Why St. Gregory the theologian wants you to stop worrying about the Christmas turkey

In this inspiring sermon, Sub Deacon Timothy Grace delves into the spiritual significance of Christmas beyond the festivities. Drawing from the teachings of St. Gregory the Theologian, he reminds us of the deep connection between the divine and human. Explore how prayer, the heart, and authentic living play crucial roles in embodying the spirit of Christ's birth.

Transcript

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Let's have a little Christmas quiz. Let's see who remembers the festal greeting for the feast: Christ is born. Glorify him. You got the words right, but in terms of your enthusiasm, that was more like the night before Christmas rather than the nightmare before Christmas. So, let's try it one more time: Christ is born. Glorify him. Excellent.

The title of this homily is "Why St. Gregory the Theologian Wants You to Stop Worrying About the Christmas Turkey." That's the title. St. Gregory is one of our greatest theologians. He is, in fact, only one of three saints to carry that title in our church—theologian. And in his oration on Christmas on the nativity, he exhorts his audience to not celebrate the feast as the pagans do, with decorations, festivities, and fine food, because he has something far greater that he wants his readers to grasp around the nativity of Christ.

This feast is one of our church's most significant—when the second person of the Trinity took flesh for our sakes and became incarnate. In a time when society's observations of Christmas these days are all about good food, festivities, or even if it's something worthwhile like celebrating with friends and family, it's important that we, too, like St. Gregory, are clear on what the significance of the celebration is for us.

So let's consider some thoughts tonight. I want to start with his very words from this oration on the nativity where we see the majesty and the sublime nature of what we are celebrating tonight. And this is what he says: He says it was the word of God himself, the one who is before the ages, the invisible, the ungraspable, the incorporeal, the principle from the principle, the light from the light, the source of life and immortality, the imprint of the archetypal beauty, the immutable seal, the undistorted image, the definition and explanation of the father. He approaches his own image—that is us people—and bears flesh because of my flesh and mingles himself with a rational soul because of my soul, purifying like by like, and in all things he becomes a human being except sin. He was conceived by the virgin who was purified beforehand in both soul and flesh by the spirit. He comes forth God with what he has assumed—one from two opposites, flesh and spirit; the one deifying and the other deified. Oh, the new mixture. Oh, the paradoxical blending. He who is comes into being, and the uncreated is created, and the uncontained is contained through the intervention of the rational soul which mediates between the divinity and the coarseness of flesh. The one who enriches becomes poor. He is made poor in my flesh that I might be enriched through his divinity. The full one empties himself, for he empties himself of his own glory for a short time that I may participate in his fullness.

Here we see summed up in these magnificent words the orthodox understanding of salvation that God became man, that man might become godlike. What's incredible is that in the thinking of the fathers, this is often described as a continuation of the process of creation itself—that without the divine and the human joining together in the one person of Christ, and without our restoration following in his footsteps, creation itself is not complete.

In CS Lewis's novel "Perelandra," an archangel is explaining this very reality to the main character. And this is how he sums it up: He says in the fallen world, he—that is Christ—prepared for himself a body and was united with the dust and made it glorious forever. The dust as in humanity. This is the end and final cause of all creating. And the sin whereby it came is called fortunate, and the world where this was enacted is the center of worlds. Blessed be he.

So we see that the wonder of Christmas for us is not just that Christ was born, and not just that he was born to save us from our sins, but that he was born to grant us entrance into his very divine and blessed life. This is, as it were, the summit of the entire creation process. This is why St. Gregory doesn't want us to get hung up over the Christmas crackers or who's going to bring the plum pudding tomorrow. It's something far deeper.

Now the place where God wants to make this a reality for us is in our very heart, or as the church fathers call it, the deep heart. A main way that we can engage with God then and cooperate in this process of creation that he is undertaking is in prayer. The place of the heart is where the Lord wishes to meet us and remake our nature in his image. We have in our orthodox tradition the great prayer of the heart—the Jesus prayer. Lord Jesus Christ, son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.

The epistle makes reference to the heart in our reading today where St. Paul says, "Because you are sons," that is because we are going to be made gods by grace, becoming by grace what God is by nature or sons through adoption. God has sent the spirit of his son into our hearts crying "Abba Father." He is helping us out in this process.

And you know, certain details in the feast point to this inner prayerfulness. We see often in the icon of the nativity or in certain depictions like the one we have on the tapestry behind me here: frequently the pose of the most holy mother of God—and sometimes of St. Joseph the betrothed as well—is that they are in the traditional pose for the praying of the Jesus prayer, kneeling with their heads bowed and their arms folded over their chests. Moreover, we read of the Holy Virgin in the Gospel of Luke's account of the birth that when the shepherds came to Mary and Joseph to recount what they had heard from the angels, she treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart. In the most holy Theotokos, we see a master of this interior prayer. It's like the church is urging us to devote ourselves to this deep prayer of the heart that we may be healed because we cannot overestimate its power to remake us and to continue to create his image in us.

