Historic Proclamation [Christmass Day]

READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:

• Isaiah 52:6-10

• Hebrews 1:1-12

• St. John 1:1-14

 

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. (Eph 1)
 
Jesus speaks from His newborn lips today, saying:
“But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.”
 
Once again, we hear one of the people’s favorite verses, in verse 12, because once again, we believe that “to receive Christ” is an active act on our part, as O Little Town of Bethlehem commands us singing, “Where meek souls will receive Him still, the dear Lord enters in”.
 
But when have souls ever been meek? As we have already mentioned this Advent season, we have been trying to rewrite history since we started recording it on paper and God’s history is no exception. The sin-filled soul rages at even a hint of God’s presence.
 
So, what I’d like to read to you is the historic proclamation of Christmas, begun in the 4th century and completed by the 6th. This Proclamation was not a “required” reading on Christmas Eve until the 16th century when Pope Gregory XIII decided we needed a new calendar. But that’s another story.
 
Please listen:
The twenty-fifth day of December, being the 20th day after the last New Moon.
In the five thousand one hundred and ninety-ninth year of the creation of the world
 
from the time when God in the beginning created the heavens and the earth;
 
the two thousand nine hundred and fifty-seventh year after the flood;
 
the two thousand and fifteenth year from the birth of Abraham;
 
the one thousand five hundred and tenth year from Moses
and the going forth of the people of Israel from Egypt;
 
the one thousand and thirty-second year from David's being anointed king;
 
in the sixty-fifth week according to the prophecy of Daniel;
 
in the one hundred and ninety-fourth Olympiad;
 
the seven hundred and fifty-second year from the foundation of the city of Rome;
 
the forty second year of the reign of Octavian Augustus;
the whole world being at peace,
in the sixth age of the world,
 
Jesus Christ the eternal God and Son of the eternal Father,
desiring to sanctify the world by His most merciful coming,
being conceived by the Holy Spirit,
and nine months having passed since His conception,
was born in Bethlehem of Judea of the Virgin Mary,
being made flesh.
The Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ according to the flesh.
 
Now, if you were paying close attention, perhaps you got offended by this proclamation, because it claims to be able to number the years from Creation, when no one was counting, or at least writing it down. And people have been offended. 
 
In a deplorable, but not unexpected, happenstance, the old text was thrown off the cliff by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops in 1994. They replaced it with a generic formula of dates using: “when ages beyond number had run their course” and “when century upon century had passed”, instead of exact years.
 
This change to being imprecise was lauded as genius and the height of scholarship. Imagine calling a loss of information genius. But that is our level of science and understanding today, to be less precise instead of more. To be more general and inclusive, instead of being exact and truthful.
 
Though Christians complain about this, they perpetrate more than most. As we have already seen in the “christian” changes to this proclamation. But is also most noticeable on Christmas where candy, lights, and presents take center stage, replacing fasting, prayer, and meditation on God’s mysteries. I mean can you imagine changing Genesis 1 to something like: "And he called the light Day, and the darkness Night; and there was an indeterminate period of time. And some innumerable ages later God said: Let there be a firmament ..."
 
No. As we have been discussing these past Sundays, history is important and God takes it very seriously. Though we may be able to debate dates and counts of years, more important to us and to faith is that we recognize God’s work in relatable, recordable, and recent history.
 
The Gospel according to St. Luke, chapter 2, is our biggest example here, and most recently on our minds because of Christmas. In that Christmas reading, the Lord goes through much trouble to mention striking and provable details of the current time, for those alive in the first century.
 
There we hear of Caesar Augustus, a prominent figure in history even today. We hear this was the time when Cyrenius was first made governor. We hear specific cities, specific peoples, and specific times. There is no way anyone can get those dates wrong.
 
There is no possible way that God will allow us to miss the great Day of the Lord when He said through Isaiah that we shall know His Name and shall know that it is He Who is speaking. “Here I am”, He says (Isa 52:6) in our OT reading. 
 
And He writes “Here I am” on walls and even in the stars. He sets off a beacon for the whole world, and all of history, to announce “Here I am”. St. Mark 4:22 says, “For nothing is hidden except to be made manifest; nor is anything secret except to come to light.”
 
God may know the secret sins of our hearts (Ps 44:21, 90:8), we may deal in secrets beyond number, century after century, but He gives us this promise, “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you …” (Jer 29:13-14).
 
God will be found. Not through any effort of ours, but by the sheer openness of God and His works. He has hidden nothing behind silly, man-made centuries upon centuries or silly man-made numbers in the billions of billions and trillions of trillions. 
 
There is no question. Our faith is historic. Our proclamation and belief about Christmas is historic. Our beliefs are not pulled out of some old, dusty, myth-filled past or even from the brains of greedy, white men. 
 
They are pulled out of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, displayed for the entire world, yes in a manger, but yes upon the cross. And we can be reasonably comfortable that history continues to confirm the veracity of God’s Word, not that we need it to.
 
So we find that “receiving Him” is not as active as we thought. “Receiving Him” is actually very passive, because as the verse goes on to state, it is only by the will of God that any of this happens. For children of God are born not of the flesh or blood of man, but by the Will, the Flesh and Blood of Jesus Christ, true God and true man, born specifically for you.
 
Merry Christmas!