January 4th, 2026: Sunday before Theophany - Fr Daniel York

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

of the Holy Spirit. Amen. St. Matthew frames

the beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ as

the Nativity, Christmas, the birth of Christ,

which flows out of that long genealogy we heard

a few weeks ago. Today, St. Mark frames the beginning

of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. as the theophany.

In the words we just heard from St. Paul's epistle,

the appearing of God, his manifestation, his

epiphania. As we prepare to enter into the feast,

we need to reflect on St. John the Baptist, who

figures centrally in theophany. It can be easy

to overlook just how big of a deal John the Baptist

really is. Perhaps we might put it, with all

the various necessary changes and caveats, what

the Theotokos is to Christmas, John is to Theophany.

Of course, John doesn't bear or birth God. Rather,

John prepares Israel for the divine fullness,

the manifestation of God in the flesh, the divine

life. accompanied by the Father's voice and the

Spirit's presence, something John himself doesn't

even entirely grasp. If the Theotokos embodies

and perfects all the Old Testament women, John

embodies and perfects all the Old Testament prophets.

In fact, Mark begins his gospel by smashing together

three different texts from the prophets, Exodus,

Malachi, and Isaiah. as if they were one passage

all about John, integrating Isaiah, Malachi,

and Moses into John the Baptist. But these texts

do more than that. They depict John as a member

of the heavenly divine council. Behold, I send

my angel before your face. What the English in

our translation renders as messenger is angulos

in Greek. My angel, underlying why the church

often depicts John with angelic wings in icons,

as a partaker of the angelic life. According

to the gospel text, John is the voice crying

out of Isaiah's angelic counsel in the wilderness.

Prepare the way of the Lord. Moreover, John looks

and acts like Elijah, who was taken up into the

angelic life in the Merkava. into the spirit,

the chariot, the fiery chariot of God. He wears

the same hairy mantle, the same leather belt.

His diet is super strict, eating wild honey and

locusts. These aren't random, arbitrary details.

They reveal his nearness and proximity to God.

The wild honey recalls the manna that God feeds

Israel in the wilderness. which tastes like what?

Honey. Divine honey wafers, divine honey cakes.

The Lord commanded a portion to be preserved

by Moses, Aaron, and the priests throughout all

their generations. Remember, John comes from

a prominent priestly family. The locusts, specifically

deemed kosher to eat in Leviticus, while perhaps

unappetizing to modern sensibilities. They lack

blood, which reveals a life devoted to strict

fasting. It's the same reason we can eat shrimp

on strict fast days, because there is no blood.

In this way, John resembles a Nazarite, a man

who has taken the vow to consecrate and devote

his entire life to God. He fits the picture of

the law and the prophets. And the people notice

these things about him. According to St. Mark,

all of Judea, that is, all of Judah, what remains

geographically of Israel's southern kingdom,

all of Judah go out to him in the wilderness.

All of Jerusalem, all of Judah, all of Jerusalem,

all of the people come to be baptized by John

in the Jordan, to repent, to turn. And he hears

all their confessions. Here, we shouldn't think

of a general confession. He kind of absolves

everyone generally. No, John personally confesses

them all and then personally baptizes them all.

Think about that. How profound that is. All of

Judah, all of Jerusalem, all of the region coming

to John, confessing their sins. baptized by him.

That's John the Baptist. The angelic life, the

life of the prophets, the priests, the Nazarites.

Elijah, come again, to use the Lord's own words.

A first century celebrity, even Josephus, writes

about John. And yet John's entire ministry points

away from himself. What does he say? Essentially.

Whatever I am, whatever I am doing, I am nothing.

I am nothing compared to the one who is coming.

I am not worthy. I am not oxios. I'm not worthy

to fall down before him and touch his sandals,

let alone his feet. It's not about John. It's

not about what John has accrued, what John has

built up, what John has accomplished in his ministry,

in his life. And there's no false pretense. There's

no false piety, outward humility in John. John

has emptied himself. John has repented his own

life. That is, he has... turned it entirely toward

God, toward the divine life, and has lived out

the angelic life on earth. My angel I send before

you. According to the gospel text, repentance

characterizes the preparation for theophany.

Theophany fulfills Christmas, the fullness of

God's appearing. At Christmas, Christ comes to

Mary, to her surprise, the empty virginal womb

full of potential and vitality. At Theophany,

Christ comes to John, again, to his surprise,

to John, who has emptied his entire life for

Christ's sake. Before Christ has even been raised

from the dead, he has not witnessed the resurrection.