Consider these two quotations. One is from Father Zacharias from the St. John the Baptist monastery in Essex. He says, "When men lost the vision of God, God came into the world as man. As a result, prayer is the most precious and indispensable means for man's communion with God. Prayer is an ever-new creation since by means of it, man is granted the privilege of becoming a collaborator with God in realizing his personhood."

Or how about this from Metropolitan Kallistos Ware from the introduction to the book "The Art of Prayer": "Into the heart then he descends," that is, the praying person, "into his natural heart first and from there into the deep heart, into that inner closet of the heart which is no longer of the flesh. Here in the depths of the heart, he discovers first the godlike spirit which the Holy Trinity implanted in man at creation. With this spirit, he comes to know the spirit of God who dwells within every Christian from the moment of baptism. The person who would advance along the path of inner prayer must in this way return into himself, finding the kingdom of heaven that is within. So passing across the mysterious frontier between the created and the uncreated, that is fulfilling what we've been created to do."

True prayer that attracts the grace of God into the heart is a great gift to the world. This is a season of gift-giving, is it not? This has a transformative effect, not just on the person who's praying, but on everyone else around. Sister Anastasia, who's an Orthodox nun, in her book "You Are Mine" speaks about her background in witchcraft and new-age religions. She recounts that one day she was invited to an Orthodox monastery and she met an Orthodox monk who would later end up becoming her spiritual father. She said that just being in his presence overcame her so much, just with the beauty of Christ in his prayerful person. She couldn't stop saying to everyone around her, "He's just so beautiful. He is so beautiful." It transformed her heart. She says that he never once spoke to her about her pagan practices. But in her words, she ministered to her heart in Christ, and her reality was undone, and she was made anew. Being prayerful people is a great gift to those around us.

The more we grow in Christ, the more our prayer becomes more mature, the more we become like him. And this means becoming more authentic. In this year, we have commemorated the 1700th anniversary of the Nicene Creed, which affirms Christ was fully God and fully man. Just like he was fully man—that is, truly incarnate—so also we who follow in his footsteps also need to fully embody what he wills for our lives. He wasn't a ghost or an apparition. He didn't just appear to be a man. He really was one. So likewise, we also need to make sure that we are not just merely pretending as we go through our lives.

Let me explain what I mean. Are you a child? Are your parents still around? Be the best children that you can be. Love your parents. Honor and respect them. Ask for advice and open your heart to them. Call them up and visit them. Don't be children in appearance and name only, but be a child in reality. Are you a parent? Be the best parent you can be. Love your children and give them your attention. Get down on the ground and play with them. If your kids are a bit older, do you know the kind of music that they like to listen to or the video games that they like to play or the movies that they like to watch? Don't watch your parenthood pass you by. Don't be a fake parent or a parent in name only but fully incarnate parenthood.

Are you a student or a worker? Don't be such a name only but fully embody what it means to study or work well. Give yourself to your studies and to your work. Dedicate yourself. Lock in as the kitties say these days. Are you married? Offer yourself as a sacrifice. Display the best of husbandness or wifeness. Don't be a ghost in your marriage. Don't be a spouse in name only, but fully embody one. Holiness makes us more and more real, more genuine, and more down to earth. When we look at the lives of the saints, we see that they fully lived out their callings. Saints who were soldiers were distinguished in the military. Saints who were doctors were unparalleled. Saints who were parents were outstanding parents. Saints who were writers and thinkers were of brilliant and exceptional acumen.

Now you might wonder how this might work with what I said about prioritizing prayer. How can you prioritize the prayer of the heart when we're so busy with our work and with our families? Someone once asked St. Theophan the Recluse this exact thing. This is the answer that he gave that person. He says, "Why is it that things are not going well with you just now? I think it is because you wish to remember the Lord, forgetting worldly affairs. But worldly affairs intrude into your consciousness and push out the remembrance of the Lord. What you should do is just the reverse. You should busy yourself with worldly affairs, but think of them as a commission from the Lord, as something done in his presence. As things are now, you fail both on the spiritual and material level. But if you act as I have explained, things will go well in both spheres."

That can be wise advice for those of us who lead busy lives in the world. To pray as we can, but also to do all things in the world as a commission of the Lord, fully incarnating in them, doing them to the best of our ability.

So this Christmas period, let's not get tangled up in the lights. Let's not get wrapped up in the present. Do you see what I did there? That was for you dads out there. But let's remember the awesome significance of the feast—that Christ wishes to crown the act of creation itself by taking on flesh, remaking us, and lifting us into the divine life. Prayer is a key way that we can affect this transformation by his grace. The greatest gift you can offer the people around you is to make it a 2026 resolution to learn and practice the prayer of the heart. Our world needs people who have been raised up to heaven. In this year, too, fully embody the roles that God has given you, taking as your model Christ who fully embodied as a man. Don't go through the motions and don't be half-hearted. Work out the best balance of your life and life's responsibilities. May God help us all to do so. In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Christ is born. Glorify him. Amen.