on Mark 1:1-8

According to Mark, this is the beginning of the Gospel

Mark tells us that the gospel begins with baptism, and with the baptism of Jesus Christ. Matthew and Luke, however, begin their gospels with an infancy narrative, which is a good thing for us, or else we might not have had Christmas this past week. But Mark begins with the baptism, which we will celebrate this coming week with the Feast of Theophany.

It’s striking to me that we have both of these moments put forth as beginnings. It’s not like Matthew or Luke were writing prequels.

(That’s a different book, called the Protoevangelium of James, which really is like a prequel to the Gospels. It tells the story of what happened before the Gospels).

But Matthew and Luke on the one hand and Mark on the other are writing Gospels and they see fit to begin their Gospels in different places. With nativity on the one hand and with baptism on the other.

This difference is mirrored by some liturgical history. The early Church already sees a variety of rituals and calendars from one particular Church to another. In the fourth century, and possibly before, the Church in Constantinople, where our Byzantine tradition began, as well as the Church in Antioch and in Alexandria, did not celebrate two Feasts as we do today – the one of the Nativity and then also the one of the Baptism. Rather, they celebrated one great feast of Theophany on January 6th. And this feast was already a celebration of Jesus’s baptism but it was at that time also a celebration of his Nativity. So we had Christmas and Theophany at the same time in those days. Our emphasis on January 6th however was always more so on the baptism, just like the beginning of Mark.

The Church in Jerusalem also celebrated on January 6^th. However, they emphasized the birth of Jesus Christ on this date. This was, as I say, a time of variety in church calendars. One Church might emphasize one thing while another Church emphasizes something else. This is also the way the Church is today. The Church has not changed in this respect, despite the notion of some that we should be homogeneous and monolithic, we are not and we never have been.

Meanwhile, the Church in Rome had associated the birth of Christ with December 25th, by a means which I described recently. And so, in the West, they were celebrating the Nativity of Jesus Christ on December 25^th, not January 6^th.

Later, in the fifth century, the Church in Jerusalem decided they quite liked the Roman idea and gave it a try. But it didn’t quite take at first. Only in the sixth century, did the idea of Christmas on December 25th take hold in Constantinople and all the Eastern Churches. But we weren’t going to give up our January 6th celebration and so now we have both and we emphasize the Nativity on December 25th, as the Roman Church did from very nearly the beginning, and we emphasize the baptism of Christ on January 6th, as we did from very nearly the beginning.

But do you see the parallel with the gospels?

Matthew and Luke begin their gospels with the Nativity of Jesus Christ. The western Church in the first centuries likewise always emphasized the nativity.

Mark, on the other hand, does not even mention the nativity but skips right on to the baptism of Christ. And the Eastern Churches in the first centuries likewise emphasized the baptism of Christ.

What both the Church in the East and the Church in the West were doing was proclaiming the Gospel. Just as Matthew and Luke were proclaiming the gospel in their own way. And Mark was proclaiming the Gospel in his own way. So also the Eastern and Western churches were each proclaiming the gospel in their own ways.

Remember, Mark says that the baptism is the beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and so it is. He knows what he’s talking about. He is an inspired evangelist no less so than Matthew and Luke. But that doesn’t mean that the Nativity isn’t also the beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. There is more than one way to say the same thing.

Both the Feast of the Nativity and the Feast of the Baptism are Theophanies. Great feasts were not originally intended primarily as historical commemorations or anniversaries. Rather, the primary purpose was (and really still is) theological. We are celebrating theological realities. And the theological reality we celebrate with this double Feast – this duplicated Feast of nativity and baptism – is theophany.

Theophany is the appearance of God among us. A theophany is a personal encounter with God. An experience of God making himself present in an observable way even to our senses.

Both the Nativity of Jesus I his baptism, are key moments of this Theophany.

He was born of a virgin and his birth was heralded by angels and by a star, revealing his divinity to the Shepherds and to the Magi. Joseph and Mary experienced God in the cave in Bethlehem.

In the Jordan, Christ is revealed as the Divine Son of God the Father by the power of the Holy Spirit, who descends upon him in the form of a dove. And worship of the Trinity is revealed. John the Forerunner experiences God in the water of the Jordan

Both the nativity and the baptism of Jesus Christ express his theophany to us. Both are the gospel.

There’s more than one way to preach the gospel. Remember that at Pentecost the apostles began to speak in many tongues. The Lord did not reverse what happened at the Tower of Babel and make it so that once again all humans speak one language. Rather, he made it so that the gospel would be preached in all languages. Rather than making the church or the world homogeneous and monolithic, he made the gospel polyglottal.

I love that there are four Gospels. Not one. I love that there are four witnesses. I even love the points where they seem to contradict each other, because it underlines so clearly the honesty of their testimony. No two eyewitnesses ever report every detail exactly the same. If they do, you can bet they’re over-rehearsed lies, rather than genuine testimony.

In the second century, Tatian didn’t care for this and so he compiled his Diatessaron, which is a harmonization of the four gospel narratives into one. Where there are differences of detail, he chooses one. But thank God the Church did not accept his Diatessaron as our gospel book. Rather, we keep the four distinct Gospels with all their distinctiveness.

And this is an image of the Church itself. The Church is made up of many particular Churches each with their own tradition: canonical, spiritual, liturgical, theological. And this variety is a good thing. It’s inspired by the Holy Spirit. Just like the many tongues given to the apostles on Pentecost. And like the four distinct gospels. And like the two theophanies of nativity & baptism.

Christ is born!

