January 4, 2026 Communion St. Andrew Church Rev. Anne McAnelly
Michael Bausch tells a great story about archaeologist Howard Carter. In 1922 Carter was completing nearly fifteen years of digging in the famous Valley of the Kings in Egypt. He was hoping to find the royal tomb of Pharaoh Tutankhamen. Having found nothing, his days of digging were coming to an end. Money was running out. Then workers discovered sixteen stairs leading into the earth. Thousands of baskets filled with rocks and sand had to be carried away, but eventually a door was found at the end of a long passageway. Carter drilled a small hole in the door and stuck an iron-testing rod into a dark, blank space. He then inserted a candle into the hole and peered in. As his eyes grew accustomed to the light, details emerged into his view, and he saw strange animals, statues, and everywhere the glint of gold.
He wrote, “For the moment, I was struck dumb with amazement.” A partner asked, “Can you see anything?” And Carter’s reply was, “Yes, wonderful things” (Sermons.com, King Duncan). Do you remember seeing King Tut’s artifacts when they toured the US in the 70’s? They inspired and awed us. Creating wonder in our imaginations and hearts.
We are about to hear about several more kings. Kings who brought gold, frankincense and myrrh.
READ Matthew 2:1-12
Who knows what Epiphany is? It happens in two days, on the 6th of December, which will be the 12th day after Christmas. This is where we get the idea of the 12 days of Christmas. And a partridge in a pear tree. Epiphany marks the end of the Christmas season and the beginning of the season of Epiphany. The word “epiphany” means “appearance” or “manifestation” of God and has roots in the word for sunrise or dawn, maybe that’s why it is often called the Feast of Lights. During Epiphany, “We celebrate that Christ has come as a light for the Gentiles, for all nations, (for us!) It is this season between Christ’s birth and his death and resurrection that reminds us to open our eyes and see who Christ is. To allow God to reveal Godself through the light of Christ, how He lived and what He taught. Dawn’s light” (bettedickinson.com/blog/seedsofhope1).
Epiphany marks the arrival of the magi from the East. It is the story of the one hymn I learned to play on the piano, We Three Kings. Fun fact. We do not know how many magi or kings came, only that they brought three gifts. Some estimates are as high as twelve kings. Recently I discovered that maybe several star gazers might have seen the star from different locations and met on the road, before encountering King Herod. Yet the arrival of these foreign stargazers means God’s grace was expanded to all the world. Quite remarkably God extended grace to those who were originally outside the covenant with Israel. God’s love could not just be for the people of Israel, God’s love and light is for all nations. The good news is that means US!
Stephen Cottrell imaginatively writes about one of the magi’s experiences, “We have come looking for a birth, the birth of a king…We had found a child, just a child-but one who already struck fear into the hearts of powerful men, and whose parents told fantastic stories of angels and shepherds, and of God visiting the earth…Not just one God, but one God come down to earth, one God sharing the life of men. Was this what the stars had led us to: heavens themselves come down to earth?” (Walking Backwards to Christmas, p. 38). The wonders of heavens seen in Christ.
Heavens, stars, exploration, and God create awe in us. Here’s modern moment of awe. Jacob Needleman, an observer at the launch of Apollo 17 in 1975, describes the NASA launch. This one was a night launch, and there were hundreds of cynical reporters all over the lawn, drinking beer, wisecracking, and waiting for this 35-story-high rocket. The countdown came, and then the launch. The first thing you see, according to Needleman, is this extraordinary orange light, which is just at the limit of what you can bear to look at.
“Everything is illuminated with this light. Then comes this thing slowly rising up in total silence, because it takes a few seconds for the sound to come across the water. You hear a WHOOOOOSH! BOOM!’ It enters right into you. You can practically hear jaws dropping. The sense of wonder fills everyone in the whole place,” says Needleman, “as this thing goes up and up. The first stage ignites this beautiful blue flame. It becomes like a star, but you realize there are humans on it. And then there’s total silence. People just get up quietly, helping each other up. They’re kind. They open doors. They look at one another, speaking quietly and interestedly. These were suddenly moral people because the sense of wonder, the experience of wonder, had made them moral.”
When I think of Joseph, Mary (and the Magi) and the things they saw and heard and dreamed. It must have entered right into them. Filled them with awe and wonder” (Sermons.com, Eric Ritz).
Epiphany is the fulfillment of Advent and the climax of Christmas. At Christmas the church beholds the incarnation of God in flesh, and on Epiphany the church celebrates that God has come to make his glory known to the world in and through Jesus Christ. We experience the glory, the wonder, the manifestation of God during Epiphany. Each week we will explore this wonder focusing on one of the senses, sight, touch, smell, hearing, and taste, helping us to ground our journey in our body, in what we experience, not simply what we believe. I invite us to sit together at Jesus’ feet, learn his ways, the contours of his life, the sound of his breath, the dance of his light.
“This idea of Epiphany reminds me of the popular Christian artist Thomas Kinkade. (Do you remember the gallery in Capitola with his luminous paintings?) Kinkade was referred to as ‘the Painter of Light.’ Every possible light source in the painting shines forth, whether a streetlamp, a window, or a car headlight. This luminous style was Kinkade’s trademark. He believed the abundance of light put the viewer in a state of peace and tranquility, feeling good about (themselves), about God, and about the world. Kinkade wanted his paintings to whisper to the viewer, ‘See how wonderful life is when it is full of light?’” (https://firebrandmag.com/articles/the-light-in-the-darkness-a-reflection-on-epiphany).
Yet Isaiah speaks of thick darkness covering the peoples and it can feel like that right now, with laws being bent, people detained, healthcare stripped away, and foreign leaders kidnapped. A thick darkness, in desperate need of light. Five years ago, we experienced light when Amanda Gorman shared the poem, The Hill We Climb, at Biden’s inauguration. On the cold January day, she mirrored the hardship yet instilled hope as we heard this young poet declare, “The new dawn blooms as we free it. For there is always light, If only we’re brave enough to see it. If only we’re brave enough to be it.” That is what Epiphany is for, for us to see Christ’s light again, to wonder at God’s creation and love, to taste the goodness of God’s indwelling spirit.
“In his book, This Sunrise of Wonder, Michael Mayne writes this to his grandchildren: “If I could have waved a fairy grandfather’s wand at your birth and wished upon you just one gift it would not have been beauty or riches or a long life: It would have been the gift of wonder.” He goes on to suggest that they set their sights not on success, but on wonder. They should live with a sense of awe. (Sermoons.com, Brett Younger). So, as we embark on this journey through the season of Epiphany, I hope to provoke wonder in all of us. Wonder at Creation, wonder at God’s love, wonder at the indwelling of God’s spirit. The scripture that does this best is from John’s gospel. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overtake it… The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world… And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth” (1:1-5, 9, 14). The glory, the grace, the light and the wonder of the indwelling of God within humanity. The indwelling of Christ’s light in us.
“Light of the World, Illuminate the darkness in me and illuminate the darkness in the world so that I can see it the way You do. Help me to see by Your light – may I be on the lookout to see it everywhere and embrace whatever it is You want to teach me through it. Amen” (www.bettedickinson.com/blog/seedsofhope1).
