DYNAMIS!
A publication of St. George Orthodox Christian Cathedral
Wichita, KS

Thursday, December 27, 2007                               The Proto-Martyr Stephen the Archdeacon

1st Vigil Nativity: Genesis 1:1-13     Apostle: Acts 6:8-15; 7:1-5, 47-60     Gospel: St. Matthew 21:33-42

 

Our Creator: Genesis 1:1-13, especially vss. 1-3: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.  The earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the Spirit of God was moving over the face of the waters.  And God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light.”  The joyous Feast of the Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ is come!  In the Divine Liturgy as we celebrate His birth, we will affirm our belief in “the Holy, Consubstantial, Life-giving, and Undivided Trinity.”  As we join with the Church and take our part in the prayers and hymns and actions of the Liturgy, commit yourself also to God.  Child of God, make the words of the Nicene Creed your own!  Declare your allegiance to your “Father Almighty, Maker...of all things visible and invisible,” for you are His visible and invisible creation.  Acknowledge your “Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God...by Whom all things were made,” for He not only created you, but took your nature as His own.  As you take the Name of “the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of Life” on your lips, meet Him in your heart for He lives in all your senses.  Without Him, you would know neither Jesus Christ nor your Father in Heaven.

In the Nativity Liturgy you come face to face with the great mystery of the birth of Jesus Christ, your Creator Who lies in the cave of your soul, divested of the glory of His heavenly majesty, having “made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men” (Phil. 2:7).  Think of the immensity of the universe to the extent that men have researched and described it.  Can you receive the immensity of the Divine embrace of God limiting Himself to your finite comprehension, imperfect speech, and limited thought?

“In the beginning was the Word” (Jn. 1:1), God the Word, saying, “‘Let there be light;' and there was light” (Gen. 1:3).  The choosing by God the Father, the uttering of God the Word, and the moving of God the Spirit, yielded creation: “there was light,” and water and earth, and living plants - this beautiful planet.  And you exist also because He chooses, utters, and moves.  Delicacy and intricacy blend with enormous forces, massive materials, and immense powers, all of which God speaks into existence.  Be in awe.  And then, bow before the manger.

How humbling, that God the Word would choose to become one with you and me in an elemental way - a babe born of a mother into the flux of history at a moment that split time in two.  There was time before the Christ and there are the years of our Lord, BC and AD, respectively.  Creation spans both segments of time.  See, touch, taste, smell, and handle the world around you.  At this moment, you feel at home here, settled in.  At other times are you not overwhelmed in your tiny self?  You and I only see, touch, taste, smell, or handle the very smallest pieces of the universe immediately before us.  But take heart!  Declare that “God created the heavens and the earth” (Gen. 1:1).  Glory in the Highest, for He became one of us and that staggers the mind.

How do you approach the overwhelming mystery of your Creator?  Try this: go back to the tangible bits and pieces of the ordinary life that He made.  Touch and handle Him every day, and adore Him in these commonplace, approachable, and understandable realities.

“Come, ye believers, let us see where Christ was born.  Let us follow the star whither it goeth with the Magi, kings of the east; for there angels praise Him ceaselessly, and shepherds raise their voices in a worthy song of praise, saying, Glory in the highest to the One born today in a cave from the Virgin Theotokos in Bethlehem of Judea.  Since God willeth, the order of nature is overcome, as it hath been written, Christ hath been born of the Virgin in Bethlehem of Judea.”

Thy Nativity, O Christ our God, hath given rise to the light of knowledge in the world, for from the east of the Highest Thou didst come, O Lord.  Glory to Thee.

Return to the December Calendar