At the Auschwitz death camp, Michael was shoved out onto the platform amid barking dogs and shouting S.S. soldiers.  Separated from his family, Michael was led away with a group of other young men past open pits where human bodies were burning.  Finally, with head shaved, he was thrown into a crowded barracks.  But there, to his relief, Michael found his cousin, from his home city.  The two vowed never to be separated until freedom came!

    But one day, after MONTHS of SLAVE LABOR and NEAR STARVATION for Michael and his cousin, the S.S. staged a “selection.”  That is, they went THROUGH that barracks and picked out the very WEAKEST of the prisoners, to take them to DIE in the GAS CHAMBERS.  The REST would be spared to continue their slave labor -- at least until the NEXT selection.

     Dr. Josef Mengele himself, the notorious Nazi physician, SUPERVISED the selection. Michael and his cousin stood before him.  Mengele looked at Michael, then pointed his finger to the RIGHT; Michael would LIVE!  But when NEXT the evil doctor looked at his COUSIN’s pale, malnourished body, he jerked his finger to the LEFT--to the DEATH HOUSE!

    Soon someone took a rubber stamp, INKED it, and stamped Michael’s forehead with it. Then Michael was pushed on to stand with a group of others -- each of them, like Michael, with a big, black-ink STAR stamped on his forehead.  Now Michael realized that this STAR was his passport to LIFE--but his COUSIN, standing in the OTHER group, a few yards away, was headed to DEATH!  So, quickly, quietly, Michael ACTED!  In the crowded hall he RUSHED OVER to his cousin, spat on his cousin’s forehead, and pressed his own forehead to his cousin’s.   And then IMMEDIATELY he pulled his cousin with him into the group marked with the STARS.  Only THEN did Michael dare LOOK UP--and see, in the middle of his cousin’s forehead, the imprint of his own lucky star!

    Somehow, Michael and his cousin managed to SURVIVE Auchwitz -- and six other slave labor camps until the end of the war. And -- GUESS WHAT! -- On that day in May, 1945, when one of General George Patton’s U.S. Army tanks entered their camp and at last FREED the two cousins, what was the very first thing they SAW on the that tank?  Painted on its turret!   Of course:  A HUGE, WHITE STAR!

    Friends, on this Sunday before Epiphany, 2010, do YOU and I bear the MARK OF THE STAR?   The wise men, here in our Gospel, do, you know.  Yes, the magi, whose coming you and I CELEBRATE this morning, BEAR IN THEIR HEADS AND HEARTS the bright Star of Bethlehem which is, FOR ALL of God’s children, a LIFE-GIVING heavenly body!

    How LITTLE you and I know about these mysterious wise men!  Our only REFERENCE to them is in the few verses in our Gospel for today.  You and I LOVE to sing “We Three Kings of Orient Are.”  But that’s misleading.  The 18th-century, French cynic and philosophe Voltaire once declared, with his inimitable sarcasm, that the so-called “Holy Roman Empire“ was neither holy, nor was it Roman, nor was it an empire!  And, likewise, you and I have to admit that the “Three Kings of the Orient” here are neither (necessarily) three; and they definitely AREN’T kings, and they DON’T come from the ORIENT!  Biblical scholars suggest that they may be Zoroastrians and astrologists from Persia—modern-day Iran.  According to Matthew, they are first GENTILES (or non-Jews) to see JESUS, the MESSIAH!  And just because the gospel mentions three gifts — gold, frankincense, and myyrh – doesn’t mean that the wise men are just three in number; they could have been a whole group!


    But, friends, what we DO know is that the wise men here BEAR THE MARK OF THE STAR!   For the magi, as for EVERY person TODAY who belongs to Jesus Christ, it Is a star of SALVATION and FREEDOM and PEACE amid a world filled with BONDAGE and DEATH!

    And, you know, NOTHING DETERS these magi from their QUEST for the newly born King.  Not the RAISED EYEBROWS of their friends, back home, who probably think them out of their minds!  Not the perils of the DESERT that they must traverse, nor the IGNORANCE, JEALOUSY, and  PARANOIA of King Herod!  NOTHING keeps the wise men from FOLLOWING that star!

