January 10, 1999, Epiphany I

Today's gospel describes a moment in the life of the Holy Family that is similar to a moment most parents have to experience with their children. It is that turning point at which parents begin to realize that their child is becoming independent -- that for better or for worse the child is starting to be able to make decisions for himself -- or at least to believe that he can.

St. Luke tells us that during a trip from Nazareth to Jerusalem for Passover, St. Mary and St. Joseph get separated from the twelve year-old Jesus. After three days of nervous searching, they find him in the temple where he is debating theology with the rabbis. Jesus acts as if their anguish is no big deal, telling them, "Didn't you know that I had to be about my Father's business -- in my Father's house?"

Whatever might have happened before -- and we have no idea what happened before -- at this point Joseph and Mary can have no doubt that Jesus knows exactly who he really is. Even more to the point, he knows who his real father is and who has the final authority in his life.

St. Luke says they didn't understand what he told them -- but he cannot mean that they didn't know what his words meant. What they could not understand was what all this was going to mean for their future together.

Would Jesus say, "I am going to stay here to study the Bible with some real intellectuals"? or might he say, "You two can't even keep track of me while we're on a trip -- you're not competent to be in charge of the Son of God -- you've clearly outlived your usefulness"? or would he just utter the adolescent's annoying cry, "I know what's best for me -- I'm going to be my own person and make my own decisions now"?

Instead, St. Luke reports, "He went down with them, and came to Nazareth, and was subject unto them." It is clear that Jesus did not see any conflict between being about his heavenly Father's business on the one hand, and sticking with his earthly parents and obeying them on the other.

What united the Holy Family -- and what can unite any other family which really wants this sort of union -- is if every member of the family agrees that the most important thing in life is finding out the will of God as it is revealed in the Bible and in the teachings of the church and then trying to do it.

Once you come anywhere near the Christian orbit, you can no longer avoid the issue of God and obeying God. You people who are thinking about getting married -- don't pretend the will of God doesn't matter. You married people who are thinking about having children -- don't pretend the will of God doesn't matter. You married people who are thinking about splitting up -- don't pretend the will of God doesn't matter. You parents who are concerned about the nurture and education of your children -- don't pretend the will of God doesn't matter.

Epiphany talks about how Christ showed himself to the world to help us figure out how we can show him to the world. Today's epistle goes along with the gospel in suggesting that the most obvious way we manifest Christ to the world is by leading lives that are committed to doing what he wants done.

There is a moment fairly late in the consecration prayer when I say, "And here we offer and present unto thee, 0 Lord, our selves, our souls and bodies to be a reasonable, holy, and living sacrifice unto thee." I say those words for all of us in response to St. Paul's command in today's epistle. He tells us to "present our bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is our reasonable service" -- what we are obliged to do.

In effect, after we have represented Jesus' sacrifice on Calvary under the forms of bread and wine, we climb up onto the altar and sacrifice ourselves -- we offer our whole being to God just as Jesus did.

We are asking God to use us to do his will just as he used Jesus to do his will. The first step in that direction is to get a proper view of things. That means to start looking at everything from God's perspective. That is a life-changing experience.

It is what St. Paul means when he writes, "Be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God."

Jesus says, "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." To be pure in heart is to be focussed upon one thing -- which is finding out what God's will in your life is and then doing it. You can't do that apart from the Bible. You can't do that apart from the sacraments. You can't do that without asking for guidance and help in prayer.

Our goal is to epiphanize Jesus -- to show Jesus to other people so he can save them as he has saved us. It's all about doing God's will -- becoming through God's gracious help what Jesus was by his nature -- subject in all things to the divine authority -- always about our Father's business.

The Collect: O Lord, we beseech thee mercifully to receive the prayers of thy people who call upon thee; and grant that they may both perceive and know what things they ought to do, and also may have grace and power faithfully to fulfill the same; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Epistle: Romans 12: 1 - 5

The Gospel: St. Luke 2:41 - 52

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January 3, 1999, Christmas II

This morning's gospel is slightly out of chronological whack. We read the story immediately before it as the gospel for Holy Innocents' Day -- which was last Monday, December 28 -- but the story in St. Matthew's gospel which comes before the Holy Innocents is the story of the visit of the wise men -- which we won't be reading until this Wednesday, the Epiphany.

It seems to me that there were more debunking stories about Christmas in the press and other places this year than is usually the case. But it is possible that I am just more aware of them or that people feel more free to bring them to my attention than they used to.

I don't mean stories that attack non-threatening Christmas things like being nice to people or generally feeling festive and generous -- I mean stories that talk about the fact that the Bible doesn't say when Jesus was born and that the church borrowed a pagan holiday on which to commemorate Jesus' birth and even that Jesus was probably born, astonishingly enough, B.C. -- or B.C.E.

