Christ is Born! Glorify Him!: Homily for Christmas in the Orthodox Church

Galatians 4:4-7; Matthew 2:1-12

Christ is Born!  Glorify Him!

      We gather today to celebrate the Nativity in the Flesh of our Lord, God, and Savior Jesus Christ for the salvation of the world.  He is born to fulfill the vocation of every human person to become like God in holiness as “partakers of the divine nature” by grace.  Because He has truly become one of us, every dimension of our life in this world may become a point entrance into the blessed peace of the Kingdom of Heaven.  In contrast with that high calling, the lack of such peace today in so many other parts of the world, including especially the Holy Land and Ukraine, as well as in our own society, relationships, and hearts, becomes quite apparent.

The Prince of Peace was born in the context of a brutal military occupation that required the elderly Joseph and the pregnant Theotokos to take a long and difficult journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem for a census. There He came into the world like a homeless child, born in a cave used as a barn with an animal’s feeding trough for his bed.   Herod, who reigned over Judea under the authority of Rome, plotted to kill the Messiah from His birth, for he certainly did not want a rival king of the Jews.  He cared far more about his own power than the lives of innocent people, as many rulers have done up to the present.  That is why Joseph had to lead the family to Egypt at night as they fled for their lives, just as refugees do today in the land of our Lord’s birth and in so many other places.

When the One Who spoke the universe into existence becomes part of His creation, the tension between the way of the Lord and the path of slavery to the fear of death becomes obvious.  Angels proclaimed His birth and the promise of peace not to those who will stop at nothing to destroy those they perceive as threats to their power, but to lowly shepherds who had no power or prominence.   Though the Messiah was expected to be a new King David who would give earthly power to the Jews, Gentile astrologers from Persia traveled far to worship a Lord Whose Kingdom transcends the divisions of empires, nations, and ethnicities. He fulfills the ancient promises to Abraham such that all who believe in Him become the adopted children and heirs of God.  The God-Man is born to restore all to the blessedness of Paradise as the New Adam.  He comes to heal us from every dimension of the brokenness that still leads Cain to slaughter Abel, from the desires of our hearts to how we engage with our neighbors, society, and world.   He comes to make us radiant with holiness and “perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect,” which requires especially love for our enemies.  (Matt. 5:48) 

The Savior born this day is the Prince of Peace, but not of the illusion of peace that comes from blinding ourselves to the humanity of those we fear and resent to the point that we beat them into submission, whether literally or figuratively.  He is the Prince of Peace, but not of the illusion of peace that comes from indulging our self-centered desires as we neglect the needs of others and refuse to see them as living icons of God.  He is the Prince of Peace, but not of the illusion of peace that comes from projecting our hopes for wellbeing on the success of nations, cultures, and agendas that operate according to the standards of a world enslaved to the fear of death.  Christ’s peace is nothing less than sharing in His life to the point that we become those who will be blessed in His Kingdom:  the poor in spirit; those who mourn their sins; the meek; those who hunger and thirst after righteousness; the merciful; those who acquire purity of heart; and the peacemakers. To know His peace is to become so much like Him in holiness that, regardless of what sufferings and obstacles may come our way, we make even the deepest challenges of our lives points of entrance to the joyful blessedness of His Kingdom.  (Matt. 5:3-12) 

Even as the circumstances surrounding His Nativity were not peaceful by conventional standards, welcoming the Prince of Peace into our lives requires embracing the inevitable tension of mindfully entrusting ourselves to Him as we share in His fulfillment of the human person in the image and likeness of God.  That is not a matter of sentimentality or trying to use religion to achieve any worldly goal, but of responding with true spiritual integrity to the gloriously good news that the Son of God has become one of us—in the world as we know it--for our salvation.  The more that we undertake the struggle to do so, and to treat every neighbor as one for whom the Savior was born, the more we will participate personally in the true peace of Paradise brought by the God-Man.  Let us celebrate this glorious feast by doing precisely that this day and every day of our lives.