Lectionary: Titus 2.11-15; Matthew 2.1-12; Luke 2.8-14
Ընթերցուածքներ’ Տիտ. Բ11-15; Մատթ. Բ 1-12; Ղուկ. Բ 8-14
In the Name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen!
Krisdos Dznav Yev Haytnetsav! Christ is Born and Revealed!
This year, one of my resolutions my dears, is to write more, to do personal journaling or perhaps work on something worth publishing. It has been 5 days but when it comes time to write, and not just talk about writing, something always seems to get in the way. My laptop battery isn’t charged, I remembered a task I had to complete, I had to pay my bill, I promised I would call someone back or spend time with my family, etc. And sure, it has only been 5 days, yet it seems like try as I might, whether it is this year for writing or even perhaps other tasks I want to do such as exercise more or read more, something keeps getting in the way. Perhaps we all have felt this way as well; where we put something in our mind to accomplish but we never find the “perfect” conditions. I’d run more but the weather is cold; I’d eat healthy, but I just need to get the Christmas and New Years leftovers finished. I’d come to Church regularly, but time keeps getting away from me and laundry and shopping gets left until Sunday. So many of us, when desiring to make positive changes in our life look for perfect conditions and say, “we’ll start Monday.”
Today my dears, as Armenian Orthodox Christian’s we are celebrating the Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ. We are celebrating the birth of the savior of the world, the greatest gift given freely to us by God the Father in order to bring healing, salvation and life into this world. So many of us looking at the world around us would perhaps argue that God should come back now. The conditions are perfect for the savior to come and clean things up. Yet, what about the conditions of the world 2,000 years ago? If we as humans look for perfect conditions to make positive changes in our life, what conditions did our Heavenly Father recognize when Jesus Christ came into this world? In the Gospel of Luke for example we read, “In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that the whole world should be enrolled.” Meaning when Christ was born into this world, He was born in a time when His people were being oppressed by the Roman Empire. He was born into the conditions of oppression, where His religious practices would have been passively and at times openly persecuted. The world was in cultural degeneration and spiritual chaos.
Yet, on the flip side historical and secular sources tell us that Caesar Augustus was one of the greatest Caesars. It was the height of Pax Romana, a Latin term referring to a spanning from 27 BC to 180 AD, as one of the most enduring periods of peace in the annals of civilization. Meaning that the conditions of this world, when Jesus Christ was born, spiritually were in decay, with oppression and hedonism, and immorality growing. Yet, those who were living as sinners and oppressors, they believed to have peace. It’s easy to have peace, when our stomach is full, we are healthy an when you threaten everyone by the sword. And this false humanistic sense of “good” and “peace” created the conditions for Caesar Augustus to declare himself as what? Divi Filius, the son of god. Jesus Christ, the Son of God was born into this world, where the state saw itself as god, the oppressors, the immoral, those who mistreated and threatened, those who had money, and education, and all sorts of opportunities thought the world was finally at peace. Talk about the lie of perfect conditions. Even so, Christ was born, lowly, in a manager, as a vulnerable child. Christ did not come into this broken world swinging His fiery sword, with legions of angels to overthrow a corrupt society, to trample down pagan temples, or threaten those who looked, thought or believed differently. Rather, Christ Jesus came into this world, as St. Paul writes in his letter to Titus, “for the salvation of all humanity, training us to renounce irreligion and worldly passions, and to live sober, upright, and godly lives in this world, awaiting our blessed hope..”
My dear brothers and sister, for a moment let us forget the conditions of this world, or the conditions of the world when Christ was born, and let us examine the conditions of our life, of our heart, and mind. If we are looking for the perfect conditions to make a positive change, to get healthy, to spend time with family or whatever it may be, we will never find it. Something, someone, an outside force may always interrupt us. This is far truer when it comes to our faith. The perfect condition for faith to grow, for us to believe in God would be when there is no sickness, no suffering, no hypocrisy, no intolerance, no hatred, etc. The perfect conditions for our material life or spiritual life do not exist in this world. We can always find an excuse; we can always be distracted. It is when we begin doing those tasks, despite imperfect conditions, that we begin to see our conditions change. Likewise, our belief in God, our faith in Christ is what heals us, lifts us up and illuminates us to better understand how God could be real despite all the evil, and sickness and suffering in this world.
