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Let us continue in worship by giving attention to the reading of God's Word as it is recorded in the Gospel of Matthew, the second chapter. I begin the reading at the verse numbered 1. Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the King, behold wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, saying,

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"Where is he who has been born King of the Jews? For we have seen his star in the east and have come to worship him." When Herod the King heard this he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. And assembling all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born. They

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told him, "In Bethlehem of Judea, for so it is written by the prophet, 'And you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah are by no means least among the rulers of Judah. For from you shall come a ruler who will govern my people Israel.' Then Herod summoned the wise men secretly and ascertained from them what time the star

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appeared. And he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, 'Go and search diligently for the child, and when you have found him, bring me word that I too may come and worship him.' When they had heard the king, they went their way. And lo, the star which they had seen in the east went before them, till it came to rest over the place

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where the child was. When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. And going into the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshipped him. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts—gold, and frankincense, and myrrh. And being warned in a dream not to

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return to Herod, they departed to their own country by another way." And may God bless to us and to our understanding this reading from his word. Pray with me in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. He was tall, rather good-looking in a dark kind of way, and he was wearing the

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garb of the Orient. As a matter of fact, he spoke twelve Asian languages. But he himself was not an Asian. He was, in fact, an Italian from Venice, and his name was Marco Polo. When Marco Polo set out upon his journeys, he vowed that if he had to travel from Baghdad to Samarkand, if he had to spend every gold coin he had, he

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would learn the details of the visitors from the East—those who came to Bethlehem to worship the newborn King. Well, in March of the year 1272—that's the same year as the great Jarod Haifa earthquake—in the town of Persepolis, Marco Polo met an old priest, a wizened, shriveled man with a long, grisly beard,

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blind, his face terribly disfigured because of some accident suffered in youth. This priest told Marco Polo that the document he was seeking were the chronicles of Sufi Abbas, which had been gathered together by an astronomer of Qamara. "In this document," he said, "you will learn of the people from the East."

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It was about a year later, in the city of Singara, close by the banks of the Tigris River, that going through some ancient documents and manuscripts being sold by a rather disreputable character, Marco Polo came across the chronicles of Sufi Abbas. Interestingly enough, once he had found them, he lost interest in them.

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That was true of much of his life. There is no record of his ever copying them down or making any effort to match what he discovered there with other knowledge which might have been his. Eventually, the chronicles of Sufi Abbas disappeared and they had never been seen again. But in the last years of his life,

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Marco Polo shared with his three daughters, Fantina, Belella, and Morita, some of what he remembered from those ancient chronicles. And those daughters passed down to their children and to their children's children and so on what we, to a large degree, know of the men who came from the East. You see, the Bible

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tells us very little about them. It does not tell us where they originated, it does not tell us the route of their travel, it does not tell us their names, it does not tell us their ranks, it does not speak to us of their date, the dates on which they came to visit the town of Bethlehem, it does not share with us

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anything about them, even the number. We say three, but the number three nowhere appears in Scripture. All of the information which we quite commonly rehearse at this season concerning the three kings, as we call them, we have from the stories of Fantina, Belella, and Morita, the daughters of Marco Polo. They

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say that there were three of them and the first one was Gaspar of Tarsis. He was a young man, tall, straight as an arrow, and black as ebony. Then there was Balthasar of Chaldea. He was a middle-aged man who came from Asia and had an olive skin and a long beard. And then there was Malfior of Nubia. Malfior

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was very old, quite bent with his age, had a long white beard, somewhat withered in appearance, and he was a white man. Now on these details concerning the kings, all three daughters agree, and other details as well, but each of the daughters tells a somewhat different story about these kings from the east. And I'd like to look

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at their stories this morning as we think about these men and their following the star. The stories themselves may not be historically true, but they are spiritually very profound and good for our hearing, especially as it's Christmas. First let's take Fantina's story because she was the oldest of the

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daughters. According to her, shortly after they set out on their journey on their camel, the camel of Gaspar scared up a viper which bit the camel in a tender part of the foot. Within an hour the leg had swollen and by morning the camel died. And now the three were puzzled as to how they were to go on. They knew that

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the star would not stop in its course, but there were only two camels and three of them. Gaspar, the one whose camel had died, volunteered to walk. "You two go ahead. I am younger than you are. I will follow after, and though I will linger far behind because I cannot keep up with you, maybe someday I will find the

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newborn king." And so, quite regretfully, the other two kings went off on their camels. That night, when they looked for the star, however, the two kings could not find it. And being very discouraged at the fact that it had disappeared, they turned back and started home. And of course, as they returned home, they came

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upon Gaspar, the king who was walking, who was now many leagues behind them. "Why are you returning?" he said. "Why, the star is invisible. We can see it no more." "Nonsense," he said. "There it is." And they looked up, and sure enough, the star was there to be seen. The message of Santina's story is that, apart, the wise men could not

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follow the star, but when they were together, they could pursue it. Here is testimony to how those who would worship the newborn king are to be members of one another, are to bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. From that point on, they agreed that they would all three travel, but one would

