The news about the earthquake in the Indian Ocean and its aftermath has emerged at a halting pace (the first report I saw last Sunday speculated that perhaps as many as 10,000 people had been killed); but for most of the victims, the deadly waves came all too quickly. As the email writer from Sri Lanka wrote, "everyone vanished in a second."

This horrific event has raised for me and for many of us deep and profound and, quite frankly, troubling questions about nature, about God, and about our faith. What is going on that so many people, some working, some vacationing, some sleeping, some traveling, some lying in hospital beds, are simply swept away? Reporters and eyewitnesses have used words like "apocalyptic" and "biblical proportions" (although to be fair to the Bible, "biblical proportions" are often small and unassuming - think the crude manger in that backwater town Bethlehem). We find ourselves asking what kind of a God would allow such a slaughter - upwards of 150,000 people and still climbing, a third to a half of them children? After such a capricious and deadly event, what can we believe? And all of these questions have been heightened because of the timing of these events: the day after Christmas - the second day of our festive celebration of the appearing of the Christ child. The death toll in Asia skews the joy of this Christmas season and the story of God-with-us seemingly mocks the magnitude of this tragedy. "Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom God favors!"?

But for me, the confusing and elusive questions don't end with one earthquake and the deadly waves that it spawned. I then start asking myself other questions - why does an event like this one touch the whole world so deeply when many more people each year die of AIDS, starvation, and other preventable causes? Many of the people who died in the tsunamis were extremely poor and had short projected life spans - why does their death in a natural disaster mobilize the world, but not their death from the slower, but no less deadly effects of poverty? Unlike the attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, this tragedy did not have a human cause - we can't attribute these deaths to evil intent - somehow these deaths feel different - but I'm not sure how and I'm not sure why. Maybe because we know that the earth has heaved and rippled for billions of years and will for billions of years to come. And then I am not sure if when thinking about God that is more comforting than the human capacity for sin and evil or not. But regardless of the answer to these questions, over 150,000 human beings have vanished and the world and our Christmas story looks and feels very different.

That first Christmas story started on such an upbeat note. First the shepherds heard the angels telling of the new born king - a king born for them! And today we pick up the story of the star that led the wise men from the East to the baby Jesus. This is a story full of appearances: the star appears and leads the wise men to Herod. It appears again and leads them to Bethlehem and to Jesus. Jesus appears, not only to his own people, but to people in far away places. These are joyful, unbelievable appearances - more than anyone ever hoped for. But the Matthew who composed this story does not allow us merely rest in the beauty of these appearances - for that is not how the world operates - not then and not now. Matthew immediately follows this story of marvelous appearances with a story of horrific disappearances. The baby Jesus is not good news for everyone - especially not for Herod, the self-proclaimed "King of the Jews" who ruled only at Rome's pleasure. When Herod realizes he has been tricked by the wise men (after an angel appeared to them), he decides to take care of his "little problem" with a mass disappearance. He orders all of the children less than two years old to be slaughtered - a bit harsh, yes, but undoubtedly it will remove yet another pretender to his precious throne. And so, like a wave sweeping in and around Bethlehem, every child less than two years old vanished in a second.

And like the response around the world, there was a similar response in those days: A voice was heard in Ramah, wailing and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be consoled, because they are no more. There are two important references in this passage of lament: Rachel, of course, was one of Jacob's wives - a mother of Israel. Ramah is a little more obscure. During the deportation of the Jews to Babylon, Ramah was the last holding point. It was the Goree Island - the slave-holding island off of Senegal - of ancient Israel - the point of no return. It is the place from where people simply disappeared, vanished. And it is there that Rachel weeps for her children. All of this right on the heels on the Christmas story! Scripture - God's story - does not allow us simply to live in the beauty of the moment, but always calls us to live in the deeper truth - a truth that is fully aware of light and life as well as death and destruction.

