This sermon was preached on Sunday, January 5 at St. Andrew's Episcopal Church in Wellesley, MA for the occasion of the Feast of the Epiphany. The texts for this sermon were: Isaiah 60:1-6 , Ephesians 3:1-12 , Matthew 2:1-12 , and Psalm 72:1-7,10-14 . Once, when my sister and I were little, we came to my father locked in a vicious argument. One of us had given something to the other, but the other had not reciprocated. We looked to our dad to arbitrate. But rather than act as judge, my father taught us a principle with which to resolve this and future disputes. A gift, he said, is freely given. The giver relinquishes their say to what the recipient will do with it, or do in return for it. A contract, however, explicitly states the obligation and holds the other what is expected in the exchange. Ask yourselves, was this a gift or a contact? We quickly picked up on this principle, but it also somewhat backfired. It became a game of tricking the other into giving you a gift,