Dear Friends
We celebrate a birthday not merely to remember the event of a person’s birth nor to mark the passage of a year, we celebrate to show we love. A day is set aside for us to demonstrate to these persons—family members, friends—and to the world our love and our gratitude. We love them every day, we care for them at all times, our duty is continually to serve them and to honour them: but once a year we make an extra effort.
I, along with the entire human race, have been held captive to death, to sin and to idolatry. No matter what I do, I will die; in the face of the evil and sin in the world, I contribute more; knowing the Truth, I set my heart’s desire on wealth, possessions and power. And yet knowing all this, knowing how I would betray my birthright as in his image and after his likeness (Genesis 1:26), God created: and more so, God did not leave me in my pitiable state—for from his chosen nation, from the House and lineage of David, the Seed of Abraham was born, God with us, Jesus Christ.
And I celebrate, and I rejoice. I celebrate not the birth of a baby two millenia ago but the manifestation of God and the next step in our salvation: death, sin and idolatry are on the run, the Lord is coming, has come, to destroy his adversaries. Christmas is a birthday, but as human celebrations we do not merely mark the passage of a year, so too we are invited to show our honour and love for our Saviour.
And we turn our attention to the living God. When we celebrate Christmas let us not limit our celebrations to a child born in a cave of Bethlehem but that God himself is born in our hearts. God is with us and we no longer fear death for he has destroyed his power, God is with us and we are no longer held captive by sin for he has destroyed our bonds, God is with us and we are no longer subject to spiritual powers for he has brought his judgement against them.
May the grace of Christmas enliven you, strengthen you, support you and help you as we journey together towards greater union with God.
We now serve a meal following the Liturgy on Sundays. All are welcome.
I wish you, your family and your friends a joyful celebration of the Nativity of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
Christ is born! Glorify him!
Again the darkness is past;
again Light is made;
again Egypt is punished with darkness;
again Israel is enlightened by a pillar. (Exodus 14:20)
The people that sat in the darkness of ignorance, let it see the Great Light of full knowledge. (Isaiah 9:6)
Old things are passed away, behold all things have become new. (1 Corinthians 5:17)
The letter gives way,
the Spirit comes to the front.
The shadows flee away,
the Truth comes in upon them.
Melchizedek is concluded.
He that was without Mother becomes without Father (without Mother of His former state,
without Father of His second).
The laws of nature are upset;
the world above must be filled.
Christ commands it, let us not set ourselves against Him.
Oh clap your hands together all you people,
because unto us a Child is born,
and a Son given unto us,
Whose Government is upon His shoulder
(for with the Cross it is raised up),
and His Name is called The Angel of the Great Counsel of the Father. (Isaiah 9:6)
Let John cry, Prepare the way of the Lord: (Matthew 3:3)
I too will cry the power of this Day.
He Who is not carnal is Incarnate;
the Son of God becomes the Son of Man,
Jesus Christ the Same yesterday, and today, and forever. (Hebrews 13:8)
Let the Jews be offended,
let the Greeks deride; (1 Corinthians 1:23)
let heretics talk till their tongues ache.
Then shall they believe, when they see Him ascending up into heaven;
and if not then, yet when they see Him coming out of heaven and sitting as Judge.
— St Gregory the Theologian, Oration 38, II.
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Sermon
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, one God, Amen.
“And Jesus came and spoke to them,” we are told by the Evangelist Matthew at the end of his Gospel,
saying, ‘All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.’ Amen.
Matthew 28:18–20
But who is this Jesus to whom all authority has been given? This is the question which the Evangelist is answering in today’s Gospel reading.
When the Lord scattered the nations and divided the tongues (see Genesis 11:1–9) no people remained faithful to the living God. So God created his own nation and called Abram out from Ur: “I will bless those who bless you,” says the Lord to Abram, “And I will curse him who curses you; And in you all the tribes of the earth shall be blessed.” (Genesis 12:3) And Abram, who became Abraham, remained faithful to the promises of the Lord so that God said to him, “In your seed,” which is to say in Christ (see Galatians 3:16, 19), “all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice.” (Genesis 22:18, see also 26:4, 28:14)
And we now have received the promises. Abraham was faithful to the promise without beholding the incarnate Christ, “by faith Abraham sojourned in the land of promise,” the Apostle tells us this morning,
as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. For he looked forward to the city which has foundation, whose builder and maker is God.
Yet what has been given to me is greater than that given to our Father Abraham: I have beheld the transfigured Christ on the mountain, I have beheld the crucified Christ on the Cross, I have beheld the buried Christ in the tomb, I have beheld the risen Christ—and, what’s more, I have been baptised into Christ and put on Christ (Galatians 3:27), I have received Christ—I have received all the promises given to Abraham through Christ and yet I refuse to live a life of faithfulness. I see my life here and now to be of value and eternity to be an afterthought.
…
Read last Sunday’s Sermon, Living Faithfully.
Archive of Past Sermons.
Services this week
Friday 23rd December
Discussion on the Book of Numbers, 8 pm
Online only
Saturday 24th December
Vespers, 6.30 pm
At St Francis’ Hall, Eastleigh
Sunday 25th December
Divine Liturgy, 9.30 am
At St Francis’ Hall, Eastleigh
Online session is via Google Meet: please get in contact for the details.
Please join us: all are welcome, come and see.
Attending Church
We will be meeting at St Francis’ Hall, Nightingale Avenue, Eastleigh, SO50 9JA. Come and See.
Can I help you?
I am here for you, you need only ask. Is there a way I can support your life of faith? Get in touch.
Can you help the community?
Yes, absolutely. Offer yourselves to the Lord: pray! Make available to him all your talents and ask him how he would like you to use them — listen for his reply.
Your prayers!
With love in Christ
Fr Alexander
[email protected]