Brother Christopher
Everyone loves a good story. Throughout history human beings have always told stories, either passing them on orally from one generation to the next, or putting them down in print or in film. Stories captivate our imagination and help form who we are, our values, our hopes, our dreams, who we hope to become. Now admittedly, not all stories are of equal worth. For most, we read or look at them only once. We’re temporarily entertained, but then we move on to the next one. However, for a really good story, one that is beautifully written or told in film -- with an engaging plot and vivid characterization, we may come back to the story, even several times. Such stories have the capacity of feeding our souls. I remember our Brother Elias used go back and re-read Tolkein’s Lord of the Rings trilogy every Bright Week. For him it was that rare story he never tired of.
Yet the story we hear in this morning’s Gospel is somewhat unique: it is God’s story and given that we “read it” -- listen to it -- every year, it has the power to work on us progressively, bringing us deeper and deeper into its mystery. For as Paul writes in the passage from his letter to the Galatians, “in the fullness of time, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born a subject of the Law, to redeem the subjects of the Law, so that we could receive adoption as sons and daughters.” This is God’s story, begun in the fullness of time, and we are drawn into it as participants. God makes us part of God’s own story. The whole Patristic tradition witnesses to the chief fact of the incarnation: God became human, so that human beings could become God... not God by nature but by adoption, by being brought into an everlasting communion of love. And the Gospel story in all its simplicity and beauty describes the dramatic way this begins: wise men coming from the East, King Herod’s alarm at their question, his duplicitous scheming, the wise men following the star to Bethlehem, their finding the child and his mother, their falling down in worship and rendering him homage, their offering gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh... their traveling back home by a different road.
I think it’s fair to say that in this story the truth is stranger than fiction: God becomes a creature -- a human being -- without ceasing to be God. God incarnate in the form of a vulnerable baby is contrasted with a corrupt King who is interested only in clinging to his own power. And the real wisdom figures are the wise men from the East -- Gentiles -- who are interested only in worshiping the true king. the real question in all of this is, “why did God choose to do this, why did God become a human being?” And the answer is: to draw humanity into the real story -- God’s story -- to become part of that forever by revealing the extent of divine love. Jesus is the fulfillment of the human hope for salvation, and he reveals this throughout his life. And while Jesus comes as the long awaited Jewish Messiah, the story makes clear through the presence of the wise men that he is the fulfillment of Gentile hopes as well. Through the adoration of the wise men, Gentiles bow before the infant king. And even though the Gentiles -- all Gentiles -- don’t have the Hebrew Bible and the promises of tradition, by following the star, the truth they do perceive, it will lead them ultimately to the Savior. Jesus is for them, as well.
Last night when we sang “God is With Us” it was with the energy and power of spiritual realization. God is truly with us... not only for Jews, but with the Gentiles as well, not only with Orthodox Christians or even Christians in general, but with all people, of all religions, even those who haven’t asked for him or even seek him. All people are called to become part of this story, not for God’s sake, but for their own. It is their destiny, not their humiliation; it is their dignity, not their shame; it is their freedom, not their bondage; it is their very life.
Christ is Born!
