At this time of year, the Christmas and Epiphany seasons, various preachers, teachers, and Sunday school lessons remind us that we sometimes overdo things in our Christmas pageants and Christmas cards by mixing distinct Bible stories together into one great mish-mash. We have the angel choir and shepherds from the Luke 2 Christmas story, which we celebrated last week, along with the kings from the East (not numbered in the scriptures, although we usually settle for three) from Matthew 2, which we will celebrate next week on Epiphany. Sometimes they are gathered at the stable from Luke and other times at the house from Matthew. Their point is a good one: By jumbling various passages together, we may very well obscure or even lose important distinct teachings each story has for us. But as we…