The Reading from the Holy Gospel according to St. John. (3:13-17)
Joy of the feast my brothers and sisters in Christ. As many of you know today we celebrate the first of the great feasts of the church calendar, the feast of the nativity of the Mother of God. Most of you know about the great feasts but lately we have many new faces among us and so I thought it would make sense to share a little bit about the great feasts with you and especially this feast that we are celebrating today.
According to Jewish custom, some days were considered more special and holy than other days. These are days that were designated as feast days. Days when we should particularly celebrate the saving activity of God among His people. Likewise, according to the teaching of the Orthodox Church there are days that we should celebrate, especially the 12 feasts which are considered to be great feasts. You might think that it is conveniently one per month, but that is not the case. Some months have no great feasts, and other months can have multiple. Each of the great feasts centers around an event from the life of Our Lord Jesus Christ, or His mother, the ever virgin Mary. There is one exception to this which is the next feast we will celebrate on Saturday Sept 14. That is the elevation of the cross. This feast alone does not celebrate or commemorate an event from the life of Christ but it focuses on a critical piece of the story of His crucifixion, and that is the wooden cross itself.
The twelve feasts in order beginning with our feast today are as follows: Nativity of the Mother of God, Elevation of the cross, Entrance of the Mother of God into the Temple, The Nativity of Christ, Holy Theophany (Epiphany), The presentation of the Lord in the Temple, The annunciation, the entrance of our Lord into Jerusalem (Palm Sunday), Ascension of our Lord, Pentecost, Transfiguration and the dormition of the Mother of God. That’s all of them.
Those of you who are paying close attention will realize that a couple of really important events are not listed among the 12. The first of those events is the crucifixion of our Lord. This is the most solemn day on the church’s calendar. But it is not called a feast day. Lastly we have not mentioned the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, which the Church calls Pascha. This is not numbered among the great feasts because it is seen as surpassing all of the feasts. The Church calls Pascha the feast of feasts! It is the resurrection that is the common theme and celebration of all of our Sunday liturgies.
Now each of these feasts is celebrated in a similar fashion beginning with the divine liturgy. Why? As one hieromonk noted “The Liturgy is found at the very center of life, experience and understanding of the Orthodox Catholic Church of God and consequently at the center of Orthodox Theology. For the being and life itself of the Orthodox Church consists of the Liturgy, because the very being of the Church of Christ is liturgical and Her very life eucharistic.” Hieromonk Athanasije Jevtic
If you are really listening to these words, they will inform and change your life or your understanding of life. Our life is liturgical. So when we celebrate a feast of the Church it has to begin with Liturgy. For instance, let us imagine that Christmas (the nativity of Christ) happens to fall on a Monday. This would mean that we would typically celebrate a festal liturgy that morning or the night before. But some might say, “well, we just celebrated a liturgy on Sunday morning, so there is no need to go back to the church again, we can just stay home and celebrate.” No, my brothers and sisters. That means our life is out of balance. We can’t celebrate the feasts without the liturgy because as we just said, our life is liturgical and eucharistic. The feast is meant to celebrate our life in Christ, so you can’t stay home and party when you haven’t first come to worship the God whom you are claiming to celebrate. That is the very foundation of our joy together.
Today we celebrate the birth of the Mother of God, the holy virgin Mary. Fr. Thomas Hopko tells us that “The record of the birth of Mary is not found in the Bible. The traditional account of the event is taken from the apocryphal writings which are not part of the New Testament scriptures. The traditional teaching which is celebrated in the hymns and verses of the festal liturgy is that Joachim and Anna were a pious Jewish couple who were among the small and faithful remnant—“the poor and the needy”—who were awaiting the promised messiah. The couple was old and childless. They prayed earnestly to the Lord for a child, since among the Jews barrenness was a sign of God’s disfavor. In answer to their prayers, and as the reward of their unwavering fidelity to God, the elderly couple was blessed with the child who was destined, because of her own personal goodness and holiness, to become the Mother of the Messiah-Christ.”
He continues saying, “There had to be one born of human flesh and blood who would be spiritually capable of being the Mother of Christ, and she herself had to be born into the world of persons who were spiritually capable of being her parents. The feast of the Nativity of the Theotokos, therefore, is a glorification of Mary’s birth, of Mary herself and of her righteous parents. It is a celebration as well of the very first preparation of the salvation of the world. For the “Vessel of Light,” the “Book of the Word of Life,” the “Door to the Orient,” the “Throne of Wisdom” is being prepared on earth by God Himself in the birth of the holy girl-child Mary.” (The Orthodox Faith Vol. II)
This is the cause of our celebration today. And I want to tell you that one of the secrets to growing in the Orthodox Christian faith is hidden right in front of you whenever you are in the Church and especially on days like today. That is, the shortcut to growing in Christ is to cultivate a relationship with His Mother. We don’t always do that. We think that perhaps it is unnecessary, but the life of the Church teaches us that it is necessary, right and good because we are entering into the family of God, a community. You aren’t becoming an island all by yourself. You have to know your roots, both physical and spiritual. You can’t love Jesus and despise His Mother. Because we have put on Christ, she becomes mother to us. She worries and prays for her children as all good mothers do. Let us draw near to her heart in supplication. When you ask her to pray for you, she will gladly do it. When you invite her into your life, she will become a part of your life and she will speak to her beloved Son on your behalf in the way that only a mother can do. Through the prayers of the holy Mother of God, may the Lord bless you all. AMEN.
Source: Sermons