Sermon
Sunday, December 23, 2007
Santa, Lights and Trees; Enosis,
Kenosis, Theosis
Does
the Orthodox Church have an official position on Santa Claus? Don’t Christmas Trees have a pagan, rather
than a Christian, origin? How about
Christmas itself? Didn’t the Christians
just place Christmas on December 25 just to compete with the pagan holiday of
the winter solstice?
Most
people know what Christmas is. A walk
around my neighborhood the other night reveals the overwhelming majority of
homes with Christmas trees in the front window.
Many have elaborate displays of lights on the house or on the lawn. There is an entire Christmas village in
lights on one lawn down the street. The
malls are treacherous. I made the
mistake of going to one last weekend and it took me more time to get in and
find a place, and get back out on the street than I actually spent in the mall
doing my shopping. I was so glad
Presbytera made the annual trip to the post office to mail our packages home so
I didn’t have to stand in the long line.
Yes, today after church most of us will start cooking the Christmas
dinner and clean the house, wrap a few last presents and start calling
relatives, and come Wednesday, many of us will breathe a collective sigh that
Christmas is over. Presbytera and I were
talking about Christmas the other day, and she asked me, “Do you think people
actually go to therapists for counseling because of the stress of Christmas?” I wouldn’t doubt it.
Santa
Claus is a legend spun off the life of a saint of our church, Saint
Nicholas. He was an old, bearded, stocky
man. He was a Bishop of the Orthodox
Church in the fourth century. I remember
years ago, when I was in Boston and I served as the Deacon to one of the
Bishops of our church—who was old, stocky and had a white beard, we went to the
Cathedral on Christmas and the Metropolitan, in his red velvet vestments,
bright crown and staff stood on the Bishop’s throne. And a kid in the front row blurted out—“Santa
Claus is in church this morning.” Some
very fundamentalist Christians will argue that Santa is the word “SATAN” with
the letters rearranged, and that Santa brings an evil influence to Christmas. I guess if you see Santa as a symbol of
modern consumerism—our kids go and ask him for all the most expensive toys,
make long lists of things they want—I guess you might see him as a less than
positive figure. But if you see Santa
Claus as a benevolent Christian, inspired by a beloved hierarch of our church,
Saint Nicholas, who spent his life giving gifts to those less fortunate, who
traveled extensively but did it in secret without much fanfare, then Santa
Claus becomes a beautiful part of the Christmas story for children. If he is merely the conduit of the gifts,
then he takes away from the meaning of Christmas. If Christmas becomes about getting, rather
than giving, then it’s easy to argue against Santa. If we focus rather on the
giving Santa does, and it inspires us to give, then he adds to the meaning of
Christmas.
Let’s
examine the Christmas tree for a moment.
Some will say that this is also an Un-Christian symbol of pagan tree
worship. I don’t fancy myself as a
Christmas historian, but let me share this image with you. My little boy is too young to understand the
meaning of Christmas. He’ll enjoy the wrapping
paper on his gifts as much as the gifts themselves. On many evenings, I take him for walks around
our neighborhood to look at the Christmas lights. He is enthralled with them. He can’t take his eyes off of them. His eyes become wide, he smiles and
laughs. And next month, when all the
lights are gone, he’ll probably be confused, maybe even sad, and will wonder where
did they all go? The other night, we
stopped to look at some Christmas lights on the street, and I held him in my
arms and I looked at the lights, and he looked at the lights, and then I looked
at him. And his cheeks were glowing, with
the soft glow of the lights. And he
looked like a little angel, my innocent little boy. Perhaps having a Christmas tree and lights is
not so much symbolic as it is therapeutic.
Seeing the tree with it’s lights and decorations can’t help but bring
joy to someone, maybe even take them back to the innocence we each had when we
were children, when we couldn’t wait to put up the tree, and we waited as long
as possible to take it down. Joy and
peace are good things—If a Christmas tree lights up a home with peace and joy,
it’s hard to argue against a Christmas tree.
