St. Paul Antiochian Orthodox Church

Serving Emmaus and the Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania

  • Home
  • Calendar
  • Events & Fundraisers
  • Ministries
    • Altar Boys
    • Antiochian Women of the East
    • Coffee Hour
    • Choir & Chanting
    • Church School
      • 2022-2023 Church School Registration
    • Gifts to Needy
    • Greeters
    • Parish Council
    • Prosphora Bakers
    • Orthodox Christians For Life
    • Readers
    • St. Paul’s Bookstore
    • St. Paul’s Men’s Ministry
    • Teen Soyo
  • What is Orthodox Christianity?
  • Who Are We?
    • Introduction to the Parish
    • Parish History
    • Patriarchate of Antioch
    • Antiochian Archdiocese of North America
    • The Rev. Joseph Landino, Pastor
    • Former Pastors
      • The Very Rev. Archpriest Andrew Stephen Damick (2009-2020)
      • The Very Rev. Archpriest Theodore J. Mikovich (1999-2009)
      • The Very Rev. Archpriest John Kahle, Founding Pastor (1987-1999)
    • The Apostle Paul, Our Patron Saint
  • Directions
  • Parking
  • Contact
  • Visiting?
    • Looking for an Orthodox Church in the Lehigh Valley?
    • The Gospel Story
    • What is the Gospel Message?
    • What Does “Orthodoxy” Mean?
    • For Roman Catholics: Quick Questions & Answers on Orthodoxy
    • For Evangelical Protestants: Quick Questions & Answers on Orthodoxy
  • Church Building Project
    • New Church Property Photos
    • Church Building Committee
    • Church Building Fundraising Committee
  • 2023 Parish Life Conference
  • Lehigh Valley Orthodox Churches
  • About Fr. Joseph Landino
  • Pledge Online
  • Donate to St. Paul’s
  • Social Media
You are here: Home / Archives for Theophany

The Beginning of Baptism

January 17, 2014 By St. Paul Emmaus

theophany

Sunday after Theophany, January 12, 2014
Rev. Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick

A recording of this sermon can be heard via Ancient Faith Radio.

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

Today is the Sunday after the Great Feast of Theophany, and even though the feast is now past, we are still within the afterfeast of Theophany, which is completed on January 14th. The content of this feast is of course the baptism of Jesus Christ in the Jordan at the hand of John the Forerunner, and it is taught by the Church that this baptism was not for the forgiveness of any sins committed by Jesus—God forbid!—but rather to make Christian baptism possible and indeed to begin the sanctification of the whole world.

As we contemplate these themes, I would like to focus in on one of them, and that is that Christ’s baptism inaugurates Christian baptism.

We think of baptism as a quintessentially Christian practice nowadays, but there are other religions that baptize, and first-century Judaism was one of them. Before Jesus Himself was baptized, His cousin John was out in the wilderness baptizing people. Certainly John was not baptizing anyone into the Church with Christian baptism, because it hadn’t been established yet by Christ. So what is John’s baptism about? The baptism of John was a Jewish ritual that was associated with repentance and the remission of sins.

Now, this was not an invention of John’s but was already an established part of Jewish tradition. Ancient Judaism had a number of different kinds of ritual washings for various purposes, and a few of them included full-body immersion as in Christian baptism. The Scriptures tell us in this case that John was baptizing people as part of repentance and forgiveness of sins, doing his job as the “voice crying in the wilderness” prophesied in the fortieth chapter of Isaiah, preparing people for the coming of Jesus. And there is also a traditional Jewish use of full-immersion washing that is required in order to convert to Judaism.

So we see here three elements of Jewish baptism that are familiar to us—repentance, forgiveness and conversion. All three of these aspects to baptism are retained in Christian baptism. We may not think too much about repentance and forgiveness or even conversion when a baby is being baptized, but these things are still operative. Even a newborn infant who has not committed any personal sins still bears the inheritance of the infection of sin from Adam and Eve that needs baptism in order to begin its cure. This aspect is a bit clearer when we baptize an adult, which is always preceded by confession, because adults have indeed committed personal sins.
Yet when Jesus is baptized, He is not merely co-opting the Jewish ritual cleansing for Christian purposes. He is adding something to it. When people are baptized into the Church, they are not only repenting, being forgiven and converting. They are also putting on Christ, as St. Paul says in Galatians 3:27 and as we sing at the baptismal service and on certain feast days: “As many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.”

