God’s Light on the Isle of Man

Music: No small wonder – Paul Edwards
Tenebrae
CD: A Very English Christmas (Signum)

Welcome: Judith Ley
Good morning and welcome to the Isle of Man. I’m Judith Ley, and together with Rev Alex Brown, we welcome you to our worship this morning. Last Tuesday, the church celebrated the Feast of the Epiphany - remembering the Magi - the learned travellers from the East who followed a star to find the child Jesus. Their journey is a sign that God’s son was born in human form, to be the Saviour of the whole world - whoever and wherever we are.

Opening Prayer: Rev Alex Brown
Loving creator God – the one who made the stars in the sky and the paths for us to walk – as we lean in closer to listen to your spirit guiding and prompting us into 2026, open up our eyes to see you, our ears to hear you, and our souls to be filled with you too. Amen.

Bible reading: Matthew 2: 1-12
read by Annie Kissack

Music: What child is this? (Greensleeves)
St Martin’s Voices
BBC recording

Judith Ley
How did these important people, who clearly came from another land, know about Jesus, too?

Rev Alex Brown
The story begins nearly one thousand five hundred years before Jesus, when a Magi - called Balaam - was employed by Israel’s enemy. They wanted Balaam to look over the people, and to curse them … but Balaam listened to God’s voice, and only said what God told him to say, so three times, instead of cursing Israel, he blessed them. Then, he spoke a fourth time over Israel, and this is what he said:

This is the message of Balaam son of Beor,
the message of the man whose eyes see clearly,
the message of one who hears the words of God,
who has knowledge from the Most High,
who sees a vision from the Almighty,
who bows down with eyes wide open:
I see a man … but not here and now.
I sense him … but far in the distant future.
Yes … A star is going to rise up from the family-tree of Jacob;
and a ruler’s sceptre will appear from the people of Israel.’

Balaam returned to the East, to the other Magi at that time, and told them the prophecy God had given him. And since then, generations of Magi have waited and watched - passing this prophecy to the next generation, and the next, and the next.

Then – after one thousand five hundred years - Magi saw what appeared to be a new star – rising in the sky, and they knew – this is the star that was rising up rom the family-tree of Jacob. This meant that the promised ruler was appearing – a King was being born.

Music: The Three Kings – Cornelius
Voces8
CD: Voces8 Christmas (Signum)

Judith Ley
This star was unlike any star that hey had ever seen – and they were able to be guided by its light. So they followed it. But is there any way that we can know, today, what they were actually following? The Isle of Man is perhaps the perfect place to bring that question because it’s a premier location in the UK for experiencing truly dark skies – having 26 Dark Sky Discovery sites, that’s more than anywhere in the British Isles. The Isle of Man’s leading astronomer Howard Parkin finds his own Christian faith is reinforced by the beauty and the majesty of everything he sees.

Reflection: Howard Parkin
So any explanation of what was visible to the Magi has to take into consideration the fact that the telescope was not invented until around 1609, so only bright significant events visible to the naked eye could have been this “star”.

Was it a Supernova - caused when giant stars reach a stage in their life cycle when they may become unstable and explode cataclysmically? These sort of astronomical events can be seen - even in a daylight sky.

Or was it a conjunction - when two or more planets appear close to each other in the night sky? We know there was a conjunction of the planets Venus and Jupiter, in June of the year 2 BC but Herod died in 4 BC so that can’t be the Bethlehem star.

However, another type of “great conjunction” is even more spectacular, but extremely rare.

Could it have been “triple great conjunction”, only seen in the constellation of Pisces, the Fish, about every 900 years.

What is certain is that our majestic skies remain as beautiful and mysterious as they did 2,000 years ago - and God is still the guiding light that leads us forward.

Music: I wander as I wonder – arr. John Rutter
Cambridge Singers
CD: Christmas Night – Carols of the Nativity (Collegium)

Judith Ley
The mystery - the other-worldliness of the Magi - even attracted the attention of the Manx National Poet, T.E. Brown. Born into a Christian family - his father was curate of Kirk Braddan - Brown himself was ordained deacon as a young man - but though he pursued education as a career rather than the church, his own, sometimes liberal, faith showed in his writing.

Annie Kissack - a poet herself - in fact, the Fifth Manx Bard - reads Brown’s imagining of the coming of the kings, simply called Carol - and written in a kind of medieval style of language which is not at all typical of Brown.

Poem
Carol – T.E. Brown

Music: Manx Carval (or carol) Oikan Ayns Bethlehem (Trans: A Child in Bethlehem)
Manx Gaelic Choir Caarjin Cooidjagh, directed by Annie Kissack

Rev Alex Brown
This Christmas time, perhaps more than any other before, I have been struck by the bravery of some of the people I have the privilege of walking alongside as part of my role as a Pioneer Minister here on the Isle of Man.

As I’ve been walking through this season that’s so often characterised by laughter and joy (and rightly so), I’m very aware that glitter and fizz of ‘the most wonderful time of the year’ is for some people much more like ‘in the bleak mid-winter’. These brave souls that I know are walking where they know that their decisions, their actions, their words are not going to be met with acceptance.

Sometimes being a person of faith and integrity is the most joyous, liberating, light-filled way of life … but sometimes following the path God seems to have put us on means that just for a season, our choices, our words, our actions need to be brave.

So the journey of the Wise Men – the Magi, has come alive to me in a whole new way this year. As I’ve looked into their story yet again, as I do year, after year, this time, I noticed the tension there is between them and the people they are heading toward.

