A scientist seeking knowledge in the laboratory
... a pastor discerning truth in the Scriptures ... an adult son of
aging parents searching for the wisdom to lighten their burden of
failing health: I am all of these things. Growing up I was nurtured in
Christian faith, yet also encouraged to pursue my curiosity about the
natural universe.
A
good-natured father helping me set up my telescope on the roof ... a
mother nervously wondering what she might find dissected on the kitchen
table, relieved when bedtime devotions arrived without injury or
explosion: these memories come flooding back to me now in that same
house in Oklahoma, where I’ve come on leave from pastoral call to help
them face the shadow of lung cancer, fading senses and ailing limbs.
I
need the season of Epiphany, a celebration even more ancient than
Christmas, for its reminder of the many ways in which Christ, the light
of the world, shines in our darkness. The story of Jesus’ birth begins
with ancient sages seeking a star and, for me, continues in the saga of
modern sages seeking a different star, becoming my own story ....
Those ancient sages are known to us only through their appearance in Matthew 2:1-12,
the Gospel for the Epiphany of the Lord, Jan. 6. We know little about
these wise men. “We Three Kings of Orient Are” were likely not kings,
nor three in number. Most likely these Magi, the biblical term, were
learned observers of the skies from the Middle East, possibly clergy in
the Zoroastrian religion dominant in ancient Persia.
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