Epiphany. Did anyone get a decent sermon?

[Sausagenbacon]

I am so bored with the usual gold for kingship, frankincense for etc sermon. And, once they start, you know the preacher will do all 3, of course.
A memorable sermon from the my past linked it with Auden's poem The Coming of the Magi, and Lancelot Andrew's sermon.
But, alas, all the others have been so boring, and low-level.

https://www.journeywithjesus.net/poemsandprayers/3637-UA_Fanthorpe_BC_AD

A poem, not a sermon, but I love this one!

that is so lovely, thank you
(I delivered the post to UAF when I was a postie in Wotton under Edge)

Nope our minister recycles all his material from when he started in 2001. Same for Easter, Christmas, Memorial Day, everything. Plus he’s went off sick so we have a member of the congregation give the Sunday service now.

I am beginning to find it a chore going and may consider a move as there’s now only 12 people attending weekly. Sad state of affairs.

I struggled to fully hear the sermon today as we were online due to heavy snow and 2 small children running around but one point stuck with me. Anyone who encounters Christ can't go back the way they came. Just like the magi who worshipped the child Jesus weren't able to return the way they came, we cannot return to our old lives the same way once we have encountered Him.

Err, Epiphany is not until tomorrow...

Yes but we go to church on Sundays, today so have the service today.

Ah, well in the Catholic Church, it is a Holy Day of Obligation, so the homily is done on the day itself.

I shall find out later, my church is at 6:30 pm!

“Anyone who encounters Christ can't go back the way they came. Just like the magi who worshipped the child Jesus weren't able to return the way they came, we cannot return to our old lives the same way once we have encountered Him.”

Love this.
Thank you, @Wrongsideofpennines

I'm afraid I didn't go as I was totally exhausted after a very long day yesterday.
In the past I have looked forward to the music most - Three Kings from Persian Lands Afar is my favourite carol ever.

But this year, it's transferred to the nearest Sunday i.e. today as it falls on a Monday (or Saturday any other year).

Oh, how I agree! 🙏 How could anyone return to their ‘old’ selves once coming to give their lives to Christ.

I couldn’t go due to bad weather so watched a mass but found hard to hear. I think it was about looking out in our own lives for signs of Jesus - the magi were people that studied the stars and God communicated through the stars to find Jesus. We may get calls as part of our daily lives - work, family, church.

Some Catholic diocese including England and Wales move the date but others don’t - I think in America Epiphany is 6 Jan and yesterday was the 2nd week of Christmas, though not sure.

Some Catholic diocese including England and Wales move the date but others don’t - I think in America Epiphany is 6 Jan and yesterday was the 2nd week of Christmas, though not sure.

In England and Wales it has been restored to 6th January unless it that falls on a Saturday or Monday, in that case it's transfered to the Sunday.

I had a few sermons because I work in the church so I heard more than one Mass. This was amongst them: https://castingfire.wordpress.com/2025/01/04/epiphany-the-search-for-truth/

I was snowed in this year, but put the kings into the nativity scene and remembered that I love Helena's prayer from Evelyn Waugh's novel Helena (short, and an enjoyable read):

“You are my especial patrons,” said Helena, “and patrons of all late-comers, of all who have had a tedious journey to make to the truth, of all who are confused with knowledge and speculation, of all who through politeness make themselves partners in guilt, of all who stand in danger by reason of their talents.

“Dear cousins, pray for me,” said Helena, “and for my poor overloaded son [the Emperor Constantine himself, who was still unbaptized]. May he, too, before the end find kneeling-space in the straw. Pray for the great, lest they perish utterly. And pray for Lactantius and Marcias and the young poets of Trèves and for the souls of my wild, blind ancestors; for their sly foe Odysseus and for the great Longinus.

"For His sake who did not reject your curious gifts, pray always for the learned, the oblique, the delicate. Let them not be quite forgotten at the Throne of God when the simple come into their kingdom."

The comments on the scriptures of the day from Agape were good too.
www.agapebiblestudy.com/Sunday_Readings/Sunday_Readings.php?Sunday_Doc=Christmas_Season/Epiphany

Epiphany is a doctrine of man, not of God