WEBVTT

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We, of course, are still in this beautiful period

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after the birth of our Lord, the Christmas period.

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I'm sure that you have noticed as well as I have,

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how even in secular society, the birth of our

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Lord has influenced it. all the festivities surrounding

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Christmas, and everything that is, all the Christmas

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carols, the joy of the season. But that is particularly

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intense for us, this joy, for us who are believing

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Christians. When we look at the crib and see

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Who is that baby lying in the manger? I imagine

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that most of you have some kind of a manger scene

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or a crib scene, the one that we have in our

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family. I remember when I was about eight years

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old, my parents went to the store and bought

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that crib scene, which I have, of course, inherited.

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from them. Many fond memories. You look at this

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Christmas scene whether it's in a stable as more

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often maybe in the Western tradition or in a

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cave as it's usually spoken of in the services

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in the Byzantine tradition, the Orthodox tradition.

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We see of course the shepherds who were there

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because the angels announced to them to go and

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see this thing which has taken place in Bethlehem.

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The wise men, of course, journey from a star,

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three of them traditionally because of the three

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gifts that they offer. And then also, you probably

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notice in that Cribsine, an ox or a cow, and

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a donkey. Maybe you wondered, why are those animals

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there? Of course, it was some kind of a stable,

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a storage for animals. But also, at the very

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beginning of the prophecy of Isaiah, Isaiah says,

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The ox knows its master and the donkey recognizes

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its master's crib. So because of this prophecy

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from Isaiah, which I don't think is read in all

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the prophecies we have surrounding Christmas,

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but that's the reason why you have in addition

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with the shepherds and the wise men that ox or

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cow and the donkey who were peering at this baby

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Jesus. Who is this baby Jesus? The Christmas

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carols, of course, say that Hark the Herald Angels

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Sing, for example, says that Emmanuel, God has

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come to live and dwell among men. He who is God

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and Lord of all deigns to become man. Another

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Christmas hymn, once in Royal David City, which

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is one of my favorite, stood a lowly cattle shed

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where a mother laid her baby. for in a manger

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for his bed. He came down from earth to heaven,

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who is Lord and God of all. Our liturgical hymns

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are so many that they cannot be recalled that

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speak about who this person is. One of them that

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is particularly dear to me is that he who spread

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out the heavens as a curtain now is he who spread

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out the heavens as a curtain now is wrapped in

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swaddling clothes. Another, he by whom the birds

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of the air are fed now is nourished by a little

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milk from his mother's breath. Of course, in

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our, not only our liturgical hymns, not only

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in the Christmas carols and liturgical hymns,

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but also in the creeds, the Nicene Creed, which

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we are about to recite or sing in a few minutes.

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We say that we believe in one Lord Jesus Christ.

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God from God, light from light, true God from

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true God, begotten, not made, of one essence

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with the Father, by whom all things were made,

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who for us men and for our salvation came down

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from heaven and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit

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of the Virgin Mary. The church's councils, And

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creedal statements continue this thought. The

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Council of Ephesus, the third ecumenical council

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in 431, defines that Jesus possesses both the

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human and the divine nature. He is both God and

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man. Twenty years later, in 451, the Council

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of Chalcedon defines that this Jesus who possesses

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both the divine and the human nature is united

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ineffably in that one divine person. This truth

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is expressed in one of the theological truths

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of the church's tradition, which is called the

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communication of properties, or to use its technical

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Latin term, the communicatio idiomatum. So this

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means that because of the union of the two natures

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in Jesus Christ, The attributes or the properties

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of one nature may be attributed to the other

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nature as well. So God, as we say in the Tupari,

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the Kentuckian, if I remember, who is God and

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Lord of all, lies in that manger. A marvelous

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truth that we see in that simple manger scene.

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Mary, the virgin mother of God, her incarnate

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son, Joseph, the foster father, the shepherds

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and the magi, and that ox and that donkey who

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know their masters. where their master lay. We

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as Christians know the same thing, where our

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master is. The marvelous condensation of our

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Lord to come down from heaven, dwell among us,

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teach us, become one of us by taking our human

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nature from his virgin mother, and then finally

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suffering and dying on the cross for our salvation.

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This is the one whose birth we celebrate. This

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is the one who, like that donkey and ox, we recognize

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as our master and Lord of all. And to him be

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glory and honor with his Father and the Holy

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Spirit forever and ever. Amen Christ is born