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:
Matthew 2:1-12
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.
My sermon from Epiphany Sunday (January 4, 2026) on Matthew 2:1-12.
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A few nights ago, my family and I attended the First Night extravaganza in Ocean City, NJ. First Night, if you’re unfamiliar, is when towns and communities organize family friendly events for New Years’ Eve. We watched a musical based on the children’s book Pete the Cat, ice skated on plastic ice, jumped our way through giant inflatables, sang with a million kids who signed up to sing K-pop songs during karaoke, and then watched the sky lit up by dozens of colorful drones. The highlight of the night, though, was the Harlem Wizards who always use all kinds of basketball trick shots, lots of music, and an incredible amount of audience participation to generate a very high energy event. Since First Night had a lot of different things going on, the Harlem Wizards only had about 45 minutes to pull off their show. And so the music was loud, the kids were louder, and after introductions, a few kids got to play a layup based version of musical chairs with a jersey and a ball as the top prize. But near the end of that bit, something unexpected happened. On the far side of the gym, away from where we were sitting, a commotion began. An older gentleman only three rows up from the floor was having a medical emergency. Those in the audience who were trained in first aid immediately ran over and those working with First Night immediately called for an ambulance. The Harlem Wizards cut the music and did what they could to support the care others were providing. An eerie silence settled over the arena that was only punctuated by the sound of small voices asking: “what’s wrong?” A few parents, grandparents, and guardians didn’t want someone else’s nightmare to be the last thing their kids witnessed in 2025 so they quickly gathered their things and left. After a few tense-filled minutes, the gentleman sat up, looked around, and seemed embarrassed at having caused such a fuss. He seemed like he would be okay and when he climbed into the stretcher the EMTs brought out, everyone let out a large sigh of relief. But we were left with a question: how – or even should – the show go on?
Now today’s reading from the gospel according to Matthew is one I’ve talked about a lot recently since it was part of what we heard in worship last week and we talked through it when we taught the Christmas Carol “Three Kings of Orient Are” at our 9 am worship two weeks ago. Trying to find one more thing to say about a paranoid and violent ruler, a group of magi, and God choosing vulnerability as a sign of what true power will always be wasn’t easy. Yet during my research I was struck by a thought Professor Warren Carter of Phillips Theological Seminary shared in a commentary on this passage. He wrote: “Here, in chapter 2, Jesus is born into a contested world that sets the scene for the whole gospel and is marked by contrasting responses of homage and violence. First on the scene are the magi, [these]… priestly-political, star-gazing figures from the east. They come to pay homage to Jesus. But good intentions go awry with a foolish performance. They ask a very dumb question in Herod’s political center of Jerusalem: ‘Where is the one born King of the Jews?’ For so-called ‘wise-guys,’ this is an extraordinarily naive question.” Now for over 400 years, various English translations of the Bible have identified those who came from the east to be kings or wisemen. The magi, though, were most likely, Zoroastrian astrologers. It was their job to pay attention to the movement of the stars and planets since they assumed the cosmos directly influenced our daily life. To be a magi required a lot of training, education, and an apprenticeship where they created a portfolio showing how they really could see the divine at work. We shouldn’t assume these wiseguys actually believed in God or if worshipping at the Temple in Jerusalem was on their bucket list. Their vocation was to notice when the divine was on the move and, from what we can tell, they were experts in that particular field. But just because they were smart in one area doesn’t mean they were smart about everything else. And so when they went to the place where they assumed a new born king would be, they ended up interrupting a ruler whose ego, vanity, lust for power and love of money had no idea Jesus was already born.
The magi’s visit to Herod was, for him, unnerving and completely unexpected. Herod had, through political maneuvering and lots of violence, worked hard to be installed by the Romans as king over parts of Judea, Galilee, Syria, and Jordan. The magi’s message made it seem as if he had, somehow, lost Rome’s favor and was being replaced or that a revolution was brewing among those he was supposed to rule. What Herod needed was information and so he pulled together a group of advisors to see what they knew. From our perspective, what they shared pointed to God’s intervention in our world. Yet it’s probable those speaking and listening to these words assumed it was something else. Chief priests were, at this time, appointed by Roman governors and while some were hopeful the Messiah would come, there was no standard template or checklist for who that Messiah might be. All Herod heard was how word was flowing his power would be undone so he responded by being who he chose to be. He tried to convince the magi to be his spies, lying to their faces by saying all he wanted to do was honor the newborn king. Herod used misinformation, fear, and violence to try and hold onto his power. And while the magi, at first, agreed to follow Herod’s way, they resisted by choosing another way to honor a God they didn’t necessarily believe in. They wouldn’t let God’s show be interrupted by the whims of a tyrant because when push came to shove, they refused to be anything other than who they were.
These magi were not experts over all areas of life but when the divine showed up, that, rather than their ego, comfort, or desire for safety, would be their way. Life offers us many different ways to move through the world. And we’re told that with the right attitude, right plan, right bank account, right friends, right politics, right faith, and even the right body, we can right our life. Yet this “right” way is often the wrong way since it chooses to center our fear, our anxieties, our worries, and our need for control rather than our God. Sometimes the only way through is by being who God declared you to be. And you are, in baptism and faith, a beloved child of God and follower of Jesus Christ. Life isn’t only about getting what we can out of it or by trying to maximize every moment and every relationship. God has, instead, brought you into a love that has claimed you as God’s own. We, because of God, are part of God’s show and we get to live that out by paying attention to how God chooses to move. The divine comes not in displays of power or might but in mercy, in hope, in care, in listening, in openness, in integrity, in laughter, in perseverance, in patience, and in a willingness to not assume we’re supposed to be the expert in all things. God’s show moves through a love that is who we get to be. When the Harlem Wizards noticed that the medical emergency was over, they knew what they planned would no longer work. They very easily could have just called it a night. What they did instead was to be who they were by bringing a little joy into a very tense and highly emotional space. Even though the show they expected to perform had been interrupted, they leaned into who they could be. And we, in our own way, get to do the same by letting Jesus’ way of hope, peace, and grace be what we bring into the lives of our friends, our families, our neighbors, and everyone around the world.
Amen.