Firstly, the Magi were not Jewish. They were probably God-fearing, and were definitely spiritual, believing deeply in the supernatural … but the closer they got to Jerusalem - the further away from their home country - the more different they would have felt.

They had no idea how they would be received in a country so far away and with a culture so very different from their own.

The Magi were famous throughout the East, in Babylon or Persia, as men who studied ancient omens and signs, and who looked out for more. Looking to divine the future, or interpret the present, from the stars, or through omens, is specifically outlawed in some faiths - but this group felt strongly that God was speaking to them through the star they had been following - the star they were convinced was a supernatural signpost to the King of the universe. Knowing that their lifestyle, their spirituality, their skin-colour, their accent, and message would be hard, if not impossible to be accepted where they were going – they still went.

They still went.

And amazingly, when they find Jesus and the holy family … what they are greeted with is not rejection, racism, or fear … it’s space.

Space to worship him, to leave their prophetic gifts, and then to experience guidance and rescue by God himself.

So my mind returns to these people that I am walking alongside here in the Isle of Man.

Some of them have been called to other countries, just like the Magi, where they are being asked to live vibrant Christian lives in cultures where that could be dangerous.

Some of the people I know are being asked to move, or start a new job, or confront hypocrisy, or to walk out of something that has been trapping them for decades.

Some of the people I know are, like the Magi, just coming to see Jesus for who he is right now, and they are being asked to be incredibly brave – God is stirring up in them the strength to lay down all they have believed about the world, the supernatural, their purpose on earth, their speech patterns, their spending patterns and to give it all to God, seeing how it’s going to turn out the other side – and more than that, deal with the change that will bring in their home, with their friends, at work, with their families – that is a brave, brave thing to do.

Sometimes, as someone who’s been a person of faith for years and years, I forget how much change and challenge comes in those first few months of finding faith afresh.

Music: Hope and Glory
Tim Hughes
CD: Pocketful of Faith (Integrity Music)

Judith Ley
Canon Philip Gillespie is the Dean - the most senior Roman Catholic priest on the Isle of Man, but until just a few months ago, he was living and working in Rome, as Rector of the Beda College - training students for the priesthood - and he witnessed at first hand the Jubilee Year - or Holy Year - proclaimed by Pope Francis on Christmas Eve 2024 - and ended last Tuesday - the feast of the Epiphany by Pope Leo, when he closed the last of the 4 Holy Doors at the Vatican.

Canon Philip Gillespie
In the Roman Catholic Church, a Jubilee or Holy Year is a special year of forgiveness and reconciliation, in which we are invited to come back into right relationship with God, with one another, and with all of creation - and that pilgrimage - that journey - begins in our hearts - and can as well be made by any of us, here on the Isle of Man, in Rome - or anywhere in the world

The theme of the Jubilee year of 2025 was Pilgrims of Hope. Pope Francis asked us to rediscover a spirituality of God's creation in which we understand ourselves as "pilgrims on the earth" rather than masters of the world.

A Holy Door is one of the four - usually sealed - entrances that lead into the major basilicas of Rome. The beginning of the Jubilee Year is marked by the opening of the Holy Door at St Peter's Basilica in the Vatican.

Often people will go on pilgrimage during a Jubilee year, to Rome or to any other holy site. Pilgrimage is a fundamental element of every Jubilee. A pilgrimage on foot is a great aid for rediscovering the value of silence, effort and simplicity of life. Setting out on a journey is traditionally associated with our human quest for meaning in life - and we see this most clearly reflected in the journey of the Magi - who set out on a long and difficult journey - with an unshakeable belief in a life-changing outcome.

I sometimes wonder what the Magi talked about on their long journey following the star - what they said to the people they met - with their camels, their different style of dress - they must have attracted some attention - Did some perhaps walk with them for a while? What might they have learned from each other, that a comfortable, settled life might not have revealed?

Europe is criss-crossed by pilgrimage routes where people meet from all backgrounds, sharing their journey and also deepening their understanding and appreciation of themselves, of others - and God’s plan and purpose for our lives. But so also is the Isle of Man - with ancient sites which have been places of prayer since the 6th or 7th century set in breathtaking tranquil scenery, a pilgrimage route is within everyone’s reach here.

In one of our prayers said regularly at Mass we refer to the ‘pilgrim church on earth‘ and that means we must be on the move, stable certainly, holding fast to the wisdom entrusted to us through the Gospels and the life of the Church down through these 2000 years – but never static: facing challenges but also recognising opportunities where we can share the good news of the loving care of God, Father Son and Holy Spirit, for all who turn to Him.

Although the Jubilee doors in Rome have closed, and the Magi have followed the star to find the saviour of the world, please God the doors of our hearts will remain open to God’s love which pours through them.

Music: Bethlehem Down – Warlock arr. James Pearson
The Sixteen, Lizzie Ball (violin), James Pearson (piano)
CD: The HeatBeat Sessions (Coro)

Prayers
Led by Fr Michael Brydon, Chaplain to the Bishop of Sodor and Man and Priest in Charge of St Matthew’s Church, Douglas

Gracious God, we walk through 2026, help us to see the whole of the year as a pilgrimage, and each day another opportunity to look for how you are moving, where you are speaking, and who you are calling us to be – Help us this year to live with the courage of the Magi.

God of the future. give us the strength to live out the direction WE feel called to go in, and the grace to put down our former ways of thinking and being, in order to pick up instead the things of God.

The Lord’s Prayer
led by Canon Philip Gillespie

An Epiphany Prayer
Rev Alex Brown

Brightest and Best (Wessex)
Choir of St Paul’s Cathedral
CD: Epiphany at St Paul’s (Hyperion)