Nativity Sermon
Nativity Sermon¹
Two Births:
Our Lord Jesus, the Son of God and the Son of Man, has two births: one divine and the other human, and each of them is miraculous. In His first birth He was born of the Father without a mother, and He created all days. And in His second birth He was born of a mother without a father, and thus sanctified this day. In His divine birth He was invisible, and in His human birth He was visible, and both births inspired awe. He was born of His Father as the Principle of life, and He was born of His mother as the end of death…
It is not easy to determine which of the two births Isaiah specifically prophesied about, saying: “Who shall declare His generation?” (Is. 53:8). Was he referring to His eternal birth in which He shares in eternity with the Father, or that birth in which He was born at a specific time from a mother whom He Himself created? Or that birth in which He is always existing and always begotten? Who can tell how Light is begotten from Light, while both Lights are one? And how God is begotten from God, while there is no increase in number with God? Or who can speak of that birth where there is no past time nor future time nor present time? How then can anyone declare His generation, when the One meant to be declared is beyond the realm of time?
This is the first birth: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” What Word? He is the Son Himself. And the Father was never without the Son. And although He was never without the Son, yet He begot the Son—begot Him without beginning, for He has no beginning.
—Saint Augustine
Come with me to the other birth, the human birth. Come with me to that birth in which “He emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant.” And see whether we can understand it, or whether we can say anything about it…!
For if we cannot comprehend His human birth, how can we comprehend His divine birth? Who can grasp this wonder of wonders: a Virgin conceives! A Virgin gives birth! A Virgin remains a Virgin after giving birth!! But what the mind cannot understand, faith can perceive. Wherever the mind stops, faith advances.
—Saint Augustine
Through You I will speak about You, O Head of all creation (Rev. 3:14). I will open my mouth, but You are the One who will fill it… But who is mortal man to speak about the Giver of life to all, who left the height of His majesty and humbled Himself?! It is not mine to examine Your majesty, but to proclaim Your grace… Your grace seized You and brought You down to our lowliness. Your grace made You a Child. It confined Your majesty and yet glorified it.
You are wondrous on every side from which we seek You. You are near and far; who can comprehend You?! Searching avails nothing; it cannot reach You. Wherever it tries to extend in order to reach You, it strikes and stops and falls short of Your generation. Faith is the one that reaches there, and love with prayer.
—Saint Ephrem the Syrian
No human could speak of Your eternity, so let me speak of Your coming, O my Teacher who inspires awe. Had You not humbled Yourself to our world, we would not have spoken about You. For who can utter Your place, for You are hidden from all! Grant that I may speak, O my Lord, of Your coming, for Your mercies placed You under the word. I did not gaze into the height where fire trembles before You, but I looked into the depth—here in our land I proclaim You… Therefore I advance and offer the oblation of my words, and I worship the Priest who came to be a Sacrifice on behalf of sinners. I cast my small coin upon the table with discernment, to the Shepherd who descended to be a Lamb in the midst of His flock…
—Saint Jacob of Serugh
How amazing! … that it should be heard that God—who is indescribable, unbounded, and incomprehensible, equal to His Father—came into the womb of the Virgin, was born of a woman, and took for Himself David son of Abraham as a father, and three sinful women as grandmothers (Matt. 1:3, 5, 6).
The Son of God endured being called the Son of David to make you yourself a son of God. He was born with the same body so that you might be born with the same Spirit…
His birth was twofold: fitting for us, and surpassing our birth. For His birth from a woman is a birth presented to us; but His birth not from the will of man nor from the desire of the flesh, but from the Holy Spirit—this is a birth surpassing us, by which He previously manifested the One to be born for us, who intended to grant us the same from the Holy Spirit…
—Saint John Chrysostom
Why did the Lord accept that sinful women be in His genealogy?
