Epiphany
January 4, 2026
St. Dunstan’s
The Rev. Patricia Templeton
Once again, the church’s calendar is out of sync with the culture. The 12 Days of Christmas may be a popular song, but in reality to most of the world Christmas is long over.
Those Christmas decorations that popped up in stores in October, angels competing for shelf space with Halloween ghosts and goblins, have been swept away, replaced by Valentine’s cards, and even — I promise I saw this the other day — Easter eggs.
Then we come to church and guess what? It’s still Christmas!
Actually, it’s Christmas for two more days, until January 6, known as the Feast of the Epiphany. Since that festive feast is on a Tuesday this year, we have moved it up a couple of days so that we can all hear the last great story of Christmas, the arrival of the wise men.
It’s a story that has captured the imagination of artists, writers and composers for centuries. In fact, one commentary I read this week about this text says that “Matthew’s sublime story of the adoration of the Magi has often been better understood by poets and artists than by theologians and Biblical scholars, whose microscopic analysis has missed its essence.”
But before we get to the artists and poets, let’s look at the actual Biblical text and a little bit of theology.
The actual story is short on details. How many wise men were there? The story doesn’t say. Where did they come from? All we know is the East.
How long did the journey take? We don’t know. What was the wise men’s mode of transportation? Again, the text is silent.
What the story is clear on is that these wise men – and it really is almost impossible not to think of them as a trio – came from a great distance, drawn by a brilliant star in the night sky, searching for a child who has been born King of the Jews.
The wise men were not Jewish, and here is the first note of theological significance. This child who has been born may be known as King of the Jews, but he is to be the savior not just of the Jews, but of all people.
This story also gives us the first hint that the news of this birth is not a cause for celebration for all people, that the Christmas story has a darker side. That darkness is represented by King Herod, who greets the rumors of this birth with alarm.
If the wise men represent the presence of non-Jews who worship Jesus, Herod represents the imperial powers who are threatened by the birth of this child, who will grow into a man who does indeed threaten the political structures of his day, and of our own.
I imagine that the wise men must have been a bit surprised when the star they were following led them not to a palace fit for a king, but to a humble home more fit for a peasant.
But when they saw it they were overwhelmed with joy, and fell to their knees before the child, offering him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
Strange gifts for a child of humble means, but a fulfillment of the Isaiah passage we heard this morning. Matthew is telling us that this birth fulfills what the prophet Isaiah proclaimed – that the light has come, that kings have come from far away bringing the wealth of nations, symbolized by gold and frankincense, the most expensive of gifts, fit for royalty.
And the myrrh? Matthew does not comment on it, but this is not the only time that Jesus receives the spice myrrh. After his death, Nicodemus brings 100 pounds of myrrh to use in preparing his body for burial. So this story of the birth of a baby also foreshadows his death.
But as the commentator warns us, getting bogged down in microscopic analysis of this story may make us miss its essence.
It’s that essence – the rich and wise foreigners following a star to an obscure humble abode in Bethlehem, then falling on their knees with joy to adore and worship the child they find there – that has inspired artists of all kinds for centuries.
There’s the music – from that venerable hymn “we three kings” that we will sing in a few minutes, to James Taylor’s beautiful ballad “Home by Another Way.”
It has inspired storytellers such as O Henry with his “Gift of the Magi,” and Garrison Keillor, who retells the story on Prairie Home Companion.
Poets as various as T.S. Elliott, William Carlos Williams and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow have lent their talents to interpretations of the story.
Artists, too, have been inspired by this story, including Leonardo da Vinci and Botticelli, to name only a few whose depictions of the magi hang in museums around the world.
But my favorite painting of the three kings does not hang in a museum or grace the pages of any art book. It hangs in our house and was painted by my mother.
A photo of it is on the cover of your bulletin. Some of you have seen it before. The photograph doesn’t do it justice, but it gives you an idea.
My mother didn’t start out to do a painting of the magi. Joe and I had asked her to do an abstract painting, in the style of one of her paintings that hung over the couch in my parents’ home, and now hangs in our living room.
But as she painted the forms began to emerge. Can you see them? Three kings, on horseback, not camels (as some of the earliest depiction of the magi showed).
They ride out of the mist with intensity, the horses galloping, the kings leaning forward in their saddles, determined to get to their destination as quickly as possible.
I love that the kings emerged from my mother’s canvas without warning, and I love that when she realized it she allowed them to continue, following their lead, not knowing where they would take her, having faith she would end up in the right place.
That in itself is the essence of this story.
The wise men set out, following a star, not knowing where it would take them or what they would find.
But they trusted that God would lead them where they needed to go, even if it wasn’t anywhere they could have predicted.
This prayer seems to me to be a good one for the last days of Christmas, as we enter the season of Epiphany.
Lord, may we be like the Wise Men who were guided to you by a star. Give us the wisdom to seek you, light to guide us to you, courage to search until we find you, graciousness to worship you and generosity to lay our gifts before you, our Savior and our God for ever and ever.
Amen.