“Putting on Christ” is not just a metaphor. When someone is baptized, Christ comes to dwell in him and His identity begins to work on the newly-baptized person’s identity. The image of God in that person can begin to grow that person into God’s likeness, as well. That potential is activated. Someone who is baptized begins to become like Christ. The union of the divine and human that is Christ’s by nature can become ours by grace. He is both God and man, and we can become human beings in union with God.

But what is activated by baptism is not absolute and perfect for all time. It has to be cultivated and built upon over time for it to become truly effective. Baptism is not a magic spell that guarantees the recipient a place in the resurrection of the righteous at the end of time. It is rather a preparation for the synergistic working together of God and man that is the spiritual life, which has the potential to lead to everlasting life, but only if worked out, as St. Paul says, “with fear and trembling.” If it is not worked out throughout life, then the result is not everlasting life but rather everlasting dying.

So we can put on Christ, but we can also put off Christ. Even though baptism would never be repeated for someone who throws off its power, and even though he will always have that great grace of baptism, it is only effective for him if he keeps it and nurtures it and helps it to grow by cooperating with it.

And that is part of what Christian baptism retains from Jewish baptism, that characteristic of repentance and the forgiveness of sins. In order for baptism to continue its work in us, we have to continue to repent. It is not a one-time event that permanently seals our eternal destiny. It is the beginning of a journey.

And as we journey with Christ to become more like Christ, we will also see that the sanctification given in baptism begins to work on what is around us, as well. It works on other people, in that the hope and grace within us also draw other people to Christ. When they see that love of God genuinely within us, that humble spirit of kindness and compassion, then they are also attracted to God’s love and may also become filled with God’s grace, which is His real presence within.

But the sanctification which baptism gives us also works on even the world around us on a cosmic scale. Many of the saints saw the natural world begin to work differently around them, no longer bound by the curse that was laid when Adam and Eve sinned. Wild animals became tame. The earth and the elements of water and so forth became more easily fertile and helpful to them rather than as obstacles that have to be overcome. And someday, that harmony of creation that is seen in a small amount around the saints will grow to encompass the whole cosmos at the end of all things.

For when Christ comes to be baptized in the Jordan, He does so to begin His reclamation of all creation, with mankind at the very center of it all. His love and power and glory and healing flow into that water and from there flow into the world. And it can flow through us, as well, if we will open ourselves up to it.

I know that life often can be complicated, confusing, painful and even tragic. What makes it possible for Orthodox Christians not only to endure all this but actually to thrive and to progress in holiness and love is knowing that someday this will all pass away. Someday, the disharmony will again become harmony. Someday, all the tears will be wiped from every eye. Someday, what began there in the Jordan 2,000 years ago will finally be complete and will reach into every place.

In the meantime, we muddle forward. And we do so with hope and love, because God has called us not only to endure the suffering of this world, but actually to participate in His sanctification and transformation of it. He has called us to be blessed with His holiness by means, among other things, of the purification and operation holy water. And He has also called us to bless those around us with that same holy water, to bless the world with it, as well, to bring His power everywhere.

Holy water is one of the many means of blessing that God has given us, but of all those means, it is perhaps the most primal and the most universal. It is sprinkled everywhere without hesitation. There is nothing that cannot be touched by it and changed by it, given the possibility for revealing God’s goodness in everything. Sometimes, that revelation is invisible to us, but sometimes, it also becomes visible.

And the greatest of all the blessings of holy water is that great mystery of holy baptism, which was given to us so many centuries ago and yet remains new as today for all who would come and receive its cleansing power.

To our Lord Jesus Christ therefore be all glory, honor, power and worship, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, now and ever, and unto ages of ages. Amen.

Filed Under: Fr. Andrew's Corner Tagged With: baptism, sermons, Theophany

This is Theophany

January 11, 2013 By St. Paul Emmaus

theophany
Holy Theophany, January 6, 2013
The Rev. Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick

A recording of this sermon is available via Ancient Faith Radio.

