Today is the Sunday of the Holy Forefathers of Christ—the 11th hour of Advent—and so, we affirm with St. Cyril of Jerusalem when he shouts out to us from the Fourth Century: “we do not only proclaim one coming, but two, the second more glorious than the first!” Indeed, the Lord, Emmanuel, is coming!
This Sunday, the Lord calls on us to recall his earthly forefathers through whom God prepares the way for the holy Incarnation of the Word of God through whom all creation was made and through whom the whole creation will be made new, including and especially His beloved human creation, alone created in His holy image and likeness. On this day, we begin to ponder in advance of the Feast what it means that God took on human flesh and human nature and became one of His own creation, adding Himself to the genealogy of that created human order He Himself established by the proceeding of His own Word.
The list of those ancestors of Christ—the forefathers—contains a list of the “who’s who” of the Old Testament—Saints and sinners, men and women who were either sinners or foreigners, but all of whom manifested extraordinary faith, repentance, humility, willingness to be in this world but not of this world. The women among these ancestors, such as Rahab and Ruth point to the prominent place that women will play in mankind’s redemption through the Virgin Mary, the new Eve, the new model of womanhood, along with the women disciples of the Lord—the holy Myrrhbearers. Underscored here is the truth that Christ came to redeem all of humanity, human nature itself, in order to create a new race of Adam—not one based on or race or gender, but one grounded in the firm and eternal foundation that is our new and predestined identity in Christ God, a human race capable of communion, life with God springing up from humility and righteousness, conquering the passions so that we can be in the near presence of God Himself.
Already, even before He sent His disciples to preach the good news to “all nations”, Christ Himself hails, in part, from Gentile seed. The Jew of Jews, St. Paul, reminds us of this truth in today’s Epistle, saying, “there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free, but Christ is all and in all” (Col. 3:11). He also reminds us that our calling in Christ is a holy one—an identity grounded in the heavenly reality of life with Christ here and now, striving for communion with God, fighting the temporal passions that are part of this short life, so that we may inherit eternal life, becoming fellow victors with the Saints.
We who worship here today are inheritors of this promise that God made to Abraham when He declared, “in your seed, all the nations of the earth shall be blessed” (Gen. 26:4). Many Jews saw this promise as given purely through the Abrahamic blood line, grounded in this world and, in turn, partaking of the fallen race of Adam.
But God had something greater in mind: the renewal and regeneration of the human race where everyone is called. No one is excluded from the calling to be renewed with Christ, the new Adam, to become a co-heir with Him. In Matthew’s genealogy Christ’s ancestors include both righteous and unrighteous, faithful kings and murderers, Jews and Gentiles, kings and peasants, men and women. The hallmark of all is cooperation with the work of God through faith, cooperation with the Holy Spirit’s work in our lives, as we hear St. Paul reminding us today:
“Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry… anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth… since you have put off the old man with his deeds, and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him…” (Colossians 3)
So, we see that there’s a great participation here in our salvation that you and I must muster for salvation’s sake in deed but also in mind and attitude. God’s will is clear: to save us, but what if we don’t avail ourselves of this great gift of God’s mercy? What if we keep putting off repentance out of fear, which is, in reality, a form of pride, of over reliance on self and not on God, if we take the Orthodox life in Christ on our terms? What if we buy into the consumerism and materialism of our present world and forget God and our calling in Him, living just for the temporal illusory existence around us? What if we take God’s grace and love for granted, this greatest of gifts, which is our new life in the human nature which Christ has renewed?
Today’s Gospel is an invitation but also a warning not to take God’s mercy and love for granted. All are called to the marriage Feast (that of Christ and His bride, the Church), but not all choose to be among the chosen of God, that is, to deny themselves, submit themselves and their self will to the life Christ has revealed in His Church. God’s life is never forced upon us; we can choose death, that is, apartness from God and His life. None of us, even those who attend church regularly, can assume that we are among the saved; being saved, is the ongoing working out of our salvation and dying to self with what St. Paul terms, “fear and trembling.”
The message of today’s Gospel is that those who reject the fullness of the life in Christ are not worthy of that life but to those who desire it, Jesus says, “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matt. 11:28). He calls on those who thirst, to come and drink (John 7:37). He says, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice, I will come into him and dine with him and he with Me” (Rev. 3:20). Christ invites us to share in koinonia (Communion) with Him: the King, our Creator, our Savior who comes to be born, humble, lowly in a manger in a cave and among the beasts he created. To receive Him, we too grow in humility. Orthodoxy on our terms, is not Christianity; instead, we come to be grafted in to the faith of those faithful, holy Fathers who have come before us, who have not withheld anything from God, who have repented with their whole hearts. It’s because of their humility that the poor shepherds were the first to receive the news of His birth and come to worship the King of Kings in His lowly cave. And for this reason too, Christ says, “suffer the little children… to come to me for such is the Kingdom of Heaven” (Luke 18:16).
God loves us too much to hold back from warning us beforehand of the consequences of neglecting His life, our calling, of disavowing ourselves of communion with the Life that He alone is, as He does with this parable of the great supper in today’s Gospel. There’s no place for resting on our “laurels,” or coming before the Bridegroom unprepared.
So, brothers and sisters, now is the time for repentance, now is the time to put off the passions, our stubbornness when it comes to obedience in Christ’s Church, of having things our way, of neglecting our prayers and preparation for the Sacraments. Advent is meant to spur us on towards holiness and humility, to make our souls ready to meet Christ when He comes to us at Nativity in the Eucharist of the Feast and as we await His glorious and Second Coming.
So we prayerfully beseech God daily for the things we need to lead holier, more loving, more obedient lives for Christ and “putting to death our members,” repenting of anything that may keep us from embracing the fullness of the life in Christ He so graciously shares with us. We ready ourselves to receive the King of all, humbly born in a manger in a cave for our salvation that He may make us humble, in turn, to teach us the way of true courage, dying to self, that we may live for Him and with Him for all eternity. Christ is coming again to judge the living and the dead—each one of us—and so we live now with eternity before us, participating even now in the Kingdom through His Church and the divine worship, that we too may be received at the “marriage feast” of the Lamb.
Fr. Robert Miclean
Holy Archangels Orthodox Church
Sunday, December 14, 2014
Sunday of the Holy Forefathers of Christ
Epistle: Colossians 3:4-11
Gospel: Luke 14:16-24
