by Stephen Cottrell, Archbishop of York
Well, if there is one thing just about everyone knows about stars and the Christmas story, it’s that the Wise Men followed a star, and for them, the star signified the birth of a new king.
We see the Three Magi illustrated on Christmas cards, their story is retold in nativity plays and a king’s costume can be readily made at home. We can all recite a few lines of the carol ‘We Three Kings’. But I wonder if we might look at this Christmas story in a bit more detail.
We actually don’t know how many Wise Men travelled to Bethlehem. We assume it was three, from their three gifts of frankincense, gold and myrrh, but there might have been many more. We understand that they travelled from the East, but have no real knowledge of the length or distance of their journey taken. We are told also that they stopped following the star. They chose a slightly different route to visit King Herod and to tell him of the birth of the new King of the Jews with devastating consequences.
The Wise Men had no sat nav to programme in their final destination and neither did they have the amazing images that we have seen from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. The observatory launched into space is right now finding the first galaxies formed in the early Universe and as it peers through dusty clouds we see stars forming into planetary systems. How awesome is that?
So, reflecting on the epic journey of the Wise Men, I wonder what stars we choose to follow and what do we hope for? Whether we choose to follow a footballer or a favourite contestant on Strictly Come Dancing, we are choosing to follow them because we admire who they are. We might dare to hope to meet them one day in person. We might even think this is someone who can help us to make the right choices in our lives.
Faith is a wonderful unexplainable gift but it is also a choice. I chose to become a priest because I wanted the world to change. The song of the angels on Christmas night was a song of peace. Sadly we’ll celebrate this Christmas in Europe with a war going on, and that’s a very sobering thought. For me, a big part of being a Christian means continuing to believe, and carrying on however tough things seem. The end of the story isn’t actually the manger in Bethlehem that the Wise Men visited. It is the hope that this child brings to the world.
I think we all need something and someone to follow, someone who can help us make the right choices – for ourselves, for our nation, for our world and for the common good, as hearts and lives are transformed one by one and therefore the world. Christmas is the truly life-changing story of the birth of Jesus Christ, the gift of God.
Have a blessed Christmas.
Stephen Cottrell, Archbishop of York
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