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

If Christmas is that moment when the Creator of the universe arrives on the scene to reclaim the territory stolen from Him by Satan, then Theophany is the first all-out assault on the powers of darkness. So why isn’t Theophany a much bigger blip on the radar of Christians today?

In a 2009 survey by the Barna Group, who do research on faith and culture, it was found that 59% of American Christians agreed with the statement “Satan is not a living being but is a symbol of evil.” Most Christians in America do not believe that Satan is a real, personal being. Perhaps even more shockingly, almost the same number (58%) believe that the Holy Spirit is “a symbol of God’s power or presence” but “not a living entity.”

These attitudes may partially explain why Theophany isn’t a big deal to many American Christians. The voice of the Father speaks from the Heavens, the Holy Spirit descends in the form of a dove on the Son of God being baptized. The Holy Trinity is trampling down the influence of Satan and his demons in a public, powerful way. But if you don’t really believe in the Holy Spirit and you don’t really believe in Satan, then, well… so what? We just had Christmas, right? What’s the big deal about Jesus getting baptized?

To understand this remarkable feast, a feast which by liturgical standards is second only to Pascha and outranks Christmas, and to understand why it seems to make so little impact on so many, we have to take a look inside what’s really going on here. We have to ask some big questions about creation and redemption, about what happened to the creation and what it’s being redeemed from and how Theophany accomplishes that.

If you came to Great Vespers last night and listened to the first of the thirteen Old Testament readings, you were brought back to the very beginning of it all, the moment when God created everything. You listened to the first thirteen verses of the book of Genesis, which describe the first three days of creation, including the creation of light and darkness, the beginning of time, the creation and separation of the waters on the earth from the land, and finally the creation of the plants.

Creation’s first moments are elemental and primal, the very beginning of everything we know and experience. And what is present there at that first beginning, the beginning of all beginnings? Earth, water, light and darkness. It is the most basic, most foundational stuff of the physical universe, and it is God Who brings them into being. Later revelation would illuminate mankind that the Holy Trinity’s creation of this world was in and through the Son of God, Who would become incarnate of the Virgin Mary in the fullness of time.

So in the Son of God, we have to see not only the heroic Savior Who comes to rescue mankind but also the sovereign Creator, through Whom and by Whom and for Whom the creation was made. This place is His. He made it. And so when it came time for the Holy Trinity to express the ultimate in divine love for the creation, it is the Son of God Who becomes incarnate—that is, He becomes created while yet remaining uncreated. He takes on createdness into His uncreated Person.

When Adam and Eve sin, the design that the Creator had given to the creation is rejected by our primordial parents, and the creation instead is subjected through them to another design, the design of Satan, communicated initially to Eve by the snake who successfully tempts her and through her, Adam himself. Mankind was designed to be creation’s priest, mediating between the creation and the Creator to keep the creation in harmony with the Creator. But when Adam and Eve subject themselves to Satan’s design rather than God’s, their intimacy with creation also subjects the whole of creation to this new design—and it is not the design of freedom and beauty and creativity and holiness that God gave it, but of the slavery and and ugliness and selfishness and mindless tediousness of Satan.

That is why when the Son of God arrives in creation as part of creation by becoming a man, that moment is nothing less than the arrival of conqueror Who has come to take back what is His own, with all the fierce love and desire that only come when a man defends his homeland and his family from a domineering invader. We are not only His family—His children, His brothers and sisters and friends, but this Earth is also His own land, His own place that He created and saw both beautiful and good from the beginning.

So this brings us to Theophany. With the great feasts of the Annunciation and the Nativity of Christ, we have established the Incarnation—that the Son of God, the second Person of the Trinity, has become truly a man—and in the great feast of Theophany, we see the Incarnate God begin His reclamation of the very universe itself. He comes to be baptized today not to fulfill a Jewish ritual or to draw attention to John the Baptist, but to bring His holiness in contact with the elemental, primal stuff of creation—earth and water, swirling about in that muddy Jordan River—and to imbue them with His own presence, with His own divine energy, His own holiness.

