January 4, 2026 Epiphany Sunday

Matthew 2:1-12

2 In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, magi from the east came to Jerusalem, ² asking, “Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we observed his star in the east and have come to pay him homage.” ³ When King Herod heard this, he was frightened, and all Jerusalem with him, ⁴ and calling together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born. ⁵ They told him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for so it has been written by the prophet:

⁶ ‘And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,    

are by no means least among the rulers of Judah,

for from you shall come a ruler    

who is to shepherd my people Israel.’ ”

⁷ Then Herod secretly called for the magi and learned from them the exact time when the star had appeared. ⁸ Then he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, “Go and search diligently for the child, and when you have found him, bring me word so that I may also go and pay him homage.” ⁹ When they had heard the king, they set out, and there, ahead of them, went the star that they had seen in the east, until it stopped over the place where the child was. ¹⁰ When they saw that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy. ¹¹ On entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they knelt down and paid him homage. Then, opening their treasure chests, they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. ¹² And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for their own country by another road.

Sermon

There’s an old show I sometimes watch called “Adam ruins everything.”  In each episode Adam would show up and interrupt someone who had just said something that “everyone knows is true.” Adam would then go on to explain how what everyone knows is actually not correct, in effect “ruining it.” 

This Epiphany Sunday, I am going to “ruin” the wisemen.”  

·        Everyone knows, there were 3 kings – we three kings of orient are” 

·        And everyone knows they were wise – it’s right there in the name. 

·        And everyone knows that they were men- again it’s right there in the name. 

What everyone knows is…well not completely wrong but...not quite right either. 

The truth is we don’t know the number of the wisemen – the Bible never tells us how many there were. We assume 3 because there were 3 gifts. There could have been more, and there could have only been two. 

Three kings on their camels traveling through the desert makes for a lovely image on a card, but people just didn’t travel that way back then. They would have travelled in a group with others, maybe servants, maybe family, maybe joining a travelling caravan. Traveling was dangerous and the gifts they brought would have been so very tempting to highway robbers. Three obviously wealthy people on camels would have been an easy target. 

I’m going to switch here from calling them wisemen to calling them magi. That’s the actual term from the Bible – magoi. If they had been kings, they would have been called basileus (king) or anax (tribal leader). Magi were not kings; they were astrologers – astrology and astronomy were the same thing back then. They may have been advisors to kings, but they weren’t kings.

Neither were they wise – at least in the eyes of the Judeans. Magi (both men and women) studied astrology and followed pagan religions – both forbidden in the law. These were foolish Gentiles, outsiders, sinners, or worse. 

I’m going to make a disclaimer here: In our Christmas pageants, the magi will still wear crowns and royal robes. There will still just be three of them. There’s a place for tradition, and the Christmas pageant is one of those places. 

I’m ruining the Wisemen – because I want you to ponder the implications of the first people to bow down and worship Jesus. How does this change the story, and how does it affect us today? 

A group of foreigners, who worshiped other gods, and dabbled in astrology – fools all of them – see a star and travel many weeks or months.

God revealed Jesus to these pagan fools who followed a star not knowing where they were going or exactly what they would find once they got there. 

This is the theme of the Christmas story: God’s favor for ordinary people who didn’t have much in the way of power, status, or wealth: 

·        A peasant couple as parents to the divine,  

·        lowly shepherds receive the news first,  

·        now these pagan fools recognize the wonder of the baby and worship him. 

In the nativity narrative, it’s the lowly, the poor, the ordinary, the foolish, the outsiders who are the main characters. The powerful, wealthy, wise insiders don’t hear the angel song, can’t see the implications of the star, and aren’t interested in a baby born to a peasant couple. 

What does this mean to us? 

Those foreign magi, are the ultimate outsiders: migrating from another country, worshipping other gods, and plain foolish in the sight of Judeans. Yet they were welcome at the manger. This means that everyone is welcome at the manger. No matter who, no matter what path they have been on, no matter what brought them to this place, no matter what… All are welcome to follow the star, to worship the king, to seek Jesus. 

Second, this story tells us it’s okay to stop and ask for directions, to reorient ourselves along the way, to look for the star in unexpected places. Sometimes even those of us who have been following and worshipping for a long time need to stop, get our bearings, look past anything that might be distracting us, and seek Jesus once again.

Finally, the magi are unlikely examples for us. They are the first to worship Jesus. And as they go home another way, they go home changed by the encounter with the holy. A different kind of star light accompanies them – the light from the Christ Child.

Epiphany means to show up, show on, show out – the star showed up and showed out the way, the magi showed up, seeking Jesus. Jesus tells us to let our lights shine. We are to be stars leading the way for those who are still seeking. 

As you go from this place, like the magi, you go home by another way – filled with the light of Christ which shines through you to everyone you meet.