"And, lo, the star, which they saw in the east, went before them, till it came and stood over where the young child was."

Some people, including some religious liberals, still take the Jesus birth story too literally. Reflecting on this moment of the Matthew version of the story, some have tried to be "scientific." They have conjectured that perhaps Jesus's birth happened at one of those moments when several planets were so aligned that they seemed to be a single star, stunningly bright. But the story is a story, not history, not science. In a very imaginative way, it is trying to say, "In this one human being, the divine showed through so brightly." The bit about the star is a poetic device. We don't need to conjecture anything about a convergence of planets. And yet we can have some useful fun with the conjecture.

Physicists today still are trying to find the one, overarching, "unified theory" of physics which will pull together the multiple " and often disparate " theories that are out there now. Physicist Stephen Hawking, himself a bright star, says this about that in his foreword to "The Illustrated A Brief History of Time:" "[There are strong indications] that there is a complete unified theory of physics, but they also suggest that it may not be possible to express this theory in a single fundamental formulation. Instead, we may have to use different reflections of the underlying theory in different situations. It might be like our being unable to represent the surface of the earth on a single map and having to use different maps in different regions."

I suggest that Mr. Hawking gives us a way to express a key Unitarian-Universalist insight. There are strong indications that underneath the differences between religions there is a single unifying religion, but they also suggest that it may not be possible to express this unitarian religion in a single fundamental formulation. Instead, we may always have to use different religious reflections of the underlying unity in different situations, just as different maps are needed to represent the surface of the earth. This is our universalism.

So it is that I have for years now chosen to use the month of December to gather together, as in one bright shining starlight moment, the different root insights of the three different faith families " the Primal (as in old European, African, Native American), the Hebraic (as in Jewish, Christian, Moslem), and the Asian (as in Hindu, Buddhist, Taoist). So I shall do again this year. May their light together stand over the time-place of your birth and remind you of how in this one unique human being " You " the divine seeks to shine forth so brightly.

Mark