It is the custom of the Royal School of Church Music in America’s Carolina course that the term of the residency should have a theme. The theme that was chosen is a line from Psalm 115, which you in front of me will shortly hear – and you behind me will shortly sing – as it forms part of the text of this evening’s anthem. The theme is this: As for our God, he is in heaven. It has been printed on the front page inside our binders all week, but it hasn’t been remarked upon, at least not by this preacher, but that all changes tonight… at this service, right here, on this spot, where all the choir’s work comes together, and we hear sung the most glorious music ever written in English – Leighton, Howells, Wesley – and we are reminded what it’s all about.

The perspective of the psalm writer, as well as the author of and most of the individuals described in the books of Samuel, is that the “gods of the heathen,” what our contemporary translations call the “gods of the nations,” that they may be but idols, but that does not make them unreal or fictitious. Idols may be ineffectual or false or even malignant, but they are very real indeed, they have very real power over those who worship them, and they are in competition with the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Our readings this morning present us with what might appear, at first glance, to be two very different messages. In St Luke's Gospel, we hear Jesus teaching what seems impossible – to love our enemies, to do good to those who hate us, to bless those who curse us. And then in St Paul's letter to the Corinthians, we hear what might sound like a rather esoteric and theoretical discussion about resurrection and the nature of the spiritual body. But I want to say to you this morning that these readings are intimately connected, that they speak to the same reality about the kingdom of God… and our transformation in Christ.

Let's begin with St Paul's first letter to the Corinthians. He's addressing a question that must have troubled many in the early church, just as it troubles many today:

It is a very rare thing indeed that we should be able to worship together on both the first and the twelfth days of Christmas. And so we get to be together to hear one of the most significant parts of the Christmas story, which often goes unread and unpreached in church. Because of all the characters who surround the birth of Jesus Christ, the most enigmatic are the wise men from the east.

We don’t know much about them: they are mentioned only in St Matthew’s gospel, as we have heard; we don’t know where in “the East” they were from, or how they came to formulate their plan to follow a star. In older English translations of the New Testament, they are referred to as kings, or wise men, or even astrologers. The gospels do not specify that there were three of them, only that three was the number of their gifts: gold, frankincense, and myrrh.