And it is from the blessing of that water that the blessing now goes out. Its primary purpose is to begin the re-creation of mankind, to baptize humanity so that we might also put on Christ. Christ is baptized to begin Christian baptism. He enters into the water to put into it what we now receive when we enter into it. And how does He accomplish this? It is done because of Who He is, but it is also with the voice of the Father and the descent of the Holy Spirit.

This is why this feast is called Theophany, a word meaning “the appearance of God,” because here for the first time in the history of time itself are the Father, Son and Holy Spirit made plain to the creation. Here we find the very fountain of all of our prayers, both for our own souls and bodies and for the blessing of all the material creation. Christ entered into the water so that water could again become what it was destined to be from the beginning—the means of communicating God’s presence to this world.

And so from today this water will go out. This water will go out to baptize the nations. This water will go out to bless your homes. This water will go out to heal the sick. This water will go out to bring blessing and sanctification to every corner of creation, carried there by those who have become the very extension of the Incarnation of the Son of God—you and me, brothers and sisters! It is we who carry this holy water throughout the creation to reclaim it from Satan, to rip it away from bondage to our enemy, to renew it all again in the energy and power and life of the Holy Spirit, by the Word of the Father, the Word of God Who has become flesh and dwelt among us.

This is the meaning of Theophany. If at Christ’s Nativity we are introduced to the great Captain of our holy hosts of people who bear within them the Resurrection, then it is at Theophany that He leads us into that great cosmic battle.

And it is a battle. We cannot afford to take this lightly. We cannot afford to try to tame this and domesticate this and “fit” it somewhere “into” our lives. This is our life. This is our only hope. We fight this battle for our eternal souls. We fight this battle for our wives and husbands and parents and children and brothers and sisters and friends. We fight this battle for the whole of the universe, for the whole cosmic order, to bring everything—not just this one place, this one room—but everything, every little thing, every great thing and everything in between back into harmony with the One Who created us and loved us from the beginning.

This is Theophany. This is the beginning. As many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. You have put on Christ. You know what to do.

To Him therefore be all glory, honor, power and worship, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, now and ever, and unto ages of ages. Amen.

Filed Under: Fr. Andrew's Corner Tagged With: sermons, Theophany

2013 Theophany Outdoor Water Blessing

January 10, 2013 By St. Paul Emmaus

On Jan. 6, 2013, in celebration of the great feast of Theophany (the Baptism of Christ) the faithful of St. Paul Orthodox Church of Emmaus, Pennsylvania, gathered to participate in Christ’s blessing of all creation at Little Lehigh Creek at the Emmaus Wildlands Conservancy.

Filed Under: News & Events, Photos Tagged With: 2013, Theophany

Theophany Sermon of St. Gregory the Wonderworker

January 7, 2013 By St. Paul Emmaus

St. Gregory the Wonderworker ("Thaumaturgus"), ca. 213-270
St. Gregory the Wonderworker (“Thaumaturgus”), ca. 213-270

On the Holy Theophany, or on Christ’s Baptism

O ye who are the friends of Christ, and the friends of the stranger, and the friends of the brethren, receive in kindness my speech to-day, and open your ears like the doors of hearing, and admit within them my discourse, and accept from me this saving proclamation of the baptism of Christ, which took place in the river Jordan, in order that your loving desires may be quickened after the Lord, who has done so much for us in the way of condescension. For even though the festival of the Epiphany of the Saviour is past, the grace of the same yet abides with us through all. Let us therefore enjoy it with insatiable minds; for insatiate desire is a good thing in the case of what pertains to salvation—yea, it is a good thing.

Come therefore, all of us, from Galilee to Judea, and let us go forth with Christ; for blessed is he who journeys in such company on the way of life. Come, and with the feet of thought let us make for the Jordan, and see John the Baptist as he baptizes One who needs no baptism, and yet submits to the rite in order that He may bestow freely upon us the grace of baptism. Come, let us view the image of our regeneration, as it is emblematically presented in these waters.

“Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John, to be baptized of him.” O how vast is the humility of the Lord! O how vast His condescension! The King of the heavens hastened to John, His own forerunner, without setting in motion the camps of His angels, without despatching beforehand the incorporeal powers as His precursors; but presenting Himself in utmost simplicity, in soldier-like form, He comes up to His own subordinate. And He approached him as one of the multitude, and humbled Himself among the captives though He was the Redeemer, and ranged Himself with those under judgment though He was the Judge, and joined Himself with the lost sheep though He was the Good Shepherd who on account of the straying sheep came down from heaven, and yet did not forsake His heavens, and was mingled with the tares though He was that heavenly grain that springs unsown.

And when the Baptist John then saw Him, recognising Him whom before in his mother’s womb he had recognised and worshipped, and discerning clearly that this was He on whose account, in a manner surpassing the natural time, he had leaped in the womb of his mother, in violation of the limits of nature, he drew his right hand within his double cloak, and bowing his head like a servant full of love to his master, addressed Him in these words: I have need to be baptized of Thee, and comest Thou to me? What is this Thou doest, my Lord? Why dost Thou reverse the order of things? Why seekest Thou along with the servants, at the hand of Thy servant, the things that are proper to servants? Why dost Thou desire to receive what Thou requirest not? Why dost Thou burden me, Thy servitor, with Thy mighty condescension? I have need to be baptized of Thee, but Thou hast no need to be baptized of me. The less is blessed by the greater, and the greater is not blessed and sanctified by the less. The light is kindled by the sun, and the sun is not made to shine by the rush-lamp. The clay is wrought by the potter, and the potter is not moulded by the clay. The creature is made anew by the Creator, and the Creator is not restored by the creature. The infirm is healed by the physician, and the physician is not cured by the infirm. The poor man receives contributions from the rich, and the rich borrow not from the poor.

I have need to be baptized of Thee, and comest Thou to me? Can I be ignorant who Thou art, and from what source Thou hast Thy light, and whence Thou art come? Or, because Thou hast been born even as I have been, am I, then, to deny the greatness of Thy divinity? Or, because Thou hast condescended so far to me as to have approached my body, and dost bear me wholly in Thyself in order to effect the salvation of the whole man, am I, on account of that body of Thine which is seen, to overlook that divinity of Thine which is only apprehended? Or, because on behalf of my salvation Thou hast taken to Thyself the offering of my first-fruits, am I to ignore the fact that Thou “coverest Thyself with light as with a garment?” Or, because Thou wearest the flesh that is related to me, and dost show Thyself to men as they are able to see Thee, am I to forget the brightness of Thy glorious divinity? Or, because I see my own form in Thee, am I to reason against Thy divine substance, which is invisible and incomprehensible?

I know Thee, O Lord; I know Thee clearly. I know Thee, since I have been taught by Thee; for no one can recognise Thee, unless He enjoys Thine illumination. I know Thee, O Lord, clearly; for I saw Thee spiritually before I beheld this light. When Thou wert altogether in the incorporeal bosom of the heavenly Father, Thou wert also altogether in the womb of Thy handmaid and mother; and though held in the womb of Elisabeth by nature as in a prison, and bound with the indissoluble bonds of the children unborn, leaped and celebrated Thy birth with anticipative rejoicings.

Shall I then, who gave intimation of Thy sojourn on earth before Thy birth, fail to apprehend Thy coming after Thy birth? Shall I, who in the womb was a teacher of Thy coming, be now a child in understanding in view of perfect knowledge? But I cannot but worship Thee, who art adored by the whole creation; I cannot but proclaim Thee, of whom heaven gave the indication by the star, and for whom earth offered a kind reception by the wise men, while the choirs of angels also praised Thee in joy over Thy condescension to us, and the shepherds who kept watch by night hymned Thee as the Chief Shepherd of the rational sheep. I cannot keep silence while Thou art present, for I am a voice; yea, I am the voice, as it is said, of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord.

I have need to be baptized of Thee, and comest Thou to me? I was born, and thereby removed the barrenness of the mother that bore me; and while still a babe I became the healer of my father’s speechlessness, having received of Thee from my childhood the gift of the miraculous. But Thou, being born of the Virgin Mary, as Thou didst will, and as Thou alone dost know, didst not do away with her virginity; but Thou didst keep it, and didst simply gift her with the name of mother: and neither did her virginity preclude Thy birth, nor did Thy birth injure her virginity. But these two things, so utterly opposite—bearing and virginity—harmonized with one intent; for such a thing abides possible with Thee, the Framer of nature. I am but a man, and am a partaker of the divine grace; but Thou art God, and also man to the same effect: for Thou art by nature man’s friend.