This is why in the Christmas season it is so important for us to hold onto both parts of our reality - the glory and peace of Christ's appearing and the horror and tragedy of so many people disappearing. For God enters human history, not to remove us from it, but to enable us to live through it. And human history becomes bearable for us and for all people because is with us in it. This is why it is so significant that we baptize a child of God on a day when we remember the thousands of children who have vanished. This is why it is so important that we feast around Christ's table when so many go hungry - because we need to know and experience God with us.

The Christmas story enables to navigate - to experience the depths of human pain, and hold onto the hope that God shines forth in that star over Bethlehem; in that star over University City; in that star over Sri Lanka, and Indonesia, and wherever Rachel weeps for her children who are no more.

The Christmas story enables us to reenter the world - to be fully present because we know that nothing in life or death can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. Even in the worst tragedy - especially in the worst tragedy, God is with us, and the star still shines.

When we live that Christmas story in all of its fullness, with all of its glory and all of its tragedy, we are called not only to think and ponder on these things, but to act as well. Our faith always calls us to practical action - never merely to contemplation.

I would like to suggest a couple of ways that we as God's people - those who behold the light and weep over children who are lost - can live our faith and bring light and hope to others.

The first way - and many of you may have already done this - is to give. There is tremendous human need now in that part of the world. One opportunity to give is through Presbyterian Disaster Assistance. There are hundreds of other wonderful charities who are doing vital work in this time. In this season when God has given to us, we can return that gift to those who are in particular need.

Another thing we can do is to educate ourselves - to learn what this needs to people in that part of the world - How people live there - What are there needs? - What is going on in those countries? In the region of Aceh and northern Sumatra, thousands and thousands have lost there lives in the last 10-20 years. This earthquake will not make their lives any easier. It will not make that go away, and in fact, governments may exploit it for their own purposes. It is important for Christians to know how the policies of our government and our economy affect others, because we are all connected in the power and the presence of the Holy Spirit.

Another way we can respond is to get involved. This April, Diane O'Brien is organizing a mission trip of members and friends of this congregation to Mexico, not only to work and to serve, but to learn, witness and share. How does going to Mexico touch the lives of people in India and Indonesia and Sri Lanka? On the one hand, it doesn't, but on the other hand it brings God's light to a place in the world where great poverty exists, and where we can see what God is doing even now in the midst of God's people. While going to Mexico may not improve the lives of people in South Asia, it will build the body of Christ and enable us to reach out and embrace more and more people with the hope of the Christmas story.

Another way to act is to pray. We sometimes think of prayer as a passive activity - something we do when we don't know what else to do - but prayer for the Christian is our first activity. Prayer literally changes the world. I don't know how and I could not give you a calculus to explain it, but we have all experienced the power of prayer in our lives. When God's people lift up their voices and hearts as a sacrifice to God, the world changes. Hard hearts are melted, and people reach across and embrace one another.

The last active work I'd like to suggest for us this morning is to look not only for the disappearances, but for the appearances. God's star continues to shine today - not always in heaven above Bethlehem - but where people need light and life and hope.

There was a stupid quibbling at the beginning of this last week as to which wealthy nations in the Americas and Europe were being generous and which were being stingy. Maybe because of that, or in spite of that, the wealthy nations of the word are now trying to outdo each other in generosity: "I'll see your $350 million and raise you $150 million." What started as a trickle has become a flood of love and outreach help. We need to see those as signs of hope, as God appearing even in the halls of government, where we don't often think of God appearing. God will use whom God will use, and we need to point to those and celebrate them.

We can also look to the appearance of new communities. A week ago, I dare say some of us couldn't have found Sri Lanka on a map. We had never heard of the region of Aceh in Indonesia. Now, those people are inextricably bound to us. The glimmers of new communities and new relationships are appearing in the midst of terrible tragedy, of people vanishing in a second - Relationships that will last a lifetime, and generations to come are being forged. Let us point to those, celebrate those, embrace them and continue to form them, so that the star that shown in Bethlehem and brought visitor from the East to a little backwater town in Judea might shine over every village and hamlet, every city and nation of the world, and we might know in spite of all that happens that God is with us, and holds us, and embraces us and loves us, and for that we can say "Thanks be to God."