January 6, 2025
Feast of the Epiphany – Mark S. Winward
There are a lot of popular misconceptions surrounding the wise men we celebrate this evening in the Christmas story. One of the most persistent is the assumption that they were kings. The biblical text, unlike our lovely opening hymn, never calls them kings. Matthew refers to them as magoi, or magi. While magi is often translated as “wise men,” there is no linguistic or historical basis for believing they were royalty. Rather, the magi were a caste of shamanic or priestly sages from Persia. Because they were experts in astrology and the interpretation of dreams, they were frequently sought out as advisors to pagan kings, but that does not make them kings themselves.
Another widespread assumption concerns the number of wise men. Scripture makes no reference at all to how many people were in their traveling entourage. The gospel tells us only that three gifts were presented to the Christ child. Over time, the church assumed that each visitor would have brought a gift, and since three gifts are listed, there must have been three wise men. In fact, the Eastern Church traditionally held that as many as nine wise men visited Jesus. The reality is that no one knows how many magi made the journey.
A third misconception is that the wise men visited Jesus in the manger on the night of his birth. Matthew’s account tells us that the star “went before them,
January 4, 2026
Christmas 2A – Mark S. Winward
Happy New Year! I wonder how many of you were at some sort of New Year’s festivity this year? Well, whether or not you attended a party, unless you went to sleep before midnight you probably heard the famous ballad “Auld Lang Syne.” And if you’re like me, you’ve probably sung it dozens of times without really knowing what it means. The song was a popular Scottish bar song recorded by the poet Robert Burns in 1788. The words go like this:
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And auld lang syne? (old long ago)
Chorus:
For auld lang syne, my dear,
For auld lang syne,
We’ll tak a cup o’ kindness yet,
For auld lang syne!
In essence, “Auld Lang Syne” is meant to be a toast that says, “Here’s to old times.” The advent of a new year is a time when many people reassess their lives. It is a natural season for looking both backward to the past and forward to the future. That linking of the old and the new is precisely what today’s Gospel is about.
Scholars tell us that Matthew was writing primarily to Jews in the first century. To reach them, Matthew took great care to link Moses—the deliverer of Israel—with Jesus—the deliverer of all humanity.
December 28, 2025
1st Sunday after Christmas – Baptismal Service – Mark Winward
During this Christmas season, we continue to celebrate the new life of Christ, born to us in a manger. But today we are also celebrating new life in Christ in the baptism of Matthew Dabrowski. Christmas is not only about remembering something that happened long ago. It is about what God is still doing—bringing light out of darkness, life out of death, and hope into a broken world.
For some of you, this service may feel unfamiliar – and you may not know exactly what to expect. That has been true for centuries. There is a legendary story from the fifth century about King Aengus, who was baptized by St. Patrick. During the service, Patrick accidentally stabbed the king’s foot with his shepherd’s staff. Remarkably, the king said nothing. Afterward, Patrick begged for forgiveness and asked why the king had suffered in silence. The king replied, “I thought it was part of the ritual!”
Thankfully, baptism no longer involves that kind of pain—though I can’t promise the sermon will be entirely painless. But the story reminds us of something important: baptism has always been a significant moment in the life of the church, profoundly mysterious, and deeply meaningful.
Except in emergencies, baptism is celebrated in the presence of the gathered Church because we recognize baptism is not a private act. It is incorporation into the community of believers. And that’s not into a particular denomination,
December 24, 2025
Christmas Eve – Mark Winward
But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for see – I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord.” (Luke 2:10–11, NRSV)
For just a moment this evening, I invite you to pause and consider the immensity of what we are celebrating. The claim at the heart of Christmas goes far beyond our sentimental memories of this story depicted in Christmas pageants. The central claim of Christmas is truly staggering – and if we dare to consider it, nothing will ever be the same. Think about it: the God of all creation became one of us.
When we begin to grasp even a bit of the grandeur of the universe, that claim becomes almost overwhelming: The Creator became one of us. Science describes a cosmos so vast that our minds struggle to hold it. Douglas Adams captured that sense of scale in his whimsical science fiction, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, when he wrote, “Space is big. Really big. You just won’t believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is.” Yet for all that sense of wonder, Adams couldn’t imagine that such immensity might point beyond itself to Something greater than us. Astronauts, however, often speak of something called the “overview effect.” Seeing the Earth from space,