Today is both a day of preparation as it is a day of decision. In earthly terms, a new year has dawned on us. We’ve entered into a new time, filled with new decisions, new joys, new trials, and new opportunities. We’re also at the threshold of the Great Feast of Christ’s baptism, our own baptism into Christ, and the manifestation of the Holy Trinity, Theophany, which itself, in heavenly terms, represents to us a new beginning of the most vital spiritual magnitude for us.
Because this is the New Year, many people make New Year resolutions: I’ll go on a diet, get more exercise, quit smoking, etc.—all good things, but what about our spiritual resolutions? Where do we want God to take us this year spiritually? What goals have we set for ourselves, our family, our church? What progress do we need to grow more in communion with Christ?
It can be tempting to buy into the thinking that this year will be the same as all other years; that since many of past resolutions have failed, why try a new one? “I’m this way or that way, I have these passions, I’ll never change.” All such thinking though is, in reality, a form of pride, self-reliance, rather than hope and trust in God and His power in us; all such thinking denies the reality of the witness of changed lives we see in countless sinners turned Saints around us. To deny the possibility of growth and healing from passions and sin-sickness, is to deny the reality of Christ God Himself—the reality of the Incarnation just past and the Theophany before us.
The reality is that time never stands still: this year will bring much change with it—changes in my life, changes in your life. Life is precious. Life on this earth is uncertain. Life with Christ is as certain as it is eternal for those who are being saved and who are actively cooperating with the work of the Holy Spirit in their lives.
So, how are we preparing ourselves in Christ to make the most of this season that God’s granted us to live? What are you asking God for that you need to more effectively live out your baptism?
St. Paul’s words to us today are very sobering. He says, “But you, be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of the evangelist, fulfill your ministry.” It’s time that you see yourself as a missionary, as one who is truly “born anew,” that we stop giving ourselves excuses from more faithfully devoting our whole selves to Christ and His work in this world. How many times do we give ourselves excuses for why we aren’t living a life reflective of the Kingdom of God, of one who’s walking this life with Christ while we still draw breath?
So today is an invitation to stop giving ourselves any excuses and remember what it is we’re fighting for: our participation in the Kingdom, growth in Christ, who is the only Life there is.
St. Paul admonishes us in today’s Epistle with analogies to running a race, saying, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith;” just as in Corinthians he says, “Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it.” (I Cor. 9:24). The prize, he reveals in today’s Epistle, is “the imperishable crown,” that is, eternal life in God’s holy presence.
Do we see the Kingdom of God and the possibility of growth in life with Him, of deification, as a ‘prize’ we’re willing to put all our efforts into attaining, or do we simply take it for granted, thinking that that which we know and experience of God now is enough to inherit eternal life?
In today’s Gospel, we’re reminded of those in St. John the Baptist’s day who trusted in their status as sons of Abraham. “Every tree,” he says, “which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. So the people asked him, saying, ‘What shall we do then?” The answer comes from him as it does from St. Paul: “Be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.”
By virtue of our baptism into Christ we’ve been given new birth and a holy calling: Christ calls us “the light of the world,” the “salt of the earth.” As Christ is baptized into the waters of the Jordan, all is made new, the waters are sanctified just as those who follow Christ into baptism, ‘put Him on’ (in the language of St. Paul and the Church) and are themselves made anew, as Christ Himself proclaims in John 3. The word is clear: if we are in Christ, we’re to live as those in Christ and impact the world around us with His truth. Otherwise, we’re like the fruitless fig tree that withers and dies.
Resolve that this year be different, that it will be lived more for Christ. Resolve that this year, you’ll run the race of faith to win “the imperishable crown,” taking steps forward in faith, leaving behind the sins, excuses, habits, that hold you back from pressing forward in your growth in Christ in His Kingdom. Avail yourself more fully of the Church and its resources (daily prayer, the divine services, the Scriptures, the Sacraments, the Lives of the Saints), commit yourself to growth, give of yourself as a witness of the truth of Christ in an age and a culture of disbelief and you will truly be that evangelist which you and I are called to be. Through your humble, honest struggle and discipline, Christ will shine His light, love, and truth through you.
Know this: That those who don’t believe, will see the difference in you and me when we live our lives witnessing to Christ’s truth and love. Some will see an alternative to the ego-centrism and secularism of the culture and find hope in Christ as well through our witness. Others may react more vehemently, because by your witness, you are—either way—challenging their status quo in them, in the culture, and that’s uncomfortable. Take heart! Christ says, “these things I have spoken to you that in Me you may have peace; in the world you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).
With this new year, with this holy Theophany, we have the opportunity to prayerfully commit each day, each moment, to Christ—and that is a victory, that is evidence of Christ and His Kingdom at work in me and you—every time we repent, every time we pray, every time we witness to His truth—it’s part of the victory Christ became incarnate to give us. I pray for you a most blessed new year, filled with Christ God’s grace, light, and life, and furtherance in all good things: that you may bear the fruit of the Kingdom in your life and, that through your life, others too may come to be born anew of water and the spirit. So let us love Christ’s appearing and the manifestation of the Holy Trinity given to us this Tuesday at the Feast of the Holy Theophany!
Fr. Robert Miclean
Holy Archangels Orthodox Church
Sunday, 4 January 2015
Sunday before Theophany
Epistle: II Timothy 4:5-8
Gospel: Mark 1:1-8
