Sermon Illustrations on the Epiphany

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Background

Baptism and Epiphany

Before child baptism was common in the early Church, Epiphany was a special holy day for baptism. This is because Epiphany is traditionally associated with the baptism of Jesus by John in the Jordan. Just as Jesus was revealed to the gentiles in the visit of the Magi, Jesus is revealed as the Messiah and Son of God in the baptism of John—a trinitarian theophany where the Father speaks and the Holy Spirit descends like a dove.

In the early Church, Neophytes (those to be baptized) would come down to the water in the dark to be immersed in the water, only lit by the flickering light of torches.

Recalling the baptisms on this night, some churches still bless the waters on Epiphany. In some Catholic traditions, these are sprinkled on homes in house-blessings. In Coptic and Orthodox traditions, this goes a little farther, with Christians jumping into the water! In Greece, for example, a priest throws a cross into the sea (or river or lake) for the young to dive in (at the ringing of the bells), find, and retrieve. It is a chilly tradition—and the priest often throws it in a total of three times.

William Rowley

Chalking the Door

In many parts of the world, on Epiphany, you will see a strange formula chalked above the doors of local homes. In 2024, it would read:

20 ✝ C ✝ M ✝ B ✝ 24

The “chalking of the doors” is an Epiphany tradition. The odd formula is composed of the year and the initials of the traditional names of the Magi: Caspar, Melchior, and Balthasar. It is also taken to abbreviate the Latin prayer: “Christus mansionem benedicat” (May Christ bless this house). A common way of observing the tradition is by the priest or pastor visiting the home, saying a blessing on the home and then inscribing the formula in chalk (sometimes blessed water is sprinkled during the blessing, recalling the tradition of baptising people on Epiphany in the early church). In other traditions, the chalk is blessed at the church and a family member chalks the formula above the door.

Practically speaking, it is a public declaration and witness of faith in Christ by the household before their community.

William Rowley

Christmas: A Tradition of Gift-Giving

While Christmas traditions vary the world over, gift-giving is a central practice just about anywhere Christ’s birth is celebrated. Sometimes gifts are exchanged on December 6, the feast day of Saint Nicholas, and sometimes on Twelfth Night, the last day of Christmas, but most commonly on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, the official liturgical start of the season. Many people look to the gifts of the Magi as the original inspiration for Christmas gift-giving. But how the Magi’s gifts of gold frankincense, and myrrh for the Christ child transformed into the gift-giving extravaganza Christmas has become is a long and complicated story. A few high points are worth noting.

Before the birth of Christ, gift-giving was common in the Roman Empire to mark the start of the New Year. When the date of the Christmas feast was set on December 25, it was situated closely to an established gift-giving occasion in the surrounding culture. It makes some sense, then, for the gift-giving practice to migrate to Christmas once the date was recognized.

Then, in the fourth century, Nicholas the bishop of Myra in Asia Minor became renowned for his sanctity and generosity, especially his gifts to poor families and children.

One story has him dropping gold coins in a poor family’s stockings while they dried by the hearth. Tradition says the reason for the gift was the provision of suitable dowries so the family’s three daughters could marry. Due to his beloved memory, the day of Nicholas’s death, December 6, became a traditional date of giving gifts to children in his honor. Many families leave out their shoes the night of December 5 so Saint Nicholas can fill them with sweets and small gifts overnight. Saint Nicholas is, of course, the historical basis for the myth of Santa Claus, popularized by Clement Clarke Moore’s poem “A Visit from St. Nicholas / The Night Before Christmas” (1822) and clever retail advertising campaigns.

The Feast of Light

Epiphany is sometimes called the “Feast of Light.” Epiphany remembers the revelation of Jesus as king and Messiah to the gentiles when the Magi visited the young Jesus. The Wise Men are the first gentiles to meet Jesus and they greet him as a king with kingly gifts.

Revelation is only achieved by light. There is no other way to see. And without light there is only darkness—which is the world the gentiles (indeed all of us) live in before Christ is revealed. The light of the guiding star led the Magi to the light of the world.

It is common for churches to conduct candlelight services where the bright points of light of the candles recall the night sky in which the Magi saw the star and the light of Christ shining in our darkness.

