28th Sunday of Pentecost – Orthodox Homily on Holy Forefathers

Today is the Sunday of the Holy Forefathers of Christ. The Lord calls on us this day to recall His earthly forefathers through whom God the Father prepares the way for the holy Incarnation of His Word, the Logos of God. It is through His Word that God creates all that was made and through whom the whole creation will be made anew, including, and especially us, His beloved human creation, alone created in His holy image and likeness.

On this day, we begin to ponder in advance of the Feast of His holy Nativity what it means that God took on human flesh and human nature to become one of His own creation. Remarkably, in doing so, He adds Himself to the genealogy of that created human order He Himself established by the proceeding of His own Word. Think about that for one moment! This act, called kenosis in the Greek, or “self-emptying,” is God’s ultimate “condescension,” toward us, that is, it demonstrates to us the humility of God, which is manifested in no greater wise than through His holy Incarnation. God, who is outside the universe He created, wills to become incarnate, one of His own creation, for the sake of us sinners, who continuously reject and rebel against Him. Such is God’s great love and mercy for us. Such are the attributes of the One, true God.

The list of those ancestors of Christ—the holy forefathers—contains a list of the “who’s who” of the Old Testament—men and women, sinners and foreigners, all of whom manifested extraordinary faith, repentance, humility, willingness to be in this world but not of this world, who lived in the fear of God, an attribute in response to God’s mercy that we see precious little of in our own day. The women among these ancestors, such as Rahab, a foreigner, 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 Myrrh-bearers. Underscored here is the truth that Christ came to redeem all of humanity, human nature itself, male and female, in order to create a new race of Adam—one not based on or race or gender, but in the eternal foundation that is our new identity in Christ God, a race capable of deification, participation in the life God is, conquering sin and the passions, so that we may be able to attain to the near presence of God in His eternal Kingdom.

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, “put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him, where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free, but Christ is all and in all” (Col. 3:11). Our calling means we ground our identity in the heavenly reality of life with Christ here and now, striving for growth in communion with God, fighting the temporal passions that are part of this temporal and passing life, so that we may inherit eternal life as 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, who did not follow the prophets, 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 in Christ, the new Adam, to become a co-heir with Him. St. Paul reminds us of this truth 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. We strive with great effort to “put to death,” as St. Paul says, all those passions, sins, that would otherwise pollute our souls and keep us from making forward progress in our life and communion with God, in living out that calling. Such struggle against the flesh is always a victory in the Church if Christ is in the midst of it.

God’s will is clear for us: to give us a new name, a new identity, a new beginning, to bring us to enlightenment, 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, a form of pride, of over reliance on self and not on God, if we take the Orthodox life in Christ on our terms, not making a priority of Christ and His Church this holy season? Any time of the year, but especially now, we can buy into the consumerism and materialism of our present world and forget God and our calling in Him to live out our faith, not just for ourselves but to the benefit of those around us as well.

Today’s Gospel is an invitation, yes, but it is 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 God’s chosen, that is, to deny themselves, submit themselves and their self-will to the fullness of humanity, life in Christ, and the cross that is our denial of self. 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 we are already among the saved because ‘being saved’ is the ongoing working out of our salvation, the ongoing taking up of our cross necessary for the new life in Christ and our continued journey into greater union with Him.

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, thirst for it, our Lord says, “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matt. 11:28). 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 among the beasts He created. To receive Him, to be in His near presence, we too must grow in humility and be grafted into the faith of those holy Fathers who’ve come before us and not withheld anything from God, who have repented with their whole hearts—murderers and harlots—all given a new life in the promise of the Messiah. 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 for “a contrite and humble heart” God will never despise.

God loves us too much to hold back from warning us of the consequences of neglecting His life, our calling, that for which you and I have been created. He is the Life that He alone is. In that life, 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, all stubbornness when it comes to obedience to Christ and His Holy Church, of having things our way, of neglecting our prayers and preparation for the Sacraments, of harboring a negative or selfish spirit. Advent is meant to spur us on 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 awesome Second Coming.

So we prayerfully beseech God daily for the things we need to lead holier, more loving, more obedient lives for Christ, “putting to death our members,” repenting of anything that keeps us from embracing the fullness of the life in Christ He so graciously shares with us. Now, at the 11th hour, 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, teach us the way of true courage, of 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 at His awesome Second Coming.

Fr. Robert Miclean
Holy Archangels Orthodox Church
Sunday, December 17, 2017

Epistle: Colossians 3:4-11 Sunday of the Holy Forefathers of Christ
Gospel: Luke 14:16-24