Growing up as a “youth” in Brooklyn, New York, had its natural challenges and temptations to be sure, but these innate obstacles were on occasions made even more difficult by the arrogant claims of young boys, who tried to live up to the extreme levels of bluster about the extraordinary physical and athletic feats they were capable of performing at any given time. My friends and acquaintances in the neighborhood for instance, would gather together on many an afternoon in our favorite hangout, Sunset Park, and after engaging in a couple of hours of mortal combat that we called basketball or two hand touch football, we would sit down review the exceptional events of the day, after which the pride of all would gradually swell, and the bull would begin to fly, always winding up with a man on man challenge as to who was fastest runner, who could throw a ball the farthest, who was the strongest, who was the toughest and so forth. On such occasions the boast was usually followed by, “if you say you can…then prove it…now as I look back I’m sure these sessions were purposely schemed by a few of the more worldly, in order to get someone to say something outlandish, to give the rest of the fellows a good laugh at the victim’s expense.

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We are gathered here once again this day, as a community of believers, for this time we set apart each week to worship, understanding our need and desire to hear God’s word, proclaimed in it’s integrity and power, to claim and receive all the gifts and blessings that God freely and generously gives to us in worship, that offers us forgiveness of sin, grace and eternal life and to offer in return our thanks and praise for that which we receive. In a great sense we are like that large crowd of people who followed and gathered around Jesus in our Gospel reading this morning, people who came to hear Jesus preaching and teaching, people who hungered to experience his healing, to be touched by Jesus and to be freed from those evil spirits that afflicted them. Like the crowd that had gathered around Jesus, we too have a profound hope, expectation and faith that our lives will be touched and changed for the better through this encounter with Jesus here in worship and the other ministry efforts we also engage in throughout the week, otherwise why would be here? Why would we come?

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It is that time of the year again. Given the amount of snow we have had, my last challenge of the day now is getting my little Toyota Corolla up the incline in our driveway. Even though this is the fifth winter in that house, I cannot seem to “gun” the engine at just the right time to get to the top of the little hill without spinning my wheels and sliding backwards. So, I back up across 56th St., into the neighbor’s driveway, and make another run at it. I often do this 3 or 4 times before I am successful – which, of course, makes the success a little sweeter. “Yesssss!” I say under my breath as I triumphantly park on my side of the garage.

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Our Gospel text tells us that the wise men – or magi – presented the Christ child with three gifts: gold, frankincense, and myrrh. As is the case with other elements of this story, many interpretations have been given as to why they brought those particular gifts. However, it is the number “3” that I want to make use of today, because there are at least 3 sermons we could “mine” from this story, as well - from this account of the wise men’s visit to the Christ-child…

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It was quickly approaching Christmas back in 1973 and my family and I, that is to say my Mom, brothers and sisters and I, had a very important decision to make and a big question to answer during that time, and that was do we observe Christmas this year and if so how do we go about celebrating this usually very festive and joyful day, a day we all looked forward to with great excitement and anticipation? The event that triggered such a dilemma was that my father had just died in late October of that year and we were all very much in the grasp of the grieving process and the shock and anxiety that accompanies the loss of a husband on my Mother’s part, and a father on the children’s part, the sole provider for us all in a great sense, as my Mom was not employed but worked in the home raising five children.

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