After His Baptism by John in the Jordan River, Christ proclaimed, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” We are called to repent, or to return to the beginning, before sin took over our life. We are called by Christ to return to a time when the Light of Christ filled our hearts and our life centered around Christ and His Church.

Transcript:

My brothers and sisters, in the gospel we heard a wonderful news from God. After Christ’s baptism and after John had been put in prison, Jesus went off to a different land and the gospel says to fulfill what the Prophet Isaiah had said. And he talked about the land of Zebulun and Naphtali. And it says here, “The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light. And upon those who sat in the region and the shadow of death, light has dawned.” And then, immediately Jesus says, “Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

Now, I want to share some important things for us to have a more full appreciation of what is being told to us in this morning’s gospel. First, I want to start with the word repent. In the ancient Hebrew tradition, the word repent meant to go back to the beginning, to start over in other words. To start over, my brothers and sisters, before sin took over our lives. To start over in a life, if you were able to remember your baptism, when we came out of the font, a new creation, a new beginning, united to God, we’re called to return to that moment. Not to return to the font, we only have one baptism, but return my brothers and sisters to a life that is absolutely dedicated to God because Christ is the light.

And the words if we listen to them in the Greek to say, go back to the αρχή, to the beginning, we remember the word αρχή is the very beginning of the scriptures. In the gospel, in the beginning, is God, Christ. At the beginning of Genesis, in the beginning, what did God do? He created light. We spend our lives in darkness. The world is a dark place and unfortunately, it is getting darker every day. So, we have just celebrated epiphany, the Feast of Lights, as we say in Greek, Των Φωτών.

And the gospel is reminding us, and the church wants us to remember to live in the light of Christ. But what does light do? It conquers the darkness, it leads us out of the darkness, out of sin, out of a life lost in the wilderness, the light of Christ, my brothers and sisters, especially for us in this new year, can offer us a new perspective to go back to our roots, to live as if the church is the most important thing in our life.

For many of us, and I have this conversation almost every week with at least one person when we talk about church attendance. And the story normally goes like this. “When I was a child, I was in church every Sunday.” And I say, “Well, what happened?” “Well, life happened. I got busy. I got this. I got that. Next thing we missed church one week, we missed church two weeks. We missed church three months. Next thing you know, we can’t remember the last time we were in church.” And as we get older, we forget that this is the center of life. Our church needs to be the center of everything we do.

Now, I’m not talking about the physical center. Obviously, we have to go to work, we have our jobs, we have to go to school. But the church is the life of Christ. And what the gospel has asked us to return, to start over, to return to the beginning, where our life first and foremost asks, what would the church have us do today? When we wake up, the first question, what would the church have us do today. When we go to bed, the last question, where have I strayed from the church today?

Because the church, my brothers and sisters, is not this cathedral as beautiful as it is, as important as it is to come here often, but the church is the body of Christ. You and me, baptized into Christ, into each other, no more do we live life by ourselves. This is the year we refocus the light as a laser beam to destroy and conquer the darkness of the world and to come into the light. And after communion today, although not today, because there’s a special hymn today. Normally, after communion, we sing, we have seen the light. Let the light lead you out of the darkness of life.

And come to be in the church as often as you can this year. Father Theofanis and I and Philip are committed to having more services than any other church in the United States. More opportunities to come and receive holy communion and to come and pray in the presence of God more than any other church in the country. Come and take advantage of that. Come into the light and leave the darkness behind. And I promise you, God will bless your journey into the light. Glory to God for all things.