For all of creation

I admit freely that outside of Pascha, my favorite feast of the year is the blessed Theophany of our Lord God and Savior Jesus Christ. While I have been an Orthodox Christian for seven years now, it seems that Theophany always brings something new and exciting for me. I always look forward to the eventual house blessing, a concept which once would have been so foreign to me as an Evangelical. I knew that something inside me wanted to believe that God’s creation was more than just something for man to use up and abuse, and I knew that God had in fact taken on human flesh (though I was often fuzzy on exactly what implications this had). I remember what great joy I experienced on my first Theophany as a chrismated Orthodox Christian. It all seemed to start to come together for me then. God had not only condescended to take on human flesh for the salvation of mankind, but indoing so had also redeemed the creation from the curse that had come it as a result of the first Adam’s disobedience. In becoming “Adam Again”, Jesus had redeemed all . In his descent into the waters of baptism in the Jordan, he sanctified the waters (amongst other things;better theological explanations are available many places, including here as well as here)
In Fr. Gregory Jensen’s homily for the feast, he mentioned that in his time serving the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese in Northern California, he had ample opportunity to deal with those in the New Age movement. Folks he said who could really appreciate a feast like Theophany. He quipped that they were just Orthodox Christians who didn’t know it yet! Apparently my bemusement at his comment was louder than I thought as the whole parish got a kick out of it and I got mentioned by name! Anyway, I digress here.
One of the other things that this feast has helped me understand and appreciate even more is the hymn to the Theotokos wherein we proclaim: All of creation rejoices in you, O full of Grace. The assembly of angels, and the race of man. O sanctified temple, and spiritual paradise, the glory of virgins, of whom God was incarnate and became a child, our God before the ages. He made thy body into a throne, and thy womb more spacious than the heavens. All of creation rejoices in thee, O full of grace:Glory be to thee . Because the Theotokos had been obedient to God, had answered with her yes to him, all of creation is redeemed. We too have choices to incarnate Christ in us, in our lives and actions. We can and must continue to reach out to all of creation with the hope that is offered in the feast. There’s so much more to say, and I will as I continue to reflect on this wonderful feast, as well as it’s connection to both Nativity and Pascha.

—————-
Now playing: King’s X – Send A Message
via FoxyTunes

~ by rdreusebios1 on January 9, 2008.