?
Where? / He looked and he looked. He could not see anything there /
But a small speck of dust blowing past through the air.” “’I’ll just have
to save him. Because, after all, / A person’s a person, no matter how
small!’”
Tonight the God who sits high once again has
looked low and has come to us in pure love. What with do with a child but
love? And care! And nurture! And grow! Stars are players in tonight’s
cosmic drama, enlivening skies with both light and love, revealing God in
most unlikely form and setting. Tonight we see heavenly views. Tonight we
hear heavenly voices! Tonight of world awake and of earth rebirth! Hark!
Through the eyes of the stars: No differences, no distinctions! No
boundaries, no borders, no barriers! No hierarchies of class, of color, of
condition in life! Nor even of creed! The stars see no gender, no
sexuality, to nation, no tongue!
Tonight we imagine, anew and afresh, the
world, and the earth, and our lives in it and on it and with one another.
Jesus begins even to embody for us reimagination of the whole universe! New
ways of seeing, of hearing, of thinking, of feeling, of speaking, of doing,
of connecting and of relating to one another! New ways of community and
solidarity with one another. New ways of embracing and standing with one
another. All looking possible once again as we let ourselves see through
the eyes of the stars beholding this night of rebirth!
Carl Sagan sees it and says,
spectacularly yet soberly, “Our planet is a lonely speck in the great
enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, all this vastness, there is no
hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us.” The messiah is, there
is no messiah, exclaims God this evening, and here I am! The very next baby
you meet! Every child born anywhere on this earth! Born with the fragile
promise, the full potential of the whole human race. The species on whose
creative and gentle rebeginnings this night all other species yearn and
depend.
Tonight, by the stars, we dare see the
invisible! We dare hear the inaudible! We dare comprehend, even if for a
flashing and fleeting moment, the incomprehensible! We dare imagine and
dream the unimaginable and the undreamable! We dare express the
inexpressible and even dare name the unnameable: Jesus! Savior! Messiah!
Christ! Child of God! Child of Us! Wonderful Counselor! Mighty God!
Everlasting Father! Prince of Peace! One who saves! One who sets free!
One who heals! One who makes whole! Even here! Even us! Even now! And
to the star-encompassing ends of the earth!
A poem by Brother John at Weston Priory –
“From distant darkness / far beyond
our knowing / darts a star / across the horizon of our lives / a light
like a blossom / that blooms and fades; / a light that dies / and rises
again / from beneath the frozen snow of destiny / of human love and hate
and fear;
“A one-time gift / that never fails /
to reappear; / that once-for-all rejected / offers itself / again and
yet again.
“Blood-Red-Rose / cut from stump and
stem / of Jesse’s tree -- / God’s gift set free / for all humanity.
“beyond the stars / and cosmic
dreams; / from farthest reaches of space and time, / your word is sent,
O God, / to set our hearts ablaze / to turn another page / of history.
“We the deaf the blind the lame, /
the naked and the homeless; / we wait again and yet again / to hear your
healing word of Peace: / Emmanuel.”
As cosmologist Brian Swimme might say
of this night: Stars giving birth, bearing light, and life, and love,
for us as for each other, -- that we might give birth as well, bear
light, and life, and love, for others as for ourselves. “Only by
establishing ourselves within the unfolding cosmos as a whole can we
begin to discover the meaning and significance of ordinary things.”
What could be more ordinary than the scene in the manger, more cosmic
than the view of the stars. Sisters and brothers, in the cosmic view
and the cosmic voice of us tonight, the real human venture, the
continuing Advent-ure, toward the maturity of “Peace! Good will toward
all!” begins again! Perhaps for the very first time. In every next
child we meet. As the divine child becomes flesh anew in every human
child.
Sister Mary Lou Kownacki tells of the
journey resuming in us this night –
“Once they saw a star / that pointed
to a promised land, / to a land of peace. / Peacemakers set out to
follow that star.
“It is both a joyful and arduous
journey. / Sometimes the star shines brightly, / the promise seems
certain, / and the pilgrims can sing, / ‘How beautiful are the feet of
those / who bring God’s peace.’ / Often the star disappears, / clouded
over, hidden from view, / and the pilgrims grope blindly, / grow
discouraged, get weary, / give thought to settling down, / to forgetting
the promise of peace.
“One thing is certain: / all pilgrims
need nourishment / to sustain the journey. / An occasional oasis for the
spirit / is essential, / a time to feast / on the refreshing waters, /
the rich food of the spirit / in order to get strength / to continue the
pilgrimage through darkness, / star-shine or not.”
Star-shine or not. Come! Let us feast
on the light of the life and the love of this new star born in each and in
all of us tonight. Amen.
John Auer, Pastor
