"Holy Other" | The Rev. Heidi Thorsen | January 4, 2026

Sermon Preached: Sunday, January 4, 2026 at Trinity on the Green

Year A, Epiphany (transferred): Isaiah 60:1-6 | Ephesians 3:1-12 | Matthew 2:1-12 | Psalm 72:1-7,10-14

May I speak in the name of God, who is to us Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

Today we observe the feast Epiphany, this day when the wise men visited the young Jesus after following a star.

Tradition has transformed these wise men into three kings, and given them exciting names– Melchior, Caspar, and Balthazar. In the stories we tell, these kings have the most fabulous outfits. I know this, because I’ve been a wise man in a Christmas Pageant or two over the years. Shepherds get burlap sacks to wear, but wise men get velvet robes and fancy beads. The wise men also get the finest in desert transportation: the camel. While I know it might not sound like much, camels were the Range Rover of the desert, with unparalleled ability to travel great distances and carry heavy loads.

Our nativity sets with color-coordinated wise men in plush robes and crowns, sitting on top of stately camels, remind us that we western Christians have made a lot of assumptions about the wise men. We assume they were kings, when all we really know is that they were magi, a Greek word meaning wise men, astrologers, or scientists from the East. We assume there were three of them, but we have no idea how many there were. We assume they were wealthy, because they offered valuable gifts to the child Jesus. But for all we know they were as common as Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. Perhaps the lavish gifts the wise men gave were the best they had to offer, like Mary Magdalene breaking a jar of costly perfume, the best she had, to anoint the feet of Jesus many years later.

When we strip away all of the details that Western Christendom has mapped onto the wise men, what we are left with is this: their otherness. Above all, the wise men are characterized simply as being different. They are different, because of where they come from: they aren’t from Judea; they come from farther East. And the magi also think differently. They interpret the world through a different lens– finding meaning in the stars. This perspective is what enables them to locate the young Jesus and pay him homage. And this perspective is what Herod tried to take advantage of, when he used the wise men to locate the young messiah. Fortunately the wise men were warned about Herod in a dream, and they went back to their own country by another road.

The wise men are the perpetual others of the nativity story. And in this story, their otherness isn’t a threat. It is a gift– just as precious as gold, myrrh, or frankincense. From the very beginning of Jesus’ life, diversity is not a problem. It is a blessing.

Today, we celebrate the otherness of the wise men. 

This Epiphany story reminds us that God’s plan of salvation is always full of more mystery, wonder, and diversity than we can ever imagine. Christians often mark the beginning of Jesus’ ministry to the Gentiles, to non-Jews, as originating in the Book of Acts when the Holy Spirit descended with tongues like fire on the disciples, causing them to speak in many languages. The day of Pentecost certainly is a door that flings wide the gates of Jesus’ teaching. And yet, I think that Jesus’ ministry was always more expansive than we humans interpret it to be. Jesus’ incarnation was always for everyone– a reminder that God is present, incarnate, in every person that we meet. The more we see the diversity of God’s creation, the better we can understand God’s revelation in this world. It is a revelation of many facets, and we won’t understand it fully until we seek God in every person, place, color, texture, and tradition that we encounter.

Even the Apostle Paul, in today’s reading from the letter to the Ephesians, speaks of the blessing of God’s diversity. Paul writes, “Although I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given to me to bring to the Gentiles the news of the boundless riches of Christ, and to make everyone see what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things; so that through the church the wisdom of God in its rich variety might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.”

The wisdom of God in its rich variety. Just think about those words. The wisdom of God in its rich variety. God’s wisdom isn’t narrow. It isn’t fundamentalist. Instead God’s wisdom is rich in variety. God’s wisdom is embedded in all created things. This is the mystery of the incarnation: that Christ’s entry into the world at a specific time and a specific place didn’t narrow the presence of God to one moment; instead it affirmed God’s presence at all times, and in all things. 

The wise men are a reminder that diversity has always been a part of God’s story. Diversity is present in the very first chapter of Genesis, when God filled the land, the sea, and the sky with living creatures of every kind. Diversity is embedded in the image of the Garden of Eden, teeming with life. Diversity is present at that new beginning in the New Testament too, the birth of Jesus, when animals and shepherds are present at the foot of the manger. And diversity is central to the story of the magi, whose otherness is the means by which they are able to recognize Jesus as the Christ.

What would happen to the wise men if they came to visit us today? Would they be turned away from the border because their place of origin wasn’t on the right list of countries; or because “astrology” doesn’t qualify as a career of talent; or because they didn’t have $100k to pay for the application fee? But this isn’t even just about our legal policies towards those from faraway places. In many ways we have lost our ability to interact with otherness. We have lost our desire to interact with otherness– even the otherness that sits just outside our doors on the New Haven Green. So many Christians act as if exposure to something outside our tradition will jeopardize the foundation of our faith. But how does that work, when God is the creator of all things? Difference may challenge our faith; it may change our faith. But it will never undermine our faith in the God who created all things. Difference is not a problem to be solved, but a blessing to be received– and a blessing to be given in return.

Mary and Jesus were able to receive this blessing when the wise men showed up on their doorstep, sometime in the early years of Jesus’ life. We don’t know much about Mary’s response, but I imagine it was similar to her response to the angel Gabriel. When he first told Mary about the birth of Jesus, she pondered these things in her heart. What if that was our response to the wise men too? What if that was our response to every beautiful and diverse thing that we encounter? 

Ponder these things in your heart.

Jesus is “the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things; so that through the church the wisdom of God in its rich variety might now be made known.” May our hearts be open to Jesus, and may our doors be open to whatever wise men may pass by our way. Don’t be like Herod, who only saw otherness as a means to an end. Instead, look at the richness of the world's diversity and give thanks. Look at the richness of God’s diversity, and be curious about the ways that God is still speaking to us through the voices of our neighbors and strangers– the wise men of our own time and place. These wise men who live among us may not bring gold, myrrh, or frankincense; but the gift that they bring is priceless– a new facet of the image of the divine; Emmanuel; God with us. Amen.