Sermon preached at the Family service, 4th January 2026, Granborough

2nd Sunday of Christmas, being celebrated as Epiphany Sunday

By Peter Evans

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From 1 Chronicles 29 – David prays

 

“Praise be to you, Lord,

    the God of our father Israel,

    from everlasting to everlasting.

Yours, Lord, is the greatness and the power

    and the glory and the majesty and the splendour,

    for everything in heaven and earth is yours.

Yours, Lord, is the kingdom;

    you are exalted as head over all.

Wealth and honour come from you;

    you are the ruler of all things.

In your hands are strength and power

    to exalt and give strength to all.

Now, our God, we give you thanks,

    and praise your glorious name.

 

Reading for this Sunday

 

Matthew 2: 1 – 12

After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem 2 and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.”

 

3 When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. 4 When he had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Messiah was to be born. 5 “In Bethlehem in Judea,” they replied, “for this is what the prophet has written:

 

6‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,

    are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;

for out of you will come a ruler

    who will shepherd my people Israel.’”

 

7 Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. 8 He sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and search carefully for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him.”

 

9 After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen when it rose went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. 10 When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. 11 On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. 12 And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.

 

The Talk

Here’s a question for you. When was the last time you went round a friend’s house and then decided to randomly disappear and go and hide under a bed. Without telling anyone.

 

I bet most of us have done it at some point in our lives. You know – the let’s just sneak off and hide. Just for fun.

 

I feel sure at some point, all of us will have hidden under a bed.

 

Well – here’s a true story. A few days before Christmas, a neighbour came over to help me with a small DIY job. And of course, the neighbour brought along their young lad to help.

 

The job was to hang a set of bookshelves above the stairs, and there was a lot of grunting and heaving and standing on ladders, with my wife giving imperious directions along the lines of up a bit, down a bit, left a bit – fire.

 

And while we were all distracted by the task in hand, the young lad disappeared. And I mean, without trace. He hadn’t been seen trundling off along the landing out the corner of someone’s eye. Or left a trail of audible shuffles and giggles as he had moved away. No. Stealth mode was in full operation.

 

And as we all stepped away and gave ourselves a pat on the back for shelves well hung, the young lad was gone. Just like that.

 

As you have probably guessed from the opening question, he was eventually found under a bed, big smile on his face. And after that, he just had to explore. Open every door. Try any keys he found in any locks that might take them. Bounce on every sofa. Twice. And more besides.

 

And boy, was he happy. Thrilled and excited to be exploring somewhere new. With new sofas to bounce on. And new beds to hide under. The young lad was quite literally going round the house in awe and wonder. And it was amazing to watch.

 

And of course, it got me thinking. Because here we are again at Epiphany Sunday and the story of the wise men. I had a quick look through last year’s sermon on the same – and just to recap quickly – yes , they were men, but wise is stretching the translation a bit. More like sorcerers or magicians or astrologers – people whose job it was to advise the court in Babylon about things that were not otherwise understood. In some parts, the bible explicitly condemns these sorts of practices. It’s interesting that only Matthew includes this account – and Matthew’s target audience was the Jews, and they would not remember Babylon with affection – because it was there that they had been held in exile. So the wise men or Magi are outsiders, who do things that God doesn’t like, from a place that the Jews didn’t like, coming to worship the new born king.

 

And yet, God drew them in. He drew them across a thousand miles of desert for maybe a couple of years to come and worship. Outsiders. People not like us. With pagan practices. Brought in to worship. This shows us that God’s invitation really is to all and everyone. Even the people we might not like.

 

And so eventually, and with obvious excitement, the Magi arrive to worship the new born king. They have brought presents. Gold, frankincense and myrrh.

 

And if you’re wondering where the connection is with the young lad and his trip to our house, this is it. The Magi would have been in awe and wonder as they arrived where the star directed them. Just so excited. After years of travelling, for something they knew was really significant. Matthew says that they were overjoyed. In fact the bible version we use plays it down a bit. Other translations say they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. Just to drive home the message.