How
about the date of Christmas? Why at the
end of December? Just to upstage a pagan
holiday? Well, to this point in history,
historians have not been able to make a positive identification of the date of
when the Nativity of Christ occurred. Initially,
in the Orthodox Church, the feast day of Epiphany took even greater precedence
over the Nativity. Most people think of
Epiphany as the Baptism of Christ, but it is so much more—It is the feast of
the manifestation of God as Trinity—Father, Son and Holy Spirit revealed
together for the first time. The feast
of the Nativity was placed 12 days before Epiphany—12 is a symbolic number in
Christianity—12 tribes of Israel in the old Covenant, 12 Apostles in the New,
and so 12 days separate the feasts of the Nativity and Epiphany on the
liturgical calendar. December was
chosen, no so much to fight against the pagan influence as it was for a
symbolic meaning. At the winter
solstice, December 21, the days are the shortest of the year. They remain so for a couple of days, as the
tilt of the earth grinds to a halt and the earth begins to tilt the other
way. Light begins to overtake the
darkness in most of the inhabited places on the earth. And with the feast of the Nativity, the light
of Christ begins to overtake the darkness of sin and hopelessness, with the
presence of the Son of God in the flesh.
Why do Orthodox Churches traditionally face east? Because the sun, which gives life to the
world, rises in the east. Because the
original paradise of God, the garden of Eden, we are told in Genesis, was in
the East. So, there is a symbolic
relation between the sun of the sky and the Son of God. After all, what was the first thing
created? Light. And who commanded it to be created, the Word
of God, who at the Nativity would take on flesh and become one of us. So the Son of God is tied to the sun in the
sky and His Incarnation is tied symbolically to the sun overtaking the
darkness.
Let’s
examine Christmas carols. Some of them
have such rich theology, and yet we drown them out with holiday songs. Every kid knows how to sing Jingle Bells but
how many can sing “O Holy Night”? And
while we sing the first verse of many Christmas carols, I’ve found that the
theology of the carols is often found in the lesser known later verses in each
one. Take the carol of the Three
Kings—We Three Kings of Orient are, bearing gifts we travel afar, field and
fountain, moor and mountain, following yonder star. It is only in later verses that we have an
explanation of the symbolism of each of the gifts—the gold, frankincense and
myrrh, which somehow become less important than the journey and the star. For example the fourth verse explains the
myrrh: “Myrrh is mine, its bitter perfume, breathes of life of gathering
gloom. Sorrowing, sighing, bleeding,
dying, sealed in a stone-cold tomb.”
Which gives way to the final verse:
“Glorious now behold Him arise, king and God and sacrifice, Alleluia,
Alleluia, earth to the heaven replies.
Star of wonder, star of night, star with royal beauty bright, westward
leading, still proceeding, guide us to the perfect Light.” Hence the meaning of the hymn is not just a
fabled journey of three kings made two thousand years ago, but a journey we
still make to this day, a journey that begins at the cave filled with shepherds
and animals and ends at the empty tomb. In
case you didn’t know, the Gold represents royalty, or kingship. The frankincense is for Divinity, and the
myrrh, is for the death and burial of Christ.
So
teach your children about Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, that’s fun and cute,
but don’t forget to teach them about Christ.
When you look at the Icon of Christmas, you will notice two things that
you won’t see in the manger scenes around town—one is a cave. Contrary to popular depictions of the Nativity
occurring in a barn, Orthodox Tradition holds that the Incarnation occurred in
a cave, in a place not built by human hands.
Caves are things we find in nature, clefts in rocks, chambers in the
earth. Perhaps you’ve noticed in the
sermon thus far, I have refrained from using the term the Birth of Christ, instead
using words like the Nativity and the Incarnation. This is another way we confuse our children
and ourselves. Christmas does not mark
the birth of Jesus, but rather the Incarnation or the Word of God in the flesh. It means the Word of God emptying Himself by
leaving the presence of the Father and the Spirit and coming to earth to unite
with humanity by becoming one of us, and entering the earth as one of us, as a
baby. Christmas is the feast where the
Creator becomes part of His creation.
Hence, He comes in a cave, in something that He created. It’s no so much that there was no room at the
inn, but that no human creation can contain the Uncreated God.
And
the second thing you’ll notice about our icons of the Nativity is that the Lord
rests in what looks like a small tomb.
No, He probably laid in a manger, the place where the animals fed. This shows His humble nature. But symbolically in our icons, we see the
tomb in the cave at Christmas, a sign that the purpose of the Incarnation is
clear—the Word of God takes on flesh and becomes one of us, so that He can
later take on our sins through the Cross and the Tomb and save us from
them. In the famous words of St.
