Sunday before Theophany, Octoechos Tone 6; the Holy Prophet Malachi (5th c. BC); the Holy Martyr Gordius (313-24)
2 Timothy 4:5-8; Mark 1:1-8
Read 2 Timothy 4:5-8
Christ is born! Glorify Him!
Are you a heavy sleeper? Do you have a difficult time getting out of bed and hit the “snooze button” multiple times before getting up? I’ve seen innovative alarm clocks that try to combat this by getting progressively louder or are only silenced by standing up on a pressure-sensitive mat. One alarm clock even has wheels and “runs away” if you aren’t quick enough! It might be hard to believe, but before alarm clocks became reliable, 20th-century workers in Britain were woken up by a human alarm clock known as a “knocker-upper’ who would themselves wake up before the dawn and knock on the windows of sleeping workers to wake them up for work!
In our reading today, St. Paul acts as a form of an alarm clock to his disciple Timothy when he implores him to “be watchful in all things.” The Greek word used here, nepho, means to “be sober, steady, well-balanced and self-controlled” in a word, to “be awake.” How easy it can become to see every day as the same as the last, like the expression “day in and day out,” without being awake to the activity of the Lord and attentive to the Divine (and exciting) mission we have been given? This Sunday we will not see Christ a child born a babe in Bethlehem but instead will see another alarm-clock, John the Baptist, imploring his audience to “wake up” through baptism and repentance.
As we begin this New Year, let us recommit ourselves to our baptismal promises and reawaken ourselves to the need to repent from all the separates us from Him. In this way, we can continue with the mission that He has given to us, the adventure that we are called to live, instead of “sleeping off” the joy of our work and our salvation!