King Herod, who was always paranoid about threats to his throne, asked the astrologers to send word when they had located this new king so that he too could pay tribute. Of course, Herod’s desire was to have the young king assassinated. Even though technically the visitation of wise men happens after Jesus’ birth, we incorporate them into our pageant story on Christmas Eve. In fact, we’ll finish up this story next week when the wise men actually meet Jesus and give him gifts.

But for our sermon today, I want to begin with a historical breakdown of the wisemen, because there’s some interesting elements layered in this story. So, Matthew is kind of vague about who the wisemen are and where they come from. It just says they come from the East. The Greek word ma,goj indicates that these men were astrologers.

This word actually has a very interesting history. It’s derived from the ancient Persian word magus, which referred to the Persian priestly caste of a religion known as Zoroastrianism. Now that might sound like a bunch of gobbledygook, but if you go way back to a series that I preached during Advent in 2017, which I’m sure all of you remember with crystal clarity (like the day your first child was born), you will recall that Zoroastrianism is actually where the idea of the messiah started. Judaism actually borrowed that idea from Zoroastrianism.

Why does it matter? Well, it matters because these aren’t just random wisemen from anywhere in East. These are Persian wisemen who are familiar with the prophecies surrounding the messiah. Now, as part of their religion, these priests paid particular attention to the stars. In fact, Persian wisemen gained an international reputation for astrology, which, at the time, was highly regarded as a science. Kings would consult their astrologers when they had to make big decisions as they believed that properly interpreting star formations could reveal the future.

Because of light pollution, we often don’t realize how incredible the night sky would have been for the ancient people. Of course, the ancients didn’t understand that the stars were distant suns like ours. They thought of them as gods or angels and tracked their movements and alignments as signs and symbols of what might happen on earth. This is why in the story of Jesus’ birth, the star that leads them to Jesus is so critical.

Historically, there was a “star” that correlates with this story. It is likely the star being referred to in this story is Halley’s comet. Halley’s comet is on 76-year orbit with the earth and it would have likely appeared in the sky around 11 B.C. The appearance of Halley’s comet would have been an event that astronomers (magi) from all over the ancient world would have flocked to see. Although the date of the Halley’s comet appearance is off by a few years (most scholars believe Jesus was born around 4 B.C.), they are close enough that one can understand how the events would be conjoined in the story.

The wisemen, the magi, see a star in the sky and they follow that star as they believe it will lead them to the fulfillment of the prophecy concerning the messiah. Although today, we know that astrological phenomenon does not predict the future (although I’m sure many of you still read your horoscopes in the paper—fun side note, a friend of my wife’s actually wrote those for a living, and, in case you’re wondering, she did just make it up), we still need guiding lights here on earth. And that’s what I want to talk about today. The story of the magi is really a story about recognizing the shining stars that provide light to guide our paths through the unknowns in our lives.

Of course, this isn’t the first time we see God doing this in the Bible. We read this morning from the book of Exodus about how God appeared as a pillar of cloud and fire to guide the Israelites through the wilderness. There is a notion in the Bible that if we can simply view the world from the correct perspective, we can see the paths God has laid out before us. The problem is you have to be looking for the right things, otherwise you might miss the opportunities right in front of your eyes.  

So I pose the questions to you: Where have you encountered various stars in your lives? When have you encountered people, conversations or even realizations that appeared at just the right time to lead you in the right direction in your life? In order to illustrate this, I want to tell you a story of a man who encountered a star that led him to become a savior that would change the fate of millions of people.  

This story begins in July of 1918 when a boy named Rolihlahla was born in the village of Mvezo in Umtata. The name Rolihlahla was a colloquial term meaning “troublemaker”. His father was a local chief and councilor to the monarch. During his younger years, Rolihlahla tended the herds as a cattle-boy and played with other boys from his village. Even though both of Rolihlahla’s parents were illiterate, his mother and father wanted him to have the benefit of an education.

Rolihlahla’s mother, being a devout Christian, sent him to a local Methodist school when he was about seven. The teacher in the school was not particularly fond of his tribal name and decided to provide him with an English first name that would follow him for the rest of his life—Nelson. Hence for the rest of his life, he became known as Nelson Mandela.

Eventually, Nelson’s mother would take him to be raised in the palace of Chief Dalindyebo. Being part of the royal family would dramatically change the trajectory of Mandela’s life because he now had access to elite black schools in South Africa. In 1943, Mandela began studying law at the University of the Witwatersrand, where he was the only black African student.

It was there that he made friends with European, Jewish and Indian students many of whom were attached to the communist party. What he liked about the communist meetings on campus was how Europeans, Africans and Indians mixed as equals. This experience would become very important to him because it provided a model for how he believed people should live their lives—free from class and racial based distinctions.

