The Leave-taking of the Feast of Theophany
Scripture: Ephesians 4:7-13 and Matthew 4:12-17
Nutshell
(1) Challenge
Sometimes, when we’re learning something new, we don’t have access to a teacher; whether it’s learning a new skill, an instrument, exercise, or even our spirituality. It can be difficult to grow closer to God if we’re in the dark, going it alone.
(2) Sin
The Gentiles didn’t know the God of the Old Testament, and so they sat in darkness without hope. When we are without hope, we’re also sitting in darkness.
(3) What happens?
You see, without light, we’re simply stumbling around. The light serves as a guide, an illumination that shows us the path we should walk. And, without it, we fall into the ditches and get hurt.
(4) Christ forges a new path
But, Christ is light and today we hear about him entering into the darkness. The light of Christ doesn’t just show us the way, it also frees us so that we can get up and use the light to walk the path of Christ.
(5) Longing satisfied
Today, we witness Jesus moving to Galilee of the Gentiles, a symbol that Christ is working to bring light to everyone around the globe, even us.
(6) Visible evidence
Christianity didn’t stay a small Judean sect. Instead, it grew to give hope to everyone. Over 2,000 years, Christianity has been the source of comfort and healing for many.
(7) What shall I do?
So, now that we’ve been given the light, we’re free to move forward and our future is bright indeed!
Full Text
(1) Challenge
Learning a new skill is always fun.
For instance, I remember when I learned to play the saxophone. It was the summer after my 4th-grade year. I was 9 years old. There were several of us in my first lesson. We learned how to wet the reed and place it properly on the mouthpiece, then we learned how to place the mouthpiece on the neck of the saxophone.
And, in the last part of that lesson, we learned how to do a proper embouchure, that is how to hold the mouthpiece properly in our mouth, and blow in order to make sound.
In that first lesson, we didn’t learn how to put the neck of the saxophone on the body. We all went home, and practiced what we learned, blowing a high pitched squeak with just the mouthpiece on the neck, and, I’m sure, annoying our parents.
Finally, in our second lesson, we placed the neck on the body of the saxophone and we learned our first notes: G, A, B, and C. We were ready to rock “Mary Had a Little Lamb.”
As I was learning, I had a music instructor guiding me at every step. But, sometimes, when we’re learning something new, we don’t have access to an expert or a guide.
With spirituality especially, it can be difficult to grow closer to God if we’re in the dark, going it alone.
(2) Sin
Today we witness Jesus moving into Galilee of the Gentiles. Though the people of Galilee worshipped at the Temple in Jerusalem along with the Judeans, scripture uses this region symbolically—Galilee is a symbol of the wider Mediterranean, the pagan world around the Holy Land.
It represents the pagan Romans who are unaware that there is a true Creator God. They are unaware of how this God has acted in history to free the Israelites from Pharaoh, and how he gave them his law so that they might know him and grow closer to him.
Because Galilee, in this case, represents the pagan world, Matthew is able to describe it in this way:
It’s,
“The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, toward the sea, across the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles,” and the those who live there are, “… the people who (sit) in darkness … who (sit) in the region and shadow of death.”
They are, in other words, without hope. Paul, in his letters, describes them as a people who are enslaved to death.
Sometimes, this describes us too. When we are without hope, we’re sitting in darkness. We too are enslaved with shackles around our wrists, not able to break free from our misery.
(3) What happens?
Being in the dark is not a good thing. And what happens in the dark can be awful. In the first part of Romans, Paul describes this wretched state:
“… they learned to think in useless ways, and their unwise heart grew dark. They declared themselves to be wise, but in fact they became foolish. They swapped the glory of the immortal God for the likeness of the image of mortal humans – and of birds, animals and reptiles. … they dishonored their bodies among themselves. They swapped God’s truth for a lie, and worshipped and served the creature rather than the creator … They were filled with all kinds of injustice, wickedness, greed and evil; they were full of envy, murder, enmity, deceit and cunning. They became gossips, slanderers, God-haters, arrogant, self-important, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, unwise, unfaithful, unfeeling, uncaring …”
You see, without light, we’re simply stumbling around. The light serves as a guide, an illumination that shows us the path we should walk. And, without it, we fall into the ditches and get hurt.
(4) Christ forges a new path
But, what if we didn’t have to stumble in the dark? What if someone handed us a flashlight? Or, even better, what if someone had installed lights alongside the road?
Today, we hear about Christ, the true light, entering into the darkness.
“…the people who sat in darkness have seen a great light, and for those who sat in the region and shadow of death light has dawned.”
But, as any infomercial would say, “Wait, there’s more!”
The light of Christ doesn’t just show us the way, it also frees us so that we can get up and use the light to walk the path of Christ.
(5) Longing satisfied
Last weekend’s feast, Theophany, whose leave-taking we’re celebrating today, is the first manifestation of that light.
As Fr. Vincent so poignantly stated last week: as Christ was baptized, we saw the Son dunked, the Father speak, and the Spirit descend in the form of a dove.
This was a new way of thinking about God.
It shows us that God isn’t just an invisible spirit up in the sky. God is three persons: a Father who is the creator of all things, both visible and invisible; a Son who becomes enfleshed, lived among us, and who also destroyed death by death; and, finally, a Son who is poured out upon us so that God is always with us—no matter what.
As the Apolytikion stated today, this is how God, “… appeared and illumined the world.”
No longer do we sit in darkness trying to do it on our own. No longer are we enslaved to our passions. No longer are we enslaved to death.
The light of Christ shows us that we aren’t alone. Theophany also shows us Emmanuel, God with us.
This is why Theophany is often called the Festival of Lights.
(6) Visible evidence
If we were to keep reading past where today’s reading ends, we’d hear:
“From that time Jesus began to make his proclamation and to say, ‘Change your hearts; for the Kingdom of the heavens has drawn near.'”
Then Matthew continues to by describing the call of Andrew and Peter–two fisherman who did see the light, have a change of heart, and begin to follow Christ.
But they weren’t the only ones to see the Light.
If we look at the list of saints we’re celebrating today, we see that one of them is St. Sava, the first archbishop of Serbia. He spent a lot of time on Mt. Athos and, when he returned to Serbia, he educated the people on Christian morality, love, and charity thus strengthening their Orthodoxy.
Today, we also celebrate St. Nina who converted the Georgians to Christianity. When she healed a woman’s sick child, which no one else could heal, word reached the queen, who was also sick. St. Nina was also able to help the queen, which eventually prompted the king and all the people to embrace the light of Christ.
You see, the Synaxarion, that is the lives of the saints, is full of stories about how the saints were light flashlights, bringing the light of Christ to those who sit in darkness. The saints, again and again, brought hope, mercy, peace, and God’s love. And when they did so, they brought freedom in Christ.
(7) What shall I do?
Today, we’re being offered this same light, so we can see who God truly is: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We can see how Christ has destroyed death, setting is free. We can see how God’s Spirit is poured out upon us, healing us and comforting us.
And because have the light, we’re also being offered the freedom that the light provides. We see the path that was taken by Peter and Andrew. We see the path that was taken by St. Savas and St. Nina, and we seek to walk this some path … no stumbling … but walking with a new confidence that only Christ can provide.
And, now that we’ve seen the light, our future is bright, indeed!
Amen.