Preparing for Holy Nativity, we ask God, who has done the extraordinary things with the ordinary, what may His purpose, His intention, be for us?
Even so, everything is done with our consent. The whole of the nativity story told over the weeks before the Holy Nativity are filled with the confrontation of God's plan and human consent.
"He calls us to be more of what we are," says Fr. John Brian. With our permission, He forms us into the true being we were created to be.
Romans 9:21 "Does not the potter have the power over his clay..." We consent to be that lump of clay. The best form is already present. It only needs to be brought forward, revealed. It is the best person we can be.
Mary is given an impossible idea - a virgin to give birth. It is a confrontation with an incredible notion: God will bring about the restoration of divinity in all of His creation through the consent of a young woman.
"Nothing is impossible for God," says Archangel Gabriel in the Gospel of Luke. Mary responds as a lump of clay, "Here I am...let it be to me according to your word." (Luke 1:38)
Please pray for Fr. John Brian who continues to encourage us in the continuing development of Christian spirituality.
This sermon uses and refers to scripture readings appointed by the Syrian Malankara calendar and was given on Sunday, November 24, 2013 by Fr. John-Brian Paprock at Holy Transfiguration Orthodox Mission Chapel, Madison, Wisconsin.
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