January 4, 2026 - Epiphany Sunday: Choose the Journey

January 4, 2026  Epiphany Sunday
Ladue Chapel Presbyterian Church
Matthew 2:1-12
“Choose the Journey”
Douglas T. King


A wise person once said that ministry is more about interruptions than anything else. The same can be said for each of our spiritual journeys.  In other words, the Holy Spirit always arrives in guises we do not expect, when we do not expect her.
 
Years ago, at a previous church in early December, I was sitting up in my office laying out preaching notes for upcoming sermons and I was thinking about Epiphany.  The phone rang.  It was Holly, who was a staff person for both the church and our school.  She asked me if I had time to come downstairs to see the baby Jesus.  I was busy but it did not seem like the kind of question to which one could say no.  I hustled my way down the stairs immediately.
 
Holly took me out to the crèche set up in the playground courtyard.  We never placed the baby Jesus in the crèche during advent because it confused the purpose 
of the season which is to wait for Jesus’ arrival.  But obviously someone had grown tired of waiting.  There in the center of the crèche was a tiny doll wrapped in a blanket.  
Someone had snuck in and placed Jesus in our midst, whether we were ready or not.

I returned to my office where my Bible was opened to this morning’s reading of the three magi paying homage to Jesus and I wondered about the need within us to be in the presence of this child king and about how we go about accomplishing just that, other than sneaking a baby doll in the manger that is.  

These Magi/wise ones/astrologers/kings, heck it is not entirely clear who the heck they were, put together the two sides of the puzzle that lead us to the Christ in our midst.  They started off with a sign, a star shining in the sky.  They were perceptive and noticed what others, who are only casual-glancers missed.  Their keen observation of the sky brought them news that a king had been born.  They have the first piece of the puzzle.  And they do not merely sit on this information and drink tea or whatever it is
magi/wise ones/astrologers/kings do in their spare time.

They possess what the poet Godfrey Rust refers to as “the unquenchable desire to know.”  Our wise ones choose to journey in search of this king whose presence they have discovered in the night sky.  And when it says they came from the east they are not exactly talking about east like the distance between here and the Central West End.  
They traveled a great distance and took on countless unknown risks.
 
They come to King Herod in search of further direction.  And Herod, fearing for his own power, quickly calls in his scripture experts for a consultation.  The chief priests and scribes tell him that the scriptures predict that the Messiah is to be born in Bethlehem.  
King Herod shares this with the wise ones and sends them out while he plots his own response to this news.  Now the wise ones have the second piece of the puzzle, the guidance of scripture, and they are ready to find this new king.  

They journey to Bethlehem and find the infant and they kneel before him, paying homage and bringing valuable gifts.  Besides making a lovely image for a Christmas Card,
even if it is a scene of the epiphany, what does this story offer us?  I believe it offers us insight into the importance of two pieces of the puzzle we need to use to find our way to Jesus, the keen perception of movements in the world and the wisdom of scripture.  

One of Karl Barth’s most famous quotes discusses these two pieces of the puzzle. He describes the correct way to do theology, with the Bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other.  Tom Long describes it in this fashion, “In terms of contemporary religious experience, the world is full of ‘stars in the East,’ events in nature, personal experience, and history that point toward the mystery of God.  The seemingly permanent Berlin Wall comes swiftly down in a sudden political storm, a daffodil opens in all its spring beauty and glory, a troubled relationship is healed, a child is born, all these experiences and countless others draw our attention to the divine mystery that quietly pervades and pushes through human events.  Without the defining and clarifying word of scripture, however, we could not recognize these holy moments for what they are, and we would not be able to see God’s face clearly in them.  Like the wise men, we would be aware something had happened, but we would not, without the revelation of God in scripture, know where or how to worship.” (Long, p. 19)
 
Epiphany is sort of a poignant holiday.  It is great that the three wise ones showed up to pay the infant Jesus homage, but I wonder, where was everybody else?  I am sure others saw the star.  And the chief priests and the scribes knew the Biblical prophecy but they do not come knocking on the door in Bethlehem with gifts.  Herod’s craven, power-mad, response to all of this will be the murdering of the innocents so it is clear he is not out shopping for baby gifts.  Only the wise ones make the journey.  

As we start this new calendar year perhaps we can renew our efforts to seek out the child king; to make the journey.  Perhaps we can summon our own, “unquenchable desire to know.”  Perhaps we can keep a keen eye on the movements of this world and particularly the movements in our own lives, the interruptions and surprises, for signs of the mystery of God present and at work.  Perhaps we can turn to the scriptures, with fresh and questioning eyes, and learn about how they may inform what we see unfolding in our lives.

In Willa Cather’s novel, Death Comes for the Archbishop, the archbishop offers this wisdom to one of his priests, “The Miracles of the Church seem to rest not so much upon faces or voices or healing power coming suddenly near to us from afar off, but upon our perceptions being made finer, so that for a moment our eyes can see and our ears can hear what is there about us always.” (Cather, p. 50)  In other words, there are always stars in the East if we have eyes to see them.

May 2026 be a year of finer perceptions for us all.  May we cultivate our “unquenchable desire to know.”  May we allow our eyes to focus on the countless stars in the East that are to be seen in our lives.  May we turn to scripture to seek to comprehend how and where God may be at work among us.  May we too journey into the presence of the Messiah and offer the gift of ourselves to the one who offers us everything in return.

Thanks be to God.
  Amen.

Cather, Willa, Death Comes for the Archbishop, Vintage Books, New York, 2023
Long, Thomas, Matthew, WJK Press, Louisville, 1997.