Welcome to Church of the Beloved. Tonight is called epiphany.  The word itself means ‘light rising to the surface’ – and the season of epiphany is characterized by questions and by quest… Who is this mysterious child?  What’s God up to?  Who is all of this for?  Tonight is the first of the epiphanies.  This is a service for all questioners and for all those who quest.  Tonight we follow three wise sages who travel long distances from east of Israel, crossing deserts, rivers and mountainous regions, following the maps of the day—the clear night sky, unsure of exactly what or who they would find—but knowing that this would change everything.  And it is the same for us tonight.  In following what little we know of God, we’re not sure what or who we will find, yet we suspect that this Christ will change everything.
We enter this story through the window of three poets: first is Rumi, who was a 13^th century mystical sufi, poet from ancient Persia, also a wise man from the east. And then an American poet from the last century, T.S. Elliot, and lastly we’ll hear a creation of an early 21^st century Christian community in London called Vaux, which mixes together Rumi’s poetry and St. Matthew’s second chapter.  So now as you listen and as you sing, let your heart question and let your heart quest for God is drawing us to worship.