We, of course, are still in this beautiful period
after the birth of our Lord, the Christmas period.
I'm sure that you have noticed as well as I have,
how even in secular society, the birth of our
Lord has influenced it. all the festivities surrounding
Christmas, and everything that is, all the Christmas
carols, the joy of the season. But that is particularly
intense for us, this joy, for us who are believing
Christians. When we look at the crib and see
Who is that baby lying in the manger? I imagine
that most of you have some kind of a manger scene
or a crib scene, the one that we have in our
family. I remember when I was about eight years
old, my parents went to the store and bought
that crib scene, which I have, of course, inherited.
from them. Many fond memories. You look at this
Christmas scene whether it's in a stable as more
often maybe in the Western tradition or in a
cave as it's usually spoken of in the services
in the Byzantine tradition, the Orthodox tradition.
We see of course the shepherds who were there
because the angels announced to them to go and
see this thing which has taken place in Bethlehem.
The wise men, of course, journey from a star,
three of them traditionally because of the three
gifts that they offer. And then also, you probably
notice in that Cribsine, an ox or a cow, and
a donkey. Maybe you wondered, why are those animals
there? Of course, it was some kind of a stable,
a storage for animals. But also, at the very
beginning of the prophecy of Isaiah, Isaiah says,
The ox knows its master and the donkey recognizes
its master's crib. So because of this prophecy
from Isaiah, which I don't think is read in all
the prophecies we have surrounding Christmas,
but that's the reason why you have in addition
with the shepherds and the wise men that ox or
cow and the donkey who were peering at this baby
Jesus. Who is this baby Jesus? The Christmas
carols, of course, say that Hark the Herald Angels
Sing, for example, says that Emmanuel, God has
come to live and dwell among men. He who is God
and Lord of all deigns to become man. Another
Christmas hymn, once in Royal David City, which
is one of my favorite, stood a lowly cattle shed
where a mother laid her baby. for in a manger
for his bed. He came down from earth to heaven,
who is Lord and God of all. Our liturgical hymns
are so many that they cannot be recalled that
speak about who this person is. One of them that
is particularly dear to me is that he who spread
out the heavens as a curtain now is he who spread
out the heavens as a curtain now is wrapped in
swaddling clothes. Another, he by whom the birds
of the air are fed now is nourished by a little
milk from his mother's breath. Of course, in
our, not only our liturgical hymns, not only
in the Christmas carols and liturgical hymns,
but also in the creeds, the Nicene Creed, which
we are about to recite or sing in a few minutes.
We say that we believe in one Lord Jesus Christ.
God from God, light from light, true God from
true God, begotten, not made, of one essence
with the Father, by whom all things were made,
who for us men and for our salvation came down
from heaven and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit
of the Virgin Mary. The church's councils, And
creedal statements continue this thought. The
Council of Ephesus, the third ecumenical council
in 431, defines that Jesus possesses both the
human and the divine nature. He is both God and
man. Twenty years later, in 451, the Council
of Chalcedon defines that this Jesus who possesses
both the divine and the human nature is united
ineffably in that one divine person. This truth
is expressed in one of the theological truths
of the church's tradition, which is called the
communication of properties, or to use its technical
Latin term, the communicatio idiomatum. So this
means that because of the union of the two natures
in Jesus Christ, The attributes or the properties
of one nature may be attributed to the other
nature as well. So God, as we say in the Tupari,
the Kentuckian, if I remember, who is God and
Lord of all, lies in that manger. A marvelous
truth that we see in that simple manger scene.
Mary, the virgin mother of God, her incarnate
son, Joseph, the foster father, the shepherds
and the magi, and that ox and that donkey who
know their masters. where their master lay. We
as Christians know the same thing, where our
master is. The marvelous condensation of our
Lord to come down from heaven, dwell among us,
teach us, become one of us by taking our human
nature from his virgin mother, and then finally
suffering and dying on the cross for our salvation.
This is the one whose birth we celebrate. This
is the one who, like that donkey and ox, we recognize
as our master and Lord of all. And to him be
glory and honor with his Father and the Holy
Spirit forever and ever. Amen Christ is born