068: Christmas Story 7: A Star to Guide Us
Monday, December 24, 2007 at 7:02PM 
MERRY CHRISTMAS! This is the 7th of our 7 Christmas stories! Click here to read: Part 1. Part 2. Part 3. Part 4. Part 5. Part 6. Part 7.
AND -- if in the year-end rush you missed our earlier Hanukkah Week series, you can jump back to enjoy that here: Part 1 of 5 for Hanukkah.
We end this year's series of real-life Christmas reflections with a story from a writer now living in rural Pennsylvania, the Rev. John Emmert -- who closes this holiday series by pointing us forward.
Of course, that's one of the greatest gifts of faith, isn't it? When we wake up each morning, and ask ourselves why we should climb out of bed to face another stressful day -- faith is the light that draws us outward toward other people and our community. And, at the end of each day, when we wonder if anything we did truly mattered in the long run -- faith is our hope that life is actually heading somewhere.
So John's story, today, ends this series but points us forward toward the Christian observance of Epiphany -- and beyond.
John is now retired from parish ministry, but he continues to fly as a licensed pilot and also continues his lifelong callings to study and writing. He is a remarkable Episcopal priest, having seen American life from a vast array of perspectives. In addition to his airborne perspectives, John has served parishes as far afield as Alaska and, for some years, Old Donation Episcopal Church in Virginia Beach, a congregation that first held services in 1637.
We're thrilled to have one of John's reflections close our series.
AND NOW, this holiday gift from the Rev. John Emmert ...
A Star to Guide Us
Several
years ago we finally put up a big, lighted star on our house.
We live at the end of a cul-de-sac,
and my wife and I had been keen on getting one ever since we moved in.
We always thought it would be the perfect Christmas decoration for our
house, and indeed it has turned out to be.
The truth
is, it’s a pretty humble star.
I got the wooden frame with arms
about four feet long at the Amish store up the road. Then I got
some of those rope lights to put on it. The first set I bought
was too long, then the second set was too short. Finally I figured
out how to make the longer set fit. In the meantime, of course,
I had seen several other ready-made stars in the store for considerably
less money than I had already invested in this one.
Sadly, I
next discovered that my ladder was not long enough to get the star hoisted
up to the peak of the gable where it needed to be hung. So I had
to improvise by getting up on the garage roof, then climbing from there
up to the main roof and making my way across to the other end of the
house.
Flying airplanes is my avocation, and I’ve fearlessly
flown many thousands of feet in the air, but walking across the top
of that roof carrying a star gave me very sweaty palms.
By this
time my wife, Kathy, had come out to see how it was going, and alternately
urged me to be careful and proclaimed to the whole neighborhood that
she thought this was the absolutely stupidest stunt she had ever seen
me attempt. Anyway, I crawled across the peak of the roof -- a kind
of crab walk with one foot on one side, the other on the other, keeping
my center of gravity as low as possible and dragging the star along.
Finally I got to the far end, and lying on my stomach, with my head
and hands stretched out beyond the edge, I managed to set the hook in
the gable vent and drop the star down into position. Then I made
my way back across roof and down the ladder where Kathy now waited. I got a big hug while listening to admonitions to
“act my age and never do anything like that again!”
The last
step was to go inside, lean way out the upstairs window, snag the power
cord and plug it into the timer so that the star would light up morning
and evening. Thankfully, it worked, turning out pretty much the
way I had imagined and hoped.
It was the
next morning that I noticed.
I went on an early morning walk,
in the dark this time of year. On my way down the hill back home,
I discovered that the star could be seen the whole length of the street.
And because of the way our house sits, the star looks like it’s sitting
just above the horizon. It looks very accessible, like maybe you
could reach out and touch it. It looks like a star you might follow,
to see where it’s located, to see how it came to be there, to see
what’s around and beneath it.
I liked
the idea. I always wondered how the Wise Men followed the star,
way up in the sky where it’s usually pictured. Our star is down
close. It gives a direction. It beckons. And so, this
humble star has become my Christmas/Epiphany icon -- and now, I suppose
I hope that it will be a little bit yours too. A big lighted star
on my house, pointing to Jesus, to all he was and is and might be, for
us who welcome him into our lives. We Christians believe that
God in Jesus comes to us, to our house, in our life, for the life of
the world; that’s what we celebrate in Christmas and Epiphany.
I hope that
you have seen God’s star beckoning you. A star which draws you
to welcome Jesus to a new place in your life. A star which points
to God’s grace and love and saving power -- concrete, active, not just
an intellectual possibility. A star that lights up a dark place
in your world. A star that illuminates new possibilities.
A star that points you to the one whose yoke is easy and whose burden
is light.
Could it
even be a star that draws the leaders of the world from dreams of war
and domination to embracing the Prince of Peace and King of Love?
Often, it’s a hard stretch to believe in the light and peace of God’s
grace in a world so full of nationalistic strivings and terrorist threats.
Obviously it is possible to turn away from Jesus’ star, to love darkness
more than light, to trust the flash of weapons more than the abiding
presence of God’s love in our midst.
The light
of my humble star is weak, but it points in the right direction.
It is attached to my house, to my life; we yearn for the Light of Christ
to be so fixed in our lives.
But the Christmas Star also has an
even broader reach: Its brilliant light has power to draw, to
invite, to guide, to raise up, to give warmth, to shed light, to proclaim
God’s will to envelope the whole world in his love and peace, to be
bathed in his glory.
May God’s light shine upon us this Christmas
season, and through all the seasons of our lives to bear witness to
our hymn: “Holy, Holy, Holy Lord, God of power and might.
Heaven and earth are full of your glory!”
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