Nations shall walk by your light,
and kings by your shining radiance.

Today we celebrate the procession of nations, the nations of the world coming to Jesus Christ, represented by the three Magi.

The Magi are more than a story, or a fanciful picture of three kings kneeling before our Lord. They are symbolic of God’s call to us, the gentiles. This is good news for us because we are not of Israel by the flesh.

God’s promise to Abraham is fulfilled today. Abraham’s progeny is as countless as the starts of the sky and the sands of the seashore. His progeny is not only of the flesh, but of the spirit and truth. All nations have come to Him.

St. Leo the Great tells us:

The loving providence of God determined that in the last days he would aid the world, set on its course to destruction. He decreed that all nations should be saved in Christ. A promise had been made to the holy patriarch Abraham in regard to these nations. He was to have a countless progeny, born not from his body but from the seed of faith.

We are the children of Abraham and heirs of the promise. We are the new Israel. We are not the Israel of the Law, which brought no redemption, the children that rejected their Messiah, but rather we are the new Israel born of faith and the Holy Spirit.

St. Paul was very clear on this:

It has now been revealed
to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit:
that the Gentiles are coheirs, members of the same body,
and copartners in the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.

As co-heirs with the Jews, we must follow the example set by the Magi.

They prostrated themselves and did him homage.
Then they opened their treasures

Their first act was an act of worship.

How hard it is for us to see that we must humble ourselves, in service, in love, and in adoration. How hard it is for us to see that we must fall down prostrate in front of Jesus Christ, real and present here in this Church. How hard it is to forget that the our prayer, our music, our groaning, our repentance, and our service are not about us. They are only about Him. When we prostrate ourselves physically and spiritually to do Him homage then we can take the next step.

That step starts the moment we walk out that door. We are to open our treasures. We are to take our words, skills, actions, and gifts and we are to use them to bear witness to the One to whom we give homage.

Isaiah’s words apply to us, the co-heirs

Nations shall walk by your light,
and kings by your shining radiance.

Following the star was no easy task for the Magi. Being the light of the nations is no easy call for us. But by God’s providence we are to lead the world, to shine the light of truth and holiness upon all people, leading them to the surety of salvation in Christ Jesus.

The path is before us. The world is waiting. Start with worship, be assured of your adoption, and share the treasures you have been given in witness to Jesus Christ.

This is my covenant with you and your descendants after you that you must keep: every male among you shall be circumcised.

And Jesus Christ came not to abolish the Law but to fulfill it.

When eight days were completed for his circumcision, he was named Jesus

Our first reaction to today’s readings and Gospel might be a certain level of discomfort.

It is the eighth day of Christmas, and we are still wrapped in the afterglow of the festivities. We just celebrated New Years Eve, perhaps spending time with family and friends in celebration. Who wants to hear about this bloody stuff?

The point is; we make the Christmas season and New Years into a celebration of ourselves, a celebration of what we would like to celebrate. We like to pause for a moment every winter and bathe in the light of the manger with the pretty Madonna and St. Joseph watching over the cute little baby. And we feel good.

We feel good and cheery because God came to be among us, even though we cannot quite put our finger on the meaning of that. We feel good and cheery because we decided to give something of ourselves, a gift, a card, or a visit.

And here we are, slapped with reality. God among us has to suffer along with us. That’s what it means to be fully human; He had to take on the pain as well. That was His ultimate gift, to suffer and die for us.

The Holy Church reminds us that we have to break through the glass window protecting our crèche as a show piece. We have to get down on the ground and experience the crèche as it was, and the reality of life, the life God freely took upon Himself for our salvation.

Yes, God had to be born in a manger, surrounded by the animals and dirt, smells and all. He had to be worshiped by migrants. He had to be taken to the local mohel to perform the Brit milah. He shed His blood for the first time today, the eighth day after His birth.

Listen to the first verses from today’s psalm:

May God have pity on us and bless us;
may he let his face shine upon us.
So may your way be known upon earth;
among all nations, your salvation.

So He did have pity on us, He let His face shine upon us, He came to show us the way.

Yes, God is not separate from us —“ He is part of us, our lives, and our experiences – the complete reality of it all.

God among us is here to challenge our complacency and our perceptions. He is among us to tell us that He loves us more than we deserve. He is here to tell us that He faced every pain and every temptation by coming as man. And, He is here to tell us that the door to the real, the living, and the challenging Jesus is open.

Thomas said to Jesus, “Lord, we do not know where You are going. How can we know the way to get there?” Jesus said, “I am the Way and the Truth and the Life. No one can go to the Father except by Me. If you had known Me, you would know My Father also. From now on you know Him and have seen Him.”