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walk beside the other two, riding the camels, and they would take their turns. Even old Malfior took his turn at walking. Here, you see, is the love and the concern which is to bind us, who spend our time stargazing. I was at a dinner in Geneva, Switzerland, some years ago now, and one of those seated at the

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table was Dr. Robert Schuller of Crystal Cathedral, Spain. And we were talking about the Church, and in the course of our discussion, he said, "We must always remember never to refer to the Church as an organization, for it is not an organization. It is an organism. It is a living thing." And I added to that this

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thought, that in any healthy organism, all the parts of the organism are working together for the good of the life of the whole. And that is what ought to be true about the Church. The Church is under severe attack today, and its teachings as well. There are those who try to tear down manger scenes in city halls. I read

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of a television station recently that boasted of the fact that it was having a very positive effect on the drug traffic in its area. It was putting on commercials and programs designed to stop that traffic, and was having some effect. "See how we can influence society," they said. Yet, when they were approached

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by a group of Christians who protested the fact that every Christian they presented on their cameras was made to be either a hypocrite or some kind of scintified wimp. "Oh," then they said, "we do not influence society at all, and therefore what we portray will not lead people to think ill of the Church." A

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radio station in New York City recently entered into an agreement with a group of homosexuals that they would never say anything critical of homosexuality on their radio station. A group of Christians went and asked that they could have the same kind of agreement, and the radio station refused. Even the

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electronic church today, some of the moguls of big-time religion, are now spending part of their television hour criticizing the church as a whole, and suggesting that their listeners not contribute or support the local church, but rather send to them the true expression of what the church is to be.

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My friends, the church has always been, and is now, under attack. But the church will stand, for Jesus Christ has said that not even the gates of hell will be able to stand against it. And when all those who are trying to do one another in are done, and when all those who shoo at each other until they've masticated

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each other into nothingness, when they are gone, when all the loners, when all those who follow a star on which is written their own name and no other, when they have passed away, the church will still be. Because the church is a fellowship of belief, and in its noblest form it is a fellowship in which there

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is no egoism, but rather a sharing, and a bearing, and a caring for one another. The church is one body. Those who follow a star marked with their own moniker will find it disappearing away. But the church, that in unity follows the star of Bethlehem, will find its way to Christ and eternal life. Well, such is the story of Santina.

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Let's move on to the story of the second daughter. Her name was Belella, and she tells of how the three kings came to an oasis and were resting there in the coolness of the shade and enjoying the water during the heat of the day, and they fell into a discussion concerning what the appearance of this newborn king

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would be. Now Gaspar said that he thought that the newborn king would be black. He remembered that there had been gray, black civilizations in the past, long before any white civilization to equal them existed, and this is a historical fact, and he recalled that, and knowing that, he thought, "This king has come to

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bring black people to their proper leadership in all the world." Balthasar immediately disagreed. He said such an idea was absurd. Everyone knows that the great poets and the great dreamers and the great prophets, those who have seen the truth, have come from the East, and so this new king must be an

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Asian and have an olive skin, he said, like my own. Malfur, the oldest of the kings, said, "There is some truth in what each of you suggests, but because of my age I can see further into the past and also further into the future, and I think we are coming to the great crisis of civilization, and that crisis is going to be mastered by the white race, and so I am sure that the new king will be white." And they fell into quite an argument

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over this, and argued throughout the day, until the shadows began to lengthen, and then they prepared once again to follow the star at night, only when they looked up there was no star to be seen. In the course of their wordy warfare, they'd lost touch with the star, and very discouraged, they began to comfort each

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other, and as they comforted each other and feared in a kind of loving and restoring companionship, then the star became visible again. What the Lellis story teaches is this, that those who follow the star must do it without prejudice. Prejudice, of course, is unbridled pride. It's a direct attack upon God. It's putting

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God off the throne of one's life and assuming that throne for oneself. Now, once you've gotten rid of God, it's very easy to get rid of your brothers and sisters in his family. And those who are prejudiced and who worship themselves and their class or their status or their race, whatever it happens to be, are

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constantly extending the borders of their kingdom and magnifying their own magnificence and brightening their own glory, seeing nothing in others that is worthy of praise. That is a direct attack form of prejudice. But prejudice can also manifest itself in a kind of subtle annexation. This is seen in those who give

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philanthropy, who seek, as it were, to kill with kindness. These people do not build monuments for themselves, but they try to lead other people by their gifts to build monuments for them. They look down upon those whom they help and see their helpfulness as testimony to the other's inferiority. This kind of thing, you see,

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destroys the self-esteem and the dignity of those who are being loved. It takes away from them, through a false kind of love and philanthropy, all that gives them worth. There's no place in the kingdom of God for prejudice. Whether it be that prejudice which manifests itself in attack or more subtle annexation. I know

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a fellow who is 26 years old, and he has an aunt who lives far away, and every year at Christmas time, she sends him a gift. And it's always a gift for an 8 to a 10 year old boy. That's the way she thinks of him, as an 8 or a 10 year old boy. She always gives the gift to some needy child. You see, she's easily able to handle any

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thoughts that she has with regard to her nephew, by simply seeing him always as a child, and nothing more than a child. You're in danger of doing the same thing at Christmas. We look at that baby in the manger, and have a tendency to forget that he grew up. Some of us fall for what we might call the baby Jesus syndrome. The fact of the

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matter is, he grew up and became the man among men. And he said that love was the law of life. And he said you are to care for your neighbor as you care for yourself. And he said service is the great goal of the human experience. And those who put themselves first will in fact be found last. He despised prejudice.

