Sunday before Theophany 2020 - Fr. Nicholas Carr

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

of the Holy Spirit. Glory to Jesus Christ. Well

today, this Sunday, today January 5th, we are

at a crossroads. We are on the 12th day of Christmas.

And you can look around and still see some Christmas

decorations here in the church adorning it. are

on the first Sunday of the new year, 2020. And

it is the pre -feast of the baptism of our Lord

and God and Savior Jesus Christ, which was the

reading of this morning's gospel. And we have

all these things here at once with us as we stand

at this crossroads and we celebrate these events.

But there is even another crossroads that we're

at this Sunday. John the Baptist, John the forerunner,

baptizes the Lord Jesus Christ in the Jordan

River, and it is a crossroads of the old covenant,

which the prophet, the greatest prophet, John,

is there, and of the New Testament, the new covenant

that we have through Christ, of moving from the

law to grace and mercy. and forgiveness that

we enter into in our own baptisms, just as Christ

was baptized. You know, these are the words spoken

by the prophets about John the forerunner. Behold,

I send my messenger before your face, who will

prepare your way before you, the voice of one

crying in the wilderness. Prepare the way of

the Lord. Make his paths straight. And then we

have the words of John about our Lord and God

and Savior, Jesus Christ. From the book of Luke,

Luke 7 · chapter mention

chapter 7, it says, For I say to you, among those...

Oh, sorry, wrong one. This is Jesus speaking

of John. For I say to you, among those born of

women, there is not a greater prophet than John

the Baptist, but he who is least in the kingdom

of God is greater than he. How could that be?

The greatest prophet, John, and yet for each

one of us who enters into the baptismal waters

and then is chrismated with that holy oil and

now somehow We are greater. It's hard to believe.

But it's done through the power of God. That

somehow the Holy Spirit enters us in a way that

changes us that wasn't done before. Because Christ

had not come. Because Christ had not died on

the cross. Had not resurrected, ascended to heaven.

And all these great events that we know have

happened in history as we await for the second

coming of Christ. These things had not happened

for the prophets yet, but now for us they have

happened. And we enter into the church, we enter

into life, we enter into a time where we need

to take the words of the great prophet John and

apply them to ourselves. If you look at the column

here, St. John the Forerunner, it says, Repent

ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. He

was speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ. Of course,

heaven came with him and comes to us through

Christ and sanctifies us and all our humanity,

everything that we are. John said of Jesus, There

comes one after me who is mightier than I. whose

sandal strap I am not worthy to stoop down and

loose. I indeed baptize you with water, but he

will baptize you with the Holy Spirit. And that's

where we are. We have the Holy Spirit to help

us. When we do that first step of repentance,

and we declare that we are going to step away

from the things that have been a part of our

past, that have pulled us away from God, and

that we are now committing ourselves to come

closer to God, and we enter into that life, and

we follow where God leads us, and we are sanctified

and changed and made holy. That's where we need

to be. Let me read to you from the Gospel that

we will read shortly. when we bless the waters

this very day, it came to pass in those days

that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee, who

was baptized by John in the Jordan. And immediately,

coming up from the water, he saw the heavens

parting and the Spirit descending upon him like

a dove. And then a voice came from heaven, You

are my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.

This was the time, that major crossroad, when

we left the old covenant and we entered into

the new covenant. We left the time of the prophets

and we entered into the ministry of Jesus Christ

who calls his disciples. Shortly after this,

he goes into the wilderness and then he comes

out and calls his disciples. And we begin this

time that we are in now as we await the second

coming of Christ. Well, I couldn't neglect that

this year is 2020. And when I think of that number,

I think of 2020 vision, right? And so how could

we pass this first Sunday of the year and not

say that we need... 2020 spiritual vision. That's

what we need. We have the Holy Spirit to guide

us. All we have to do is listen to God, to follow

the commandments, to walk the life that has 2020

vision, and we can walk in a way that we've never

done before. But we don't sometimes. There are

some people that are in darkness. They are blind.

They don't have any vision. We are a part of

the church. We are here. We're not blind. But

sometimes we can be nearsighted. And sometimes

we can be farsighted. And we don't have 20 -20

vision. Nearsightedness. When we don't see others

because our vision is so close it's looking at

just ourselves. That's a problem. If we are just

thinking about ourselves, how could we ever love

anyone else? And the answer to get rid of your

nearsightedness is to look to God. To take your

eyes off of yourself and to look up to heaven

and to give thanks to God for the salvation that

we have. And the moment that we have thanks in

our heart, then the Holy Spirit is able to really

shine in us. And once God is shining through

us, then we can love others around us and we

have 20 -20 vision. Of course, there's farsightedness

as well, where we're looking off in the future

so much, afraid of what will happen. We're filled

with fear. We've lost our hope. We've lost our

trust in God because we're saying, well, what

if this? What if that? What if the other? I'm

running out of money. I don't know what's going

to happen. Or whatever the problem is. Maybe

I'll never get married. I'll never have children.

I'll never who knows what. You could fill in

the blank. But we're filled with fear instead

of with faith. And the answer to this farsightedness

is once again to put our eyes. on the Lord, and

to, instead of being afraid of the future, be

trusting in God that he's taking us to a wonderful

future, that he's going to bring us to a place

of beauty and eternal life. St. Clement of Rome

says this, So while we are on earth, let us repent.

For we are like clay in a workman's hands. If

a potter makes a vessel and it gets out of shape

or breaks in his hands, he molds it over again.

Similarly, while we are in this world, let us

too repent with our whole heart of the evil we

have done in the flesh so that we may be saved

by the Lord while we have a chance to repent.

By doing the Father's will and keeping the flesh

pure, and by abiding by the Lord's commands,

we shall obtain eternal life. Eternal life. Never

-ending life. Joy in God's presence forever.

Our hearts beaming. How could we not strive for

that? But it requires us now to repent. The Apostle

Paul writes in Titus, the book of Titus, For

the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath

appeared to all men, teaching us that denying

ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live

soberly, righteously, and godly in this present

world, looking for that blessed hope in the glorious...

appearing of the great God and our Savior, Jesus

Christ. So now we are here in 2020, and we need

to have that spiritual vision of the 2020 vision.

And all it takes is us saying yes to God. Yes,

I want that. Do you want that vision? Do you

want to see the world? with God's view of the

world? I do. We're at a crossroads. Christmas,

we've got the 12th day of Christmas. Tomorrow,

Theophany, the first Sunday of this new year.

What better time than right now to commit ourselves

to grow and be sanctified and become holy? and

to move forward from this crossroads on the road

carrying the cross. Glory to Jesus Christ. Glory

to God.