It is fitting that we celebrate holy Chrismation during this Christmas season. You can even hear that the words are related: Christmas & Chrismation & Christ. The word Christ means “Anointed One” and to be chrismated is to be anointed with the holy chrism – continuing our initiation into Christ, which is completed by receiving his holy body and blood. We welcome Julian & William & Dominic into Christ in this way by the seal of the gift of the Holy Spirit and we celebrate with them even as we continue to celebrate Christmas.

And yet, as the gospel we just heard makes plain, it seems the joy of our feasting is always tinged with a bit of sorrow. There’s always a bit of bitter mixed in the with the sweet – like a clove of garlic dipped in honey at our holy supper on Christmas Eve – or like the chrin we make for our baskets on Pascha – horseradish with beets with a bit of sugar. When St. Nicholas visits in some cultures he always leaves both goodies and a switch – because no child can be reduced to either naughty or nice – every child is good and yet also inclined to some evil. I think we can relate to these symbols, which express the paradox of our condition.

God does not force us to stop hurting each other or ourselves, but out of the evil we bring into the world by our sin, he brings a greater good – like actually a greater good. Our attempts to do harm not only fail, they fail spectacularly. There is often harm caused in the immediate, but never in the ultimate.

For example, the greatest evil anyone ever tried to do, I believe, was kill Jesus. Herod tried to kill him, as we heard today, and failed. Later, others would succeed. But out of that murder, death itself is defeated – the cross becomes the tree of life. God’s good will is always done in the end.

It’s pointless to keep sinning – which really is trying to be what we are not and to do what we are not made to do. So let’s knock it off, shall we? And submit ourselves to the good Lord. “That this whole day be perfect, holy, peaceful, and without sin, let us beseech the Lord.”

As we pray at the Lamp-lighting Psalms of Vespers, “the wicked fall into the traps they have set.” Our sinful designs cannot succeed against the designs of God. The very effort we use in sinning, God turns toward some good. “If the Lord does not build the house, in vain do its builders labor.” Allowing our vain and pointless efforts to unmake the goodness he has created for us, he uses these efforts instead and even against our vain, sinful, and corrupted wills, to build his kingdom. Though we suffer and cause others to suffer, through our suffering, he brings healing. Though we die, in Christ we live forever.

And so, while we yet feast and celebrate, we remember that the struggle is not done. The light of Christ is shining – but he is shining in the darkness – like the star shining over Bethlehem in the night.

Today we hear of sorrow coming quickly on the heels of joy. Joy came to the holy family by the birth of their new baby, who is our Lord and God and Savior, Jesus Christ. But Herod does not share their joy. He does not rejoice at the news that the true king of Israel is born. And so, vainly, he tries to do him in – by ordering the indiscriminate massacre of the babies in those environs. These are holy innocents whom we will commemorate on Wednesday. This tragedy is a sign – pointing back to Moses, through whom God delivered Israel, and forward to our deliverance from sin and death in Christ.

Of course Herod’s efforts are vain. Of course he fails. Sin is always vain. Sin always fails. When it seems that sin holds sway, be patient. It will fail. In this case, our Father did not mean for his Son to die in this way or at this time and so an angel visits Joseph in a dream to warn him to escape into Egypt. Another Joseph once narrowly escaped murder by being forced into Egypt – Joseph, the son of Jacob. These things are all connected – both to what has gone before and to what is yet to come.

Our Lord’s incarnation, his conception, his birth, his baptism, his ministry all point toward his ultimate sacrifice, death, and resurrection for our salvation. The sacrifice of the holy innocents in the gospel today points to this – to the kind of death he would die. He is hunted and despised by some of his own people from the moment of his birth. Already the prophetic gifts of the Magi pointed to this also – Gold was for the King, frankincense for the Priest. Myrrh, however, was used to anoint the dead and so signifies that this little child was not only the priest but also the sacrifice.

The icon of our Lady of Perpetual Help, which we have over here, and which venerate in our annual pilgrimage to Uniontown, beautifully illustrates the infant Christ’s premonition of his passion as angels display to him the cross and the instruments of his torture and death. He clutches his mother’s hand for comfort.

Even the date of Christmas, in a labyrinthine way, is connected to the passion of Christ. There was a common belief in the early Church that Jesus was conceived and died on the same date – which is one reason we make such a big deal now when the Annuciation falls on Good Friday. The date of Jesus’ death, about which the gospels give much more information than his birth, was worked out by some to be March 25^th, therefore this was reckoned to be also the date of his conception, therefore his nativity was reckoned nine months later: December 25^th – this is one of the theories anyway, that the date for this festival of Christ’s birth is actually derived from the date of his death. The connection between his birth and death was keenly understood. Christ’s conception and his birth come with the promise of our salvation through his death and resurrection.

And so we reflect on this, even as we continue to celebrate his birth. He was not born into a world without pain and he did not choose to simply erase our pain, but to enter into it himself, to join us in it, even to use it as a means of sanctification.

I know many families in our parish are suffering this Christmas – we have been afflicted by several deaths and hospitalizations this week – and so we can relate to this experience of the bitter mixed in with the sweet. We can join the Christ Child and his holy family in their hardships.

St. John Chrysostom writes about today’s gospel, “Even as He came in swaddling clothes we see a tyrant raging, a flight ensuing and a departure beyond the border. For it was because of no crime that his family was exiled into the land of Egypt. So do not be troubled if you are suffering countless dangers. Do not expect to be celebrated or crowned promptly for your troubles. Instead, you may keep in mind the long-suffering example of the mother of the Child, bearing all things nobly, knowing that such a fugitive life is consistent with the ordering of spiritual things. You are sharing the kind of labor Mary herself shared. So did the Magi. They both were willing to retire secretly in the humiliating role of fugitive.”

In Christ, God is now inside our troubles and our pain and our sacrifice. God is with us, understand all you nations, and submit yourselves for God is with us.