Amen Lord, we know You are here and that You are real. Come to us Lord Jesus.

Once they saw they understood what had been told them concerning this Child

The Gospel has interesting bookends. Toward the beginning of the Gospel we read of the Humble Shepherds who heard, went in haste, saw, understood, and proclaimed what they saw.

At the other end of the Gospel we have Peter and John running to the tomb. They heard, went in haste, and saw. At that moment John believed.

It took the rest of the apostles a little while to catch on. Thomas, incredulous, would not believe until he saw the living Christ.

For forty days Jesus worked with his apostles and disciples. He appeared to them, healed them, and reassured them. He gave them the gift of the Holy Spirit, and ten days after His ascension the power of the Holy Spirit was fulfilled in them and they began to preach —“ to proclaim Him.

St. Paul tells Titus:

He saved us through the baptism of new birth and renewal by the Holy Spirit. This Spirit He lavished on us through Jesus Christ our Savior, that we might be justified by His grace and become heirs, in hope, of eternal life.

Brothers and sisters,

The poor shepherds were there at the beginning. They heard, went in haste, saw, understood, and proclaimed Him. Later the apostles and disciples, aided by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, heard, went in haste, saw, understood, and proclaimed Him.

Today our Holy Church celebrates the witness of those men, the memory of the humble shepherds who took action.

[They] returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, just as it had been told to them.

Now it has been told to you. You have been baptized, you have received the Holy Spirit, the Word of God has been proclaimed to you. We are past the bookends of the Bible and into the reality of life lived as witnesses to the Word, to the Gospel.

Witnessing is a living and breathing thing. Your witness is alive and vital —“ and God, while He doesn’t necessarily need it, asks it of you, for through you all men will come to be saved, not on their own merit but because of His mercy.

From St. Matthew:

Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age.”

From St. Mark:

He said to them, “Go into the whole world and proclaim the gospel to every creature.

And From St. Luke:

Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures. And he said to them, “Thus it is written that the Messiah would suffer and rise from the dead on the third day and that repentance, for the forgiveness of sins, would be preached in his name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.

You are witnesses of these things. The Bible is replete with references to the Lord. Co-eternal with the Father He came as man, taught us, healed us, suffered for us, died for us, was buried, and was raised as our hope and as St. Paul tells us the first fruits of all those who have died.

Jeremiah began today with a simple instruction:

Hear the word of the Lord, O nations, proclaim it on distant coasts.

The shepherds in their humility got it right. The apostles, some incredulous, got it right. We too must get it right.

We must hear, go in haste, see, understand, and proclaim what we see. Through us, our witness, all will be brought to Jesus Christ, regenerated through baptism, and made alive in Him.

The grace of God has appeared, saving all
and training us to reject godless ways and worldly desires
and to live temperately, justly, and devoutly in this age

So He has come to teach and train us. He has come in humility and poverty to teach and train us. He has come in the appearance and reality of flesh and blood to teach and train us.

Blessed are the poor,
blessed the humble,
blessed are those who witness to Him.

As Paul tells us we are to live temperately, justly, and devoutly in this age. We are to live that way here and now, not someday, not in some sort of fantasy life detached from the reality of existence, but in our everyday lives. We are not to leave it to the saints, for we are all called to be saints, witnesses, and martyrs. We are called to be for Him alone because He has given us more than we could ever repay. He has given us a salvation we did not merit.

Witness Him. Witness the baby in the manager, the teacher on the Mount, the one bruised, broken, and crushed for us, the God-man cooking fish by the seaside, the one telling His followers feed my sheep, feed my lambs.

There are no excuses left.

Today is born our Savior, Christ the Lord.

In a poor mean city, in a cave at the outskirts, to a woman who was scandal to the people of her village, guarded by a man on his second marriage, a descendant of David looking for comfort in his waning years.

Today is born our Savior, Christ the Lord.

Adored by the spectrum of reality, from the shepherds, poor and dirty to the full compliment of the heavenly host. From the Jewish shepherds to the Magi from the East.

Today is born our Savior, Christ the Lord.

The excuses are over for like the shepherds we must believe our eyes and ears.

—Do not be afraid;
for behold, I proclaim to you good news of great joy
that will be for all the people.
For today in the city of David
a savior has been born for you who is Christ and Lord.”

Amen.

Mary set out
and traveled to the hill country in haste

Mary set out and traveled in haste, for the time was near.

Our time is near. In fact it is here.

