Arise, shine; for your light has come.
A Sermon by The Reverend Shearon Sykes Williams on The Feast of the Epiphany (transferred), January 8, 2022.
“Arise, shine; for your light has come.” Isaiah 60:1
In their book, “The Christmas Journey,” author Sally Fisher and illustrator Douglas Sardo, offer an imaginative retelling of the story of the three kings from today’s Gospel. Fisher’s inspiration for the tale was her visits to see her grandmother in New York City at Christmastime. Every year, as she was growing up, they would go the Metropolitan Museum of Art to see the famous Christmas tree and creche. The 20 foot tree is magnificently lit and looms over a gorgeous nativity scene with a multitude of life-like figures and glorious angels hovering above on the tree. The figures depict Naples’ multi-cultural population in the 18th century.
After Fisher and her grandmother shared this annual ritual, they would go back to her grandmother’s apartment and she would tell her granddaughter her own story of the journey of the tree, the angels, and all of the people and animals beneath the tree. Fisher’s book is her remembrance of the tale that enchanted her so much, a story that sparked her own curiosity and wonder about how to make meaning of today’s Gospel. What follows is my retelling of her story.
The first of the three kings is Jaspar, a handsome young man who rules a kingdom in Africa. Jaspar is a man of action. He dreams of heroic deeds and he longs for a chance to prove himself. He wants to make his mark on the world.
Melchior is the oldest of the three kings. His kingdom is somewhere beyond the Red Sea. He is completely focused on the life of the mind. His favorite intellectual pursuit is astronomy. He is so consumed with his scientific studies that he spends very little time with other people. In fact, he thinks of people as a distraction.
And the last of the three kings is Balthasar, ruler of a land called Godolia. He is in the mid-years of life and he is busy, busy, busy. His passion is the pursuit of beauty, so a lot of his activity revolves around acquiring beautiful things for his palace. He also loves his wife and daughter dearly and his favorite thing is showering them with lavish gifts.
The one thing that all of these men have in common, other than being kings, is that they love to gaze at the night sky. Jaspar, the youngest one, looks at the sky and wonders how he will be able to make an indelible mark on the world and become famous. Melchior, the eldest, wants to understand the universe; he is determined to solve the mystery of the movement of the sun, moon and stars. Balthasar, the man in the middle, ponders the stars as a way of relaxing after his endless days of frenetic activity.
Each of them sees a new star one night and they are so captivated by it that they each suddenly decide, for some reason that they cannot fully explain, that they have to embark upon a journey, to discover where the star leads. Jaspar wonders if it could lead him to his heroic destiny. Melchior thinks that he might be able to find another scholar who can explain the star to him. Balthasar looks at the star and suddenly thinks that he needs to change his life, but he doesn’t know how, and this thought fills him with a strange combination of hope and confusion. They each set out on their journey, for their different reasons, with their royal entourages, their families, and servants and provisions, and after many individual adventures, they discover each other when their three routes converge one day. And their initial suspension and alarm upon meeting one another turns into a decision to go forward together, after they realize that they all saw the new star on the same night and all have the same goal to discover it’s source.
Together they realize that the world is so much bigger than any had ever imagined and make all kinds of discoveries, some good and some not so good. They go to Jerusalem and enter the court of a Herod, a king more powerful than all three of them put together. They realize that he is conniving and fearful that the star might mean a king destined to become even more powerful than he has been born.
They go forth from there, and just as their provisions are about to run out, they come upon some shepherds who offer them hospitality and a sumptuous peasant’s feast of olives, cheese, bread, wine and fellowship. They sleep on the ground for the first time in their lives, the kings next to the shepherds. And suddenly angels fill the sky, shedding a beautiful, soft light on the earth, singing, “A child has been born who has been sent from heaven to bring peace and goodwill into the world. This child can be found in the village of Bethlehem, in a poor, broken-down place in the ruins, lying in straw, surrounded by animals.” The shepherds and the kings get up and set off immediately, the shepherds leading the way.
When they reach the place that the angels had told them about, Melchior removes his crown and places his box of gold in the straw and thinks “From the first night I saw the new star, I began to realize that I have been mistaken my whole life. I have tried to live apart from others. I thought the world was full of evil, while the starry night was perfect. Since then I have met people who can teach me so much…And look at this infant; it will not even learn to walk without the help of adults! Human beings must help each other.” He even decides to share his love of astronomy with his grandchild. Young King Jaspar walks up and presents a jar of myrrh. He suddenly realizes that his desire to become a hero in other people’s eyes was a selfish goal. “A whole life of small kindnesses would be a very great thing..even if it would never make him famous.” Balthasar lays his jewel-covered chest at the baby’s feet. He thinks the mother, father and child “look so beautiful that they seem to glow from within.” He now understands that “the beauty of that moment can only be beheld, and then remembered.” He no longer has the need to fill every moment of every day with busi-ness and sees that the purpose of beauty is to lead us to the sacred.
The three kings talked for many days as they began their trip home, knowing their lives had been changed forever, and yet understanding that they would be changed even more as they pondered all that had happened. Something very old, something older than time itself, had been revealed to them in the face of the little child, something universal and yet very particular and personal, a gift specific to each of them, an enduring treasure to be savored and shared. And today, on this Feast of the Epiphany, they offer that gift to us.
“Arise, shine; for your light has come.”