Sermon: When the Christ-Star Twinkles
John 1:1-14
In today’s reading, the Evangelist praises, “In the beginning there was the Word; Through the Word all things came into being, and apart from the Word nothing came into being that has come into being. In the Word was life, and that life was humanity’s light — a Light that shines in the darkness,
a Light that the darkness has never overtaken.”
Also, John the Baptist is recalled to have made the testimony as: “I am not the Light; I only came to testify about the Light. The true Light that illumines everyone is coming into the world!”
My question for us is: What is, who is, the Light about which we testify?
The weekend after Christmas, I had a marvellous experience with the Light; it inspired my faith. This is my personal testimony…
My family went to Riding Mountain in summertime a few times in the past, but this time our adventure was to visit our fondest places and experience the difference between summer and winter. We rented an oTentik (A cross between a tent and a cabin) and stayed three nights, with deer watching us sometimes – and a lynx was spotted near the washroom. The second night, we registered for snowshoeing, stargazing and stories, and followed the lead of the interpreter who later introduced himself as being from a reserve in Saskatchewan. He seemed very confident about what he was going to assist us to see or witness soon. Our group did not realize what we were going to encounter until we literally walked into a diamond-powder star-lit celestial globe, the dome of the heavens around us, on the ice-covered, snow-blanketed frozen Clear Lake. It was like heading towards a giant wide-screen of the heavenly movie theatre, featuring the gigantic seven stars of the Big Dipper (Big Bear) right in front of us. I’ve seen the Big Dipper before in person, but those times, it seemed small, off in a corner, requiring a careful search. While we were truly amazed by the wide-stretched Big Dipper, really close to the Northern horizon, from the left side to the right, the Interpreter asked us to find Orion on our right-hand side. “Can you find the Three Wise Ones (Men)?” he asked. Then Peace (my thirteen-year-old son) whispered, ‘Are we Jesus, or the Magi?” Our interpreter added that, traditionally, his people have said that winter is the greatest time for travel and stories.
In Greek astronomy, the three stars that create the straight line are called Orion’s belt. The Interpreter confirmed what I recently learned about the name of the stars in the Cree oral tradition: Weesageechak. The trickster. In Weesageechak, Sakihi means love. It is the figure that creates changes and transformation out of the creative, love energy of the universe. I have so many things that I cannot wait to share with you about Weesageechack. I can only share a bit now, but I will look out for other opportunities. One thing I would like to highlight is that, as Alex Wilson says, “Our creation story takes us back to the stars and the central figure Weesageechak, represented by the constellation other people call Orion. A trickster and a teacher, Weesageechak shifts gender, form, and space to playfully teach us about ourselves and our connection to the wider universe, land and waters, living things and each other.” Weesageechak is someone who looks like the land itself: who has worked with the earth, who smells the earth, and who can easily disappear into the forest. “A NOTE ON THE TRICKSTER The dream world of North American Indian mythology is inhabited by the most fantastic creatures, beings and events. Foremost among these beings is the “Trickster,” as pivotal and important a figure in our world as Christ is in the realm of Christian mythology.” (Tomson Highway) It is the central figure who causes ‘changes.'
What amazes me is the relationship between this winter night sky experience, understanding the Trickster, and the scripture all together. The Gospel of John opens its first chapter with the exclamation, “In the beginning there was the Word; Through the Word all things came into being. … In the Word was life, and that life was humanity’s light.” Imagine, the Word is like the starlight that shines in the darkness, and the darkness has never overtaken the light. When everything in our lives seems to be stuck between a rock and a hard place, when nothing seems to move, the stars - Christ, the Weesageechak, the Trickster, the sacred Boundary dweller - TWINKLES, inspires faith, and things begin to slowly move and change. Believe that transformation is possible, Christ calls us to testify.
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| Chandra X-ray View of Orion - Wikimedia Commons |
In the year 90 CE when this fourth Gospel, The Gospel of John, was written, Jewish Christians had gone through expulsion from the synagogues, just as the Light was revealed but rejected. These first Christians, separated and disconnected from their original communities, might have looked like scattered seeds, but when seen from above, they would be exactly like the reflection of the stars that embroider the night sky, on the earth. If these first Christians believed that “in the Word was life, and that life was humanity’s light — a Light that shines in the darkness, a Light that the darkness has never overtaken.” they should know that they were the bearers of this newborn light of new possibility, incredible changes and transformation. They were the earth-born stars that sparkle and marvel, despite and against the world’s darkness (which is division, rejection and separation.) The opening chapter of the Gospel of John is the praise of God in their understanding of Christ. Their singing of the Christ is composed from the perspective on high. Jesus is portrayed as “one who descends from heaven.” We may be used to imagining the “heavens” as the blue, Sun-lit sky in the daytime, but imagine, for this time, “midnight clear” as the Heavens. The dark night skies powdered by diamond starlight, massed by the web of constellations, and rippling with the orbits of planets is the Heavens, and if then, ponder what it would be like when we hear that “the Word - the Light - becomes flesh in Jesus.” Jesus, the Star-born baby. The Creator emerges as the babe lying in the manger, the trough of the animal-beings close to the land and earth. God comes out in Jesus, revealing the nature of God as divine lover (Sakihi). “Word becomes flesh” is pretty magical, isn’t it, in this sense, arousing in us the same Wonder we might entertain by encountering the star-lit sacramental universe face-to-face. It is no wonder that those first witnesses of the birth of the holy child, the Magi and the shepherds, narrated the rising of the Epiphany Star, overjoyed and awestruck. In that moment, rocks and hard places slowly move to open up space and offer freedom.
In the year 90, Jesus’ opponents - represented by their hostility - kept asking, “Where are you from?” As a response, the evangelist who wrote the Gospel of John sang the praise song to tell everyone that Jesus and his disciples were "from the light". The Johannine community might have felt isolated in a hostile world, and yet, their armour was faith - - envisioning themselves as the light in the darkness. It was their way of expressing the feeling that they were a very important part of the new, emerging world with Christ. They told each other and assured their children that they were not alone in the world, and that they were loved by God. Their hearts and faith were warm when the outside was cold and bitter. And together, they created a community and a scripture to bring them close to the paradise of the star-lit heavens, on the earth where they were living. (John 1:14) “The Word became flesh and pitched a tent among us.” If this statement is true to the Johannine community, it is the same to 2020 Immanuel and our lives. “Tents are easily dismantled overnight and do not become ruins or monuments; they are, rather, folded and stored or reused for another purpose when old. Tents change in shape in strong winds, and their adaptability, rather than their stubbornness, is one of their greatest assets.” (Marcella Arthaus-Reid). With the true Light and spirit of Christ, things begin to move and change towards justice and peace, and to a more gracious, kind and loving world. When Christ twinkles, we must do the same, and testify the Light, and say, Believe, transformation is possible.
Ha Na Park
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