I have need to be baptized of Thee, and comest Thou to me? Thou who wast in the beginning, and wast with God, and wast God; Thou who art the brightness of the Father’s glory; Thou who art the perfect image of the perfect Father; Thou who art the true light that lighteneth every man that cometh into the world; Thou who wast in the world, and didst come where Thou wast; Thou who wast made flesh, and yet wast not changed into the flesh; Thou who didst dwell among us, and didst manifest Thyself to Thy servants in the form of a servant; Thou who didst bridge earth and heaven together by Thy holy name,—comest Thou to me? One so great to such a one as I am? The King to the forerunner? The Lord to the servant? But though Thou wast not ashamed to be born in the lowly measures of humanity, yet I have no ability to pass the measures of nature.

I know how great is the measure of difference between earth and the Creator. I know how great is the distinction between the clay and the potter. I know how vast is the superiority possessed by Thee, who art the Sun of righteousness, over me who am but the torch of Thy grace. Even though Thou art compassed with the pure cloud of the body, I can still recognise Thy lordship. I acknowledge my own servitude, I proclaim Thy glorious greatness, I recognise Thy perfect lordship, I recognise my own perfect insignificance, I am not worthy to unloose the latchets of Thy shoes; and how shall I dare to touch Thy stainless head? How can I stretch out the right hand upon Thee, who didst stretch out the heavens like a curtain, and didst set the earth above the waters? How shall I spread those menial hands of mine upon Thy head? How shall I wash Thee, who art undefiled and sinless? How shall I enlighten the light? What manner of prayer shall I offer up over Thee, who dost receive the prayers even of those who are ignorant of Thee?

When I baptize others, I baptize into Thy name, in order that they may believe on Thee, who comest with glory; but when I baptize Thee, of whom shall I make mention? and into whose name shall I baptize Thee? Into that of the Father? But Thou hast the Father altogether in Thyself, and Thou art altogether in the Father. Or into that of the Son? But beside Thee there is no other Son of God by nature. Or into that of the Holy Spirit? But He is ever together with Thee, as being of one substance, and of one will, and of one judgment, and of one power, and of one honour with Thee; and He receives, along with Thee, the same adoration from all.

Wherefore, O Lord, baptize Thou me, if Thou pleasest; baptize me, the Baptist. Regenerate one whom Thou didst cause to be generated. Extend Thy dread right hand, which Thou hast prepared for Thyself, and crown my head by Thy touch, in order that I may run the course before Thy kingdom, crowned like a forerunner, and diligently announce the good tidings to the sinners, addressing them with this earnest call: “Behold the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world!”

O river Jordan, accompany me in the joyous choir, and leap with me, and stir thy waters rhythmically, as in the movements of the dance; for thy Maker stands by thee in the body. Once of old didst thou see Israel pass through thee, and thou didst divide thy floods, and didst wait in expectation of the passage of the people; but now divide thyself more decidedly, and flow more easily, and embrace the stainless limbs of Him who at that ancient time did convey the Jews through thee. Ye mountains and hills, ye valleys and torrents, ye seas and rivers, bless the Lord, who has come upon the river Jordan; for through these streams He transmits sanctification to all streams.

And Jesus answered and said to him: Suffer it to be so now, for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness. Suffer it to be so now; grant the favour of silence, O Baptist, to the season of my economy. Learn to will whatever is my will. Learn to minister to me in those things on which I am bent, and do not pry curiously into all that I wish to do. Suffer it to be so now: do not yet proclaim my divinity; do not yet herald my kingdom with thy lips, in order that the tyrant may not learn the fact and give up the counsel he has formed with respect to me. Permit the devil to come upon me, and enter the conflict with me as though I were but a common man, and receive thus his mortal wound. Permit me to fulfil the object for which I have come to earth.

