Rejoice at his glorious splendour
Sovereign God,
who by the leading of a star
revealed your only Son to the Gentiles;
mercifully grant that we,
who know you now by faith,
may after this life behold your glorious splendour,
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
The image that begins the collect is highly evocative of Christmas: the star leading the wise men to the stable. We are not really interested in what sort of astronomical phenomenon the star might have been, who exactly the wise men were and where they came from. This collect is about something far more important — they were Gentiles.
From the start of his revelation to Abram, God had promised that eventually the nations would be blessed through his chosen line (Genesis 12:3). Hard to believe, seeing that Israel was to keep itself separate from Gentiles, their unclean neighbours, the ones who conspired against God and his king. How could this be? Yet God's promise was there. The unfolding story of Abram's descendants, therefore, is of as much interest to Gentiles as to the chosen Jews, as we waited breathlessly to find out how we, too, might join in God's blessing.
Isaiah promised us a servant who would establish justice in the earth, and be a light to the nations, to those of us living in darkness, without God and without hope in the world (Ephesians 2:12). Oh, what joy, what singing indeed that would bring! This young shoot would be despised and suffer, but somehow… bear our iniquities? (Isaiah 53) How could that be?
Yet Magi from the east, Gentiles, came looking for a king. A strange king, this one; he had been born in a stable, with angels announcing him as saviour. Could this be the one to bring light to the Gentiles? A prophet went about, proclaiming Isaiah's words, preaching repentance and declaring that God's salvation was coming. And then one came in the power of the Spirit, declaring that he was there to proclaim freedom for prisoners. The oppressed would be set free. Do we stagger in gratitude when we read these words that he spoke of us? (Luke 4:18-19)
He would indeed suffer, and our freedom came in that most surprising way, as he died and rose in defeat of death. Risen, he gave grace and apostleship to a former persecutor who would now be his witness to us Gentiles, to turn us from darkness to light, from the power of Satan to God, so that we may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in him.
Do we rejoice with singing every day at this gift? To be grafted into the vine that is Christ? In awe and overwhelming thankfulness to be rescued from the futility of our thinking? We were darkened in our understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that was in us due to the hardening of our hearts (Ephesians 4:17-18). Yet we are no longer. We have the light.
It is far more than a star. It is, in this collect, a symbol of our inclusion into a doubly undeserved gift, of the salvation that came first to the Jews. Through faith, we can have obedience. Through faith, we have become an offering acceptable to God. What a gloriously rich mystery. Splendour indeed.
So pray this with me:
Sovereign God,
who by the leading of a star
revealed your only Son to the Gentiles;
mercifully grant that we,
who know you now by faith,
may after this life behold your glorious splendour,
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.