Holy Theophany Mission

The Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ . 
     
Sunday Liturgy (Mt 1.1-25),
Sunday evening Vespers (Lk 2.1-20),
Gospel for the Nativity Liturgy (Mt 2.1-12). 
 
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Matthew 1:1-25 (Gospel, Sunday Before)

The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham:
Abraham begot Isaac, Isaac begot Jacob, and Jacob begot Judah and his brothers.
Judah begot Perez and Zerah by Tamar, Perez begot Hezron, and Hezron begot Ram.
Ram begot Amminadab, Amminadab begot Nahshon, and Nahshon begot Salmon.
Salmon begot Boaz by Rahab, Boaz begot Obed by Ruth, Obed begot Jesse,
and Jesse begot David the king. David the king begot Solomon by her who had been the wife of Uriah.
Solomon begot Rehoboam, Rehoboam begot Abijah, and Abijah begot Asa.
Asa begot Jehoshaphat, Jehoshaphat begot Joram, and Joram begot Uzziah.
Uzziah begot Jotham, Jotham begot Ahaz, and Ahaz begot Hezekiah.
Hezekiah begot Manasseh, Manasseh begot Amon, and Amon begot Josiah.
Josiah begot Jeconiah and his brothers about the time they were carried away to Babylon.
And after they were brought to Babylon, Jeconiah begot Shealtiel, and Shealtiel begot Zerubbabel.
Zerubbabel begot Abiud, Abiud begot Eliakim, and Eliakim begot Azor.
Azor begot Zadok, Zadok begot Achim, and Achim begot Eliud.
Eliud begot Eleazar, Eleazar begot Matthan, and Matthan begot Jacob.
And Jacob begot Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus who is called Christ.
So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations, from David until the captivity in Babylon are fourteen generations, and from the captivity in Babylon until the Christ are fourteen generations.
Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: After His mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Spirit.
Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not wanting to make her a public example, was minded to put her away secretly.
But while he thought about these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take to you Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit.
And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name JESUS, for He will save His people from their sins.”
So all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying:
“Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel, which is translated, ‘God with us.’”
Then Joseph, being aroused from sleep, did as the angel of the Lord commanded him and took to him his wife,
and did not know her till she had brought forth her firstborn Son. And he called His name JESUS.

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Luke 2:1-20 (Gospel, At Vespers)

And it came to pass in those days that a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered.
This census first took place while Quirinius was governing Syria.
So all went to be registered, everyone to his own city.
Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed wife, who was with child.
So it was, that while they were there, the days were completed for her to be delivered.
And she brought forth her firstborn Son, and wrapped Him in swaddling cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.
Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night.
And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid.
Then the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people.
For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.
And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger.”
And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying:
“Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men!”
So it was, when the angels had gone away from them into heaven, that the shepherds said to one another, “Let us now go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has come to pass, which the Lord has made known to us.”
And they came with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the Babe lying in a manger.
Now when they had seen Him, they made widely known the saying which was told them concerning this Child.
And all those who heard it marveled at those things which were told them by the shepherds.
But Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart.
Then the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told them.

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Matthew 2:1-12 (Gospel, Nativity)

Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, saying, “Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we have seen His star in the East and have come to worship Him.”
When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him.
And when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born.
So they said to him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for thus it is written by the prophet: ‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, Are not the least among the rulers of Judah; For out of you shall come a Ruler Who will shepherd My people Israel.’”
Then Herod, when he had secretly called the wise men, determined from them what time the star appeared.
And he sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and search carefully for the young Child, and when you have found Him, bring back word to me, that I may come and worship Him also.”
When they heard the king, they departed; and behold, the star which they had seen in the East went before them, till it came and stood over where the young Child was.
When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceedingly great joy.
And when they had come into the house, they saw the young Child with Mary His mother, and fell down and worshiped Him. And when they had opened their treasures, they presented gifts to Him: gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
Then, being divinely warned in a dream that they should not return to Herod, they departed for their own country another way.

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Homily on the Sunday Before Nativity  (24 December 2023)
Fr. Peter Choi
 
In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  Amen.  Christ is born (tomorrow)!  Glorify Him!
 
We are on the cusp of the Nativity of Jesus Christ.  Like someone in the wilderness looking eastward in the darkness of night, we can just see the glimmer of the dawn of the new day.  We await the arrival of Jesus Christ.  The Gospel readings that are given to us for today’s Liturgy (Mt 1.1-25), this evening’s Vespers (Lk 2.1-20), and tomorrow’s Divine Liturgy of St. Basil (Mt 2.1-12) proclaims the significance of the arrival of Jesus Christ.  Let’s reflect on this together.
 
In today’s gospel (Mt 1.1-25) for the Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, we are told the origin of Jesus Christ.  First, the apostle Matthew tells us Jesus’ maternal genealogy (Mt 1.1-17), which tells us about his human ancestry.  Matthew is telling us that Jesus had the lineage expected for the Messiah – he is descended from the patriarchs and the Davidic kings of Jerusalem.  But Matthew’s genealogy adds something unusual as well.  Within the genealogy are four women – Tamar, Rahab, Bathsheba, and Ruth.  By the standards of the Law, none of these women were exemplars of the ideal Jewish woman.  Three – Tamar, Rahab, and Ruth – were Gentiles.  Three had improper sexual relations while the fourth, Ruth, was instructed by her mother-in-law to put herself in a compromising situation and she obeyed.  But all four are considered righteous women, from whom Mary the Mother of God was descended.  God took their “shame” and used it for His glory.  Matthew’s inclusion of these four women foreshadows the “shame” of the Mother of God, which he proceeds to recount after the genealogy.
 
