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This morning, even though we're a few days before the actual Feast of the Nativity, on the Sunday before the Feast we always read the account of the birth of Christ. This is one of the central events in human history, and it's one that's gotten a lot of negative attention in the last 50+ years-reinterpreting, mythologizing, outright attacking, etc. Especially criticized is our belief of the Virgin birth, and Who Christ truly is. We have to understand, as best as we are able, what the Church has always taught about our Lord's Nativity (and why it's been taught), because God becoming man in the person of Jesus Christ is absolutely necessary for our salvation, and for existence of our Faith.

The Virgin Mary was found to be with child "by the Holy Ghost," St. Matthew writes. And this was done to fulfill the prophecy of Isaiah, "Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel," which means "God with us." The Christian Church must believe and teach the virgin birth of the Messiah-not because human procreation is bad or evil. And not to make the birth of Christ seem that much more amazing (we don't teach the virgin birth for shock value). The Church must believe and teach the virgin birth of Christ really for two reasons-I) it is the witness of the Scriptures and the Tradition, and II) this belief is essential to preserve a proper understanding of the person of Jesus Christ.

I.
Both the Old and the New Testaments witness to the Virgin Birth of Christ; the Tradition of the Church we would also hold up and see that never has this teaching been challenged in the Orthodox Church. Even from the time of the Prophet Isaiah, the people of God were taught that a virgin would conceive in her womb a son. St. Matthew and St. Luke both specifically write in their Gospels that Christ was conceived in the womb of the Theotokos by the Holy Spirit-she had never known a man.

We'll sing at Matins for the Feast - Why do you marvel, O Mary? Why are you amazed at what has come to pass? "I have given birth in time to a timeless Son; I cannot explain how He was conceived in me. I have known no man; how then shall I bear a child? Who has ever seen a birth without seed? When God so wills, as it is written: ‘The order of nature is overcome.'" Christ is born of the Virgin in Bethlehem of Judah.

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We are now about two weeks from the celebration of one of the most significant events in all of human history-the Nativity of our Lord and God and Saviour Jesus Christ. With all of the modern commercialization of this time of year, it's hard sometimes to even remember what made Christmas-time such an important time of year to begin with. It had nothing to do with loads of presents and big sales and all the mess that goes with Christmas today. December 25 is important today because some 1600 years ago (in the late 300s AD) the Christians chose that day to commemorate the birth of Jesus Christ. The feast of the Nativity of Christ became one of the most popular of all the feasts in the Christian Church; in fact, many people today really only celebrate Christmas and Easter as feasts of Christ. If it weren't for the birth of Christ, and the later feast established to commemorate His birth, there would be no Christmas, or Fall Holiday, or whatever the world now wants to remember in late December.

I'd like us to briefly remember why Christmas is so important, and what it really is that we should be remembering as we prepare for this day. It all really goes back to Genesis, and the creation of man. On the sixth day, God creates man and woman: "God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him; male and female created He them" (Genesis 1:27). God created humanity in a unique way. Regardless of whether you interpret the Bible literally or figuratively, the creation of human beings is something different, a unique moment in the creation of the world. God doesn't simply tell the land or the sea to bring them forth, as He does with the animals and the fish.

We first read the expression of God purpose - "let us make man in our image, after our likeness" (Genesis 1:26). And then God reaches out and takes the clay of the earth and forms man exactly as He wants man to be. And then God breathes the breath of life into this new creature, and with that we have the creation of the human race. The only thing created in the image and likeness of the Creator - animals nor angels share in that dignity. Only man. And then mankind is given dominion over all the earth; he's instructed to care for the plants and the animals. But the greatest gift that God gives the crown of His creation is not rule over the earth, but is to be created in the image and the likeness of God.

We share something in common with God - His image and likeness. Christian theologians have discussed through the centuries exactly what this commonality is - free will, creativity, independence, rational thought, etc. But what we know for certain is that this image and likeness is given only to man. The way the ancient Fathers of the Church understand this is: man is created in the image of God, with the potential to attain, by God's grace, to the likeness of God. We're created in His image, to grow in His likeness, to be like Him [this is central in the Orthodox understanding of salvation - we are able to be with God because we are like God, and being with God (saved) is no less than sharing in the life of God, His sharing of Himself with us].

My new Bible study on the Holy Gospel according to St. John the Theologian has launched at www.orthodoxyouth.org/john. The study contains full-color study guides, quizzes, and the homilies by St. John Chrysostom on the Gospel.

There is currently only a study guide for the first chapter - I'll add more study guides through the first few months of 2009 as the youth in Teen SOYO go through the Gospel to prepare for the 2009 Bible Bowl . 

I'll begin a new series on John in four weeks on my Get Wisdom podcast, and the handouts for the new Bible study will also accompany the episodes of the podcast.

Click here to listen to this week's episode of Jason's Get Wisdom podcast, and http://www.orthodoxyouth.org/romans/pdf/chapter12.pdf to download a free study guide for this episode.

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Our love for other people should be not only for those with whom we have good relations, but also those who hate us. Our Lord states: