WEBVTT 00:00:03.529 --> 00:00:12.949 Glory to Jesus Christ. You heard over 1 ,700 00:00:12.949 --> 00:00:18.429 years worth of history, sacred history. Some 00:00:18.429 --> 00:00:23.510 of it righteous, some of it quite appalling. 00:00:25.690 --> 00:00:30.129 But I've given 20 sermons on the genealogies 00:00:30.129 --> 00:00:33.719 through the years. I've looked at my notes. since 00:00:33.719 --> 00:00:38.159 1999, except for one year. Last year, Father 00:00:38.159 --> 00:00:44.960 James preached on this text. So I think if you've 00:00:44.960 --> 00:00:47.600 been listening through the 20 years, probably 00:00:47.600 --> 00:00:50.600 most of you could also give a sermon on this 00:00:50.600 --> 00:00:53.600 text. So I won't talk about the genealogies today, 00:00:53.759 --> 00:00:58.000 except to say, well, you know, priests can't 00:00:58.000 --> 00:01:00.560 help themselves. They have to say something about 00:01:00.560 --> 00:01:08.189 what they're not going to talk about. these names, 00:01:08.290 --> 00:01:12.870 it's how St. Matthew begins his account of the 00:01:12.870 --> 00:01:22.069 good news. The genealogy or the generation of 00:01:22.069 --> 00:01:27.150 Jesus Christ. And he very consciously takes those 00:01:27.150 --> 00:01:32.739 same words from the book of Genesis. which in, 00:01:32.819 --> 00:01:35.980 I think it's the fifth chapter, begins the genealogy, 00:01:36.060 --> 00:01:43.780 the genesis of Noah and his family. St. Matthew's 00:01:43.780 --> 00:01:48.180 readers would be very interested in that genealogy, 00:01:48.280 --> 00:01:51.200 even if today we are less than attentive to the 00:01:51.200 --> 00:01:53.159 names, because we don't know them. We should 00:01:53.159 --> 00:02:04.810 know them. Providence, that God guides the world, 00:02:05.049 --> 00:02:10.150 which he loves. Even though that family tree 00:02:10.150 --> 00:02:12.949 had some righteous people in it, had some despicable 00:02:12.949 --> 00:02:19.250 people in it, all sinners, God was guiding the 00:02:19.250 --> 00:02:24.969 people towards the moment when Mary, the virgin, 00:02:25.229 --> 00:02:28.900 would be born. Who would be able, who would be 00:02:28.900 --> 00:02:31.879 capable, who would be holy, who would be appropriate, 00:02:32.199 --> 00:02:34.879 who could be chosen, who would say yes to God. 00:02:35.979 --> 00:02:39.180 To giving birth to the one who would become our 00:02:39.180 --> 00:02:42.759 savior. God is guiding the world. We're not just 00:02:42.759 --> 00:02:47.520 blowing in the wind. But he's got work to do. 00:02:47.659 --> 00:02:54.300 And he can only work with what he's got. St. 00:02:54.379 --> 00:02:58.349 Matthew begins. with that genealogy, and he ends 00:02:58.349 --> 00:03:02.689 with the story of Christmas. Joseph's surprised 00:03:02.689 --> 00:03:08.509 that Mary is with child, and the angel speaking 00:03:08.509 --> 00:03:13.129 to him, and he hears these words, she will bring 00:03:13.129 --> 00:03:17.110 forth a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, 00:03:17.229 --> 00:03:21.889 for he will save his people from their sins, 00:03:21.949 --> 00:03:27.400 for the name of Jesus means Lord saves. He will 00:03:27.400 --> 00:03:32.199 save his people from their sins. Well, this brings 00:03:32.199 --> 00:03:35.099 to my mind two questions. What does it mean to 00:03:35.099 --> 00:03:39.020 save? And what does sin have to do with it? Because 00:03:39.020 --> 00:03:40.900 in our world, it has nothing to do with anything. 00:03:42.620 --> 00:03:46.840 A great preacher of the Greek church, the late 00:03:46.840 --> 00:03:52.259 Metropolitan Augustinus Kantiotis, said this. 00:03:52.699 --> 00:03:56.800 the number one evil, which forms the root of 00:03:56.800 --> 00:04:02.919 all evil, all our wretchedness. You heard about 00:04:02.919 --> 00:04:05.780 that last week in the epistle in Father Nicholas' 00:04:06.060 --> 00:04:09.840 sermon. And unfortunately, which we do not give 00:04:09.840 --> 00:04:13.020 proper meaning to, according to the words of 00:04:13.020 --> 00:04:18.699 the scripture, the root is sin. From there come 00:04:18.699 --> 00:04:22.879 all other evils, he says. Their cause is sin. 00:04:23.920 --> 00:04:26.779 We shudder when we hear of cancer and sickness. 