Homily For The First Sunday After Epiphany
St. Paul begins his Epistle by making mention of his directive that the Romans make themselves a living sacrifice. Every one of those formerly pagan Romans should see themselves as good as dead and live as though it was true. To be a true and holy and living sacrifice as St. Paul directs the Philippians, is a reasonable response, the true offer of sacrifice for what Christ has done for us. Indeed, Christ was not conformed to this world; he turned away from worldly prestige, he stifled the devil in his appeal to world power, prestige and pleasure. We are called, by God’s grace, St. Paul reminds us, to give ourselves up to be living sacrifices. We should not be conformed, pressed into this world’s expectation, rather we are to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. Think of the undefiled, perfect mind of Christ. He preferred the company of those who were faithful in the Temple to the merchants and merry makers of broader Jerusalem.
He who needed no renewal of his mind, delighted in conversing with those who were willing to talk with him about the deep things of God. As he grew in age, he grew in stature and wisdom with both God and man as St. Luke tells us. He had true discernment to offer that we sorely need. He could, of his own divinity, discern, prove what is the will of God, because he sought to do it by his very nature. The same Lord, through the words of St. Paul beckons us to lean into our discipleship, to drink fully of God’s will, God’s truth through the Scriptures so we might, in some fashion, share with the Son of God in proving what is the “good ..acceptable…true will of God”. As we learn God’s true will, we as sinful humans and as needy creatures will pray for grace to fulfil God’s will. Jesus, the true Son, performed God’s will perfectly. It was to him as simple and natural to him as breathing. We need help; we need the intervention of God. Sobriety, seeing things as they truly are is required of everyone to see the full measure of what God has called us to and what is lacking in us.
We need to see the perfection of the Son and the sin and weakness of the Christian who looks to this Christ for hope and restoration. St. Paul says we are many but one. One in the body of Christ who through the Gospel for today shows us what it means to be a living sacrifice.
Our Gospel for today presents, reveals unto us the only narrative of Christ between the glories of his Birth and his emergence into public ministry some 30 years later. Our reading tells us in the words of St. Luke the story of Jesus in the Temple - his Father’s house - on the eve of his becoming a man. He reveals through his questions and engagement all the proofs - the manifestation as it were - of Him being the Incarnate Son. He prefers to be in His Father’s House. He longs to be among the best and brightest of the Jewish scholars but when his parents come for him, he instead embraces the motif of St. Paul’s living sacrifice by submitting to Joseph and Mary, a carpenter and young woman, respectively.
He submits to them by returning to the backwater of Galilee rather than the pomp, circumstance and expectation of the Holy City. He was among his people, close to his intellectual peers, the greatest of the teachers. He held his own and astonished them with his insight, his answers. Yet, we read that although he must be about his Father’s business, he submitted himself to Mary and Joseph. His submission wasn’t useless, because we read afterward that he grew in stature and wisdom with both God and man. He grew physically and he grew morally, intellectually, indeed spiritually. Through the common experiences of life: living in the dust of Nazareth and working the woodcraft of the carpenter’s shop, Jesus grew and flourished. This was, truly, the foundation of the greater works that would come. Simple work, under the simple direction of Joseph, in the lowly Nazareth of Galilee. God takes the lowest of things and exalts them to greatness. We shouldn’t find this surprising because it is often our story. God takes the brokenness of our sinful decisions and converts them to our glory through Christ.
He, the perfect, for the sinner; this is our hope today and any day. Christ is the righteousness for broken mankind.
Epiphany is a season of revelation, of greater clarity. Christ has come to bring life, clearer understanding of our natural state and the heights that his perfect righteousness has raised us to. Our response is not to try to do for ourselves that which he could only do for us - perfect death, perfection offered in his flesh and in his life and death. Our job is to respond in faith by offering ourselves as living sacrifices. We are to be an ongoing eternal offering to God, giving our praise, thanksgiving and obedience to God through Jesus Christ, as living sacrifices just as St. Paul tells the Romans to do in our epistle.
The question remains for us this first Sunday in Epiphany, this second Sunday in the Christian Year, what does it mean to be living sacrifices as St. Paul expounds? How does this connect with Christ in the Temple? Let’s think about that for a moment. Christ gave himself, moment by moment, from the beginning to the end. Jesus shows us one aspect of simple obedience today. Mary and Joseph didn't understand the full meaning of Jesus' words, that he must be about His Father’s business. Jesus was fulfilling God’s promise to return to his Temple so that his presence might dwell among his people. But Jesus understood, and still he submitted himself as a living sacrifice, going back to Nazareth where the true Son of God would be obscured among the common work in Joseph’s carpenter shop and the readings and teachings of his local synagogue. This is the reality to which Jesus was willing to submit, his proof of the reality of being a living sacrifice. The contrast between the Temple and the carpenter shop should remind us of the reality of Christ living his sacrifice, his humility before he gave himself to be our sacrifice.
How he submitted himself to God in Nazareth as preparation for his obedience at Gethsemane - where Jesus said to God the Father on the eve of his Crucifixion - Father, not my will but thine be done.
So this morning, ask yourself what common obedience is Christ calling you to. How can you lay down your life, set aside the primacy of your own interests today? What is the next step he may have called you to follow? It is probably not martyrdom at this time but it is most assuredly to be a living sacrifice. Let us consider offering up every small thing we do through prayer and thanksgiving to Christ. Also, let us be ready to tell the world around us that God receives sinners because of His love for us in Christ. For Christ came into the world to save sinners and he calls us to deny ourselves and be living sacrifices unto him. Amen.