Pastor Will Rose's homily on this significant occasion of the 11th day of Christmas and Epiphany Sunday elucidates the profound tenet that God is a mystery, yet one that intimately desires relationship with humanity. He invites us to contemplate the celestial event of the Bethlehem star, exploring its theological implications and its connection to the Magi, whose recognition of Jesus as King challenges prevailing notions of authority. Through a thoughtful discourse on the intersection of faith and science, Will encourages us to embrace our questions and longings while recognizing the divine presence embodied in Christ.

This message serves to remind us of the enduring relevance of these ancient narratives, urging us to seek wisdom and discernment in our spiritual journeys. Ultimately, we are called to traverse a different path, guided by the light of Christ amidst the complexities of our world.

On the 11th day of Christmas, Pastor Will Rose delivered a profound homily that seamlessly intertwined the themes of the Christmas season with the upcoming celebration of Epiphany. He commenced by acknowledging the unique intersection of these two significant occasions, emphasizing the importance of both Christ's birth and the revelation of His identity to the world. The scripture reading from Matthew, detailing the visit of the Magi, served as the backdrop for his reflections.

Pastor Will elaborated on the notion that God is indeed a mystery, a truth that transcends the boundaries of time and context. He invited the congregation to ponder the vastness of the universe and the divine's desire for an intimate relationship with humanity. This led to a contemplation of the Magi as seekers of truth, who, despite their pagan origins, recognized Jesus as the King. In this poignant narrative, Will urged his church to embrace the light of Christ and to discern the true nature of authority in their lives, advocating for a path illuminated by faith rather than the oppressive shadows of tyranny.

Takeaways:

1. Pastor Will Rose emphasizes the profound mystery of God, which transcends human understanding and comprehension.
2. The homily illustrates the significance of the Magi as insightful figures who recognized the divine nature of Jesus amidst imperial authority.
3. In the context of Epiphany, the message challenges us to explore the fusion of faith and science through cosmic observations and reflections.
4. Pastor Will advocates for a deeper engagement with our spiritual questions, particularly during the seasons of Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany.
5. The story of the Magi serves to highlight the universal accessibility of God's revelation to all people, regardless of their background.
6. Through the exploration of the Bethlehem star, we are invited to consider the interplay between divine miracles and natural phenomena in our understanding of faith.

.

Check out merch for this podcast and discover other podcasts on the Anazao Podcast Network on our website:

https://anazao-podcasts-shop.fourthwall.com/

Foreign.

Thank you for engaging with the homily by Pastor Chill Will from Chapel Hill.

I hope this message encourages you, challenges you and moves you to go deeper in your faith and enrich how you love God and love your neighbor in your day to day life.

Just a reminder.

Like the scriptures and Gospels themselves, this homily was written for a particular community in a particular, particular context, time in history.

And yet, like our sacred texts, I hope that these words hold timeless truths about God's unconditional love and grace.

We hope these words speak to you in a meaningful way.

Good morning, Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and Merry Epiphany.

Yes, welcome to worship.

I'm Pastor Will.

Welcome to Holy Trinity and Lutheran Campus Ministry.

Yes, Today is the 11th day of Christmas and so that's why we're still lighting the Advent candles and Christ Candle and still have the Christmas tree up.

But as you'll notice in our liturgy this morning, we also have a transition into the Day of epiphany, which is January 6th this Tuesday.

So today is kind of a blend.

The Holy Gospel According to Matthew in the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem, asking, where is the child who was, who has been born King of the Jews?

For we have observed his star in the east and have come to pay him homage.

When King Herod heard this, he was frightened, and all of Jerusalem with him, and calling together all the chief priests and the scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born.

They told him, in Bethlehem of Judea.

So it has been written by the prophet and you, Bethlehem in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah, for from you shall come a ruler who is to shepherd my people Israel.

Then Herod secretly called for the Magi and learned from them the exact time when the star had appeared.

Then he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, go and search diligently for the child, and when you have found him, bring me word so that I may go and pay him homage.

They had heard the king.

They set out, and there ahead of them went the star that they had seen in the east until it stopped over the place where the child was.

When they saw the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy.

On entering the house, they saw the child with Mary, his mother.

They knelt down and paid him homage.

Then, opening their treasure chest, they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.

