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

Monday, December 31, 2007                                          The Venerable Theophylact of Ochrid

6th Vigil Nativity: Daniel 2:31-36, 44-45    Epistle: James 2:14-26     Gospel: St. Mark 12:13-17

 

The Kingdom of God: Daniel 2:31-36, 44-45 LXX, especially vs. 44: “And in the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed, nor shall its sovereignty be left to another people.”  St. Mark reports that, in the aftermath of the arrest of St. John the Forerunner, “Jesus came into Galilee preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom of God” (Mk. 1:14), which caught the attention of God’s ancient People who were looking for a kingdom which [would] never be destroyed” (Dan. 2:44).  They hoped, therefore, that Jesus would end the People’s long domination by great empires - their condition ever since Daniel’s time.

Briefly, under the Maccabees, there had been self-rule for the People, but then the pagan Romans came - yet another empire to dominate them.  Jesus’ message of God’s Kingdom was electrifying.  Was the promised Kingdom at hand?  The People knew the prophecy: a Kingdom that God would introduce would “break in pieces all these kingdoms” under which they had lived and would “bring them to an end” in a Divine Kingdom that would “stand for ever” (vs. 44).  The Baptizer even foretold the coming of the Messiah, God’s ruler, Who would take “His winnowing fan...in His hand, and...thoroughly clean out His threshing floor and gather His wheat into the barn” (Mt. 3:12).  The Messiah would usher in the great Kingdom of God.  Did He not?!

Beloved of the Lord, as the People united to Christ both as King and God, you should  understand that we are living in the age of the Kingdom of God.  Hopefully you understand what the Lord Jesus meant when He said that the Kingdom is “at hand” (Mk. 1:15), for we experience the working of the Kingdom in our lives at present, even as we look for it to be fully realized in the future.  We are blessed with both retrospect and prospect.  We know in retrospect what the Lord stated clearly: “My kingdom is not of this world” (Jn. 18:36), yet in prospect we also pray as He taught us, “Thy Kingdom come...on earth as it is in heaven” (Mt. 6:10).

This present reading is the prophecy of the Kingdom of God which the Lord Jesus actually initiated.  The Prophet Daniel received the first hint of the coming Kingdom from God in the time of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon (605-562 BC).  It happened this way: the Babylonian monarch had a troubling, strange dream that none could interpret until God disclosed its meaning to Daniel, after which the Prophet was able to explain its interpretation to the king (Dan. 2:31-36,44-45).  Daniel drew from the imagery of the dream to illumine its historical implications.  God would bring an end to the succession of human kingdoms with His own Kingdom.  His Kingdom would be introduced without human agency, like a stone “cut from a mountain by no human hand” (vs. 45), and thereafter it would stand forever.

Here is the marvel of the Kingdom of God.  Already it has a two thousand year history. We can see that it continues effectively in this world because its dominion is not subject to the limitations of space and time.  It has broken many earthly kingdoms in pieces, letting the wind of history carry them away, “so that not a trace of them [can] be found” (vs. 35).  But the reign of Christ remains, defying human control.  His Church, “a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special People” (1 Pet. 2:9), continues to hold dual citizenship in the Kingdom of God while living in a succession of many nations down through time.

The great Feast of the Lord’s Nativity is also a celebration for each of us that we have “a visa” from the “holy nation” of the King of kings and Lord of lords.  “The dream is certain, and its interpretation sure” (Dan. 2:45), for Christ is “born on earth in Bethlehem for our salvation.”  

Today, the Beginningless doth begin, and the Word becometh Incarnate.  Let us shout ceaselessly, crying, Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace, good-will towards men.

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