William Rowley

The Kings’ Cake

Though it has fallen out of favor in many English-speaking countries, it is traditional in many parts of the world to prepare and eat a Kings’ Cake on Twelfth Night (Jan 5) or Epiphany (Jan 6). Though they take various forms, they are often ring-shaped (like a crown) and contain a surprise! By tradition, the baker hides the baby Jesus in the cake, either represented by a bean, a bead, or a plastic baby.

When the party gathered for the celebration shares the cake, everyone is searching for the baby Jesus, and whoever finds “him” in the cake reveals him to the rest of the party—and is dubbed king or queen for the evening, with the duty of hosting the party and providing the Kings’ Cake the next year. (In Mexico, a tradition is that the king or queen is responsible for providing tamales on Candelmas.)

This is a great tradition to mark Epiphany with your congregation! For a traditional British version, see the BBC’s recipe.

William Rowley

The Twelfth Day of Christmas

In many Christian lands Epiphany is the most important feast of Christmas. Especially in Latin countries the arrival of the Wise Men, the Three Kings, looms large in the imagination. My native city, New Orleans, is heir to a European, especially French and Spanish, heritage. Twelfth Night not only concludes the Christmas season, but also inaugurates the festive days of Carnival, leading up to Shrove Tuesday or Mardi Gras.

…In Latin countries, Epiphany is the biggest day of the whole Christmas season, when gifts are exchanged to recall the gifts of the Magi….The twelfth day of Christmas—the Epiphany—is about God making this sovereignty known not just to Israel but also to all the peoples of the world. To understand this story, we need imagination: the eyes not of rationalism but of revelation. The Christmas season begins with incarnation and ends with manifestation. The star that guided the Magi was governed, not by gases and gravity, but by God’s desire to convey a message to his people. It is a majestic story meant to be embroidered in tapestries shot through with gold.

Emilie Griffin, God With us: Rediscovering the Meaning of Christmas ed. Greg Pennoyer & Gregory Wolfe, 2007, 167-168.

Was Jupiter the Star of Bethlehem?

What was the star of Bethlehem? Maybe it was Jupiter.

Celestial conjunctions were very important to ancient astrologers. Three significant conjunctions occurred around the time Christ was born: two in 6 BC and one in 2 BC. The most interesting is one that occurred on April 17 in 6 BC. Astronomer Michael Molnar points out that on that date, Jupiter, Saturn, the moon, and the sun aligned in the constellation Aries. The language of the gospel fits well with the way that ancient astrologers would have described this event, with Jupiter “rising in the east” by appearing as a bright star right before the sun rose. The event continued from April, with Jupiter continuing to “move” west (the direction the wise men went), until December 19, when Jupiter “came to rest” (in ancient astrological terms and those of the gospel) by appearing to stop in the sky before beginning to move east (called “retrograde motion”). While it might seem a little odd that the “star of Bethlehem” was a planet, recall that the ancient conception of planets was as special “wandering stars” (because they did not appear fixed in the background of the sky), so it would not have been out of place for Matthew to refer to a planet as a “star.”

So, while we cannot be sure what the star was, there is a pretty good candidate: Jupiter. (For a deep dive assessing Molnar’s thesis, see this article by Bradley E. Schaefer (2015).)

William Rowley (primarily drawing from Weintraub, 2014 and O’Callaghan, 2022).

Was the Star of Bethlehem a Comet?

As early as AD 248, Origen suggested that the star of Bethlehem was a comet—and there continue to be astronomers who think that he was right. Comets are icy objects that orbit the sun. When seen from earth they appear as a star in the sky that moves over the course of several nights against the background “fixed” stars. Their characteristic “tail” is a cloud of gas and dust blown away by radiation and solar wind.

Ancient astronomers (astrologers, really) thought they were very significant and often recorded their appearance. The fact that they would appear to rise in the east every night, move across the background of the sky over a series of nights, and then fade away might fit the star of Bethlehem. Further, some of the ancient language used for the behavior of comets fits Matthew’s description (such as “resting above” a location). So, if a comet appeared in the sky in the last few years of the first century BC, that comet might be what the gospel records.