These astounding revelations are not necessarily brought forward as reasons not to believe in Christianity. But they do suggest that if Christianity is deceptive on such a central matter as Christ's birth, maybe the whole thing is nothing more than make-believe. That is indeed a serious charge to make against a religion which claims to be based upon events that really happened at fairly specific times in human history.

Let us first be clear about the issues I mentioned before. It is true that the Bible does not tell us the date of Jesus' birth. Since the Bible doesn't specify, it becomes a matter like many others on which the church is free to seek the help of the Holy Ghost to come up with the best answer it can.

There was indeed a pagan festival -- or series of festivals -- in late December and early January in which the sun was worshipped particularly and during which many cultures began their new calendar year. The observances were tied up with the winter solstice -- when the amount of light in the day started becoming greater -- a sign that light had won out and darkness had lost.

Those pagan rites survive, in case you hadn't noticed. Why else would we think of "Winter Wonderland" and "Sleigh Ride" and "Frosty the Snowman" and "Let it Snow" as Christmas songs?

In any event, in the absence of a definite date from the Bible, it makes eminent good sense for the church to celebrate Christ's birth at the winter solstice. As St. John tells us, Jesus is light of light. He shines in the darkness, and the darkness cannot surround him. His Incarnation represents the decisive victory of God's forces of light over Satan's forces of darkness. Why would it have been better to choose, say, some time in April or October just to avoid any association with paganism?

Was Jesus in fact born B.C.? Yes, he was, probably. We know now that Herod the Great -- the king whom the wise men visited -- died in 4 B.C. Jesus was alive then, quite obviously. The man who in the Middle Ages set up the calendar we use didn't know the exact date of Herod's death. I don't really think that invalidates the whole religion.

People also like to say that certain things about the nativity story partake of the mythological -- that there are all sorts of other stories of religious heroes who are sort of part man and part god and who are born half indoors and half outdoors in strange places around animals and who are protected from hostile forces by miraculous means. That would include such aspects of Jesus' story as the Holy Family's flight into and out of Egypt as related in today's gospel.

I think we need to remember that we believe that Christianity is the full and final revelation of God. We do not believe that he never revealed anything about himself to anyone other than Jews or Christians. If other religions tell stories that sound suspiciously like the story of Jesus, we should rejoice -- not run away in shame or denial. All that shows is that God gave the other religions a shadow or an inkling of the truth which reaches its final completion in Jesus.

Even the Old Testament says that the Gentiles were looking for him too -- he is the "Desire of Nations," and the "Light to Lighten the Gentiles," after all.

One of my favorite movies is called "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance." It is a wonderful John Ford western from the early 1960s, and it stars James Stewart and John Wayne. It is in large part a meditation on how legends develop and then come to overshadow factual truth. In one late scene when he is confronted with his own exaggeration of what really happened, the town newspaper editor says, "When fact becomes legend, print the legend."

The message of the Incarnation of Jesus is that legend has become fact, and so we print, and believe, and rejoice in the fact. The fact happened not "Once upon a time in a galaxy far away," but, instead, when "There went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed" -- "when Cyrenius was governor of Syria" -- "when Herod was dead" -- "when Archelaus did reign in Judaea in the room of his father Herod" -- "under Pontius Pilate."

The Collect: Almighty God, who hast poured upon us the new light of thine incarnate Word; Grant that the same light enkindled in our hearts may shine forth in our lives; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Epistle: Isaiah 61: 1 - 3

The Gospel: St. Matthew 2: 19 - 23

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St. John's Feast Day also, Christmas I, December 27, 1998

Throughout his Gospel, St. John refers to himself as "the disciple whom Jesus loved." It gets a bit tiresome to read that, but it must have been even more tiresome for the other eleven to know that it was true -- or even just to know that John thought it was true.

If John was in fact Jesus' favorite, the obvious explanation for it is that John understood him best. Teachers tend to like especially the people who are buying what they are selling. The evidence for John's deep understanding of Jesus is in the five New Testament books which bear his name -- the Gospel, three epistles, and the Book of Revelation.

John was a fisherman on the Sea of Galilee when Jesus called him to be a disciple. His brother James was also a fisherman, as were their friends the brothers Peter and Andrew. John is the only one of them -- or of any of the original disciples who did not die as a martyr.

In today's gospel, Jesus tells St. Peter to do what he wants him to do and not compare it to what John has to do. Jesus says to Peter -- If I want John to wait around until I come back, what's it to you? -- do what I tell you to do. Jesus had John wait around long enough to receive a vision of what will happen at the end of the world and then write it down as the Book of Revelation.