Faith in God is a new lens by which we look at the vulnerable child in the manger and see the King of Kings; faith in God is the perspective by which we look at the Cross and see victory; faith in God is recognizing our imperfect condition made perfect in Christ Jesus. A few years back I remember watching an interview with a child who had cancer; and the child told the interviewer how every night in his hospital room, he prayed and thanked God not just for his family, the doctors and for all the things he had, but to astonishment of the interviewer (and me as well, I’ll admit), the child also said he was thankful to God that he was the one with cancer. When asked why, the child said, “because though I have cancer, I also have faith. And if I have this cancer, then perhaps another child who doesn’t believe in God also doesn’t have cancer. God knows I am stronger, and I can endure with His help. Maybe another kid wouldn’t be able to.”
My dear brothers and sisters, that child was born into this world without the perfect conditions; where sickness, hatred, hypocrisy exist. Yet, it was his faith in God that gave him the understanding of God’s love, even when he was in pain. Perhaps my dears, we see or experience imperfect conditions in our life, such as suffering; perhaps we are struggling with our faith, or we are surrounded by distractions that cause us hurt. The conditions are not perfect if we had a choice. Yet, my dears, God is with us, God does not abandon us in those time, God does not look at the world’s conditions but rather, looks at our heart and desire to grow.
God is born into our life, and He reshapes, changes and heals us to be His children and an example to others. It is love that brought Christ Jesus to us, it is love that led Christ Jesus to the Cross – it is love that is born into the world today. Love which is not a feeling that may pass over time but a tool which helps create better conditions for us to grow. Love which wipes our tears and helps us see more clearly. And so, for those of us looking to start on Monday, perhaps this year we have the perfect conditions, that as Armenian Christians we celebrate Christmas ending with Sunday night and starting Monday morning. Let us put to rest the old, put away the brokenness and turning to God, tomorrow start with Him. Today and for all our lives, let us in prayer allow God to begin creating the perfect conditions for faith to grow. So that no matter the conditions of the world, we will declare Christ is Born and Revealed, Amen!
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Eve of the Nativity and
Theophany of our Lord Jesus Christ | Տօն Ճրագալոյց Ս. Ծննդեան եւ
Աստուածայայտնութեան Տեառն մերոյ Յիսուսի Քրիստոսի Lectionary: Titus 2.11-15;
Matthew 2.1-12; Luke 2.8-14Ընթերցուածքներ’ Տիտ.
Բ11-15; Մատթ. Բ 1-12; Ղուկ. Բ 8-14 In the
Name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen!Krisdos
Dznav Yev Haytnetsav! Christ is Born and Revealed! This year,
one of my resolutions my dears, is to write more, to do personal journaling or
perhaps work on something worth publishing.It has
been 5 days but when it comes time to write, and not just talk about writing,
something always seems to get in the way.My laptop
battery isn’t charged, I remembered a task I had to complete, I had to pay my
bill, I promised I would call someone back or spend time with my family, etc.And sure,
it has only been 5 days, yet it seems like try as I might, whether it is this
year for writing or even perhaps other tasks I want to do such as exercise more
or read more, something keeps getting in the way.Perhaps we
all have felt this way as well; where we put something in our mind to accomplish
but we never find the “perfect” conditions.I’d run
more but the weather is cold; I’d eat healthy, but I just need to get the Christmas
and New Years leftovers finished.I’d come
to Church regularly, but time keeps getting away from me and laundry and shopping
gets left until Sunday.So many of
us, when desiring to make positive changes in our life look for perfect conditions
and say, “we’ll start Monday.”Today my dears,
as Armenian Orthodox Christian’s we are celebrating the Nativity of our Lord Jesus
Christ.We are
celebrating the birth of the savior of the world, the greatest gift given
freely to us by God the Father in order to bring healing, salvation and life
into this world.So many of
us looking at the world around us would perhaps argue that God should come back
now.The conditions
are perfect for the savior to come and clean things up.Yet, what
about the conditions of the world 2,000 years ago?If we as
humans look for perfect conditions to make positive changes in our life, what
conditions did our Heavenly Father recognize when Jesus Christ came into this
world?In the
Gospel of Luke for example we read, “In those days
a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that the whole world should be enrolled.”Meaning when Christ was born into this world, He was born
in a time when His people were being oppressed by the Roman Empire.He was born into the conditions of oppression, where His
religious practices would have been passively and at times openly persecuted. The world was in cultural degeneration and spiritual chaos.Yet, on the flip side historical and secular sources tell