Right after the genealogy, Matthew tells us about Mary’s pregnancy while she was engaged with Joseph (Mt 1.18-25).  The penalty for pregnancy out of wedlock was death by stoning.  But Joseph is righteous and merciful so he plans to dismiss her quietly.  And after he decides on this righteous action, the angel of the Lord appears to him and reveals the divine ancestry of the unborn child, who is to be named Jesus – “the Lord saves.”  The birth of Jesus Christ will fulfill the prophecy of Isaiah (7.14): “Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel” (God is with us).  Joseph is told to stay with Mary and he obeys.  This morning’s gospel reminds us that Jesus Christ is both man and God, both of whom are perfect.  He is two natures undivided in one Person.  We cannot understand this in the way we understand nature.  As Orthodox Christians, we believe this description to be true yet contradictory.  This tension is part of the mystery of God, which can only be understood by what the church fathers call “mystical knowledge,” knowledge that is acquired by a relationship with the divine instead of a knowledge about the divine.
 
So Matthew tells us right at the beginning of his gospel that Jesus is both human and divine.  Tonight, at the Vespers service, we shall hear the account of the birth of Jesus in a manger in Bethlehem (Lk 2.1-20).  Our modern depictions of this birth are sanitized – look at the images on Christmas cards or the Nativity scenes that are made for children – that we forget how awful and humiliating were the circumstances of this birth.  For us to experience this, if this had taken place in our times, the birth would have occurred in the downtown east side of Vancouver in a dumpster.  Now imagine the outrage or shock of those listening to this gospel account for the first time.  A young girl, Mary, who had been raised in the temple of God has been brought down to this state, giving birth out of wedlock with the stench and filth of a manger mixed with the smells of human sweat, blood, and childbirth.  If you have a hard time appreciating this, picture Mary as a lovely teenager who used to go to church and Sunday school every weekend and now you hear she’s gotten pregnant and delivered a baby in a dumpster.  That’s the lowliness and tragedy of her state.
 
And yet, the circumstances of this birth is turned on its head.  Once again we have that tension between two seemingly contradictory things: the shame and obscurity of the birth in a manger is juxtaposed, by the apostle Luke, with the glory declared by the angels to a group of shepherds: “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors!” (Lk 2.14). The shepherds, lowly people doing the original occupation of King David, are called to worship the child, the Saviour, in the most unlikely of places and they obey.  King David learned to be a leader of people by being a herder of sheep.  And now, those who followed in the occupation of David meet, praise, and glorify the true leader of all people, the Great Shepherd, Jesus Christ.  Once again, it’s a mystery.
 
And then, tomorrow morning, we shall hear about the visit of the three wise men in the reading from the Gospel according to St. Matthew.  Three Gentiles, seekers of wisdom, embarked on a journey based on the signs in the created world to follow a star to Israel.  There they meet the earthly king of the Jews, Herod, in his pomp and circumstance.  And unlike the wise men from the east, he knows nothing about the Messiah, King of the Jews.  Matthew again shows the fulfillment of prophecy because the chief priests and scribes know that the Messiah will come from Bethlehem: “And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who is to shepherd my people Israel.” (Mt 2.6). But for the chief priests and scribes, this is all head knowledge.  It’s like an answer you memorize for an exam.  The chief priest and scribes – keepers of the Law, the Prophets, and the writings of wisdom, the old covenant revealed to God’s chosen people – do not act on the news from the three wise men who only know the mystical as revealed from the created world.  The ones who act are the three wise men who bring to the child and his parents, now living in cognito in a house in Bethlehem, gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh (Mt 2.11).  With those gifts, the three wise men gave glory to Jesus.  They glorified Him as king with their gift of gold.  They honoured Him as one worthy of worship and reverence with their gift of frankincense.  They anticipated Him as the one who would die and save the world with their gift of myrrh.  Once again, lowliness lifted up by unlikely individuals in praise, worship, and glory.
 
So what do these gospel accounts tell us about the significance of the Feast of the Nativity of Christ?  The Birth of Jesus Christ reveals the God-man who, in His Incarnation, has deified human nature.  The story of his birth tells us that obedience is an act of righteousness that leads us to Jesus Christ.  The story of his birth tells us that salvation was from the Jews, as proclaimed in the old covenant, but has always been for all who are willing to seek Him, to know Him as the God-man in mystery rather than knowing about Him as an object of study. 
 
As we end the Nativity Fast, no matter how we kept our fast, no matter the sins we have committed voluntarily or involuntarily, by word or by deed, by day or by night, in knowledge or in ignorance, God is calling us.  God has revealed in His Scriptures and in His creation that Jesus Christ is born.  He has invited us – not just invited, but compelled us – to pay homage to Him, to worship Him, to reverence Him, to glorify Him because He is our Shepherd, King, Lord, and Saviour.  To Him, together with the Father and the Holy Spirit, let us worship and magnify.  Christ is born!  Glorify Him!