January 11th, 2026: Sunday after Theophany: Fr Anthony Roeber

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and

of the Holy Spirit, one God, amen. Glory to Jesus

Christ. I want to begin this morning by reminding

all of us that we are privileged to be in the

season of light. We have the special privilege

this morning of welcoming the newly illuminated

Son of God, Herman, who is in a sense a visible

reminder, a visible manifestation. of the great

gift of the light that has shined upon all of

us that we hear in the Holy Gospel today. We

need to remember that whatever the world may

be doing now, we remain in the season of light.

And we remain in that season through the meeting

of the Lord that comes up in early February.

So it is especially appropriate for us to reflect

a little bit on what this means for us. The Gospel

is beautiful. It reflects, of course, the prophecy

of... the prophet Isaiah. But when our Lord finally

begins his ministry, what is it that he says?

He begins to preach saying, repent for the kingdom

of God is at hand. That word repent probably

needs to be explained a little bit because if

we actually look at what the gospels say in the

original Greek, what the Lord is really saying

is change your hearts, completely transform that

which is most sacred to you and turn it back

to me. That is really what repentance is all

about. It is not about simply saying, I'm sorry.

That's fine, but that's simply not enough. The

difficulty and the great challenge and the great

privilege that we as Christians have is to change

our hearts. And we will not do this if we think

of this as a solo act. We are saved in community,

and it is through the power and presence of the

Holy Spirit and with the aid of Christ himself.

That we engage upon the task of changing our

whole heart and our whole mind so that we, in

fact, love only the Lord God. And in second place,

our neighbor as ourselves. Now this, in fact,

is a lifelong task. It is not something that

comes easily to us. The epistle that we read

today in Ephesians talks a little bit about this

question. Because he talks about the fact that

we are given grace according to each of us, according

to the measure of Christ's gifts. So what does

this measure mean? It means, of course, as the

apostle explains, that there are different kinds

of manifestations of the Spirit in the church.

We're not all called to be apostles or evangelists.

We're not all called to be bishops. We're not

all called to be catechists. We have different

kinds of tasks. that have been given to us so

that we can begin to measure up to the fullness

of the grace of God that has been given to each

of us. We are to attain the unity of the faith

and the knowledge of the Son of God. And remember,

brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers, when

we talk about the knowledge of God, we mean a

relationship with him. This is not an intellectual

exercise. It is part of that transformation of

the heart so that we deepen this relationship

with him. And it is in that that we attain to

the unity of the faith. If we go on actually

a little bit further in this section from Ephesians,

we're reminded that once upon a time in our infancy,

you might say as non -believers or as beginners,

we were tossed about by every word that might

come across us. But it is precisely our task

here. not to be tossed about, but in fact to

come to a knowledge of the truth in love. And

so that, as the apostle says, everything and

everyone, all parts of the holy body of Christ

work together for the building up of Christ in

this world and in the world to come. We know

that we have in fact come in the latter days.

We know that the victory over death, sin, and

the devil have been accomplished. But we also

know that we in fact struggle. The powers of

evil are in fact in retreat, but they are very

dangerous. And we should make no mistake that

this is what we fight against. And the only way

that we have of guaranteeing that we come up

to the measure of the grace that Christ has given

us is to do precisely what we are doing right

now. It is precisely when we come together to

hear the word of God, to sing his praises, especially

to give the great thanksgiving, which we are

about to do. and which the newly illuminated

Herman will be privileged now to receive for

the first time, the body and blood of Christ.

It is that which strengthens us. It is that which

gives us life. It is that which makes us capable

of beginning to come up to that measure of the

grace of God that is given to us. And so in this

season of light, fathers, mothers, brothers,

and sisters of Christ, I encourage us all to

take heart. There is so much that is going on

in the world that is so depressing and is so

upsetting. I don't care whether it's the political

world. I don't care whether it's the condition

of the churches in some cases or in our family

lives or in our communities. But we should, in

fact, know already that the victory has been

won and that in this season of light that is

given to us, we should rejoice because we know,

in fact, that he has accomplished everything

that is necessary and it is now for us to work

out, as the apostle says, our salvation in fear

and trembling, but that only happens with the

grace and presence of God himself. And therefore,

let us give thanks to him on this day, first

of all, for witnessing the holy baptism and chrismation

of the newly illuminated son of God, Herman,

and for all the blessings of this life. And may

the Lord Jesus Christ, our God, therefore, the

Lord of all the nations, have mercy on us and

save us. Amen.