Sunday Before Theophany—Mark 1.1-8

Kindling the Fire

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit—one God—Amen. Christ is in our midst!

There is a Saint from the 20th Century named St Nicolai Velimirovic. He was born in Serbia and then eventually made his way to America but not before he suffered in the concentration camp of Dachau during World War II. 

St Nicolai doubtless was shown forth as a Saint through enduring this experience with patience. 

After some time St Nicolai made his way to America where he taught at St Tikhon’s Seminary in Pennsylvania. 

St Nicolai points out that each gospel begins differently:

Matthew with our Lord’s beginning according to prophecy 

Luke with our Lord’s beginning in Adam—or as a Man

John with our Lord’s beginning as Divine—In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God (Jn 1.1)

We hear today how Mark begins his gospel—with the our Lord’s public ministry and his baptism 

St Nicolai tells us that there is a fifth beginning as well…and that is in each of us. 

Christ must be born in each of us

As I have mentioned before the feasts of the Nativity and the Theophany used to be a joint feast—celebrated together—and so it is appropriate that we would meditate on how Christ can be born—how He can have his beginning in each of us. 

How does this happen?

We hear about this in the gospel today—that this beginning happens at baptism—at our own baptism 

Near the end of the gospel today St John the Baptist tells us that we will be baptized with the Holy Spirit and Matthew and Luke add—and Fire—He will baptize you the Holy Spirit and fire

At our baptism we are given a flame—not like one of these candles that you can blow out easily—but like an ember of wood hard that has been burning for hours

This kind of ember can not be blown out. In fact if you add air or wind or breath to this ember it will burn hotter and brighter and it will consume that which is around it. 

It is our job then to kindle this ember and make it grow and allow it to penetrate the whole of us burning up that which is not good in us. 

We are told that our Lord is a consuming Fire (Deut 4.24, Heb 12.29)

When we lived in Indiana we heated our home with wood and that took a lot of work and sometimes in the middle of the night I would have to get up and stoke the fire and take this tool called a bellows which forces concentrated air onto the fire 

Each of us has a bellows as well. 

We have the breath of the Holy Spirit 

Now, what do I mean by that? 

Well, when we say our prayers—any prayer—but specifically the Jesus prayer—Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me the sinner 

When we say this prayer with intention and purpose we are kindling that ember that we received at our baptism so that Christ will consume that in us which is not good and sinful 

We have to give this air to the fire so that we can have this flame burning inside us so that we can be this light to the world 

Our baptism then is the beginning point of our salvation—it isn’t our salvation in and of itself though 

Sometimes people say—I have been baptized, I am good to go 

But this isn’t the way we think about it as Orthodox Christians 

Baptism is our beginning in the Life of the Church of our Life with Christ 

It is an entrance into the arena as it were

We are preparing to fight

And if we want to fight and conquer and win we do that in Christ and allowing Him to conquer in us and the role we play is to offer the breath of our prayer to kindle that all-consuming flame 

In the Old Testament—the name of God was not something that just anyone could say, in fact no one was permitted to say this name except the high priest once a year 

But NOW we can have the name of God on our lips all the time…Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God 

This sweetest name has been given to us a great gift that we can use and which will help to walk the path we need to walk 

Because it is Him working in us

It is His victory in us 

It is Him helping us to do good

Anything that is good in us is God because God is good 

The more we join ourselves to Him through kindling that ember through our breath 

The more we will find union with Him and healing for our souls 

The flame will burn up the sins, the passions that at war within us 

Through the prayers of St John the baptizer of our Lord and the evangelist Mark may or Lord strengthen us to kindle the fire within that is God Himself and to remember our baptism. Amen