It is a mystery that is being gone through this day in the Jordan. My mysteries are for myself and my own. There is a mystery here, not for the fulfilling of my own need, but for the designing of a remedy for those who have been wounded. There is a mystery, which gives in these waters the representation of the heavenly streams of the regeneration of men.

Suffer it to be so now: when thou seest me doing what seemeth to me good among the works of my hands, in a manner befitting divinity, then attune thy praises to the acts accomplished. When thou seest me cleansing the lepers, then proclaim me as the framer of nature. When thou seest me make the lame ready runners, then with quickened pace do thou also prepare thy tongue to praise me. When thou seest me cast out demons, then hail my kingdom with adoration. When thou seest me raise the dead from their graves by my word, then, in concert with those thus raised, glorify me as the Prince of Life. When thou seest me on the Father’s right hand, then acknowledge me to be divine, as the equal of the Father and the Holy Spirit, on the throne, and in eternity, and in honour.

Suffer it to be so now; for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness. I am the Lawgiver, and the Son of the Lawgiver; and it becometh me first to pass through all that is established, and then to set forth everywhere the intimations of my free gift. It becometh me to fulfil the law, and then to bestow grace. It becometh me to adduce the shadow, and then the reality. It becometh me to finish the old covenant, and then to dictate the new, and to write it on the hearts of men, and to subscribe it with my blood, and to seal it with my Spirit. It becometh me to ascend the cross, and to be pierced with its nails, and to suffer after the manner of that nature which is capable of suffering, and to heal sufferings by my suffering, and by the tree to cure the wound that was inflicted upon men by the medium of a tree. It becometh me to descend even into the very depths of the grave, on behalf of the dead who are detained there. It becometh me, by my three days’ dissolution in the flesh, to destroy the power of the ancient enemy, death. It becometh me to kindle the torch of my body for those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death. It becometh me to ascend in the flesh to that place where I am in my divinity. It becometh me to introduce to the Father the Adam reigning in me. It becometh me to accomplish these things, for on account of these things I have taken my position with the works of my hands. It becometh me to be baptized with this baptism for the present, and afterwards to bestow the baptism of the consubstantial Trinity upon all men.

Lend me, therefore, O Baptist, thy right hand for the present economy, even as Mary lent her womb for my birth. Immerse me in the streams of Jordan, even as she who bore me wrapped me in children’s swaddling-clothes. Grant me thy baptism even as the Virgin granted me her milk. Lay hold of this head of mine, which the seraphim revere. With thy right hand lay hold of this head, that is related to thyself in kinship. Lay hold of this head, which nature has made to be touched. Lay hold of this head, which for this very purpose has been formed by myself and my Father. Lay hold of this head of mine, which, if one does lay hold of it in piety, will save him from ever suffering shipwreck. Baptize me, who am destined to baptize those who believe on me with water, and with the Spirit, and with fire: with water, capable of washing away the defilement of sins; with the Spirit, capable of making the earthly spiritual; with fire, naturally fitted to consume the thorns of transgressions.

On hearing these words, the Baptist directed his mind to the object of the salvation, and comprehended the mystery which he had received, and discharged the divine command; for he was at once pious and ready to obey. And stretching forth slowly his right hand, which seemed both to tremble and to rejoice, he baptized the Lord.

Then the Jews who were present, with those in the vicinity and those from a distance, reasoned together, and spake thus with themselves and with each other: Was it, then, without cause that we imagined John to be superior to Jesus? Was it without cause that we considered the former to be greater than the latter? Does not this very baptism attest the Baptist’s pre-eminence? Is not he who baptizeth presented as the superior, and he who is baptized as the inferior?

But while they, in their ignorance of the mystery of the economy, babbled in such wise with each other, He who alone is Lord, and by nature the Father of the Only-begotten, He who alone knoweth perfectly Him whom He alone in passionless fashion begat, to correct the erroneous imaginations of the Jews, opened the gates of the heavens, and sent down the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove, lighting upon the head of Jesus, pointing out thereby the new Noah, yea the maker of Noah, and the good pilot of the nature which is in shipwreck.