However, no Roman or near-eastern records exist of such a comet. But that doesn’t mean that they didn’t see one, or even record it, only that none have come down to us. But Chinese astronomers might have seen one. Chinese astronomers recorded two “guest stars” during this period, which tend to be interpreted as comets (in 4 and 5 BC). In 1991, Colin J. Humphreys argued that the 5 BC observation was the star of Bethlehem in the Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society, basing it on historical and biblical data on the date of Jesus’ birth. It appeared in March/April of 5 BC, would have been visible in the morning sky, and was visible for 70 days. The fact that it followed a 7 BC conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn and another 6 BC conjunction may have intensified the importance to ancient astrologers. Humphreys, drawing on a variety of ancient sources, writes:

in Magian astrology the planet Saturn represented the divine Father and Jupiter was his son. The constellation Pisces was astrologically associated with Israel. Thus it is suggested that the astrological message of the conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter in Pisces in 7 BC was this: a Messiah-king will be born in Israel. (398)

These planets massed again the next year (6 BC), joined by Mars. Humphreys argues that the 5 BC appearance of the comet would have been, to the Magi, a third great sign that a king was being born, causing them to set out for Jerusalem, a trip which he calculates to be possible during the time of the appearance of the comet.

So, was the star of Bethlehem a comet? While we cannot be sure, Humphreys makes an interesting case (contrast with Weintraub, who thinks Jupiter is the real star).

(For a deep dive, check out The Star of Bethlehem and the Magi—at a library, it’s very expensive).

William Rowley (primary source: C. J. Humphreys, “The Star of Bethlehem,” Journal of the Royal Society of Astronomy 32 (1991): 389-407)

Where Are You?

For all the wandering, this is the first question of the Old Testament—God coming to ask after you, “Where are you?” Where are you in your life? Where are you—from Me? To get where you want to go, the first question you always have to answer is Where am I? “Our fall was, has always been, and always will be, that we aren’t satisfied in God and what He gives. We hunger for something more, something other.”

The only thing that will satisfy our hunger for more is to hunger for the One who comes down to Bethlehem, house of Bread, the One who comes after us and offers Himself as Bread for our starved souls.

And for all the wondering, this is the first question of the New Testament, when the wise men come asking, “Where is he?” (Matthew 2:2). We only find out where we are when we find out where He is. We only find ourselves . . . when we find Him. We lost ourselves at one tree. And only find ourselves at another. Wise men are only wise because they make their priority the seeking of Christ.

Ann Voskamp, The Greatest Gift: Unwrapping the Full Love Story of Christmas (p. 22). Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.

Stories

Eureka!

According to legend, Archimedes had his most famous epiphany while stepping into a tub. As he stepped into the bath, he saw that the level of the water rose proportional to the amount of his body immersed in the water. At that moment, he realized that the volume of irregular objects could be measured by the amount of water they displaced. He was so excited by this discovery that he directly ran out of his house onto the streets of Syracuse, shouting “Eureka! Eureka!” (meaning “I found it”). It was particularly memorable because he was completely naked.

William Rowley

Analogies

The Rarity of Light

In the great scheme of things, light is actually quite rare. Geo-physicists tell us that 71 percent of the earth’s surface lies under the ocean, which means that most of our planet abides in eternal darkness. Astrophysicists add that over 95 percent of the total mass and energy content of the universe is “dark,” which means that it is entirely invisible to us. Since our earliest beginnings, we have indeed been a people dwelling in a land of gloom and living under the shadow of death.

No wonder the predominant symbol in the Christmas story is light. The people who walk in great darkness now see a great light. The glory of the Lord shines down upon the shepherds. The great star of Bethlehem sheds its light over the manger where the child sleeps, illuminating the way west for the wise men and their camels. Epiphany, which commemorates their journey, is known in Greek as “The Day of Lights.” Leo the Great says that for those who had no idea of what was about to happen, it must have been as though Jesus arrived “from a very remote and deep seclusion,” spreading light in his wake.

Thanks to Christmas, we will never again be starved for light. This is why we celebrate Lucemarium during Easter Vigil, standing in the darkness as the priest lights the great Paschal candle, saying, “May the light of Christ rising in the glory dispel the darkness of our hearts and minds.” This is why, on Christmas Eve, we stand and dip the candle in our hand into our neighbor’s flame. One by one, we pass the light to each other until the whole room is afire.

Taken from Radiant Birth ed. Leslie Leyland Fields & Paul J. Willis, Copyright (c) 2023, by Leslie Leyland Fields & Paul J. Willis. Published by InterVarsity Press, Downers Grove, IL. www.ivpress.com