This burglar walks into a house at midnight—completely dark.
He has his flashlight looking around the house on the inside.
All of a sudden he hears, “Jesus is watching you.”
The flashlight—nothing.
He keeps the flashlight going again.
All of a sudden he hears in the distance,
“Jesus is watching you.”
He doesn’t see a thing.
He has the flashlight going again.

All of a sudden he hears again, “Jesus is watching you.”
He hits on a parrot.
“Ah, it’s just you, a dumb, stupid parrot.”
He says, “What’s your name?”
The parrot says, “I’m Polly the parrot.
“The pit bull is Jesus.”
[Laughter]

The story of the Magi, their journey and search,
Is really our journey and search.
It occurred to me the Feast of the Epiphany
Speaks of three movements: the direction of our lives,
The busyness of our lives, the convictions of our lives.

What about the direction of our lives?
As most of you know, Epiphany means appearance,
Manifestation, or revelation.
It means a showing, a direction for the search.

And very interestingly enough, the Scriptures imply
It’s a search everyone must make.
Luke, in his Gospel, has the poor searching
In the form of shepherds.
Matthew, in his Gospel, has the learned
And the rich search in the form of Magi.

The message is that there is room for everybody
In the search for life’s meaning and purpose,
From no degrees to PhDs, from shepherds to executives.

And so to the Magi, there are three searchers
Who did not find the answer to life in their horoscopes,
Who took a long and difficult journey to another country
In search of the Christ.

But first, for all believers, there must be the search.
Pascal once wrote,
“there are only three kinds of people in the world,
Those who have sought God and found Him,
Those who are seeking Him but have not yet found Him,
And those who neither seek God nor find Him.
The direction of our lives includes
Searching and questioning.”

I’d like to share with you a question of a four-year-old
Who wrote me this letter some years ago,
A classic letter from a little, little girl:

Dear Father Greg, happy new year.
This is my first letter ever.
I wonder, are you Jesus’ dad?
Love, Katie.

No, Katie, I’m not Jesus’ dad.
I’m old, but not that old.
John the Baptist points to Jesus.
The Magi point to the Christ Child.
Jesus points to God.
In and with my life, who am I pointing to?

Because this gets so in the way of making a living,
We forget about making a life.
The direction of our lives gives way
To the conviction of our lives.
Our beliefs lead to choices.
Our choices determine our convictions.

The face of the Epiphany means finding Christ
Is not a one-time thing.
Rather, finding the Lord is a lifelong quest
For search, meaning, and the goals of life.

As we start a new year together,
Christ reveals Himself in many different ways.
The challenge for all of us as part of the direction,
The busyness, and conviction of our lives,
Is to let the Lord find us and lead us.

And please know this:
In life, people don’t care how much you know.
They want to know how much you care.