Christmas is the season of the Incarnation. The Latin root "carn" means meat, or flesh -- as in carnal, carnality, chile con carne, incarnation. The Incarnation is the doctrine that in Jesus God became a human being -- what had been only spiritual became also fleshly -- meaty. "Jesus Christ ... Begotten of his father before all worlds ... God of God .... for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary, and was made man."

It is not that the other New Testament writers don't talk about the Incarnation, it is just that St. John tells us about it in the greatest detail -- and then tells us how God brings us into the Incarnation by bringing the Incarnation into us.

Before the first Christmas, the Jews had heard God's word, and they had some inkling of eternal life. But as St. John tells us in today's epistle, what had previously been ideas and thoughts and words now became things one could literally get one's hands on.

He writes, "That which was from the beginning, which we have heard ... which we have looked upon... And our hands have handled, of the Word of life ... declare we unto you." In other words -- We looked at God and we touched God and now we are telling you about it.

The first fourteen verses of St. John's Gospel serve as a prologue to the entire book. In the prologue, he calls Jesus the logos. The Greek word "logos" is normally translated "word," and it is where we get English words like "logic."

In philosophical terms, the logos was the principle that lay behind the created world -- what made it all make sense -- what held the world together. "Logos" also means the way something is presented to the world. You know me from what I say, and what I look like, and what I do -- and all those things taken together are my word -- my logos -- my way of making myself known. Corporations have logos to stand for themselves.

St. John says that Jesus is the logos in that he is what makes the whole creation make sense (since he is the one through whom God does the creating). Jesus is also God's word in that he is the way God shows himself to the world -- echoing such statements Jesus makes as, "I and the Father are one," and, "He who has seen me has seen the Father."

The climax of the prologue to St. John's gospel is the Incarnation of the logos, "The word was made flesh, and dwelt among us." That means -- the ordering principle of all creation became a human being -- the way God shows himself to the world was born as a baby who would grow up to die.

It is also from St. John that we hear about the two greatest sacraments of the church. We should all know from the Prayer Book that a sacrament is "an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace."

Jesus is the sacrament of God's presence on earth -- his human body is the outward and visible sign, the inward and spiritual grace is godhead -- "godness" -- because Jesus is "of one substance with the father."

The sacraments extend the incarnation of God into time. In the sacraments God comes to us in material form, just as he came first in the human flesh of Jesus. In chapter three of St. John's gospel Jesus says baptism is necessary. St. John writes, "Except a man be born of water and of the spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God."

Then in chapter six, Jesus tells us how necessary Holy Communion is, as St. John writes, "Except ye eat the flesh of the son of man and drink his blood, ye have no life in you." Baptism and Holy Communion put the Incarnation of God inside us, and St. John tells us how it happens.

Finally in Revelation, St. John gives us the comforting summary of the ultimate message -- God is in charge -- in the long run everything is going to be fine -- because we, "Hear also what St. John saith, 'if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and he is the propitiation for our sins."' It's no wonder Jesus loved him.

The Collect: Merciful Lord, we beseech thee to cast thy bright beams of light upon thy Church, that it, being illumined by the doctrine of thy blessed Apostle and Evangelist Saint John, may so walk in the light of thy truth, that it may be at length attain to life everlasting; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Epistle: 1 St. John I: I

The Gospel: St. John 21:19

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Christmas Eve, December 24, 1998

During my Advent readings I found out about a custom which prevailed in English parish churches in the Middle Ages. Near the beginning of the Christmas celebration a man would stand in the choir loft and sing the genealogy of Jesus. That is to say, he chanted the first seventeen verses of St. Matthew's Gospel, which are also the first seventeen verses of the New Testament itself.

One of the reasons God commands us to honor our fathers and our mothers is to remind us that we did not come from nowhere or out of nothing. We did not invent ourselves. Like it or not, we are the product of a family which is the direct product of two other families -- and the families have lineages and histories which stretch all the way back to Adam and Eve.

St. Matthew begins the genealogy, "The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham." If Jesus is really the Messiah -- the Christ -- the Saviour of Israel God promised his people in the Old Testament -- his lineage has to be from Abraham, through the tribe of Judah, and then through King David. Descent from Abraham makes him a Jew; descent through the tribe of Judah gives him royal blood; descent from David qualifies him to be the Messiah.

The conditions are fulfilled in St. Luke's words in tonight's gospel, "All went to be taxed, every one into his own city. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judæa, unto the city of David which is called Bethlehem (because he was of the house and lineage of David) to be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child."

Hebrew genealogies were traced through the child's legal father. The fact that Joseph had no biological connection to the child with whom Mary was great had nothing to do with the issue at all.