    But what about YOU and ME, on this Sunday before Epiphany, 2010?  Do WE bear the MARK OF CHRIST’S STAR?   Surely, at first glance, DARKNESS seems to cover our world as thickly as it did the wise men’s, 2014 years ago!  What FEARFUL things the desert night seems to shelter now!  Worldwide economic recession, largely caused by greed.  Terrorists who can strike without warning—even on Christmas Day, as a crowded airplane is landing in Detroit.  And terrorists who, in their fanaticism can slay HUNDREDS by suicide and roadside bombs and, as on 9/11, THOUSANDS in OTHER airliners and in buildings!   Yes, and their leader, as yet, after nearly nine years, not brought to justice!  New nuclear nations seemingly poised on the threshold of WAR!  Tragically, our earth TODAY knows its own depraved King Herods and Dr. Josef Mengeles!  Those whose PRIDE and RACISM and GREED  make them determined, if they could, to slay the very CHRIST HIMSELF, the Prince of Peace!

    Yet the CRUCIAL question for EACH ONE OF US, as it was for the wise men, as it is for ALL peoples at EVERY time, is: “AM I MARKED WITH THE STAR?”   Oh, I DON’T mean, have you and has this CONGREGATION of God’s people arrived at the DESTINATION?  The MAGI don’t arrive for a long time, either.  I’m always terribly SUSPICIOUS of those who claim, whether religiously or politically or intellectually to have ARRIVED!
 
    But have we (to use the magi’s words) at least SEEN THE STAR’S RISING?  SET OUT ON THE DIFFICULT JOURNEY?  Has Christ, as Lord and Savior, DAWNED IN OUR HEARTS?  Are we, like Michael Schwartz in Auschwitz, SHARING the Star with OTHERS in this world of death, so that it will become THEIR salvation and liberation, too?

    You may be somewhat uncertain, as you continue on your trek.  You may be sharply conscious of your LIMITATIONS -- and FEARFUL of the UNKNOWN, as certainly the magi are here!  But if you’ve SEEN THE RISING OF THE STAR and STARTED on your quest, you’re in for a WONDERFUL ADVENTURE!  God will supply your EVERY NEED for the journey as, trusting in him, you receive the light that guides you home!

    I’m confident that this fine congregation of God’s people not only has been marked by the star from your very BEGINNINGS, nearly 65 years ago, but that EVEN NOW, perhaps more than ever before, as you chart God’s course for you in the future, as your Pastor Nominating Committee seeks your next shepherd, you are CONTINUING that exciting quest, following the light, like the wise men!

    I LOVE the way Mahalia Jackson put it in the beautiful, old, African-American spiritual about the magi, that she used to sing:


    Friends, the Star of Bethlehem IS shining still!  The brilliant light of the living Christ BEAMS to us through our Sacrament today.  Yes, glowing in the darkness, to lead and to guide you -- because you BEAR the MARK OF THE STAR!

Prayers:
    Almighty God, in your mercy, you have marked us with the Star in ink that may fade at times, but that will never vanish!  Help us to follow, by your Spirit, its light until, at last, we reach your perfect presence.  DELIVER us, we pray, from chasing after other objects that contradict the BRIGHTNESS of our Savior’s love.  Help us to find in him our warmth and life and brilliance, and to SHARE that radiance with others, in this dark, cold world.

    Saving God, we remember before you today all whose hearts may be DIM, in whose lives the light may shine VERY FAINTLY or, maybe, NOT AT ALL.  DELIVER them, we pray, particularly those in this sanctuary who may need your SPECIAL brightness because of special CHALLENGE.  Bring PEACE to this world, and protect young men and women in the armed services in the Middle East and innocent civilians in that region.  HEAL the sick.  Stand with those who are sorrowful.

    Finally, accept our praise for all who, having followed the star throughout their EARTHLY lives, now behold its PERFECT RADIANCE with you, in heaven.  Keep us in fellowship with them until we, too, stand in its brightness.

    For we make these and ALL our petitions in the name and for the sake of Jesus Christ our Lord. AMEN.