The Nativity of Christ, Christmas, is never just a one day celebration for the Orthodox faithful. It’s important for us as Orthodox in this land, dominated by Protestantism and Catholicism, to keep the Feast, to remember what it means to ‘baptize’ the culture with the light of the truth of Christ and His holy Church. If we truly want to bring Christ to bear on this society, we have to keep the fullness of the Orthodox Faith and bring it to bear on this culture, rather than let the culture water down our precious faith once delivered to the Saints (Jude 3).
So, on this Sunday, liturgically referred to as the Sunday After Nativity, a day on which the Church assigns special readings, we’re called upon to be mindful that we’re still in the midst of our celebration of Christ God’s holy Nativity. We are to share our joy with the world around us: that same joy that the shepherds expressed at hearing the Good News from the holy angels and which, likewise, the magi, expressed in their exuberance to follow the star and to present their gifts and worship Him who is the Light of Light and the King of Kings.
In the midst of such joy and reverence, we also must recognize that the story of Christ’s Nativity is also one of being separate, alone but not lonely, for where God is, there is always fullness and all that would otherwise appear as empty or lacking from a temporal perspective, is filled to overflowing with eternal meaning: Joseph and Mary find no room in the inn but are welcomed by the animals in the cave that became Christ’s manger and which foreshadows His burial in the tomb when He harrows hades, raising the souls and bodies of some of the faithful to eternal life.
Soon after Christ is born, as we read in today’s Gospel, Joseph receives word from an angel that he must flee with the child to Egypt. Imagine! From their harrowing journey to Bethlehem with Mary in travail and unable to find a place to rest and give birth, now, they must also flee. Jealous Herod has all the infant boys under two slain in his prideful fear and ignorance concerning the nature of Christ’s Kingdom. Then, after several years, after their return to Israel, Joseph and family flee again, this time to Nazareth. You could say that Christ’s early years were spent “on the run.” What courage and faith and trust in God Mary and Joseph demonstrate to us!
Christ God Himself tells us, that if any man would come after Him, he must take up his cross and follow Him. From His birth, to His early childhood, to His ministry, the cross, the grave, Christ goes before us in His example of being “set apart.”
There’s one aspect of our struggle to live out our faith in Christ that I hear more than any other in this regard: People tell me how hard it is to be a Christian these days; many often feel like they’re going it alone. So many around them: family, friends, neighbors, co-workers, fellow students are all living largely secular, even godless lives. Even as many still consider themselves more or less ‘Christian,’ the research shows us that this number is in decline in our culture; what Christianity remains is often on their terms and superficial, and, therefore, of minimal impact on how they live their lives, how they stand out as witnesses in the hedonistic culture at large. This leaves those who truly strive to live out the life in Christ, to take up that cross, in a seeming lonely place—in their families or among their neighbors or classmates—in possessing the fear and love for God, in submitting themselves to the Gospel and the Orthodox Faith,
What secularism gives people is an ‘excuse’ (at least, to themselves) to not believe, not to be accountable, an excuse to not do the hard work involved in examining their lives, of doing battle with sin and seeking healing from their sin-sickness. But, let’s recognize that this is not the only generation where it’s easier and more popular not to be an Orthodox Christian. We think of the persecution in the pagan era, of Islam, and that in the Communist era. Many before us have bravely testified and lived the faith in the face of great adversity, even dying for their faith.
Yet, you and I may sometimes feel alone in living out our faith in Christ in a world that seems to find it so easy to reject Him and His Church, to reject the reason we celebrate Christ’s holy Nativity—that Christ God has come to give us all “second birth” (John 3), that is, a new identity, purpose in Him by “water and the spirit”. What God teaches us in His instruction on taking up our cross, in the countless examples we have in the martyrs, is that this world is not, cannot be, our true home, if we are to inherit eternal life. Just as there was no room for Christ in the inn at His birth, so too, this world rejects Christ and makes no room for Him in their hearts.
But the Good News is that those whose identity is grounded in Christ and His Church, who have put on Christ through baptism and become His adopted sons and daughters, who have rejected the hold of the world, or are committed to struggling against it, are never alone. The Good News brought by the Archangel reminds us of this truth: “You shall bear a Son and His name shall be called, ‘Emmanuel’ (God with us). “God with us” is manifested in and through our life in the Church. When you and I avail ourselves of the Church, of the prayers and Sacraments and worship together, we’re assured that in our striving and struggle to follow Christ faithfully, we too will be victors over this world for, as Christ reassures us, “the gates of hell shall not prevail against her” (Matt. 16:18). The holy icons also remind us of this truth that Emmanuel is with us, even now; Christ is reflected in the faces of the Saints and is seen and experienced in the Holy Gifts of His precious Body and Blood, the abiding Gift of Himself to His Bride, the Church.
This is why it’s so important that we make time to worship together; that we make Saturday evenings and Sunday mornings, as well as the feast days of the Church, sacred time, set aside time, to worship the Holy Trinity together, as the Body of Christ, as this church family. To be victors over the world and find our identity in our new life in Christ, our “second birth,” we need more of Holy Church and not church on the periphery, or on our own terms.
Every time you walk through our church’s doors, I want you to remember, that you are not alone in your struggle to live out your faith in a culture or family or work or school environment of disbelief, skepticism, confusion. Emmanuel is here! Christ God was born in a lonely cave for our salvation. Joseph and Mary had no one else. But God provided a family to share in their joy: the shepherds in the field who received the news from the angels “with great joy” and the magi who came in their own due time to worship the new-born babe, Jesus, Emanuel.
This is where Christmas, the Feast of the Nativity leads us: not you or me, but we, Christ and the Church which He’s entrusted to us, which communes us with Him, Emmanuel, so that we may never be alone, but always may find the strength and courage to bear witness to the light in a world that walks in darkness. Christ is born!
Fr. Robert Miclean
Holy Archangels Orthodox Church
Sunday After Nativity, 30 December 2018
Epistle: Gal. 1:11-19 Sunday After
Gospel: Matt. 2:13-23 Sunday After
