Wayfinders Searching for the Messiah

 

In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, magi from the east came to Jerusalem,  asking, “Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we observed his star in the east and have come to pay him homage.”  

When King Herod heard this, he was frightened, and all Jerusalem with him, and calling together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah[c] was to be born. They told him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for so it has been written by the prophet:

 ‘And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
    are by no means least among the rulers of Judah,
for from you shall come a ruler
    who is to shepherd my people Israel.’ ”

 Then Herod secretly called for the magi and learned from them the exact time when the star had appeared... Matthew 2:1-7 NRSVue

In recent weeks  Rev. Isaac at Trenton United (our son) has been exploring the story of the Magi, moving the journey theme forward into Advent. Many of us are aware of these astronomers/astrologers following a star to find the place of birth of Jesus, "King of the Jews." The evil ruler Herod wants to know the exact place of this star so he can dispose of this child he perceives as a rival. The word "star" is used four times to describe this heavenly body in the passage found in Matthew's gospel.

As it happens I have been musing a lot of late about the Wayfinders of other cultures who navigate by the stars, prompted first of all by a somewhat tangential theme in Creation Lake by Rachel Kushner, one of the celebrated novels of 2024. A character is fascinated by the Polynesians, peoples of the Pacific Ocean who were exceptional navigators across great expanses using star paths, along with knowledge of patterns of winds, waves, and currents. These "sailor priests" had no instruments such as astrolabes and sextants yet astounded explorers such as Captain Cook with the depth of their knowledge and skill.

 

Then came another wonderful novel, Playground by the great Richard Power. He too sets much of his story in Polynesia and muses about these navigators who were and are vaunted in their culture as almost mystical shamans. 

I went rooting around in the book of essays called --you guessed it - The Wayfinders: Why Ancient Wisdom Matters in the Modern World, by the award-winning anthropologist Wade Davis. I have a sneaking suspicion that Rachel Kushner drew on this book for inspiration. 

Last but not least I watched, for the first time, the animated film Moana, the original rather than the sequel. Even though some Indigenous critics decry these films as the disneyfication of Polynesian culture and spirituality the story is of a plucky Polynesian girl who learns the way of the stars and constellations for the sake of her land-locked people.

This may seem like a far cry from our images of Wise Men crossing a desert on camels (there are no camels in Matthew), yet the combination of courage, ancient knowledge, and mystery resonate. 

We are all invited to set out from convention and certainty to be Wayfinders. I hope we can be Christ-finders in this season, no matter how familiar the stories may seem.