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.