Homily - Feast Days, DEC 26, 27, 28th 2014

Children getting ready for the Christmas Service

In the name of God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Usually in most churches, the Sunday right after Christmas is a “low key” kind of day.   As you all can see, the Choir and organist have all taken a much needed breather.

And so for today, rather than giving a sermon, I think a HOMILY is more in order.    

You all know what the difference between a sermon and a homily is, right?  A homily is a very short sermon.

And homilies and sermons can be done a number of ways, not just with words.  For example, the children re-enacted the Christmas story on Christmas Eve.  All dressed up, bringing the nativity statues forward to the crèche.  The story was read, with Christmas songs and all.

And one the great things about the Orthodox, the Catholic and the Anglican / Episcopal traditions is that we have feast days & saints days.

Much overlooked are the Lesser Feasts and Fasts , especially the feasts right after Christmas day.

DEC 26^th is the feast of??    Yes, the feast of St. Stephen, Deacon & martyr.  Who was St Stephen?  He was in fact, the first martyr of the early Christian church.

And DEC 27^th is feast of St John the Apostle and evangelist. According to tradition, after Jesus’ death he travelled to Asia Minor and settled in Ephesus and was exiled to the Greek island of Patmos.  It was here he had visions & dreams, which he wrote down. This became the book of Revelation.  It is said that John lived to a very old age, and was the only apostle to have been spared a martyrs death. 

And today, DEC 28^th is the feast of the Holy Innocents.   This  commemorates the slaughter of children as ordered by the ruler Herod around the time of Jesus’ birth.  Now, why would he order such a horrible thing?  Herod lived in constant fear that his throne would be overtaken.  And when it was told by the wise men that a “king of kings” was about to be born, Herod was even more afraid.  To keep his throne from being supplanted, he ordered the slaughter of all male children under the age of two in Bethlehem.   The good news is that this event is not recorded in the secular history of the era.  It makes us wonder, why then, did the writers of the New Testament include such a story?  Hmm.

What are the spiritual lessons and nuggets from these lessons & feasts?    I leave it for you to contemplate & pray on these things…

And I know that so many times, at the end of every year, we see the recap of the year.  But I say, let us look forward.  Go forward and don’t look back.  What wonderful things await?  A new year is almost upon us!

Amen.