Sermons

“Of Mages, Sages, Astrologers and Alchemists”
John 1:1-18
Desert Palm United Church of Christ
January 2, 2005 – The Ninth Day of Christmas
“The stars in the sky looked down where he lay.” We sang those words together eight evenings ago. That traditional Christmas carol grants a kind of personality to the stars- the heavenly host- almost as if they were living beings. Living stars is a metaphor for us, but, quite unintentionally, the composer of “Away in a Manger” revealed the beliefs of the ancient world about stars. Stars really were living agents of God- the “heavenly host.” Their movement in the skies was measured by every ancient society, and people tried to find parallels between their actions and events happening down here on earth, believing even in the possibility that the stars could help us to predict important events ahead of time. Such people were called “astrologers”, and those who devoted themselves to this primitive science were considered wise. Today such practitioners would be considered cranks and charlatans, kooks and manipulators of the gullible.

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