Matthew the Evangelist showed Him sharing our nature, so that no one would say He appeared as a phantom or illusion. And for this reason indeed the Evangelist mentioned many names in the genealogy, and also some unions that were unbecoming. He wrote with care and intention: “Judah begot Perez and Zerah by Tamar.” “And David begot Solomon by her who had been the wife of Uriah.” These two women, who were involved in impurity and adultery, he mentioned to reveal that our nature—which sinned and fell, and wandered and stumbled in improper desires—is the very nature Christ came to heal.
Thus the Evangelist exposes here our race and unveils its sufferings, shames, and diseases, for which the Word of God descended in His mercy. And while he could have said, “And David begot Solomon by Bathsheba”—for this was the woman’s name—he wrote clearly of this sinful one: “by her who was the wife of Uriah,” showing that Christ—who by genealogy descended from this race—“took our infirmities and bore our diseases” (Is. 53:3).
So let no one blush with shame at the Incarnation and complete humility… imagining that the sin of sinful ancestors had defiled our Savior!! For in truth, where God is, sin must necessarily be absent. And since it is absent, what could defile or soil? For there is no impurity or blemish of sin.
Therefore those who themselves were eyewitnesses and ministers of the Word preached the genealogy according to the flesh freely, without hiding what appears shameful, and by this taught and trained us at the same time to cast our eyes downward and blush because our early fathers were worthy of contempt, not praise. Let no one rise up and say, “My grandfather was a martyr, and my father held the first position in the affairs of the Church… and my mother dedicated herself to the ascetic life…” Truly it is said to such a one: “Show me, my dear, that you yourself follow the footsteps of your early fathers…”
For this reason the Jews, who lifted their brows in greater arrogance, saying boastfully, “We are the seed of Abraham” (John 8:38–39), John the Baptist cut off this pride beforehand, saying: “Do not think to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’” (Matt. 3:9)… Their early fathers were of no benefit to them, since they themselves did not accept the Gospel. And Paul also addressed them in the same manner, saying: “Know then that those who are of faith, these are the sons of Abraham.” (Gal. 3:7)
—Saint Severus, Patriarch of Antioch
Why did the Evangelist mention sinful women and omit the mention of those known for their virtue? He teaches us not to despise at any time the vice of our ancestors, but to seek only one thing: virtue… Whoever is like this, let not the vice of his ancestors trouble him at all…
Thus he suppressed the arrogance of the Jews who thought they possessed, in the virtue of their ancestors, grounds for excuse, and he showed them that they should not boast in the virtues of others but in their own virtues. And he offered another benefit in showing them that they were all corrupt, and that both they and their ancestors had sinned…
This is what the Church presents… Whether you are a slave or free, this gives you neither higher nor lower place, but the desired goal is the character of our souls.
Christ did not come to flee from our reproaches, but to remove them… And just as those ancestors took adulterous women, so also our Lord and God betrothed to Himself our nature that had committed adultery. The Church, like Tamar, cast away her evil deeds at once and clung to Him. And Ruth resembles us. Her tribe was foreign and extremely poor, yet when Boaz saw her, he did not despise her poverty nor reject the lowliness of her lineage—just as Christ did not reject His Church, though her tribe was foreign and she was poor in good works. And just as Ruth did not leave her home, homeland, and relatives… when she tasted this glory, likewise the Church… which the prophet addressed, saying: “Forget your people and your father’s house, for the Lord has desired your beauty.”
So let no one boast in his ancestors when he considers the ancestors of our Lord… And even in his virtues let no one boast, for by such boasting the Pharisee became inferior to the tax collector… Do not ruin your labors and strive in vain. Do not empty all your effort after having journeyed many miles in it, for your Master knows your virtues—which you have perfected—more than you do. Even if you gave a thirsty person a cup of cold water, He will not turn away from this nor overlook it…
So let us not exalt ourselves, but we ought to call ourselves rejected… Our praises, which God alone knows—and He alone ought to know—are protected in safety. Let us not repeat them lest someone steal them from you, and what befell the Pharisee—when he repeated his praises and the deceitful devil stole them—befall you…
—Saint John Chrysostom
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An article by His Grace Bishop Shenouda, Bishop of Education – Al-Keraza Magazine, First Year, Issue One, January 1965
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