LATEST HOMILY
EPIPHANY of the LORD
January 4, 2026

Focus: Christ is the Light to the Nations that draws us to Him and Him to us. 

Function: As Christ shines His light to us, we are called to shine this light to others who thirst, like us, for refuge in the Truth.  

A. There is no other God... 

Christmas, given its reality and the core of the celebration, is, Awfully strange. Looking at it with a neutral perspective, the story is ludacris. An all-powerful God who created all things out of nothing. A God who spoke through the prophets and other varied ways. Who destroyed pagan kingdoms and is the cause for the rise, and fall for Israel, its rulers, and its judges. A God who brought one of the ancient world’s most, powerful leaders Pharoah to his knees and parted the red sea, in two.... reveals His glory, His power, His infinite majesty and, Kingship by coming down as a helpless poor babe. In such an Epiphany of who He really is, you may wonder, what God was trying to convey with such an anti-climatic, entry into the world. If we really know God and His nature, He tells us that as far, as the Heavens are from the Earth His ways are not like the, ways of human beings. He does not think like we do. And His love is far more, extraordinary than our love. There is no other religion in the world, except Christianity, that proclaims, a god who came in time and space as a human being, to save all of the world from sin and death. There is no other religion in the world that proclaims a god, who loves His creation so much that He emptied Himself, so that we might be saved. A God who is totally other became, totally similar to us so we may experience His total otherness. A story of complete compromise, vulnerability, embracement, of weakness and an acceptance of possible embarrassment, and shame is this God of Christianity. This God revealed to us in human flesh we call Jesus the Christ. Though Jews and Muslims share a foundational platform of, beliefs, we go our separate ways when it comes to Jesus. Belief in Jesus Christ and how He came to reveal Himself to, us is ludacris to the human mind. For thousands of years human beings and the idea of deity, has never been one to show mercy, love and sacrifice. Deities through out the centuries have only been know to, lust, take, destroy and rule. They act as they please and their decisions for creation are, Made as it suits them.  These pagan deities find its origin in mythology, and most of these deities reflect the disordered, human appetite. It was Jean- Paul Sastre who once said that the Triune God, is a mere reflection of the human mind conjuring up an, entity to calm the fears and unanswered realities we face daily. While it is actually these pagan gods through the centuries, who fit this philosophy best. 

B. Epiphany A Celebration of Finding Ourselves In Christ. 

The triune God places in the human soul a seed, a switch, A potential form of Grace that calls us to look outside of, ourselves and to find ourselves in the other. And that is why the Christmas season is the foundational, celebration of our journey towards salvation. It is the reality that God shows us how to find the light from,  within ourselves by being one of us! And that my friends is insane to believe, whether Christian or not. Because His way of love is, unfathomable. A God who is a mirror to us. To show us, that He is more than just with us and for us, He comes to, bring the light of Heaven in a broken form to a broken and, darkened world that does not know its way. The three Kings Caspar, Melchoir, and Balthazar, represent us. They represent the nations, they represent, those who search for the truth. Those who seek out the, the Eternal Bliss. And they do find Truth and Eternal Bliss, poor, little to no clothing, unperfumed and unsheltered. Yet relief strikes their hearts upon the sight of the child. Giving their gifts they also give of themselves. They give of themselves in their gifts because they come to, realize that Christ has come to give Himself to them.  And thus sparks the first moments of true religion true, worship. Where God places Himself in human beings and, human beings find themselves in God. Dear friends Epiphany is more than just three Kings coming, to pay homage to the Christ child. It is about the establishment of true worship. The light given, to human beings. The epiphany that shows us how we are to live. The true worship of God is giving ourselves as an offering, to Him and He offering ourselves to Us. It is a giving of, two persons until they are one in the Spirit. The gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh represent Jesus’, kingship, deification and death but they also represent, the realization of who this child is to us and what He, has come to do. There is no gift that can satisfy the glory, we have received in the Christ child and the only gift that, Will suffice is our very selves and giving that self to others. If we want to live out the full beauty of Epiphany. Take it from the one who has given us the celebration. Empty out the self. Be a gift to another person. Spend of yourself. Go out and announce the gospel to the one’s who will be, considered least to accept it. Spend yourself to broken hearted, bring light to the darken soul, the alcoholic, the drug addict.  The struggling single mother, the vagrant, the abused and bittered. That is where the feast of Epiphany comes to its fruition. When we, like Christ, make ourselves a gift to others. They will come to see and recognize the light that has, always longed to shine in them. 

Amen!