The Homely Homily: This Week, Patriarch Stavros Peridontas

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May the devil quake in his boots!

In our ongoing effort to raise some of the moral tone of our programming, we continue to strive mightily in the direction of sanctity. At the risk of seeming ludicrous, we have asked some of the members of the local Ecumenical Council and Bowling League to step in and take a step forward to proffer their abilities and talents in this area. This week, we have the esteemed Patriarch of the Etruscan Orthodox Church of Nether Wallop, Stavros Peridontas. Take it away, your Holiness!


Is this thing on?

Let us pray: Lord, you know what we need and you know when we need it and you know your will regarding it. Amen.

Good afternoon, all.

We have our Christmas coming up again, the two thousand and third such event. I have my strong suspicions that the Nativity was not celebrated as much as it is now for it's first thirty-three years, nor even for it's first three hundred years. But be that as it may, the cycle of life on this Earth for our Lord and Savior is covered in the holidays of Christmas and Easter.

Ideally speaking, if we were to be truly rational, the two holidays would be celebrated thirty-three years apart, but one wonders what we would do in the intervening years?

There are cultures and faiths that have long cycles in their worship and observance. One I have heard of even had a calender that goes back six million years and forward three and a half million years.

It has been suggested that this was a useful feature for tax assessors and actuarial table builders, though one truly hopes that there was a time on this Earth when there were no Revenue Services or Insurance Companies. Insert restrained chuckle here.

But the fact remains that the influence of a mere three decades of life on this Earth has impacted over two hundred decades of life on this Earth, and though some hope that the end will come soon, and some are disappointed that it hasn't come yet, it seems that the Life of Christ will continue to be bookended by Christmas and Easter for many years to come.

The question we must ask ourselves, is, how do we keep it from becoming boring or the same or a yearly plea to cut down on the brightness and the commercialism?

I have no answer but that the children need the religious equivalent of the American "anyone can grow up to become president". The players in the Christmas story, with the exception of Herod, are truly unremarkable people, of tenous connection to royalty and priviledge. A young girl, a carpenter, an old temple servant and his old barren wife. The themes of the unremarkable becoming marked for service by God are found throughout the Holy Book.

Also, it is a good thing for many, without overweaning pride or overstriving for 'excellence', to think of the reason why they were brought together by the Lord as parents as the child itself. If you are merely a conduit and a caretaker of someone that God has a plan for, then you had better be on your best behavior...not by my standards, or society's, but by the Book's.

Let Us Pray: Thank you, Lord, for everything. Amen.

Should I turn this off?

No?

Okay. Thank you. Bye.

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