First Star I See Tonight

Many of us know that children’s rhyme, “Star light, star bright — First star I see tonight; I wish I may, I wish I might…”  We gazed into the sky while the sun slowly sank below the horizon of trees and housetops.  The clear sky turning from blue to magenta and then dark orange, settling into a rich violet.  “First star I see tonight…”

This weary world yearns for something like a guiding star.  As those three sages are said to have followed the Epiphany Star of revelation, we desperately seek to arrive at some saving grace. 

The Christ Child we seek this year is not to be found in a manger but under the rubble of Gaza.  Covered in ashes and dust, covered in the blood of its parents, brothers, sisters, and neighbors.[1]

As Herod had not clean hands, Israel repaying massacre for massacre has not either.  Nor does the Western Church with its blasphemous and corrupt rapture theology which it uses to justify its unconditional support of destruction Netanyahu wreaks on Gaza.

Yes, what Hamas did was evil, but as my mother would caution, “Two wrongs do not make a right.”  The savage brutality inflicted on our Palestinian brothers and sisters will have consequences for generations.  Their blood will cry out from the ground unto the foreseeable years, unto decades.

Just as the blood of the Shatila Palestinian refugee camp of Lebanon still today cries out — still, from 1982, when on September 16-18, they were surrounded by Israeli forces which blocked all escape while they and their proxy, right-wing Christian militia allies, raped and massacred over 3000, mostly women and children. 

Our only hope is that some rays of that Epiphany Star reach deep down through the rubble of history, down through the rubble of our hearts.  “First star I see tonight…”

Daily, I search the paper, search my own experience, to find what little rays from that Star there are to be found.  And amid the deepest night, I somehow find enough to keep going.  To keep Hope alive.

The other day, in our Claremont Courier the lead article was, “This Church Saved Me.”  That got my curiosity.  We don’t always see churches up for that sort of action.  I wondered, what did they do?[2]

I wasn’t surprised to see this congregation stepping up to the plate on the issue of hunger.  I had heard that these folks believed in a gospel in action, a gospel “with feet,” as my friend, Pastor Kelvin, likes to say.

Before the pandemic the church’s food bank had been serving a couple hundred a week.  That has spiked to upwards of 1,400.  This is the pet project of Associate Pastor Zamar Alkiezar and his wife Anna. On Fridays, lines of cars are stacked up along Foothill Blvd. for blocks and blocks.

Their good work is certainly a ray of Hope from that Gospel Star for the homeless and unemployed who have come to depend on it. 

It is also a ray of Hope for the 35-some volunteers who take satisfaction in putting their faith to work.  Grace incarnate.  Joy all around.

One person interviewed, volunteer Arthur Munoz, allowed that he had been homeless.  As he “took a break from hefting large boxes of donated food into waiting cars,” he offered, “‘This church saved me.’”

One volunteer with Alzheimer’s disease helps keep the food distribution area clean.  “His daughter told [Pastor] Alkiezar that every week her dad looks forward to coming to the church for his job.”[3]  In that job is dignity.

The world at times can be in a most wretched state.  Just read any Cormac McCarthy novel.[4]  Our Advent journey has been through the time of “not yet.”  It has been a descent into the bowels of Hell.  Not a smidgen of any saving grace to the skeptical eye.  Those without rose-colored glasses who dare to have their eyes wide open — they know the wretchedness.

It is precisely such evil into which Christ comes, healing power in his wings.  As the prophet long foretold, “Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.  For darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples; but the Lord will arise upon you and his glory will appear over you.”

I insist on finding the “Good in the Neighborhood.”  It’s there in dribs and drabs.  If we seek it.  If we work for it.  Arise.  Shine.  That is the Star that brightens my life these days as they begin ever so slowly to lengthen.  Consigned to be part of God’s “nevertheless.”

Even amid the Gaza ruins, countless aid workers risk their lives to bring what comfort they can.  Almost one a day is killed in the bombing, yet they stay. 

Rushing stretcher patients on foot through impassable roads.  Comforting the survivors who have lost entire families.  One family in the south of Gaza, in a supposedly “safe zone,” lost over 90 of its members in one strike. 

With few hospitals left operational, doctors and nurses do what they can with the exhausted supplies of antibiotics and pain killers.  These desperate efforts are precious Gospel Rays for what little Hope there is for that abandoned Christ Child under the rubble.

As we trudge into the new year, the Gospel Ray of Light from the Epiphany Star will be our companion.

When we met at St. Francis with the folks, clergy and lay, of the Interfaith Communities United for Change, I told them that they were one of my best Christmas presents ever.  “You all look like allies,” I said.  We will definitely be blessed by the “street heat” they can bring to counter the NIMBY crowd, to counter weak-kneed politicians who will oppose our addiction recovery center, House of Hope – San Bernardino.  Brilliant rays of the same Light.

Indeed, “Arise, shine; for your Light has come…”

In Christ we hitch our wagon to a guiding star.  Every bit as sure and trustworthy as that Dipping Gourd for those fleeing their slavers, making their journey North.

This season of Epiphany is the season when, in Christ, the whole people of God make manifest through the real stuff of action, inward graces.

Food banks, addiction recovery, speeding ambulances, and in a hundred other ways, in the season of Epiphany faithful people grow into the fullness of the stature of Christ.  That is what our readings will be all about in the months to come – that long Green Season.  It’s for growth.  Not just in numbers but in depth as well.  In Spirit!

Yes, “See Him in the temple, talking with his elders—How they marvel at his wisdom.  See him at the seashore, preaching to the people – healing all the sickness.”

And see us in His image, making all kinds of good stuff happen as well.  Gospel Goodness is what we’re about this Green Season.  Anointed with the same Spirit.  “Arise, shine, your light has come…”  Splinters off that first Epiphany Star.  Amen.

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[1] This imagery comes from a sermon preached on Christmas Eve, 2023 at Christmas Evangelical Lutheran Church, Bethlehem by the Rev. Dr. Munther Isaac.  It may be found on YouTube.

[2] Steven Felschundneff, “This Church Saved Me,” Claremont Courier, December 22, 2023.

[3] Ibid.

[4] Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian, No Country for Old Men, for starters.  A very, very dark world.  If you’re depressed, DON’T read any of these.  It would only get worse. .

January 7, 2024
Epiphany Sunday

The Rev. Dr. John C. Forney
Isaiah 60:1-6; Psalm 72:1-7, 10-14;
Ephesians 3:1-12; Matthew 2:1-12

“First Star I See Tonight”