January 5th and 6th is Armenian Christmas; a special time removed from the frenetic activity of the Worldly Christmas. It is a centuries old holy day observed for purely religious intent, i.e. to tell the whole story of Jesus-his Birth and His Baptism.

This date today now has become a feast day particular to two ancient Christian Churches, the Armenian and Coptic Churches, who celebrate not just the Birth or Baptism of Christ, but the very Revelation of God on earth, with us, among us.

In human history the birth of Jesus established the presence of the invisible God become visible and serves as the foundation of our Christian belief GOD WITH US. Yes, it is indeed a miracle beyond the mind of our human understanding; how God could and would ever enter the realm of this world, reveal Himself to all human beings to be known finally as the ONE TRUE GOD we worship and glorify. It is as we say in Armenian, on January 6th Christ was born and God was Revealed.

Christmas therefore is more than just a birthday celebration or baptismal remembrance, recalling the Birth and Baptism of Our Lord. It is a time to acknowledge that with and in Christ’s alone, God has shown us his love and the way to love him and each other.

Jesus Christ who is Our Lord and God. In Him God became visible. Through Him God is more than and idea, concept or a belief in a power high in the heavens, out there somewhere; God whom we hope to meet after our lives on earth conclude. It is Christ who shows us that the invisible God is with us every day of our lives.

Unlike other religions who do not understand this Great Mystery-- --of how God could or would ever reveal himself-- --our understanding and experience of God is different.

WE BELIEVE that God was born and lived on earth; He walked with us and talked with us, He cried and rejoiced with us and He let us touch Him. No other religion on the face of this earth teaches and celebrates this truth. No other religion has a physical and spiritual contact and Communion with God as do we.

This is the uniqueness of our faith and our celebration every year on January 6th. For if God in Christ had not been born or revealed, how could we have ever have known what we do know about Him? With his birth and baptism God becomes the mystery shown and revealed.

But God’s birth was not enough. It was not until his Baptism did the entire world know of God’s love and why He came. He came not to complicate life but simplify life. He came to pick us up, to embrace us, to physically touch us and to share human experience with us – so that, He could carry us every day and then finally bring us back home when our time here is completed.

And so in the tradition of the Armenian Church, the Christmas celebration or more clearly as we say, the THEOPHANY [shining forth of God] makes God known not to just a few people but to the whole of the world. His life was not a secret in a stable to be kept there nor life an obscure life in a little town called Bethlehem [the house of the bread] where the prophets and the angels proclaimed His coming. Christmas is the way to God, hearing the Father speak to us again, that Christ has become our salvation because we share with him our own baptism-for this is why we are baptized after all, to share life with Him.

To be a Baptized Christian means that we are called to transform and change life as did Jesus Himself. God expects from every one who has been baptized to make this gift of being a child of the Heavenly Father a life-long commitment. Through worship together we grow in holiness and discipleship and become the God pleasing persons of faith we have pledged ourselves to be. As baptized Christians we also are agents-commissioned to help others who are on the edge, in the dark, and on the rim of life, to know and understand what God gives and asks of us; and that to find him is to come to Christ. For God is with us!

With Prayers of thanksgiving,

Father Garabed Kochakian

75 years in Greater Detroit
(1931-2006)

...Honoring Our Past
...Celebrating Our Future