We gathered on Epiphany, Three Kings' Day, which celebrates the arrival of the magi in Bethlehem to pay honor to the Christ child. We marked the day, the first Sunday of 2013, with special music, including the timeless carol, "We Three Kings."
During the sermon, I encouraged us to consider what we can learn from the quest of the magi to find the newborn king. These three travelers, from a faraway land, followed a star in the heavens, which they took as a sign of the new king's birth. They then arrive in Jerusalem, and pay a call on the current king, Herod the Great, to discover where the new king has been born, but Herod is unaware of the birth. Calling together his advisers, he learns that the promised king is to be born in Bethlehem, which he shares with the magi.
Rather than focusing on the motivation of these famous travelers with their exotic and expensive gifts, I encouraged us to pay attention to the dysfunctional relationships evident in "The King's House." Surely more people saw the star than the three magi, and some probably even correctly identified it as a sign, but only these three completed the journey to Bethlehem. It wasn't for lack of information, but for lack of communication and openness, that Herod was unaware of Christ's birth. How often, I wonder, do we see the signs, but refuse to act upon them in our lives?
If you missed Sunday's sermon, if you'd like to listen to it again, or if you'd like to share it with others, you can find an audio recording here.
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