 

We might say gobsmacked today, but awe and wonder is a bit more poetic.

 

The Magi expressed their awe and wonder in the gifts they had brought. Expensive. Significant. Worthy of a King.

 

Matthew tells us that they bowed down and worshipped, where that worship is an expression of love. True worship can only ever be an expression of love.

 

And that’s like us at Christmas. Just as the Magi gave gifts to Jesus, so we give gifts to one another. And hopefully, we give them in love.

 

The Magi had given their presents and had met with the new born King. And it’s inconceivable that they would not have been impressed.

 

But what about us? How are we when we come to worship?

 

To me, there’s a very real sense of excitement when the Magi come to visit Jesus. And so it should be for us. Just as the young lad had that sense of awe and wonder when he explored our house, we can feel the same when we meet with Jesus.

 

But sometimes I think we miss out on that sense of awe and wonder. Maybe it’s been hard to come by. Or maybe we have, but in times gone by. Who knows.

 

But I believe that awe and wonder is what our God would love us to experience. That we would delight in Him when we encounter Him.

 

Much later on in Matthew, in chapter 18, Jesus is asked a question.

 

At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who, then, is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”

He called a little child to him, and placed the child among them. And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me.”

 

I’ve got to be honest, parts of this passage have always perplexed me. For sure, I absolutely understand that children can be very charming, but we all know too, that the capacity for mischief is extensive. The terrible twos. Wilful disobedience. Tantrums.

 

But Jesus said “unless you change and become like little children, you cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven”. It’s another of Jesus’ upside down kingdom statements, that we talked about in café church a few weeks ago. But there is more. Because there are qualities in little children that we should absolutely aspire to.

 

And this is what I saw in the young lad just before Christmas. Surprise and delight. Awe and wonder.

 

These qualities should be part of what we experience when we meet with God. Just like the Magi.

 

And there’s another awe and wonder passage that sometimes goes under the radar. It’s a well-known passage, but the awe and wonder bit sometimes gets overlooked.

 

It was written by the prophet Joel hundreds of years before Jesus was born.

 

It’s from Joel 2: 28

 

“And afterward,

    I will pour out my Spirit on all people.

Your sons and daughters will prophesy,

    your old men will dream dreams,

    your young men will see visions.

Even on my servants, both men and women,

    I will pour out my Spirit in those days.”

 

And guess what – it’s quoted almost exactly word for word by Luke in Acts chapter 2, when the Holy Spirit comes at Pentecost.

 

The awe and wonder bit is buried in verse 28.

 

Your sons and daughters will prophesy,

    your old men will dream dreams,

    your young men will see visions.

 

I’d always taken this at face value, that this was just a description of some of the ways God will communicate with us now that the Holy Spirit has come. And this of course is true.

 

But it’s too easy to miss the awe and wonder that is contained in these verses.

 

Dreaming dreams can too easily be about that stuff that happens while we are asleep. But here, it’s about the things we dream of. Same word, but a much bigger meaning.

 

“I have a dream that one day, this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal”.

 

I have a dream that one day, on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

 

And I have a dream follows six more times.

 

Taken of course from arguably the greatest speech of the 20th century by Martin Luther King.

 

His was a dream that inspired awe and wonder.

 

And in the same way, our visions should be so much more than simply something we may have seen. Visions that inspire and change, provide direction and hope.

 

Vision is that ability to see that which does not yet exist. Visions that inspire awe and wonder.

 

Dreams and visions can most certainly be exciting, especially when they flow through the Holy Spirit into our lives.

 

The awe and wonder that comes from them is part of the richness of our relationship with God.

 

God does not want our relationship with Him to be mundane, dull and uninspired. He wants to us enjoy His love, and delight in the worship that we give in return.

 

When we have encounters with God, these are special times. Times that touch the soul and enrich our lives.

 

Just like the Magi, each of us has a journey to find Jesus, towards that first encounter with our Lord and Saviour. It should be a time of awe and wonder. And one that stays with us as we live our lives for Him. It’s like the words in that famous carol – “what can I give to Him – give my heart”.

 

Amen