As a celibate only child I have little practical advice to offer couples who are getting married. My only suggestion has been that they have a pre-natal bucket list. List the things they will not be able to do when the child or children arrive and do the most important ones. I have heard of some interesting selections: a picture safari to east Africa, explorations of Tuscan Hill towns and, early in my ministry, following the Grateful dead for a few months. Yet a wise woman has suggested that I add a specific one; get lots of sleep now. This is not only or even mostly because of sleep deprivation with a newborn but that once a child arrives parents will never quite have an anxiety-free moment. He, she, or they will always be on the parental mind one way or another. This is not a sign of neurosis or something unique to a particular marriage: this is love and it is also the best way to understand Baptism and indeed the Synod. 

First some history and theology. 

The good news of Jesus is that because we are sinners he died for us, came back to life, and offers us new life indeed a new way of being human through membership in his family, the Church. 

The book of Numbers is part of the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible. All literate Jews would have known this passage, and the others would have known of it. Because of it Messianic expectations included that a star would be a sign of his arrival. 

This is the primary background for today’s gospel but there is one other dimension. Matthew calls the visitors from the east magi. For many of his readers these would have been the court advisors and magicians who confronted Daniel in the court of Babylon. They had an extremely negative connotation. Using Magi is not neutral like simply saying king or wise man. We should see them like the Samaritan in Luke’s gospel. It was shocking that people who were not only not Jews but hostile to them would have an insight into the nature and actions of the Messiah. 

For centuries people have tried to discover what the Star was and from where did the Magi come. Some of the answers were ingenious but most rather silly and all distracting. A great principle for bible reading is the best interpreter of scripture is scripture.  We should always first look at the scriptures for the meaning of a bible passage. In this case we would very definitely be rewarded with the story of Balaam.

It is found in the book of Numbers and is set during the invasion of Canann by the Israelites. Under Moses they had been wandering and fighting for 40 years and had become a fierce and disciplined fighting force. The king of Moab, Balak, realized that he was about to be attacked by Moses and that he could not win by force of arms. He decided however to use different means and sought out Balaam a “seer” from the east to curse the Israelites. This was about 1400 BC and seer, or prophet, meant not someone who could predict or envision the future but someone who could change it. Balak wanted to hire Balaam as a supernatural hit man. Balaam is contacted by the emissaries of Balek and somewhat reluctantly he follows them to Canann. Though he tried to curse the Israelites, the LORD puts words of blessing in his mouth and the Israelites steadily improve their position. His final utterance however goes far beyond just this one battle”  
I see him, but not now; 
   I behold him, but not near— 
   a star shall come out of Jacob, 
   and a scepter shall rise out of Israel; (Nu 24:17). 

St. Luke was very much a Roman citizen and knew that the ultimate competition for Jesus was the emperor. He had lived through the reigns of several emperors and realized that the first – Augustus – was the most formidable, and so he begins the story of the birth of Jesus with him. We are meant to make comparisons.

The emperor was born Octavian in 63 BC. He came from a solid family but was not of the highest nobility. He was however the adopted son of Julius Caesar and demonstrated such military and political skill after his death that he became the most powerful man in Rome. He also understood how to use symbols and what we would now call public relations.