Be Present to the Light

“In the beginning…” John begins his birth story not in Bethlehem, not with angel announcements, not with Mary and Joseph’s humble obedience, not with the shepherd’s excitement, not with the magi’s curiosity, and not with Herod’s resistance. Long before, when out of darkness and chaos, the Word spoke, “Let there be light.” It was that Word that entered the temporal, that came from eternity into the chronological timeline and took flesh.

Christmas, said Bishop Gregory of Nyssa around 370, is the “festival of re-creation.” It is as if God said, “I want humanity to see my face. I want them to hear my voice. I want them to touch me. I want them to smell my sweat. I want them to eat my body. I want to live their life. I want them to live my life.” “And the word became flesh and lived among us.”

In Hebrew the term dabar means both “word” and “deed,” so to say something is to do something. NT Wright points out, “When I speak a word, it is, in a sense, part of me. It’s a breath that comes from inside me, making the noise that I give it with my throat, my mouth and my tongue. When people hear it, they assume I intended it. ‘But you said…,’ people comment, if our deeds don’t match up to our words.” “…words create new situations.” “I quit. I love you. I have to go. I’ll be there.” We are “responsible for the words we say.”

John begins and ends his birth story, “by stressing that the Word was and is God, and is intimately close to God.” NT Wright comments, “John knows perfectly well he’s making language go beyond what’s normally possible, but it’s Jesus that makes him do it;…the Word became flesh – that is became human, became one of us. He became, in fact, the human being we know as Jesus….if you want to know who the true God is, look long and hard at Jesus.”

Frederick Beuchner wrote, “God never seems to weary of trying to get across to us. Word after word God tries in search of the right word. When the creation itself doesn’t seem to say it right—sun, moon, stars, all of it—God tries flesh and blood.”

Jesus is the Word, there from the beginning, before the Word became spoken, in essence light and life. I love the way that Eugene Peterson’s para-translation The Message:

The Word was made flesh and blood and moved into the neighborhood. We saw the glory with our own eyes, the one-of-a-kind glory, like Father, like Son, generous inside and out, true from start to finish.

And here is the lesson for us, as we reflect on how we welcomed the Christ child into the world this Christmas, as we celebrate Epiphany and receive today a star word. “He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him.” Jesus said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” and tells us, “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. ¹⁵ Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. ¹⁶ In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.”

We are drawn at Christmas to the light of Christ…in the peace of the glow of our trees and in the joy of the sparkle of our gatherings…in the hope of the candlelight passed among us…and in the love shared through cards and calls and gifts. No one departs from worshiping Baby Jesus unchanged; when we come to be present to the light, we become bearers of the light, visible signs of God’s inward and spiritual presence in this world.

One of the ways we can be present to the light is to focus on a word to notice and seek to embody in the world. On Epiphany Sunday, in churches all over the world, people are given a star with a word on it, remembering the star that guided the magi. This will be the third year that Farmington has observed this tradition.

So, what is a star word, and what does it mean? First, it is not magical. It is a word to focus us in prayer. Just as the magi trusted that God could use a star, we know that God uses multiple ways to guide us and speak to us. Star words offer a tool to actively seek and reflect on God’s presence in our lives, both in the moment and in hindsight.

Most of the time when we pray, we speak to God rather than listening in silence or contemplation. A star word invites us to begin with reflecting on where we have seen this word in our life, or where God is calling us to seek this word more in our life. It opens us to listening. One year my star word was “possibility” – and I found that it opened me to take intentional steps toward taking a sabbatical. Another year, my star word was “solitude” – and it reminded me to seek quiet time alone and to notice how long it had been since I had. This last year my star word was “integrity” – and I found that it caused me to be open to God’s nudge to step in and courage to speak out when it might have been easier to be quiet, but not as faithful or true.

Star words are a way that we learn to be present to and to bear Christ’s light. As you come forward to receive Communion, or if you will raise your hand where you are we will bring one to you, you are invited to select a star with a guiding word for the year ahead. By not looking at or sorting through the star words at their selection, we practice the spiritual task of receiving. It is not we who are in control in this moment. Instead, we trust that God is present.

May these star words make us present to the light. May they guide us, invite us, challenge us, and remind us to be present to God, moving into our neighborhood as we make space in our lives for his glory to be seen in us. May they cause us to draw closer to Jesus so that his light shines in us.  And now the non-poetic way of saying it: Take the word on this star, and then take a good, long look at Jesus’s life, asking “How do I see this word in his life?” then pattern your life after his. Amen.