Visit of the Wise Men 2026, 12-step Eucharist
January 7, 2026, Matthew 2:1-12, St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, Little Rock
As we celebrated the Epiphany last night,/ we heard about the wise men’s visit to Jesus. Epiphany in our tradition signifies the revelation, the manifestation of Christ to the Gentiles, which is most of us, you and me./ The Christ child, the God of my understanding, is indeed manifested to me almost sensuously at Epiphany.
This first occurred in the mid-1950s, when I attended my first Epiphany Feast of Lights in a small Virginia church with a friend and his family when I was eleven years old. I still remember the unfamiliar liturgy,/ the candlelight, and the haunting mystic melodies. As we walked out of the small-town church on that bitter, cold January night, carrying our candles, we were surprised by the winter’s first snow. I knew that night that God spoke to me most clearly through this tradition.
A decade later, I again encountered the beauty of the Feast of Lights at St. Mary’s Cathedral in Memphis, with its choral procession of costumed wise men bearing their extraordinary gifts.
Here in Little Rock at St. Mark’s, we could again experience that haunting call of Epiphany at the same candlelight evening service that started here in the early 1980s. The choir and candlelight recessional out of the church into the dark night is always breathtaking. I watch the beautiful, often familiar faces of those walking out before me. Their expressions seem to ask, “What will we encounter next in the night? Will this light be enough for me to see?”
This service empowers us to think about carrying our single small candle out into the world. As the candlelight service concludes, we realize we can only see our path in the dark night because of the light from so many others./ This is also part of our 12-step program and our Christian tradition. Both are a we program. We stay sober and connected to God, the Christ, within us, because we remain connected to a community. Occasionally, our light shines brightly, but most often, we need the light of others to see the path ahead. We are called to keep seeking that light and to reflect it to others.//
There is also another scene from the wise men’s journey that speaks to our journey as Christians and to the journey of people in recovery. “And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for their own country by another road.” “They were warned in a dream… and left for their country by another road.”
This is our story. We were warned in a dream by another person, a judge, our family, the consequences of our behavior, an intervention, whatever brought us to a moment of clarity to return home,/ to a new life by another road. Living the path of the 12 steps and the Christian life is the other road we have been called to travel. It is often called the road less traveled.
What a privilege it is to trudge and to travel this road of happy destiny in this community with each of you.
Joanna joannaseibert.com