us that Caesar Augustus was one of the greatest Caeser’s. It was the height of Pax Romana, a Latin term referring
to a spanning
from 27 BC to 180 AD, as one of the most enduring periods of peace in the
annals of civilization.Meaning
that the conditions of this world, when Jesus Christ was born, spiritually were
in decay, with oppression and hedonism, and immorality growing.Yet, those
who were living as sinners and oppressors, they believed to have peace.It’s easy
to have peace, when our stomach is full, we are healthy an when you threaten
everyone by the sword.And this false
humanistic sense of “good” and “peace” created the conditions for Caesar Augustus
to declare himself as what? Divi Filius, the son of god.Jesus
Christ, the Son of God was born into this world, where the state saw itself as god,
the oppressors, the immoral, those who mistreated and threatened, those who had
money, and education, and all sorts of opportunities thought the world was
finally at peace.Talk about
the lie of perfect conditions.Even so,
Christ was born, lowly, in a manager, as a vulnerable child. Christ did
not come into this broken world swinging His fiery sword, with legions of
angels to overthrow a corrupt society, to trample down pagan temples, or
threaten those who looked, thought or believed differently.Rather,
Christ Jesus came into this world, as St. Paul writes in his letter to Titus, “for the salvation of all humanity, training
us to renounce irreligion and worldly passions, and to live sober, upright, and
godly lives in this world, awaiting our blessed
hope..”My
dear brothers and sister, for a moment let us forget the conditions of this
world, or the conditions of the world when Christ was born, and let us examine
the conditions of our life, of our heart, and mind.If
we are looking for the perfect conditions to make a positive change, to get
healthy, to spend time with family or whatever it may be, we will never find
it.Something,
someone, an outside force may always interrupt us.This
is far truer when it comes to our faith. The
perfect condition for faith to grow, for us to believe in God would be when
there is no sickness, no suffering, no hypocrisy, no intolerance, no hatred,
etc.The
perfect conditions for our material life or spiritual life do not exist in this
world.We
can always find an excuse; we can always be distracted.It
is when we begin doing those tasks, despite imperfect conditions, that we begin
to see our conditions change.Likewise,
our belief in God, our faith in Christ is what heals us, lifts us up and
illuminates us to better understand how God could be real despite all the evil,
and sickness and suffering in this world.Faith
in God is a new lense by which we look at the vulnerable child in the manger
and see the King of Kings; faith in God is the perspective by which we look at
the Cross and see victory; faith in God is recognizing our imperfect condition
made perfect in Christ Jesus.A
few years back I remember watching an interview with a child who had cancer;
and the child told the interviewer how every night in his hospital room, he
prayed and thanked God not just for his family, the doctors and for all the
things he had, but to astonishment of the interviewer (and me as well, I’ll
admit), the child also said he was thankful to God that he was the one with
cancer.When
asked why, the child said, “because though I have cancer, I also have faith.
And if I have this cancer, then perhaps another child who doesn’t believe in
God also doesn’t have cancer. God knows I am stronger, and I can endure with
His help. Maybe another kid wouldn’t be able to.”My
dear brothers and sisters, that child was born into this world without the
perfect conditions; where sickness, hatred, hypocrisy exist. Yet,
it was his faith in God that gave him the understanding of God’s love, even
when he was in pain.Perhaps
my dears, we see or experience imperfect conditions in our life, such as suffering;
perhaps we are struggling with our faith, or we are surrounded by distractions that
cause us hurt.The
conditions are not perfect if we had a choice.Yet,
my dears, God is with us, God does not abandon us in those time, God does not
look at the world’s conditions but rather, looks at our heart and desire to
grow.God
is born into our life, and He reshapes, changes and heals us to be His children
and an example to others.It
is love that brought Christ Jesus to us, it is love that led Christ Jesus to
the Cross – it is love that is born into the world today.Love
which is not a feeling that may pass over time but a tool which helps create
better conditions for us to grow.Love
which wipes our tears and helps us see more clearly.And
so, for those of us looking to start on Monday, perhaps this year we have the
perfect conditions, that as Armenian Christians we celebrate Christmas ending
with Sunday night and starting Monday morning.Let
us put to rest the old, put away the brokenness and turning to God, tomorrow
start with Him. Today
and for all our lives, let us in prayer allow God to begin creating the perfect
conditions for faith to grow.So
that no matter the conditions of the world, we will declare Christ is Born and
Revealed, Amen!
St. Gregory the Illuminator Armenian Church 