He has already emptied his entire life. For Christ,

he who has died to self and turned himself entirely

toward God so that the divine face itself can

appear before his angelic messenger. In this

way, John already resembles Christ, one in whose

heart Christmas has dawned. Christ is born as

Christ prepares to draw near to John for baptism

to shine before him. Brothers and sisters, it

forces us to ask the question, if we sat with

ourselves in the wilderness, as it were, the

place that is toward the divine silence alone

with God, where would we find our hearts at?

Where would we find our lives at? Could we sit

in silence? And emptiness with God. In some sense

we're always wandering in the wilderness toward

God. Preparing for the divine life. Preparing

for the divine fullness. As we wander in the

darkness with the light shining at the end. Sometimes

we can see that light only dimly. As if it's

not shining but simply flickering. That has more

to do with our own sight. The purity of our hearts

to see God. as we sing every Lord's Day and the

Beatitudes. What is the character of our preparation,

our waiting, our entire life of repentance, our

looking and turning toward God? John illustrates

the heart toward which Christ draws near and

then shines upon. We just celebrated St. Seraphim,

and we just heard his grace, recall and reflect

on that profound quote, acquire the Holy Spirit

and thousands around you will be saved. Look

at John shining as people draw near. They want

to be near him. Christ wants to be near him.

It's like that guy who keeps coming to St. Anthony.

over and over again in the wilderness and doesn't

say anything. He doesn't speak at all when he

comes. And St. Anthony finally asks him, do you

want to ask me anything? No, Abba Anthony. It's

enough for me to be in your presence. Are we

cultivating that kind of inner life where the

hidden person of the heart, the inner man that's

springing forth from us, is he attracting people

towards? Not because of us, but because Christ

is born in us, dwelling in us, shining in us,

forming in us, rooted in us. John has that. John

has that life. His entire life is conformed to

that. He will die before the resurrection. Yet

all he says is, I baptize you with water. The

one coming will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.

St. Mark calls our attention to the beginning.

All four gospels do in their own way. But St.

Mark calls our attention to the beginning. The

are he of the gospel of Jesus Christ. The beginning

of the gospel of Jesus Christ. The beginning,

of course, recalls Genesis. Creation. where the

Spirit of God, that is the Holy Spirit, broods

and first hovers like a bird over the depths,

over the roaring and chaotic waters, as divine

light bursts forth into creation, appearing through

the divine voice speaking. Theophany immerses

us into this creational reality. as the Holy

Spirit hovers over the chaotic waters of Genesis,

subduing them, ordering them, and constituting

them toward their created and rightfully divine

purpose. In Theophany, the Holy Spirit rests

upon Christ our God as he enters into the waters

of Jordan, reconstituting them, subduing them,

trampling down their evil, Leviathan -like, monster

-like, demonic -like, as we still pray every

time we baptize someone. But before we enter

into theophany, John announces that that same

Holy Spirit who will rest on Christ in his baptism,

he comes upon us as we enter into those reconstituted

and now life -giving waters of baptism to fill

us with light, to fill us with the fire of God.

as St. Matthew will add, to set us aflame for

Christ. As the Desert Fathers put it, to be aflame,

to be all fire, to make us children of the light.

What we hear on Theophany, spoken over Christ,

brothers and sisters, we hear spoken over us

in our baptisms. A divine voice speaks, the Father.

This is my beloved Son. What St. Paul envisions

elsewhere is Christ formed in us the hope of

glory, that we would not only bear his image

born in us as we go down into the waters, but

we would become like him, that we would bear

the likeness of his resurrection. In this baptism,

the Holy Spirit rests upon us to empower and

help us repent, to help us to aid us, to strengthen

us, to fortify us so that we might make it through

the wilderness of life. In that wilderness, let

us empty ourselves before him. As we enter into

a new year, which theophany conveniently corresponds

with, let us remember again our baptisms and

let us renew our repentance. Let us turn our

lives again toward God as we prepare for this

great feast. Let us love him because he loves

us so that that love might appear in us, that

it might spring out of our inner man, that it

might bubble up to that surface, that water might

seep into us like we are sponges. and might burst

out of us and spill out toward others so that

they might have that living water. Even those

who don't love us, that we might be made to be

people who people want to draw near to, that

it would be enough for them to simply sit in

our presence. Not because of us, but because

Christ is being formed in us. Let us always seek

Christ. And when Christ appears at last, we will

appear like him and with him in glory. Amen.