Take this Advent for example. This year in particular is a year in which the Forth Week of Advent lasts but a few hours. We are particularly presented with the urgency of expectation. The urgency of the moment is brought home to us for we know what is to come.

You may sense it in your everyday life, and ask yourself: Where did the days of preparation go? Is everything ready? I feel so unprepared.

In some years the Fourth Week of Advent lasts a full week. So I must ask you, is it any different this year? A full week, a few hours, do either get you any more prepared. If you were a member of an Orthodox parish, and you had until January 6th to prepare, would you be more prepared?

I cannot speak for you, but I can tell you, I’m not ready. Knowing that is to know failure. A failure in putting Jesus Christ at the head of everything I do. There is no excuse.

When asked about His coming in glory our dear Lord told those who wondered that not even He knew the day or the hour. The Father reserves that to His own merciful judgment. We should count ourselves blessed by the Father’s merciful delay, by this opportunity to focus ourselves on the urgency of the moment.

So, here we are, presented with the closing moments of Advent. We know what is to come, we know that our expectation must draw to a close and be converted into the reality, the actuality of a new moment.

That changeover is the kind of thing that happens every moment, the kind of thing we, in our stubborn sinfulness refuse to recognize. The reality of Jesus Christ real and present is here and now.

The prophet Micah had an interesting revelation. His writing tells us of the blessings of time, time we have been given to recognize the reality of God among us.

Micah begins his prophecy with the impending judgment of the Lord. A judgment we deserve because of our sins, our hard heartedness. That judgment gives way to the glory of our restoration. The eternal King will spring forth into the world, a new ruler from the house and lineage of David to rule over us forever.

You, Bethlehem-Ephrathah
too small to be among the clans of Judah,
from you shall come forth for me
one who is to be ruler in Israel

Ponder over this prophecy. Like the Israelites we know that we deserve the chastisement of exile; the Lord is well within His rights to turn His face away from us. Micah told the people of Israel:

Therefore the Lord will give them up, until the time
when she who is to give birth has borne

The Lord gave His people an awful long time, from the time of Isaiah and Micah till His coming as man, about 680 years. All that time to wait and get ready.

In a few days we will commemorate the Memorial of the Holy Innocents. Do you remember what King Herod had to do? After 680 years King Herod had to call the chief priests and the scribes of the people to inquire of them where the Messiah was to be born. He didn’t know! He didn’t have that reality in his heart, he had to go to the experts. Of course that was so he could kill every firstborn male in the place.

If the message were within his heart, if it were real to him, death would not have been the answer. If the message of salvation is within our hearts we would know what we have to do. We would know that the moment is now, and we would avoid the death of sin.

Whether we are given is 680 years, a few hours, or a week, whether it is a season or a lifetime, we are called to be ready, to be prepared. Jesus is here at the doorstep. The big day is here.

I say then, know what to do. Like Mary let us make haste, let us set out and be actively engaged, not in preparation, but in readiness. The time is here. Each moment is new. Let us put aside our stubborn hearts.

As children washed in Jesus’ blood, baptized into Him, as people who have been renewed in the Spirit, we may do no less. We know what is to come, be ready.

—Teacher, what should we do?—

Advent is a time of preparation, but did it ever strike you as odd in that we are preparing for something that has already happened?

That is one of the mysteries of the Christian faith. Jesus’ coming, His birth, death, burial, and resurrection, have ushered in the Kingdom of God. Yet the Kingdom has not arrived in its fullness.

So here we are; left with choices. The preeminent choice is whether we will faithfully follow Christ, join ourselves to His work, follow His way, and build up His kingdom.

Deciding to faithfully follow Christ, to join ourselves to His work, and to follow His way requires preparation. It requires a constant re-evaluation of our priorities and a desire to bring the Kingdom one step closer.

We prepare again. We prepare and struggle throughout our lives; lives that without hope would go on year after year, through the cycle of time, with no purpose other than death.

But for us God is our hope. As Christians we know that God created a world of cycles and times and that the Church faithfully follows these. We know that as we walk through time, through the seasons and cycles ordained for our lives, these repetitive cycles will end with the joy of heaven. As we walk through the cycle of times and seasons Jesus’ words are ever fresh; they speak anew to us, prompting us on to preparation and reparation.

Paul reminds us:

Have no anxiety at all, but in everything,
by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving,
make your requests known to God.

The first among those requests is that we be prepared, prepared to do what we are called to do. We pray and petition God, asking Him to wash us and renew us. We ask Him to take charge of our growth, our change, and our work. We need His grace to assist us in our work for the kingdom. God help us to bring Your heavenly Kingdom one step closer to its fulfillment.