And He Himself calls with clear voice out of heaven, and says: “This is my beloved Son,”—the Jesus there, namely, and not the John; the one baptized, and not the one baptizing; He who was begotten of me before all periods of time and not he who was begotten of Zacharias; He who was born of Mary after the flesh, and not he who was brought forth by Elisabeth beyond all expectation; He who was the fruit of the virginity yet preserved intact, and not he who was the shoot from a sterility removed; He who has had His conversation with you, and not he who was brought up in the wilderness.

This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased: my Son, of the same substance with myself, and not of a different; of one substance with me according to what is unseen, and of one substance with you according to what is seen, yet without sin. This is He who along with me made man. This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. This Son of mine and this son of Mary are not two distinct persons; but this is my beloved Son,—this one who is both seen with the eye and apprehended with the mind. This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear Him. If He shall say, I and my Father are one, hear Him. If He shall say, He that hath seen me hath seen the Father, hear Him. If He shall say, He that hath sent me is greater than I, adapt the voice to the economy. If He shall say, Whom do men say that I the Son of man am? answer ye Him thus: Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.

By these words, as they were sent from the Father out of heaven in thunder-form, the race of men was enlightened: they apprehended the difference between the Creator and the creature, between the King and the soldier, between the Worker and the work; and being strengthened in faith, they drew near through the baptism of John to Christ, our true God, who baptizeth with the Spirit and with fire.

To Him be glory, and to the Father, and to the most holy and quickening Spirit, now and ever, and unto the ages of the ages. Amen.

Filed Under: Wisdom Tagged With: Gregory the Wonderworker, Theophany

Theophany 2013 Schedule

December 28, 2012 By St. Paul Emmaus

The Outdoor Water Blessing for Theophany at Little Lehigh Creek in Emmaus
The Outdoor Water Blessing for Theophany at Little Lehigh Creek in Emmaus

Theophany is the feast of the Baptism of Jesus Christ, when He began His public ministry by being baptized by St. John the Forerunner (John the Baptist) in the Jordan River. This act not only introduced Him to the world, but also made Christian baptism possible (by His blessing of the waters) and made plain the three Persons of the Holy Trinity—the Father speaking from the heavens, the Son being baptized and the Holy Spirit descending on the Son in the form of a dove. Theophany means “the appearance of God” and refers to this revelation of the Holy Trinity.

As part of the celebrations of this great feast—which is second in rank only to Pascha (Easter) and thus more important than Christmas!—holy water is blessed for use throughout the year, especially for the blessing of all parishioners’ homes.

Following is the schedule of services for Theophany 2013, which is a little different from other years, since in 2013 the feast falls on a Sunday:

Friday, Jan. 4
8:30am – Royal Hours of Theophany

Saturday, Jan. 5 – Paramon (Eve) of Theophany
10am Divine Liturgy for the Paramon
6pm Great Vespers with Litia and Artoklasia for Theophany

Sunday, Jan. 6 – The Feast of Theophany
8am Festal Matins for Theophany
9am Festal Divine Liturgy for Theophany with the Great Blessing of Water (bring your holy water bottles!)
12:30pm Outdoor Blessing of Water at the Emmaus Wildlands Conservancy (3701 Orchid Pl., Emmaus, PA 18049)

Please note that the eve of Holy Theophany (January 5) is appointed to be kept as a strict fast day—no meat, poultry, fish with backbones, dairy, wine or oil are to be consumed.

To read more about Holy Theophany, go here.

Filed Under: News & Events, Services Tagged With: Theophany

  • « Previous Page
  • 1
  • 2

Give to St. Paul’s Online

PayPal - The safer, easier way to pay online!

St. Paul Antiochian Orthodox Church

Planting the Seeds of Orthodoxy,
Cultivating Christian Community

Telephone


610.965.2298

Address


156 E. Main St.
Emmaus, PA 18049

https://www.replica-watches.co are the perfect combination of classic.

beautiful swiss made best replica watches,

rolex nep

www.rolex-replica.me watches and you will understand it!

replika rolex

best quality discount imitation watches at discount price.
Copyright © 2009-2023 by St. Paul Antiochian Orthodox Church (or designated author(s))

Graphic Design by Sayre Design

Meta

  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.org

Copyright © 2023 · Outreach Pro On Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in