Sermons & Homilies
Last week, we commemorated the ancestors of Christ which helps us to understand the earthly lineage from which Christ came and through which it was prophesied that He would come. Today, they are included along with those others who have found favor in the eyes of the Lord, showing that grace overflows the bounds of the lineage of the Messiah to engulf not only the Jews but the Gentiles also. Soon that grace will flood the earth, and we will hear the angels speak to the shepherds, and say, “I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people (Luke 2.10) and understand that the love of God was and is, not only for Christ’s ancestors or the righteous of the Old Testament, but for all people.
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In the Epistle appointed for this Sunday, we hear St. Paul instructing us in a very important truth concerning the Holy Scriptures: “For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.” Such an understanding of the Scriptures is absolutely foundational to the Christian life: the Divine Scriptures are not merely stories about events that occurred halfway around the world many thousands of years ago, nor are they a collection of abstract and intellectual propositions concerning abstruse systems of theology. No, quite the contrary.
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