My brothers and sisters,

This time of preparation gives us the opportunity to engage in reparation.

Our lives are constantly changing, and as I noted, that change makes Jesus’ message ever new.

How has His message spoken to you? Prepare and repair.

This past year made us different in some way, both for the better and for the worse. Our ability to change, to work toward the kingdom is a constant challenge. Our ability to overcome our faults and our our sins, as they take on a new character to challenge us, is a never ending battle.

Perhaps our anger changed, our desires and lusts took a slightly different direction. Perhaps we found a new way to fall, to deny Christ, to be more cynical or sarcastic about our partners, our friends, our family, the Church, or God.

The times and seasons and God’s everlasting grace are the antidote to those new challenges; the time of preparation and reparation punctuated by the great joy of Christmas is the cure we so desperately need.

You remember that joy. You remember it – that morning when you caught mom or dad secretly smile because you were happy. That joy you felt when you learned that giving was more than spending money. That feeling of warmth, when you were surrounded by family, when you ate, sang, and walked or drove off to church together. That day you held new life in your hands for the first time and knew the meaning of hope. We return to that joy year after year because of Christ, because He affords us the opportunity to prepare and repair, through the seasons and throughout time.

Today we celebrated an expanded Sacrament of Penance, the very same sacrament you receive at the beginning of every Holy Mass. Prayer, petition, and thanksgiving —“ God make me a new man, a new woman. Get me back on the road, the work lies before me, the kingdom needs to be built. Here are my hands, here is my heart. I am sorry I wasted them in any way.

You are washed anew in the sacrament of penance. Through the penance you have been given, a means to reflection, recompense, and prayer, and through the words of the priest you are absolved of sin. Your sin is no more. You have entered back into full communion with your brothers and sisters, with the Holy Church, and with God.

So onward. Preparation and reparation… By these mystical means God builds you, prepares you, and sets you to work for His kingdom.

The sinful came to John in the Jordan and asked:

—And what is it that we should do?—

He told them: preparation, reparation, and amendment of life…

Now the people were filled with expectation

They were ready to move forward, at John’s words eagerly awaiting the Messiah.

He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.
His winnowing fan is in his hand to clear his threshing floor
and to gather the wheat into his barn

Come Lord Jesus! Gather us in.

The word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the desert.

The word of God came and John went.

John went throughout the whole region of the Jordan,
proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins

God’s coming to John was quite different from the rest of the prophets. God had to come to them in burning bushes, in whispering winds, and in a myriad of other ways. John simply listened and when he heard God’s word he went.

John’s example brings up two very important virtues: perception and readiness. John is the perfect example for our Advent preparations, exactly for the virtues he lived.

Let’s tackle these virtues head-on.

The first is perception.

In essence the act of perceiving is our ability to listen for and hear God’s word in our life; our being tuned into God.

Oh, but deacon, God doesn’t talk to me… Anyway I do good things and I try hard.

While I’m sure that you have that perception, a perception that flows from your comfort zone, I’m here to shake up that perception.

God wants to talk to you. He is prepared to talk to you at several levels, but to hear Him you must clear your mind. Clear your mind and get out of your comfort zone. God’s here to upset the apple cart.

This Advent prepare yourself to perceive God’s word.

How do you think John prepared? He did it by study —“ John knew his scripture, his prophets, and he knew the men and women of his generation. He knew human life and family life, but, and this is the big difference, he allowed God to put that knowledge in perspective for him.

John prepared by study, prayer, fasting, and extreme self denial. He was the man who came wearing a cloak of animal fur and eating locusts and wild honey.

You too must prepare to hear God in the same way; you must prepare to listen for God’s perspective on your life. You must prepare by penance, fasting, self denial, study, and most importantly prayer. You must prepare by creating the space in your life, the space God is ready to fill with His word.

Yes my brothers and sisters, God will speak to you. You won’t like what He has to say, you won’t be comfortable with it, but His is the only voice that counts. His is the only voice that will save you, redeem you, and bring you to heaven.

Do not place anything above His voice. Do not place obstacles in your path to heaven. Rather than place obstacles remember what God has done for Israel:

For God has commanded
that every lofty mountain be made low,
and that the age-old depths and gorges
be filled to level ground,
that Israel may advance secure in the glory of God.

You are the new and everlasting Israel. God wants to speak to you. He has prepared the way, so prepare yourselves to perceive His voice.

The second virtue is that of readiness.

Readiness is more than preparation. Preparation, as I noted, is the act of getting ready with the tools you have been given, and for the event you know is coming.

