Shropshire & Marches
Methodist Circuit

Something Beautifully Simple and Radically Disruptive

Reflection on Circuit Online Worship Sermon January 4 2026
Delivered by Superintendent Minister Revd. Richard Hall

Drawing from Bible passages: Ephesians 3: 1-12 and Matthew 2:1 – 12

Revd Hall describes Epiphany as the season of light, revelation and seeing clearly in
which we witness a widening, a spilling, of God’s grace beyond the boundaries that people
assumed were fixed.

The readings, though they come from different places tell the same story. Matthew tells of
“the strange and slightly unsettling visit of the magi”.
Paul, speaking years later to the Ephesians, reflects on the meaning of Christ and calls it a mystery that has been revealed.

Both readings “insist that God’s grace is bigger than we expect, broader than we plan for and far more generous than we are comfortable with.” Revd. Hall expands: ”The magi are outsiders, astrologers, readers of the stars, not really the sort of people you would expect to find kneeling at the feet of the Jewish messiah.

Yet, Matthew tells us that these are the very ones that see the sign and follow it.

They travel to and recognise the child Jesus for who he is. Herod on the other hand, is frightened at the prospect. “The religious leaders stay exactly where they are. The insiders they have all the information they need yet it’s the outsiders who respond. We are reminded that grace, does not follow the expected routes. The magi, rather like the shepherds, arrive just as they are. Grace does not say become someone else and then come, grace says come and you’ll be changed. This is Epiphany -grace.
The grace that lies at the heart of the Christian gospel. Grace not earned, not deserved, and not restricted.”

Paul speaks of a mystery that’s been hidden for generations but is now revealed in Christ. It’s not a secret knowledge, a hidden code but rather something beautifully simple and radically disruptive. Paul says the mystery is this: The gentiles are fellow heirs, not guests, not second-class believers rather sharers in the same promise. Paul speaks of grace given not as a reward but as a gift. As a persecutor, and previously, enemy of the church, Paul knows about grace given and not earned. Paul is evidence that God’s grace does not work on merit. So, Paul proclaims the boundless riches of Christ. Grace without edges, grace that refuses to be safely contained.

“The real challenge for us is to proclaim that God’s grace includes us and recognise and accept that it also includes people we would perhaps not have chosen. Epiphany might unsettle us because it reminds us that we are not the gatekeepers of grace. The church does not distribute grace like a controlled substance, rather we bear witness to grace, we receive grace, we are shaped by grace, but grace always belongs to God and not to us.

We can stop pretending that we have to earn God’s favour. Grace is not a prize for good behaviour. We live faithfully not to earn grace but because we have already received it. We must be careful not to shrink God’s generosity to meet our own comfort levels.

God’s grace is truly boundless therefore no one is beyond its reach."

Deborah Wills.