00:04:29.560 --> 00:04:33.759 But sin, however, does not make us shudder. We 00:04:33.759 --> 00:04:36.899 play with her, he says, like children who play 00:04:36.899 --> 00:04:39.600 with Christmas presents. We don't perceive anything, 00:04:39.899 --> 00:04:46.079 and because of this, mankind is scourged. Meaning, 00:04:46.199 --> 00:04:49.620 we are continually living under the result of 00:04:49.620 --> 00:04:53.009 our turning away from God. Whether adultery and 00:04:53.009 --> 00:04:55.829 fornication, lasciviousness, whether greed or 00:04:55.829 --> 00:04:59.449 gluttony, whether jealousy or envy, whether judgment 00:04:59.449 --> 00:05:04.129 or anger or rage or indignation at other people, 00:05:04.250 --> 00:05:06.970 whether malice and hatred, whether vengeance 00:05:06.970 --> 00:05:10.430 or fear, he says, sin, this is the source of 00:05:10.430 --> 00:05:15.689 all misery. If we could, with one miracle, uproot 00:05:15.689 --> 00:05:21.069 it, then the earth would be paradise. Who will 00:05:21.069 --> 00:05:26.649 save us? Christ, Jesus, whose name means Savior. 00:05:28.649 --> 00:05:34.550 And it's by one heart and soul at a time. It's 00:05:34.550 --> 00:05:38.689 not by divine command that the people of the 00:05:38.689 --> 00:05:43.129 earth would turn. No, each one of us is invited 00:05:43.129 --> 00:05:49.550 personally, as if you're the only person. You 00:05:49.550 --> 00:05:52.389 and Christ. And then together with each other. 00:05:55.970 --> 00:06:00.050 So what is salvation? When we are being saved 00:06:00.050 --> 00:06:02.389 from sin, what does that mean? Well, I'm going 00:06:02.389 --> 00:06:05.269 to read something else. I ask your forgiveness 00:06:05.269 --> 00:06:08.189 for reading it. But these words by Father Alexander 00:06:08.189 --> 00:06:10.470 Schmemann strike me as the most powerful answer. 00:06:12.170 --> 00:06:16.490 And we have just remembered his repose on the 00:06:16.490 --> 00:06:20.430 13th. And this would be the 100th year of his 00:06:20.430 --> 00:06:26.310 birth. This great theologian, teacher, writer, 00:06:26.490 --> 00:06:30.970 speaker. Here's what he says in his address to 00:06:30.970 --> 00:06:37.250 Soviet Russia by shortwave radio. Christianity 00:06:37.250 --> 00:06:43.110 is a religion of salvation. Jesus saves us. This 00:06:43.110 --> 00:06:45.990 means it is not merely a life improvement plan. 00:06:47.560 --> 00:06:50.620 It's not a scheme for overcoming life's day -to 00:06:50.620 --> 00:06:56.279 -day adversities, nor a set of abstract principles 00:06:56.279 --> 00:07:01.800 and norms of behavior. Salvation presupposes 00:07:01.800 --> 00:07:07.399 that one is perishing. A drowning man, a man 00:07:07.399 --> 00:07:10.839 whose home is engulfed in flames, a man falling 00:07:10.839 --> 00:07:13.620 over the edge of the cliff, does not pray for 00:07:13.620 --> 00:07:17.819 comfort and comforting words. but for salvation. 00:07:19.560 --> 00:07:24.620 Yet it's just this sense of perishing and therefore 00:07:24.620 --> 00:07:28.860 the experience of Christianity as salvation that 00:07:28.860 --> 00:07:34.379 the vast majority of Christians continue to say 00:07:34.379 --> 00:07:38.639 out of habit such words as Savior, salvation, 00:07:38.779 --> 00:07:43.329 and save us, but within themselves. They now 00:07:43.329 --> 00:07:46.250 unconsciously experience these words in a different 00:07:46.250 --> 00:07:52.889 way than did the early Christians. We have stopped 00:07:52.889 --> 00:07:55.850 viewing ourselves as beings who are truly perishing, 00:07:55.910 --> 00:08:02.790 whose life is rushing inexorably towards meaningless 00:08:02.790 --> 00:08:07.449 collapse, whose life is engulfed, surrounded 00:08:07.449 --> 00:08:13.800 by evil, by demonic power. by senselessness, 00:08:13.939 --> 00:08:20.360 by the horror of death and dying, by the bestial 00:08:20.360 --> 00:08:26.040 struggle for survival, by the terrible lust for 00:08:26.040 --> 00:08:31.819 power, by the war and wars of all against all, 00:08:31.980 --> 00:08:36.120 by lies which poison the very source of life, 00:08:36.299 --> 00:08:39.559 by ignorance and by universal sentence of death. 00:08:39.659 --> 00:08:43.500 In other words, he says, we are engulfed by everything 00:08:43.500 --> 00:08:46.659 which our so -called civilization uses, alas, 00:08:46.659 --> 00:08:53.179 successfully to suffocate life and deface it. 00:08:54.299 --> 00:08:58.159 This is a humanity, he writes, which is afraid 00:08:58.159 --> 00:09:02.840 to stop, afraid to reflect, afraid to be alone 00:09:02.840 --> 00:09:06.620 with itself, afraid to see that the destruction 00:09:06.620 --> 00:09:12.659 and fear and hatred and evil in this world are 00:09:12.659 --> 00:09:17.899 the very life to which we, without God, are condemned. 