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His king of kings and Lord of lords spoke against it again and again by what he did and by what he said. And it's written too large in his life to miss. Unless of course you don't want to see it. Those who follow the stars must leave prejudice behind. For stargazing and star following is not the pursuit of

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prejudice. It's the pursuit of love. Well we have one last story, and that's Maria's story. She was the youngest daughter of Marco Polo, and she in her story tells that the kings not only differed in their ages and not only differed in their skin color, but they

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also differed in their inner attitudes and thoughts, their aspirations. Jasper of Carthage for example, the youngest, he was looking for a king. He wanted someone who he could follow to conquest. He had goals before him. He had victories he wanted to win. He wanted the sky itself to be the limit. Now that's quite commonly

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the aspirational dream of the young, isn't it? That's the reason Burger King says to them they can have it their way. Or Wendy says we do it all for you. Or Ponderosa says you're the boss. Or L'Oreal says it costs more but you are worth it. All appealing, you see, to that young desire to climb mountains never

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climbed before and to set one's name on the top of those peaks. Jasper was looking for a king, and so he brought the gift which was traditionally given to kings, the gift of gold. Now Balthazar of Chaldea was a middle-aged man, and he had lived long enough to learn that possessions and mountaintops are not really where life is to be experienced. So he was thinking of someone who could lead him to a knowledge of the truth. He knew that he spent too much of his life measuring in minor things, and he was anxious to discover what the eternal

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verities are, what the ultimates are, what are the things in life which are really worth believing and having and committing oneself to. What is truth? And he knew that only God could tell him what truth was. And so he came to be not a king, but a god. And that's the reason he brought Frankincense, because Frankincense was used in the acts of worship to praise God. Now Maltheor, the oldest of the kings, he was very, very much focused on his past.

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Like many older people are. And as he looked at his life, he recognized what a stained and scrambled thing it was. He was very conscious of all those things at which he had failed. He understood the weaknesses and the sins, the temptations which had defeated him again and again, and besmeared by all of these things, and recognizing that he stood facing that gate which stands at the end of every life, that gate into the mysterious. Recognizing that life would no longer be his and that he would go into whatever was to come after. He was looking for someone who could accumulate all of that guilt and take away all of that sin. He wasn't teaching a king, and he wasn't teaching a god. He was teaching a savior. And of course, saviors, by definition, suffer for those they save.

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And so he brought mirth, which is that which is put upon wounds to heal them. And so they came to Bethlehem. And they came to the Holy Family. And they saw the newborn child. And Jasper thought, "She doesn't look like a king." And Balthazar thought, "She doesn't look like a god." And Maltheor thought, "She doesn't look like a savior." And then the mother of the child, Mary, began to sing the song which she had sung the first time when the angel visited her and told her of the rare honor which was to be hers, and which she had sung every day beyond that time. You remember the words, the magnificat, she began, "My soul doth magnify the Lord." "Lord?" "Lord, that means king," thought Jasper. "He is a king, but not a king of a land of riches, but a king of the land of righteousness."

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And falling on his knees, Jasper offered his bows. And Mary continued her song, "My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God." "God? He is a God? Could it be that God," and this is Balthazar speaking, "could come to us out of the realm of the spirit, into the flesh? God in our human experience, and overcome with joy that God would so enter into all of us?" And he fell down, and he lifted up his fist of frankincense, and Mary continued with her song, "My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God, my Savior." "Savior? Savior, save me!" cried out Maltheus. And a great peace entered into him as he offered his gifts of myrrh.

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I like Marisa's story best of all, because what it says to us is this, that everyone finds in Jesus exactly what she or he needs. That is the essence of Christmas, and that is the essence of the gospel, that everyone finds in Jesus what he or she most needs. That, my friends, is why we gaze upon that star, and that is why we follow it every year of our lives to Bethlehem. Let us pray.

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O Lord, in this season made holy by thy presence, thy gift, thy spirit, teach us to love one another. Bind us as a body of believers to thee and to one another. May we be a fellowship of love, so to follow the star. O Lord Jesus Christ, deliver us from any prejudice.

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Take from us any arrogance of spirit which would lead us, directly or indirectly, to look down upon anyone. O God, make us humble before thee, pursuing only love. And finally, our Father, teach us that at Christmas we can find in Jesus what we need. Salvation, a master, a guide for our living, God in the flesh.

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Claim us this Christmas. Claim us by the scintillating radiance of the star. Make us captives of Bethlehem and its beautiful child. Let Christmas be born in us to the honor and glory of the one who came at this holy time. We pray our prayer in his name. Amen.

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