Having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod they left for their own country by another road.

This is the Gospel of the Lord, the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy spirit.

On this 11th day of Christmas, I declare God is a mystery.

Duh, Pastor Will, that's no brainer, right?

Of course the divine is a mystery.

And the words and images we use to try to reflect and articulate the divine ultimacy, we ultimately fall short.

And yet we believe in a personal God who desires to be in relationship with us, refuses to be God without us.

One of my favorite things to do is stargazing Gaze at the heavens and the stars and the planets and the cosmos and ponder and wonder and be in awe of the vastness of the universe to ask the big questions all of us ask and ponder, echoing Psalm 8 when I look to the heavens, what are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them?

During Advent, we spend time with these questions and lean into our longings and we wait and prepare for a promised Messiah.

At Christmas, we see God's response to our questions and longings and hopes by Christ being born for us and with us, a sign and a symbol revelation of God's ultimate solidarity with the human condition.

Epiphany is a season of cosmic unveiling, God disclosing and revealing who this Christ is and what kind of Messiah he will be and is.

And to kick off the day of the epiphany, the season of epiphany, we we begin with one of my favorite stories in all of scripture, the one we heard just read a few moments ago.

Now, I know there is a star in our Gospel reading, and it appears there is a small band of rebels who resist against empire by going owned by a different row.

But I'm not going to do any Star wars theology this morning.

However, I do want to go down the important road of faith and science.

First, a little background and context.

Around 10 years ago, longtime member of Holy Trinity and professor emeritus of physics at Duke, Al Goshaw, heard an interview by Jesuit brother and astronomer Gay Guy Consolmano on the NPR podcast.

On being on the podcast, Brother Guy talked about the main questions at the crossroads of faith and science.

Again, notice the use of the word and and not or and then he shared part of his book would you baptize an extraterrestrial?

And other questions from the astronomer's inbox at the Vatican Observatory.

I cannot recommend this book enough.

Spoiler alert.

When someone asked him would he baptize an extraterrestrial, he said, only if she asked to be Al shared this interview and book with me and other members of the congregation who are scientists and we agree that this would be a great book to study together.

That book study re energized our engagement with issues and questions around faith and science.

So much so that we eventually received a grant from Fuller Seminary to go deeper with these questions and issues, specifically with emerging adults to break down the myth that one has to choose faith or science.

With that grant and our experiences and conversations, we discovered over and over again that there are plenty of scientists who happen to be people of faith and people of faith who happen to be scientists.

And through these deeper relationships and wrestling with the questions, there emerged other organizations and relationships that we became involved with, like science for the church that eventually led for us commissioning a brand new faith and science hymn.

And I've been working on a limited series of faith and science podcast through a mini grant through the North Carolina Synod called you'd Matter Matters.

Hopefully that will come out later on this month.

I'm preparing for this Sunday and this message and reflecting on Christmas and the day of the Epiphany.

I was reminded of chapter four in Would you baptize an extraterrestrial?

Entitled what is the star of Bethlehem?

Brother Guy shares that since they observe and oversee the Vatican's observatory and they look at the stars and the cosmos all the time, this question is one of the top emails and questions they get on a daily basis.

He and his colleague at the Vatican Observatory, Father Paul Mueller, shared that this short story, only found in the Gospel of Matthew, is a great icon revealing a healthy dialogue between faith and science because it has elements of both.

So they lift up the important questions of what was the star?

Was it a star?

Really?

Was it a miracle or some kind of natural phenomenon?

Or perhaps both?

And more importantly, why did the author of Matthew choose to place this story in his story about Jesus?

Brother Guy and Father Paul all share that the top candidates for what this Bethlehem star could be is perhaps a supernova.

Huh?

Where's Louis?

He asked as we are walking away from children's he goes, what about a supernova?

I was like, well, here you go.

A star that goes supernova is a star that gets super bright right before it explodes.

These events can be seen even in the daytime, but these events are super rare, and stars tend to be orderly and predictable and and evidence of their explosions can be traced for thousands of years after they've taken place.

There doesn't seem to be any remnants of a supernova around the time of the birth of Christ.

The most astronomers, including Brother Guy and Father Paul, rule this one out.

Maybe it was a comet.

