We are told in the Gospel according to Matthew that when Jesus was born at Bethlehem some men of the East did a rather remarkable sort of thing. They were important men, mighty men, kings - but they had a consuming interest in seeing a tiny new-born child, a helpless, powerless infant, a mere baby recently born in a peasant family in this far-away land of Judea. We are told three important things about these men:

First, they came. Second, they worshiped. Third, they went back to their own country by another way; returning, they did not follow the road by which they had come. Having come to the Child, their visit made a difference in the way they traveled afterward.

Today you and I have come to this place. Here we worship. May our worship bring us into such life-changing touch with our Lord that we will choose to go forth by a different way.

Whatever the terrain over which they traveled, returning home, those ancient wise men went with lighter hearts, with greater joy, with deepened hope, with a strengthened faith. So can we - as we go from here today.