Epiphany 2026
Today we marked the beginning of the New Year with the celebration of the Feast of the Epiphany, the revelation of the Wise Men of the birth of Christ to the world.
This Week
Tuesday 10am – Prayer Group in the Garden Room
Thursday 10am – Said Holy Communion followed by coffee in Friendship House.
Readings for next Sunday – 1st Sunday of Epiphany – the Baptism of Christ – Isaiah 42:1-9 Acts 10:34-43 Matthew 3:13-end
Today’s Readings – Isaiah 60:1-6, Ephesians 3:1-12, St Matthew 2:1–12
The word journey is used in various contexts these days. Often, it’s used to describe an experience, especially an adverse or challenging one. But all life is a journey and our life as Christians is a journey. We are all on a journey together.
Today, we celebrate the journey of the Wise Men in Bethlehem, marking their act of determination and perseverance in getting to see Jesus. But we wonder how they might have felt when they arrived at the stable. For they had travelled through the night many miles by camel following a star, to discover that the star had come to rest over a stable….they had followed a star and found a stable….. surely, they were expecting the new king to be born in a palace or at least a house. And we wonder how they must have felt as they looked down from some nearby Judean hill with the dawning realization that their destination was a stable!
Following stars and finding stables is a common occurrence in human experience. Who among us has not, at some time in our lives, fixed our gaze on some high and lofty star only to find it leads to a stable? It is better to travel hopefully than to arrive is a saying that comes to mind. All of us at some time in our life follow a star only to discover a stable.
The first thing we can say about the original wise men is that although they end up in a stable, they came looking for God. They came looking for the new King which the star they had studied led them to. And although the wise men ended up in a place that they did not expect, this did not stop them from making the most of it.
Often in life, when we are in difficulty, we think how we can get ourselves out of it, tending to rely on ourselves, and perhaps we stop looking for God at all and for any good in our predicament.
But for the wise men, the opposite was the case. Although they found themselves in a place they probably didn’t expect, they did not close their minds to God’s presence. In the end it didn’t matter that the King they had come to worship was living in a stable, because for them the star had led them to the truth: The truth that God had become human and was turning upside down the ways and beliefs of the world. The wise men had found God in the most unlikely place.
A further point we can learn from the wise men is that they offer their best to God. As we all know they offer gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh to the infant Christ. Gifts that were expensive and fit for royalty.
But if we read the account of the visitation of the wise men again, we will see that the offering of gifts is not the first thing they do. The first thing they do is to offer themselves in humble adoration and praise to the newborn king.
“And when they had come into the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh.” Matthew 2:11
Their first gift to the King of all Creation is of themselves and this is ultimately the best gift anyone can offer to God. Every year when we sing the carol “In the Bleak midwinter” we are reminded of this ultimate gift in the last verse we sing:
“What can I give him, poor as I am?
If I were a shepherd I would bring a lamb;
If I were a wise man I would do my part,
Yet what I, can I give him: give my heart.”
Christina Rossetti who wrote these words, knew all too well our human poverty and frailty, our desires and weaknesses, but she also knew that the greatest gift of all was of the self, total and undivided giving of the self.
When we first hear this, we might think we should only offer up the best bits of ourselves, the good bits, the bits that are worthy. But that’s not what it means. Offering of oneself means oneself in its entirety – good and bad alike.
Today we celebrate the feast of the Epiphany – the revelation of the Son of God by the wise men to the gentile world. Wise men from the east who were called to enlighten the world with their divine discovery, a world that would never be the same again, a world that would be inspired to see things differently through the life and love of Christ.
We pray for our part in this divine revelation.
“Yet what I, can I give him: give my heart”.