Think of a dinner party at your home. You know the guests that are coming; you know the number of chairs, hors d’oeuvres, place settings, and wine glasses you will need. You know what you need to prepare for and how to prepare.

Again, as I noted, preparing to hear God’s word, and the tools you need are well known: penance, fasting, self denial, study, and most importantly prayer.

But readiness is more. Readiness is more like the firefighter. He never knows what may come, but he is ready to go.

You too must be ready. The same tools: penance, fasting, self denial, study, and prayer give you the training you need to be ready.

Your being ready means that you are prepared to respond, to go forward without thought or regret. God says go and do, you go and do, and like John you do not count the cost or the implications. Like John sometimes it means loosing your head for Christ.

Brothers and sisters,

Be perceptive and be ready. Remember, God upsets the apple cart. He calls you to do things that you once thought were impossible. He asks you to give up things you once thought you could never live without. He turns the world on its head.

Be perceptive and be ready to live up to the name you bear —“ Christian.

Be perceptive and be ready so that Paul’s prayer might be fulfilled in you.

And this is my prayer:
that your love may increase ever more and more
in knowledge and every kind of perception,
to discern what is of value,
so that you may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ

The day of Christ will dawn upon us without warning. Be perceptive and be ready.

—Beware that your hearts do not become drowsy
from carousing and drunkenness
and the anxieties of daily life,
and that day catch you by surprise like a trap.”

Did you ever get the idea that Jesus is trying to bring us back to reality. In listening to these words, we hear Him telling us to avoid, to shun the things that are inconsequential to our salvation.

The salient point is that Jesus’ caution is accompanied by His promise and commitment to us.

Some have said that God doesn’t dabble in small matters, that falling off a curb or tripping over an obstacle is no concern of His. Yet Jesus told us the Father, who is Father of all, cares for us even in small matters. In Matthew 16 Jesus tells us:

Look at the birds in the sky; they do not sow or reap, they gather nothing into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are not you more important than they? … Learn from the way the wild flowers grow. They do not work or spin. … If God so clothes the grass of the field, which grows today and is thrown into the oven tomorrow, will he not much more provide for you

Latter, in Matthew 10 Jesus tells us that

Are not two sparrows sold for a small coin? Yet not one of them falls to the ground without your Father’s knowledge.

Yes, God does watch over us, in each step we take, in each thing we do. Our brother Jesus is ever at our side, ready to give us a little jolt, a nudge to reawaken us from our drowsiness. He is there to guide us back to the things that are really important.

Jesus speaks of end things today, things so awesome and fearful that He said, —People will die of fright.— He knows what awaits us, and He tells us that the best way to get to Him is to be awake and alert, to be active participants in His plan of salvation.

Jesus works at us consistently and constantly, stay awake, be ready, I will not let you sleep. You need to change, to grow, to mature in faith and in the life you are called to —“ not just life on earth, but eternal life.

Jesus tells us that the Father has the spectrum covered. From the smallest things in life to the greatest, He is there. In the end, He is there to let us know that regardless of the negatives we may encounter, the bad that may happen as a result of sin, He holds us in the palm of His hand.

The promise is great, yet we fall short in sin, in laziness, drowsiness, monotony, dissatisfaction with our family, our state in life, our Church. Therefore, we need a time, a time to re-commit to working out our salvation, as it is said, in fear and trembling.

That time is now. That time is Advent. Advent is about our answer to God’s care for us. It is about our preparation, a time of fasting, prayer, and re-commitment.

It’s funny, because the world has turned Advent upside-down. It has filled Advent with an intensified dose of the anxieties of daily life —“ the very thing our Lord warns us to avoid. The things that pull us away from our focus on God.

So place the world in perspective this Advent. Let us recommit, taking an inventory and putting the tools Jesus gave us to work in reforming, amending, and preparing our lives for Him.

Paul prays:

May the Lord make you increase and abound in love
for one another and for all,
just as we have for you,
so as to strengthen your hearts,
to be blameless in holiness before our God and Father
at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his holy ones. Amen.

Paul’s prayer asks the Lord to grant us an abundance of love and a strengthening of our hearts. These gifts, along with the tools we have before us, the bulwark of the Holy Church, the sacraments, and prayer arm us for action. We have been armed for the day of Christ’s coming.

Isaiah prophesied about it:

The days are coming, says the LORD,
when I will fulfill the promise.

The days are indeed coming. Use this Advent to prepare yourselves, to strengthen yourselves, to re-arm yourselves so that Jesus’ words to us will come to fruition in our lives, so that we are prepared to:

stand erect and raise your heads
because your redemption is at hand.