His Eminence Metropolitan SABA Archbishop of New York and Metropolitan of All North America, His Grace Bishop Alexander

Pastor: Fr John Vazquez| fatherjohnvazquez@gmail.com | stgeorgealbany.org | 1 St George's Pl Albany, NY

Office Hours: Mon/Fri 10am-5pm | Confessions: After weekly services (Wed, Fri, Sat, Sun) or by appointment

Parish Council Leadership: Chair—Michella Rizk, Treasurer—Ranya Palmer, Secretary—Daniel Palmer, Vice Chair—Linda Grady

 

 

Sunday Before Nativity—Genealogy—Mt 1.1-25

12.22.24

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

I have a good friend who I met in seminary—His name is Fr Silouan—a good man, a good priest 

And during seminary I got to know him and his family 

He was one year ahead of me and in his last year something happened.

His daughter had not been feeling well. She was 10 years old. A sweet girl—Sophia is her name. 

So Sophia wasn’t feeling well for a while so her parents took her to the doctor. They initially told them she had some kind of virus but it persisted and eventually they found out that Sophia had cancer. 

She went in for treatment and things were looking not so good. She was in the hospital for a long time. Her parents were with her non-stop taking turns. One watching the kids at home the other in the hospital with Sophia. 

Finally things began to improve and Sophia was able to come home…and we all rejoiced at this. It was August. 

In September Sophia had to go back to the hospital….things quickly became worse and she died a few days later. 

Fr Silouan was crushed…it was very difficult for him, his wife, his family and the whole community. 

Death is always difficult no matter who it is. All of us have had the experience of a loved one dying and it hurts…and it is not ok…it is not how things should be 

But we heard good news this morning…

Now you might be saying—Fr John, all I heard was a lot of long names that I would never name my child and I zoned out after about the fifth one. 

But I am telling you that in this gospel we are told GOOD NEWS

We are told this morning that everything is going to be alright

We are told that God has done something about the situation of death 

We are told how a Savior is born

We are told how the Savior—Jesus, because that is what Jesus means, Savior—has come to be on earth 

This is truly a marvelous mystery 

We are told how Christ is born on earth 

We are told how the Uncreated took on a body.

AND we are told how we also can have Christ born in us….

This is truly a great mystery—how can Christ be born on earth? 

How does the creator enter into His creation?

There is a secret to how this happens and we are told this secret this morning.

The secret is Faith—Christ is born on earth through faith 

In other words—human beings play a role in the salvation of the world

Isn’t that amazing. That we have a role in God’s plan? 

Again you might be saying—Fr John—where does faith come into this list of names?

One of the amazing things about the Bible is that a single word brings with it a whole story 

First we hear about Abraham and we know that Abraham was accounted righteous—that he was justified in God’s eyes through His faith.

Abraham was an old man…he had no heir…his wife was old…past child bearing age and God told Abraham “through Sarah you will have a son” 

So right away when Matthew mentions Abraham we are given a clue that the birth of Christ has to do with Faith 

Matthew goes through the ancestors of Christ and there are so many wonderful stories of faith wrapped up in these names that we hear this morning 

I could tell you about Ruth and her faithfulness as a gentile to her mother-in-law

I could tell you about David and his faith that was so strong that he could stand in front of a giant so terrible that the entire army of Israel cowered before Him…and not only stand in front of this giant but slay him with no armor, sword or shield

I could tell you about the faith of Hezekiah who would not surrender to Sennacherib of Assyria and his 185000 soldiers because he knew that God would deliver Him 

And there are more

Faith is so powerful because it makes God present to us

We are also told about the faith of Mary

We are told about the faith of Joseph who was in doubt about whether or not the vision given him by the angel of God was true

And so in hearing this gospel this morning and having these stories brought to our minds we are invited to have have faith so that Christ can be born on earth. So that he can be present to us. 

What earth?

The earth of our bodies

We are made from the dust of the earth (Gen 2.7) 

And in order for God to be born on this earth….IN this earth we must have faith 

St John of Damascus tells us that faith is two-fold: the first part depends on our will and the second on God’s grace. 

In other words, first, we hear the good news—the good word—and then choose to believe it 

Then second—we put an unwavering trust in the things promised to us by God.

So we hear and believe and then we trust God and His promises. 

I hear the good news that God has defeated death in His Son and I am convinced that this is truly good news. Jesus has come to save me from sin and death through his own death on the cross. 

THAT is good news if I ever heard any

But the second part—trust in the things promised to us by God—is relational and this is the hard part of faith and where the rubber meets the road so to say. 

I am not going to trust someone that I have no relationship with. 

In order to trust that God will follow through with his promises I need to have personal experience to go on 

All those who had faith in God that were mentioned today had a relationship with God and knew that he would follow through with His promises

Do we have a good enough relationship with Christ to trust that he will follow through? 

When something happens to us like it happened to my friend Fr Silouan, do we have a good enough relationship with God to trust that He will wipe our tears away, that He will make things right, that He will follow through on His end?

It is up to us whether or not we will be able to stand firm—God wants to help us, He wants to be born in us but He needs our assent. He needs our ok. He will not act against our will

We can give our assent every day. We give our assent to put our trust in God—in our savior —so that we can receive Him and be created anew through Grace. 

How do we do this? 

Well, one of the most important things we can do is to read the holy Scriptures

When Matthew begins his gospel—the book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ—he is explaining how Jesus can be born in us in the story of his entire gospel.

The gospel(s) is Christ in words. 

So if I want to get to know Christ—to have a relationship with Him—this is one place I can go. 

I can read and learn about Him 

I can read and learn about myself 

I can read and have an experience of Christ—a true experience 

And then I take that experience and guard it and hold it dear and nurture it as I would guard a most sacred treasure 

I guard that treasure through turning away from anything that would threaten that relationship

I guard that treasure through fasting and keeping my attention on Christ—this is what fasting is

Then I do things to nourish the relationship like keep the commandments, like pray, like giving alms, like reading the scripture 

And then I find that when I do these things to guard and then to nourish my relationship with Christ that Christ comes to me not only in words but in His very body and I receive Him in the Holy Eucharist. 

This reality is presented to us every divine liturgy—first I receive Christ in words in the holy gospel and then I receive Him more fully in the holy eucharist 

Our Lord and God can be born on earth…can be born in us…this comes about through faith 

Nurture your faith through reading the holy scriptures, first so that you can hear and believe and second so that you can have a relationship with Christ and be transformed into a true dwelling place of God.

Through the prayers of the ancestors of our Lord and our most holy mother, Lord haver mercy on us and save us—Amen!