Sunday January 4th, 2026 Worship

Before I got to my parents house last week, my niece was having fun rearranging my mom’s Nativity scene so that all the people and animals were circled around the baby Jesus. One of the first things I told my mom upon seeing this was that her Nativity set wasn’t right; the wise men weren’t even supposed to be there yet! But I think that’s something we forget during the celebration of Christmas; we celebrate on the 24th or 25th and then we begin preparations for the New Year and start packing up our decorations. The radio stations that started playing Christmas music in November stop before the end of December and the stores start putting out their items for Valentine’s Day. Our idea of Christmas ends with everyone adoring Jesus; all is calm, all is bright, and suddenly it’s many years later and we hear stories about Jesus’ teaching and then before we know it, it’s Easter again! Yet, as our story reminds us today, not everyone was so adoring of this baby Jesus, leaving the wise men with a difficult decision to make: serve God or serve Empire. The choice they make dramatically impacts our understanding of what it means to be a person of faith today.
Despite our desire to skip right from Christmas to New Year’s Celebrations, our Christmas season continues until this Tuesday when our church calendar celebrates Epiphany, and the magi finally appear on the scene. While these first few Sundays of Christmas can feel less important than the Christmas story itself, they are integral to creation of the Christian faith as we know it. Before Jesus was flipping tables and preaching about the reign of God, his very birth started to shake up the world around him. What began with a drawing in of the surrounding community when the angel appeared to the shepherds outside of Bethlehem, is suddenly expanded to include these three magi who are not even a part of the Roman Empire, but who have to travel an undisclosed distance in order to pay homage to the baby Jesus.
There are so many acts of rebellion by the magi in today’s story that witnesses to their understanding of what makes someone worthy of honor. Almost like a slap in the face to Herod, these magi show up asking for information about this one who has been born “The King of the Jews” because they wish to go pay him homage (Matthew 2: 2). Despite the fact that they are standing in from of Herod, they do not pay homage to him; his title and his Empirical rule is not enough to make him worthy of it. He has done nothing to earn their trust, but instead tries to use them to maintain control amidst his own ego-driven fears. As the Psalm speaks of today, a king, or a leader, is one who leads with justice and righteousness, caring for the poor and oppressed (Psalm 72: 1-7, 10-14). Herod’s reaction upon hearing the news of this kingly birth was immediately fear; not grounded in concern for the people over whom he ruled, but that he would lose his power and control.
The magi also rebelled when they chose to return home by a different path, bypassing Herod and his questions about where he can find the child, after being warned in a dream that they should not return to him (Matthew 2: 1-12). It is not a rebellion for the sake of being difficult, but one that is grounded in their sense of justice and righteousness. Knowing the risks of doing so, the magi still choose to defy the Empire for the sake of God’s promised future, regardless of the challenges it created for them.
They listened to where they were being called, both by following the star in the first place and by traveling home by a different means, and they showed deep faith in what God was bringing about in the world. It wasn’t like they got on a plane and flew there in a few hours, but they traveled for days to witness firsthand the change that was beginning to take place and to pay homage to the one who would come to provide an example of leading with God’s sense of justice and righteousness. The fact that they would take all of these risks to appear before Jesus is setting the stage for the ways that the Good News that comes about through his life, death, and resurrection will not be confined to a certain group of people but will be for all those who are willing to hear the message and encounter the risks of how their lives will be changed in the process.
Something new is happening in our midst, but today’s story reminds us that sometimes it takes time for the seed to grow. Despite our condensed telling of the Biblical narrative over the course of the lectionary year, Christmas wasn’t just a one-day event that magically changed the world overnight. But, it was the beginning of the world slowly turning toward justice and peace, as the birth of this little child threatened to topple an Empire. As people began to see that there was more to being involved in a community than paying dues to the emperor and fighting for a place of worth based on health and wealth. The disruption begins with a child born in a manger, visited by magi who traveled far to bring him homage, rejoicing in his presence, and imagining how the world can be different.
In the fast-paced world that we live in, we are not often told that it is okay to slow down, yet that is precisely what this story does. It reminds us that these events didn’t just happen in a day, and that we are allowed to take time on our journey, and that we are even encouraged to ask for help along the way too. And, sometimes, we may be the one going out of our way to care for the well-being of another. After all, the magi still have to get home somehow, but they chose the way that would be more difficult for them in order to ease the burden on Jesus and his family. They show us that there is a different way forward, a more faithful way forward, when leaders are acting out of fear and are disguising the intention of their actions in order to bring about more harm for the purpose of retaining their power.
God may not be asking us to walk long distances following a star these days, but the story of the magi is one that invites us to revisit our priorities and what it means for us to follow Jesus. What will we do when, like the magi, we are faced with difficult choices? What does it look like for us to rejoice at the birth of this baby, even as we are surrounded by violence, hatred, and fear? The magi’s presence doesn’t make everything better, and traveling home by another road doesn’t stop Herod’s quest to quell this political threat, but it does offer hope and joy to a mother and child who still have so much to endure. Their homage is a sign of respect and love, a moment of care in the early life of this child. And is a reminder to us that there is a different path forward, even if that one appears more challenging.
We don’t have to bring gold, frankincense, or myrrh in order to honor God, but our lives are a testament to God’s love for the world. And, our decisions are a witness to our faith in this one who is worthy of being honored. There are so many things that we can devote our time and attention to in the world around us these days. The choices we need to make don’t always appear to us in our dreams. Yet, no matter how we decide to live our lives, may we be like the magi, and lead with love. Love for God and love for one another, as we take the next step and continue to show up, even when the journey to do so feels arduous. Who knows how we will be changed in the process; only time can tell us that, if we enter the journey instead of trying to skip ahead!