Again, comets are very predictable and easy to investigate.

Their paths and evidence of their existence, so they rule that one out as well.

Perhaps it was an unusual configuration or an alignment of planets that when stacked near each other in the night sky, they look like a giant bright star.

This is a leading candidate because Kepler even noticed that in 7 B.C.

jupiter and Saturn aligned with each other and made a spectacle in the sky.

And that most people noticed.

But the question still lingers.

Why were the Magi the only ones who noticed in Matthew's story about Jesus, this star, Brother Guy likes the theory that connects the magi themselves and their vocation and their lives with the star.

You see, the Magi were not necessarily we three kings.

There were three gifts.

But notice Matthew never mentions how many Magi there were.

These Magi were pagan astrologers who studied the star so they could make predictions and horoscopes for kings and rulers.

The spiritual advisors to the kings, the Magi's were the one who were studying and looking at the stars and the configuration of the planets, doing their best to make meaning of those alignments.

It was widely known that Caesar Augustus claimed that a certain planetary alignment with the sun predicted and confirmed his royalty and lordship around the time of Jesus's birth, give or take a few years.

Side note, we really don't know the exact time and date Jesus was born.

The church just set the celebration of Jesus's birth around the winter solstice to make a theological point that Jesus is the light of the world.

But around the time of when we think Jesus was born, there was a particular configuration and alignment of the planets Venus, Mercury, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn that had a particular alignment with the sun at the same time of a new moon.

But the star was.

The sky was really dark, that star was really, really bright.

Interestingly, this was very similar to Caesar Augustus's claim that an alignment was the meaning of his lordship.

And so these wise men and magi would have noticed the star in alignment and connected it with royalty.

The author of Matthew would most likely have known this claim from Augustus.

And perhaps he too wanted to say, well, guess what, we can make that claim too.

So is this 12 verse story only found in the Gospel of Matthew a scientifically provable story or a theological point Matthew wanted to make for his community and readers?

Yes.

Does it have to be either or better?

Perhaps it's both.

And maybe it was a configuration of planets or some object in space that shined a great light just at the right time.

But whether this star can be scientifically proven or not, there is this radical move that Matthew makes by hanging a star in the sky and bringing the Magi into the Jesus story.

The first people in the Gospel of Matthew who recognized Jesus for who he is were pagan foreigners who use astrology to find him.

Yep.

Boom.

Supernova.

Wow, I just had an epiphany.

Horoscopes and astrology are frowned upon in the Hebrew scriptures because it is seen as breaking the first commandment.

You shall have no other gods.

The rotations and alignments of the stars and planets do not guide or oversee our destiny.

Only God does.

And yet, in this so strange that just might be true story, Matthew sets up the premise that perhaps God revealed what the divine is up to in Christ through the tools of the Magi.

Share with his readers and his community that Jesus is Lord and King not just of Israel, but for all nations, all people.

People, then and now, look to the stars in awe for hope and signs of life and meaning.

God knows this.

A common ground in faith and science is that we can stand on with the human ability to wander and dream and long for hope and be in awe of the heavens and ask questions and search for meaning and purpose.

God uses this all the time to reach out to us, to let us know that there is a bigger story that we are a part of.

Advent is a time when we align ourselves with our deepest questions and longing for a Savior.

At Christmas we celebrate the gift that God is with us in solidarity with the human condition in flesh and blood.

Epiphany is a time when God shines a spotlight on Jesus, revealing who this Messiah truly is.

What makes the Magi wise is that they recognize and identify Jesus as King, not Herod.

And they chose to disobey and resist and civil disobedience against the one claiming to be King and then choosing a different road rather than imperial tyranny and authoritarianism.

So this epiphany, I challenge you to get out your telescopes and tools of observation, keep examining the mysterious and awe inspiring cosmic forces to examine, to discern the Herods of this world, but also more importantly, Jesus.

Together we have the spiritual wisdom to know the difference between the two.

Then we can travel by a different road.

The way of Christ with the light of the world leading the way.

A liaison on our world, on our way.

Amen.

Thank you for listening.

If there is anything that stood out for you, or if you have a question or you just want to have a conversation.

You are always free to reach out and contact us.

And remember you are not alone.

And that you are loved with a.

Love stronger than death.

Sam.