Passages: Titus 2.11-15; Matthew 1:18-25
Ընթերցուածքներ՝ Տիտ. Բ11-15; Մատթ. Ա 18-25
Քրիստոս Ծնաւ եւ Յայտնեցաւ. Օրհնեալ է Յայտնութիւնը Քրիստոսի:
Krisdos Dzunav yev Haydnetzav +Christ is born and Revealed+
Orhnyal eh Haydnootiunun Krisdosi +Blessed is the revelation of Christ+
In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen!
Nowhere to go, no one to turn to, completely abandoned; All those who they knew gone, and unapproachable. Hurt, confused, unsure and feeling more and more helpless. My dear brothers and sisters, all of us know what being alone feels like. When the people we trust, call family and friends turn us away, leave us abandoned and unwelcomed. We feel unloved, misunderstood and lost. I imagine my dears, that Sts. Joseph and Mary felt some of these feelings when they arrived in Bethlehem. In the Gospel of Luke account of what we call the Christmas or Nativity story we read of how Mary and Joseph had come to Bethlehem because Caesar Augustus issued a decree of a census and Joseph and Mary being from the line of David, had to participate in that census, had to travel to the city of David, Bethlehem. And while there, St. Mary gave birth to Jesus, wrapping him in swaddling cloth and placing him in a manger. A scene we are all familiar with this time of year and in our icons. The reason Mary and Joseph were forced to wrap Jesus and put him in a manger was because according to Luke 2:7 – “there was no guest room available for them” or no room in the Inn. I’m sure we’ve all seen this story in cartoons or even in movies. As Joseph and Mary go door to door, looking for a room, a hotel, a place, until eventually they are forced into a stable or grotto, where Jesus is born among animals and placed in the manger. Imagine Mary and Joseph, starting a family and yet, nowhere to go, no one accepting them, confused and unsure who would help them.
My dears, there is something very important to this story that is in fact about us. To understand this more clearly, look at how the Evangelist Luke begins this description. “So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David.” What stands out about that verse? Joseph went to Bethlehem because he belonged to the house of David. This means Joseph and Mary are not strangers in Bethlehem; It was not a new place. They belonged to the line of David means that they had other relatives, from the line of David, who were also present in Bethlehem. I don’t like being an inconvenience to other, but when I go to Armenia, Canada, Los Angeles or other places to visit friends and family especially when its only for a few days, undoubtedly, I am invited to stay with friends and family. Likewise all of us here, if we go somewhere or have someone visiting us who is family and/ or a friend, if we have the means, we invite them to stay with us. And so when we read that Joseph and Mary had nowhere to stay, when we see the stories of them going door to door looking for room, they are not being rejected by hotels that are fully booked. They were being rejected first and foremost by their family, others who are from the line of David. Nowhere to go, no one to turn to, completely abandoned. All those who they knew and love rejected them, and unapproachable. Hurt, confused, unsure and feeling more and more helpless. We can imagine how St. Joseph and St. Mary felt.
But why? Perhaps because of rumors that they are having a child and not yet married? In verse 5 we read, Mary “was pledged to be married to him [Joseph] and was expecting a child.” Even Joseph in today’s Gospel reading of Matthew was unsure how to behave towards Mary being pregnant. In other words, they were being rejected because they didn’t fit into everyone else’s expectations or standards. Naturally, people did not understand that she was carrying the Messiah, the Son of God. And above all, they definitely didn’t expect or accept that the Messiah was going to come into the world in such a manner and so they were rejected. In the same way, my dears, we reject Jesus Christ, we reject God, when we begin judging and deciding how God should be for us. We want God to fit into our standards, our way of life, our choices, our values; we want God but only when it is convenient. Yet, Christ Jesus did not come into this world based on our standards. Christ Jesus, God the Son, took our standards, our weakness, our sinfulness, our brokenness, our darkness and invites us to be in Communion with Him. Jesus by being born as one of us reminded us that it is we who are created in God’s image and likeness not the other way around, and when we turn each other way, when we do not love, do not care, do not pray for, do not repent, rejecting each other we reject God.
My dears, it is the infinite love of God that we are celebrating each Christmas. When we look into the manger, when we look at the Cross, when we look into the empty tomb on Easter, when we look to the Holy Altar every Sunday, it is the face of love we are called to see. A face of love that doesn’t reject us because of sin but rather rejects the sin by cleansing us of that sin and lifts us up through our Holy Baptism, through the Word of Scripture and through the Holy Communion. That is why as the Armenian Church, when we celebrate the nativity of Christ, we do so by celebrating the theophany, the baptism of Christ Jesus, through which we receive the revelation of God being born into our lives. Though it is Christ Jesus that is born today, it is Christ being placed in the manger, it is Christ that is baptized for our sake, my dears, it is us being called to be reborn, it is us that the angels reveal God in the flesh, it is us being called to answer the door that St. Joseph and St. Mary are knocking on bringing with them our Lord. Yet, if we come to God with arrogance, with pride, with sin in our hearts, if we look at each other and determine value based on what we think is right, if we decide God should fit our way, then we will not see love, we will not be freed from sin, we will not see Christ Jesus born in our lives because we have rejected God.
Let us pray that God will illuminate us to see His infinite love in each other. Let us pray and come to Him, no matter how rejected we feel in this world. Let us pray my dear brothers and sister, that Christ Jesus be born into our lives, to cleanse us of our sins, to free us from our demons and for us to sing with the angels, “Glory to God in the Highest, and peace on on earth…” Krisdos Dzunav yev Haydnetzav +Christ is born and Revealed+ Orhnyal eh Haydnootiunun Krisdosi +Blessed is the revelation of Christ+ Amen!