Athanasios in his treatise “on the Incarnation,” “God became a man, so man can
become like God.” How is that possible?
Let
me briefly introduce three Greek words to you:
Kenosis, Enosis and Theosis.
Kenosis means emptying. Enosis
means union. And Theosis means
Deification. These are the steps we must
take in order to find salvation.
Kenosis, an emptying of ourselves, of our egos, of our passions, of our
desire to fall prey to temptations.
Enosis, a union with God, a desire, a decision, to follow God. Theosis, the process by which we become Godly
in our lives—prayer, fasting, confession, repentance, worship, Communion,
charity—which ultimately culminate with God admitting us into His Kingdom.
How
did we get these three terms? From
Christ Himself. At the Nativity, we
experience His Kenosis, His descent from the heavens, and His Enosis, His union
with humanity. And at Pascha, we will
experience Theosis, not the Theosis of Christ, for He is God pre-eternal, but
the opportunity for our own Theosis, which comes from belief in the Cross and
empty tomb, and choosing a life where we too take up the cross and follow, even
unto death.
So
you see, Christmas is more than a feast of Santa Claus, Christmas trees and
presents. It marks the turning point in
the history of humanity. It marks the
Enosis of God with His Creation. It
opens the chapter that leads to our salvation.
It is the Kenosis of God, His enosis with man, so that one day we might
enjoy Theosis, union with God.
Christmas
is more than a frivolous feast, it is a meaningful feast. What is wrong with Christmas is when child
believes in Santa Claus but not in God.
When a family spends more time putting up Christmas decorations than
they spend in church during the Christmas Season, when people are too busy to
come to church at all on Christmas Eve, or when they attend many Christmas
parties but forget to fast for Communion at Christmas, when people spend more
money on gifts than they do on their stewardship. A survey I read recently said that the
average family spends $1,200 on Christmas presents. That’s $100 a month spread over the year on
Christmas. The average family pledged
$800 to the church last year. So have
Santa Claus, have gifts, have trees and lights, but don’t forget Christ—He is
the reason for the season. And the
season doesn’t end on Wednesday. In the
Orthodox Church, Christmas and Epiphany are tied together—Christmas is the
Incarnation of the Word of God in the flesh; Epiphany, or Theophany as it is
more properly called, is the manifestation of God to humanity through the
revelation of the Holy Trinity, and the endorsement of God the Father over
“This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.”
For
my one year old son, the lights of the Christmas tree bring him a sense of
wonder. Tearing up wrapping paper will
be his joy. And as he gets older, we’ll
teach him about Santa Claus I’m sure.
But we’ll teach him about Kenosis, Enosis and Theosis. I hope we’ll always walk around the
neighborhood and look at the lights. And
I hope we’ll always worship together in the presence of the Light.
If
trees, lights and Santa Claus help get the message of Christmas across to
children, then these are good things. If
they create a mood which softens the hearts of adults, that’s good too. But no part of the Christmas celebration is
as important as the worship of God that will take place in this church
tomorrow, to hear the hymns of Christmas, to hear the Gospel of Christmas
proclaimed, to have another enosis, union with Christ, through Holy
Communion. Tomorrow the Divine Liturgy
will be celebrated two times in our church, once at 9:30 a.m. and the second
time at 7:30 p.m. Once the sun has set,
it is another day, and so this is allowed at the feast of Christmas. Please plan to come to one of them. Put some time away for Christ tomorrow. After all, He’s the reason we have
Christmas. The service tomorrow morning
will last from 9:30-11:00 a.m. In the
evening, the church will be open at 5:00 p.m. for silent prayer. Many people have come in past years for this
time of silent pray in a darkened church and have found it very powerful. Orthros will begin at 6:00 p.m. and will also
be done by candlelight. Divine Liturgy
will begin at 7:30 p.m. and will be followed by a reception in the
I
will close with these words, from the third verse of the popular Christmas
carol, “O Little Town of Bethlehem,” which set a perfect mood for our worship
tomorrow:
How silently, how silently,
the wondrous gift is given!
So God imparts to human
heart the blessings of His heaven.
No ear may hear His coming,
but in this world of sin,
Where meek souls will
receive Him still, the dear Christ enters in.
Merry Christmas!