Of course, these meetings would become a stark contrast to the segregation imposed by the British on South Africa. In 1948 when the Nationalist Party came to power, passing legislation that would codify racism into what became known as Apartheid. This shift would inspire Mandela to become involved in politics. During the 1950s, Mandela rose through the ranks of the ANP or African National Party. In his efforts to fight Apartheid, Mandela became more and more disillusioned with traditional politics, feeling that the grip of the Nationalist Party was so tight that nothing would ever change.

Mandela and several of his friends founded “Spear of the Nation” and was abbreviated as MK, a militant wing of the African National Party. They were inspired by Fidel Castro and the Cuban Revolution. The idea was to carry out acts of sabotage that would exert maximum pressure on the government with minimum casualties.

They sought to bomb military installations, power plants, telephone lines, and transport links at night, when civilians were not present. They chose sabotage because it was the least harmful action that did not involve killing, and offered the best hope for racial reconciliation afterwards. The MK publicly announced its existence with 57 bombings on Dingane’s Day (December 16th) 1961, followed by further attacks on New Year’s Eve.

These actions put the police on high alert and with the help of the American CIA, police captured Mandela along with fellow activists on August 5^th, 1962. For his actions, Mandela was sentenced to life in prison. He was taken to a penitentiary located on Robben Island, right off the coast of South Africa where Mandela would spend the next 18 years of his life.

The prison on Robben Island was a tough existence. Mandela lived in a 7×8 foot cell. He slept on the floor and used a bucket for his toilet. Convicted of treason and terrorism, Mandela was classified as the lowest grade of prisoner, Class D. This meant that he was permitted one visit and one letter every six months and whatever mail he did receive was heavily censored. Every day he was expected to do hard labor in a lime quarry, where he was literally forced to break the limestone with a hammer for 8 hours a day. The sun’s glare off of the lime permanently damaged Mandela’s eyesight.

When Mandela first arrived at Robben Island, he was an angry man, prone to outbursts and rage. The guards who ran the prison were intent upon breaking the spirit of all the prisoners who were under their care. Mandela’s initial reaction to prison life was to fight back with hatred, rage and violence. But what changed the trajectory of his life was that he had access to books.

A number of the books he read were written by Mahatma Gandhi such as India of My Dreams and Nonviolent Resistance. These books described how Gandhi helped to free India from British occupation. In a very real sense, Gandhi became a guiding star to Mandela. Mandela felt a spiritual connection to him and felt he needed to follow his lead.

So, every day he would read Gandhi’s work and then he would return to the barren landscape of the lime quarry. As a result, day after day, year after year, something dramatic began to take shape in his soul. Every day, as he crushed the limestone rock and mediated on Gandhi’s words, Mandela felt his heart softening. He developed this intense sense of calm. In fact, his personality became so composed, that he was impenetrable to outside influences. Nothing the guards did to him made him upset. Indeed, Mandela was able to melt their hearts so that even the most hardened guard fell in love with him.

What’s amazing is that in this horrible, dark, lonely place, Mandela found God’s presence. He realized the barren landscape of that limestone quarry was really no different than the barren landscape of his own soul. The stone he was breaking was no different than he was. In fact, they were one and the same. So rather than hate the stone and see it as his punishment, it became an extension of himself.

This wouldn’t have happened if it hadn’t been for that guiding star in his life. Thanks to Gandhi, Nelson Mandela found his true nature and became the leader we all know, love and respect. It is because of that guiding star that Nelson Mandela became a savior to the people of South Africa, transforming South Africa from a place of horrific racism to a place of reconciliation.

I think why I love Nelson Mandela’s story so much is because it reflects what we see in Jesus’ birth narrative: God sends us guiding stars in the darkest and most difficult of circumstances. So I want to end my sermon by asking you a question: Who have been the guiding stars in your life? Who have been the people who have helped you through really difficult and challenging moments where you didn’t know where to go, but they helped guide you to safety?

Maybe it’s a friend; maybe it’s a mentor; maybe it’s a teacher or a coach; maybe it’s a sibling or a parent. Whoever it’s been for you, whoever you’re thinking of right now who has made an important contribution to your life, if it’s possible, I want you to take time to today to thank that person. Maybe call them. Maybe write them a letter.

But after you thank them, I want you to think of the ways that God is calling you to be a guiding light for others. When Mandela got out of prison, he didn’t simply recede into the background. No, he became a guiding light like the star over Bethlehem to those around him and, because of that, he transformed the world. God calls you to be that star in the sky, that guiding light for those who are lost and can’t find their way. And if you’re willing to embrace that role, you never know whose life you might end up changing for the better. Amen.