2 Sundays Before Christmas Fr. James Jorgenson

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

of the Holy Spirit, Amen. Today we have, as we

frequently do, two epistles and two gospels.

The first one is for the regular lectionary,

Sundays of the forefathers as we approach the

Nativity of our Lord. And the other epistle and

gospel are... appointed for St. Herman of Alaska,

one of our special patron saints here in America.

Today is the anniversary of his repose. But I'll

focus our attention this morning on the regular

Sunday lectionary, the Epistle and Gospel for

that. the supper, the banquet. It actually is

found in two places. The one, the reading we

have today, is from St. Luke, and then we hear

it again when this parable is read later in the

year, and it's taken from chapter 22 of St. Matthew's

Gospel. The basic facts are the same in both

parables. St. Matthew, his version, expands on

this a bit, especially the one that has one of

my favorite themes. Excuse me, the man who held

the banquet asks why one of the guests doesn't

have a wedding garment, and the wedding garment

being baptism or... faith, baptism, or good works.

But the thoughts that I have to share with you

on today's gospel version from St. Luke, the

fundamental inspiration for much of what I say

is taken from a sermon by St. Cyril of Alexandria

on this particular gospel. St. Cyril reposed

in the year 444, right between two crucial councils

in the history of the Church in the 5th century.

The Council of Ephesus in 431, and then the Council

of Chalcedon 20 years later in 451. And these

two councils were devoted to the question of

who is Jesus Christ? And of course, we know the

ultimate resolution of this. is that Jesus is

one person, one divine person, who assumed our

human nature, so he's one person in two natures.

And St. Cyril of Alexandria was crucial in the

articulation of this theology at the two councils.

He also happens to be a favorite saint of mine,

too, because I wrote my Master of Divinity thesis

on his Christology, his teaching about Christ,

when I graduated from St. Vladimir's way, way

back in 1969. So if you're good at arithmetic,

that makes me about 77 years old. But at any

rate, St. Cyril tells us, that those who made

excuses focused on earthly things and not heavenly

things. And the theme among the fathers is a

very consistent idea, that God, or the Father,

is the person who invites the banquet. The banquet

stands for the church. It stands for the Eucharist.

and ultimately it stands for the kingdom of heaven.

So this is the fourfold nature of the banquet

to which these guests were called and to which

we are called. St. Cyril says, all things are

made ready. Now he says what this means is that

through Christ, God bestows on us forgiveness

of sins. cleansing of all defilement, the communion

of the Holy Spirit, and the glorious adoption

as children of God. These are the things, this

is what he means by all things have been made

ready for those of us who are called to this

banquet. Of course, Christ invited Israel before

all others, before all other nations. by the

commandments of God through the Old Testament,

by the prophets, and St. Cyril even happens to

quote Psalm 2, which is a very important one

in the nativity services. It is where, I have

set my king on Zion, my holy hill. So that's

God speaking about the king that he set on the

holy hill of Zion, which is Jerusalem. God set

his son as king on the holy city of Jerusalem.

The epistle of St. Paul I think ties in closely

to this what is spoken about in the gospel, that

we've been called and we make excuses. What are

the kinds of excuses that we could have when

we don't accept this invitation? And St. Paul

says, when Christ who is our life appears, when

is Christ going to appear? Well, what St. Paul

is talking about fundamentally here is when Jesus

comes again in glory at the end of the world.

Christ, our life, and our light appears then.

But you know, he's about to appear when we celebrate

his birth, right? The nativity. And he's also

about to appear today, here and now, in our presence.

when at the Divine Liturgy he comes to us in

Holy Communion as his body and blood under the

form of bread and wine. So Christ, our life,

is about to appear. Therefore, St. Paul says,

put to death in your members the things that

are on this earth, like St. Cyril said, earthly

things rather than spiritual things. And St.

Paul gives, of course, it isn't an entire list

of sins in their entirety. But he does single

out, and these I think are important, especially

you look around nowadays. Fornication. You know,

it's common nowadays for... Young couples just

to live together and not bother getting married.

That's what fornication is. Fornicators shall

not enter the kingdom of heaven unless they repent.

Uncleanness. Uncleanness of mind. Passion. Passions

for anything. Anything that is an inordinate

desire is a passion. Evil desire. Covetousness,

which is idolatry. when we want more than we

really need. Some people are never satisfied,

never satisfied, and especially those whose things

are on this earth, material things. And we shouldn't

throw stones because this same kind of an attitude

affects each and every one of us in one way or

another. Because the wrath of God is coming upon

the sons of disobedience in which you used to

walk. St. Paul's implying we don't behave like

that anymore. And so now he goes on to say, now

put off all these things, and he enumerates them,

anger, losing our temper, wrath, malice. Blasphemy,

filthy language. Boy, how rampant that is nowadays.

You hear that. The language that everyday people

use, and I lose my temper once in a while, too.

I'm sure that all of you do. But some of this

filthy language is so rampant, and you have this

gratuitous sex and bad language. It's so... You

can't even watch a decent movie nowadays on television.

Put away all of these things out of your mouth.

I was debating whether or not to say this, but

I'm going to say it anyway, speaking about movies.

One of the classic movies is Gone with the Wind.

Of course, that's come under fire nowadays for

different reasons, but be that as it may. When

at the conclusion of the movie, Brett says to

Scarlett, Clark Gable, of course, speaking, and

what are you going to do now? He says, frankly,

my dear, I don't give a damn. Oh, at that time

in 1969, that was a real shocker to hear that

kind of language on the silver screen. Nowadays,

that's nothing. And so you see how... I don't

want to keep throwing stones at the movie and

entertainment industry, but that's what influences

people's lives so much nowadays. And so St. Paul

says, we've got to keep this kind of stuff out

of our mouths and out of our minds. Why? Because

he tells us, you have put off the old man with

his deeds and have put on the new man who is

renewed in knowledge. according to the image

of him who created him. So St. Paul reminds us

once again, and we remind ourselves that we have

been renewed. We are in Christ new creatures.

We are looking forward to his coming, that heavenly

banquet at the end of time, but also to his coming

at his nativity today and to his coming. to nourish

us today at the divine liturgy with his precious

body and precious blood. So to our Lord Jesus

Christ, who is our life and our life, who appears

to us, be glory and honor forever and ever. Amen.