Isaiah 60:1-6
Eph 3:2-3a, 5-6
Matthew 2:1-12

Bishop Untener's Homily

The Magi had a star to follow. In modern terms we'd call it their "guidance system." Planes, ships have guidance systems, and you can buy them now for your car, or to use when you're out on a hike.

Apart from these satellite controlled guidance systems, each of us has what could be called a "guidance system" - a star out there that we follow. We all have something that draws us in a particular direction that guides us. It might be vague, it might be a good star or a not-so-good star, but there is something that gets us out of bed in the morning and gets us through a day, a week, and a year. It might be helpful for each of us to stop and think about what our guidance system is.

Little Children

Let’s pick an easy one. Little children. The guidance system of little children is their mother and father. They want to stay close to their parents. They cling to them when strangers are around. I remember one of my nieces, many years ago, when she was about four years old, was walking with her mother along the crowded boardwalk in Atlantic City. Her mother (my sister) was enjoying the scenery and when she looked down, little Sally was no longer at her side. Some time later, after an announcement over the PA system, they were reunited. Come to find out, Sally had been walking along and stayed close to her mother by watching her mother's shoes. She was a lot closer to her mother's feet than to her mother's face. Well, someone came along wearing the same kind of shoes, and Sally followed her. When she eventually looked up, it wasn't her mother's face... and she started to cry, and people realized she was lost... and it all worked out. Little children follow their mother and father.

Teenagers

Another easy category would be teenagers. What's the normal guidance system for teenagers? Other teenagers. We all went through that. The most important thing to follow at that age is what other teenagers wear, the music other teenagers listen to, the words and phrases other teenagers use, the acceptance and esteem of other teenagers. That's normal enough.

20's and 30's 

What about people in their 20's and 30's? (Keep in mind we're generalizing here.) I think the guidance system, the star for people in their 20's and 30's is their career, or at least the quest for a career. You want a job that will get you ahead, give you security. A person will even re-locate to a different city in order to follow that star.

The 50's

Then, once you cross 50, something happens. The star changes. We re-think a lot of things. We realize that we're not going to become super-rich, or president of the company. We have a certain amount of security, and we begin to think of deeper values in life. Nowadays this is when some people take an early retirement and start looking for something that has more meaning. Money isn't as important as it was. Doing something worthwhile becomes the guiding star.

Over 70

Finally, once a person hits the 70's, a lot of things change. They're willing to admit that they're "old". They start to think more about death, partly because they've watched more and more people their age die. They have a better sense of values because they've watched so many things come and go. Most of the goals they value most, they don't expect to live to see happen. They either invest in them anyway, for the sake of others, or they give up. I'm not sure, but I think this could be the stage in life when the "guidance system" undergoes its biggest change. Sometimes for better, sometimes for worse. We can become selfish or selfless, crotchety or caring, like milk turning sour, or wine becoming mellow.

Well, as I said, those are caricatures. But perhaps they'll set all of us thinking about our guidance system, the star that we follow.

Our Guidance System: The Eucharist

I’d like to close by reminding myself and reminding you that, at whatever age, the best guidance system is the Eucharist. We hear the word of God over and over, and each time we hear it, the word has a different ring to it. The word is always fresh, because God speaks to us "live" through the word. It's an instrument by which God touches us individually, constantly speaks a message tailor-made for us.

And, after the Liturgy of the Word, when we place the bread and the wine on the altar, we're placing ourselves there. We join with the Lord as he follows his star - which is always, always the Father's will. Every time we come to Eucharist we place ourselves with the Lord on the altar, and we say, "I will go with you. I will join you as you give yourself entirely to the Father's will, however it spins out in my life today, this week, this year, and ultimately at death.

Then at Communion, we come forward and say, "Amen." We receive the Lord into our lives and through our "Amen" we commit ourselves to follow him, to be his disciple. It's one of the biggest "Amen's" we can ever say. And when we receive the cup, through our "Amen" we say, "I'll follow you, even if it involves suffering. If you'll go with me, Lord, I'll go with you."

The Eucharist is the best guidance system there ever was. That's why we come, week after week.

On this feast of Epiphany, when we celebrate the Magi following the star and finding Jesus, I invite all of us to think about our guidance system, and make sure that whether we're a youngster, a teenager, someone in their 20's, someone in their 50's, or in their 70's and 80's, we make the Eucharist our guidance system, the star that leads us through a day, through a year, and through our whole life.

Originally given on January 2, 2002