We are approaching the Feast of the Epiphany, which will be observed in two days on January 6th, bringing the Christmas season to a close.

From Matthew 2.1-12:

In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, ²asking, ‘Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we observed his star at its rising, and have come to pay him homage.’ ³When King Herod heard this, he was frightened, and all Jerusalem with him; ⁴and calling together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born. ⁵They told him, ‘In Bethlehem of Judea; for so it has been written by the prophet: 
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 wise men and learned from them the exact time when the star had appeared. ⁸Then 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.’ ⁹When they had heard the king, they set out; and there, ahead of them, went the star that they had seen at its rising, until it stopped over the place where the child was. ¹⁰When they saw that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy. ¹¹On 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. ¹²And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for their own country by another road.

From Walter Brueggemann’s Prayers for a Privileged People:

Epiphany

The wise ones hurried from the East.
They are the wise of the world.
They are the ones wise in science,
for they read the “intelligent design” of the stars.
They are the wise ones of the economy,
for they come with gold.
They are the wise ones of politics,
for they sought a king.
They are our delegates, as we stand
carrying all the learning of the academy,
of the market,
of the laboratory,
of the halls of power.

They came, tenaciously and eagerly and regally.
They came and bowed down before your foolishness.
They sensed the contradiction
between his vulnerability and their sagacity.
between his innocence and their calculation,
between his exposure and their many concealing
robes of power.

They worshiped him!
They recognized that he called into question
all that they treasured,
so they yielded their best to him,
their preciousness,
their secret potions,
their rich perfumes.

And we stand alongside them with
our wealth,
our control
our smarts,
our sophistication,
our affluence.

Give us freedom like theirs
to yield,
to worship,
to adore,
to have our lives contradicted.

Give us grace like theirs
to embrace the foolishness of the child,
that the first will be last and the last first,
that the humble will be exalted and the exalted humbled,
that we may lose the world and gain our lives.

Give us the imagination like theirs
to go home by another route
on the path where foolishness is wisdom
and weakness is strength
and poverty is wealth.

Make our new foolishness specific
that the world might become—
through us—new.