00:09:19.620 --> 00:09:23.460 Yet this is exactly the awareness, the image 00:09:23.460 --> 00:09:28.580 of life that is found in the Gospels. Christ 00:09:28.580 --> 00:09:31.940 comes to a people who are sitting in darkness, 00:09:32.080 --> 00:09:35.759 in the shadows of death, St. Matthew writes. 00:09:36.820 --> 00:09:40.940 This is the first definition of the human condition 00:09:40.940 --> 00:09:43.500 in the Gospels. And the joy of Christmas night 00:09:43.500 --> 00:09:48.460 is immediately blackened. Herod wants to kill 00:09:48.460 --> 00:09:53.259 the child. And for this, he murders a multitude 00:09:53.259 --> 00:09:58.159 of children. Now, writes the evangelist Matthew, 00:09:58.360 --> 00:10:03.600 quoting the Old Testament, a voice is heard in 00:10:03.600 --> 00:10:09.309 Ramah. Wailing and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping 00:10:09.309 --> 00:10:12.950 for her children. She refuses to be comforted 00:10:12.950 --> 00:10:19.289 because they are no more. Christ preaches exclusively 00:10:19.289 --> 00:10:26.169 about love and about forgiveness. And his life 00:10:26.169 --> 00:10:29.690 is one of healing. So what is it that provokes 00:10:29.690 --> 00:10:34.529 the hatred which condenses around him? that leads 00:10:34.529 --> 00:10:39.730 him so inescapably and willingly to the cross, 00:10:39.970 --> 00:10:45.750 the cross of our salvation. Abused by the Pharisees 00:10:45.750 --> 00:10:49.629 and the crowds, screaming, crucify him, crucify 00:10:49.629 --> 00:10:53.690 him. This is the gospel's image of this world 00:10:53.690 --> 00:10:59.750 and of life. Do you know that? It takes no more 00:10:59.750 --> 00:11:02.149 than a minute's reflection to recognize that 00:11:02.149 --> 00:11:06.450 this has always been and always is, that destruction 00:11:06.450 --> 00:11:11.470 tyrannizes the world and dominates life. If it 00:11:11.470 --> 00:11:15.950 does not realize this, if one does not begin 00:11:15.950 --> 00:11:20.309 with this awareness, then Christianity makes 00:11:20.309 --> 00:11:32.720 no sense. has nothing to say to anyone. It is 00:11:32.720 --> 00:11:35.440 only in disclosing the depth and horror of this 00:11:35.440 --> 00:11:38.539 destruction that Christianity discloses itself 00:11:38.539 --> 00:11:43.679 more accurately, reveals Christ, his teaching, 00:11:43.879 --> 00:11:49.539 his call, his salvation. Salvation not from this 00:11:49.539 --> 00:11:52.899 or that, not from a pandemic, not from a bad 00:11:52.899 --> 00:11:58.399 job, not from a bad relationship. not from uncomfortable 00:11:58.399 --> 00:12:04.120 things, not from suffering or sickness, but salvation 00:12:04.120 --> 00:12:09.000 of life itself so hopelessly torn away from its 00:12:09.000 --> 00:12:14.519 own proper content, from God, who is light, who 00:12:14.519 --> 00:12:19.500 is heaven, who is truth, who is eternity. It 00:12:19.500 --> 00:12:25.649 can be said, to summarize here, that every genuine 00:12:25.649 --> 00:12:28.129 encounter with Christ, first of all, discloses 00:12:28.129 --> 00:12:31.289 to me the darkness, the destruction, the senselessness 00:12:31.289 --> 00:12:38.429 of my life. He's not saying look around and judge 00:12:38.429 --> 00:12:44.230 everybody. He's saying look at yourself. I see 00:12:44.230 --> 00:12:47.710 Christ, and because I see him, I understand that 00:12:47.710 --> 00:12:52.960 the life I live is often not real life. but a 00:12:52.960 --> 00:12:57.919 life which is permeated by sin, contempt to destruction. 00:12:58.240 --> 00:13:02.500 And my faith in him, in Christ, our Savior, begins 00:13:02.500 --> 00:13:09.159 with this. In a manner mysterious and inexplicable, 00:13:09.200 --> 00:13:14.850 yet so self -evident. I recognize that only he, 00:13:14.990 --> 00:13:18.929 Christ, can save me. And only with him and in 00:13:18.929 --> 00:13:22.049 him do I find salvation for myself, for other 00:13:22.049 --> 00:13:25.649 persons, for everyone, for everything, for us 00:13:25.649 --> 00:13:29.990 men, and for our salvation. This is what we're 00:13:29.990 --> 00:13:33.429 looking forward to at Christmas. The newness, 00:13:33.429 --> 00:13:37.950 the freedom, the salvation of God in our life. 00:13:38.669 --> 00:13:42.070 To our Lord be glory, now and ever, to ages of 00:13:42.070 --> 00:13:43.309 ages. Amen.