“The Star of Hope” by the Rev. Don Wahlig, December 31, Christmas I - New Year’s Eve – [Texts from Epiphany of the Lord] Isaiah 60:1-6 • Psalm 72:1-7, 10-14 • Ephesians 3:1-12 • Matthew 2:1-12

THEME:  Christ as our Morningstar is the true star of hope pointing us to seek Christ in our daily living. 

Are you one of those people who stay up on New Year’s Eve to usher in the New Year at midnight?  Maybe watching the festivities around the world, especially in New York? If so, you are not alone. One minute before midnight tonight, millions across the globe will watch the ball drop in Times Square.  When I was in my twenties, we used to do that in person. As I was thinking about that experience, I began to wonder about the ball itself. Where did this whole ball-dropping idea come from?

It turns out the history goes back further than you might think. In the 1800s, ships approaching shore needed to verify the accuracy of their clocks in order to navigate correctly. So, high atop a building on shore there would be a pole with a large painted wooden ball at the top.  It was called a time ball. It was dropped at a predetermined time.  That would allow the ship navigators offshore to verify the correct time on board.

In 1907, the time ball gave New York Times publisher Adolph Ochs an idea. He hired a Ukrainian immigrant named Jacob Starr to build a similar device on top of the New York Times Building. That first ball was fairly modest. It was made of wood and metal, 5-feet in diameter, and weighed 700 pounds. Mounted on the outside were 100 light bulbs. As midnight approached, it was lowered by hand to signal the coming of the New Year. Crowds gathered to watch it and the idea caught on. With the exception of WWII, the ball has dropped in Times Square every New Year’s Eve since. The ball itself, however, has changed considerably.

The current ball was made in Ireland by Waterford Crystal.  It is far grander than the original. It is 12 feet in diameter. It weighs a whopping 12,000 pounds.  It's covered with thousands of crystal triangles illuminated by 30,000 colored LED lights controlled by computer. It is simply magnificent. Somewhere along the line, it was given a name. It was called The Star of Hope.

It reminds us of what we read in our scripture passage from Matthew. It is the familiar story of the Magi. Sometimes they are called wise men, or even kings. In reality, they were a group of religious scholars specializing in astronomy. They studied the skies night after night, looking for signs of what God was doing in the world.  On the night of Jesus’ birth, the magi saw a star they had not seen before. They understood it to be the sign that a new king had been born. They used that star to navigate their way to Jerusalem. With a little help from Herod’s scriptural experts, the Magi followed the star to Bethlehem.  There they found the new-born king, lying in the manger. 

They were overwhelmed with joy.  The star had led them to the place they most wanted to go. Isn’t that what we all hope for? Wouldn’t it be great if life were like that? In our hearts, we treasure our deepest hopes and desires.  Then a sign like a star appears and leads us to realize them. It’s an almost childlike wish, isn’t it? And, in fact, it comes from our childhood.

As children, we learn the old nursery rhyme about wishing on a star. “Starlight, star bright, first star I see tonight: I wish I may, I wish I might, have this wish I wish tonight.”  Then, so long as you don't tell anyone your wish, supposedly it will come true.

It’s no coincidence that this is also the message of the Walt Disney theme song many of us grew up with. You know the one I mean. It’s the one Jiminy Cricket sang to Pinocchio:

“When you wish upon a star, makes no difference who you are, anything your heart desires, will come to you.”

This habit of wishing on a star to make our hopes come true carries over into adulthood.  In reality, that is exactly what we are doing on New Year’s Eve. When we turn the calendar to the new year, we make all sorts of hopeful resolutions and wishes. We make wishes for ourselves, for others, for loved ones, for the community, the country, and the world – for peace, prosperity and good will among all peoples. All over the globe, as they watch that ball drop in Times Square tonight, millions will be wishing on the Star of Hope. They will see in that magnificent, sparkling crystal ball the star that they hope will lead to the realization of their wishes.

But friends as you and I consider what it is that we most want for ourselves, for our families and friends, for our community and country, and for our world, let me suggest that we look to a different star. It’s a star you can see not just once a year, but every day. If you are an early riser and you look toward the horizon in the eastern sky, you will see a bright star that appears shortly before the sun comes up. That star is actually a planet.  It is Venus. Next to the sun and moon, Venus is the brightest star in the sky.  You can’t miss it. When Venus rises, it is the sure sign that the sun will soon follow.  That is why Venus is called the Morningstar. 

After sunset, Venus appears again in the western sky. Because of its brightness and its movement from East to West, many theologians and astronomers believe it was Venus that the Magi were following to find the Christ child. Venus is the sign for you and me, too. It is the sign that points us to Christ, just as it did the Magi. It is the daily reminder that the Son – that’s s-o-n – is soon to come. 

Christ came to us on that very first Christmas. He promised he would come again. In the meantime, Venus – named for the goddess of love - is the reminder that we should seek Christ, the King of Love, each and every day in our daily living. It is the true star of hope, pointing to Jesus who is the true source of all hope. As the writer of I Peter advises, always be ready to give an account of the hope that is within you.

Well, here is our account: The source of our hope is God who loves his children so much that he chose to become one of us. He did not come as a great king or powerful general. Instead, he came into this world as a tiny, vulnerable infant, born to impoverished first-time parents living under military occupation and forced to give birth, not in a palace, but among the animals far from home.  In Christ, God took onto himself all the pain and suffering this world has to dish out. He gave his life so that you and I would have real life, life in all its fullness, lived for all eternity in God’s presence. That is the hope you and I celebrate in this Christmas season. 

In the long, dark night of suffering on earth, we have a daily reminder of our hope. The Morningstar tells us that Jesus is soon to return with eternal daylight, with endless dawn.  That is why we Christians are fundamentally hopeful people. So, tonight when all the fireworks are going off outside, what will you be doing? Assuming you are not the one lighting them, of course. Maybe you will be sipping a glass of bubbly and humming Auld Lang Syne. Or maybe you will simply be sitting on your couch watching people celebrate all over the world. 

When you see a picture of the crowds in Times Square waiting for the ball to drop, take a moment to remember your true star of hope. Instead of making a wish, let’s all do something a little more practical. Let’s offer up a prayer.  If you will turn to the back page of your bulletin, you will see a New Year’s prayer in the form of a poem. It was written 170 years ago by Alfred Lord Tennyson. The custom of his day was for churches to ring bells at midnight to ring in the new year, hence the name of the poem. 

We will read this responsively:

Ring Out Wild Bells

L:    Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky,
The flying cloud, the frosty light:
The year is dying in the night;
Ring out, wild bells, and let him die.

ALL:  Ring out the old, ring in the new,
Ring, happy bells, across the snow:
The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true.

Men: Ring out the grief that saps the mind
For those that here we see no more;
Ring out the feud of rich and poor,
Ring in redress to all humankind.

Women:      Ring out a slowly dying cause,
And ancient forms of party strife;
Ring in the nobler modes of life,
With sweeter manners, purer laws.

ALL:  Ring out the want, the care, the sin,
The faithless coldness of the times;
Ring out, ring out my mournful rhymes
But ring the fuller minstrel in.

Men: Ring out false pride in place and blood,
The civic slander and the spite;
Ring in the love of truth and right,
Ring in the common love of good.

Women:  Ring out old shapes of foul disease;
Ring out the narrowing lust of gold;
Ring out the thousand wars of old,
Ring in the thousand years of peace.

All:    Ring in the valiant human and free,
The larger heart, the kindlier hand;
Ring out the darkness of the land,
Ring in the Christ that is to be.

May it be so.