Sermon on December 27, 2009
When the time came for their purification according to the law of Moses, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord (as it is written in the law of the Lord, “Every firstborn male shall be designated as holy to the Lord”), and they offered a sacrifice according to what is stated in the law of the Lord, “a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons.”
Now there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon; this man was righteous and devout, looking forward to the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit rested on him. It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Messiah. Guided by the Spirit, Simeon came into the temple; and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him what was customary under the law, Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying, “Master, now you are dismissing your servant in peace, according to your word; for my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel.” And the child’s father and mother were amazed at what was being said about him. Then Simeon blessed them and said to his mother Mary, “This child is destined for the falling and the rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be opposed so that the inner thoughts of many will be revealed—and a sword will pierce your own soul too.” There was also a prophet, Anna the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was of a great age, having lived with her husband seven years after her marriage, then as a widow to the age of eighty-four. She never left the temple but worshiped there with fasting and prayer night and day. At that moment she came, and began to praise God and to speak about the child to all who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem.
Merry Christmas once again. Today is the third of our twelve days of Christmas—the day for “three French hens” if you’re going by the song and looking for gift suggestions for any relatives you might be seeing later on this afternoon. Already I’ve spoken with a few who’ve asked me, “Did you have a nice Christmas?” or “How was your Christmas?” And the answer is “yes.” Christmas day was wonderful—a day spent mostly in pajamas, opening gifts, reading, playing, eating… Christmas day was wonderful for us. But Christmas itself is not in the past. We are in the season of Christmas now, and so for today and for nine more days, the “Christmastide” is upon us.
We turn again today to Luke’s gospel, and we find Mary and Joseph, like us, facing life after Jesus’ birth. But whereas we use the week after Christmas to return a few gifts, maybe write a few more letters, and perhaps even start thinking about when we’ll box up the ornaments and take the tree down, Mary and Joseph had quite a different experience. As Luke tells it, they’ve been in the manger this entire time—and whatever quaint charms a stable stall might have had for a night or two, they’ve surely worn off after a week or so. Years later, there will be stories of Jesus’ many miracles, but for now his main task is to thrust Mary and Joseph into parenthood and all its responsibilities.
One of those responsibilities, according to Jewish law, was to present a newborn child in the Temple. This was both an act of dedication for the baby and of purification for the mother. And so Mary and Joseph leave Bethlehem and make their way to Jerusalem. And as Luke tells it, when they arrive there, they are met by Simeon and then by the prophet Anna. Simeon was one who seemed to know Jesus was coming. Luke doesn’t give Simeon’s age, but I’ve always pictured him on the older and wiser side, scooping up the baby Jesus in his arms and saying to himself, “Now I’ve seen it all. Now I can leave this world, knowing that I have seen the face of God.” Anna the prophet is eighty-four—the Bible says she is of “a great age,” a wonderful way to think being in your eighties—and she, too recognizes Jesus and praises God when she sees him.
These early stories about Jesus’ life are wonderful for lots of reasons. One of them is that Jesus himself isn’t doing very much. He’s not eloquent, compassionate, or powerful. He’s just a baby. One day he’ll be preaching in Galilee, but for now he’s just babbling and gurgling and crying. The wonder of these stories is found in others’ recognition of God’s presence in an infant. First a band of shepherds, and now Simeon and Anna—they all behold a small, helpless baby and yet they see the promise and the fulfillment of the kingdom of God.
There’s a real art to recognizing something before it’s fully grown, I think. Gardeners know this. Granted, we may be a long way off from thinking about our gardens. But before we know it again, the ground will thaw and we’ll start wondering where we’ll set up the tomato cages again. Now some of us—myself included—will hold a tiny seed in our hand and say to ourselves, “I wonder if I can get this darn thing to grow.” But there are others here—people like Peg Rendall and also those like Ken Clark, whose life we celebrated yesterday—there are others here who look at a small seed and can already see the seedling and the leaves and the plant and the flower and the fruit. Their true art in the garden is somehow being able to see it all before it grows.
Maybe you can think of someone in your life who saw something in you before it was fully grown. A parent, a teacher, a friend or mentor—someone who looked at you and saw something long before you even knew it was there. There’s a real art to recognizing those tiny seeds in people’s lives.
Christian author and essayist Lewis Smedes writes this, and I love it: “You are deep, unfathomably deep. You cannot be a shallow person; God does not make shallow people. You can, if you choose, close your own mind to the depths within you. But you cannot be shallow.” Thank God for the people in our lives who recognize the depths within us long before we see them ourselves.
2009 is coming to a close. Can you believe it? Just ten years ago, we were just days away from the year 2000 and we thought all our computers were going to blow up with the Y2K scare. Now here we are, a decade later, and we’ve gone from Y2K to H1N1.
As we come into this New Year and this new decade, I wonder if we might use the story of Simeon and Anna to think about God’s call in our lives. Because perhaps this coming year, God is calling you to be a Simeon or an Anna. God is calling you to recognize something in its infancy. And it’s fun to think about what that could be.
I don’t know if you heard about Zach Bonner yet. Zach is just twelve years old, and he was recently awarded the distinction of “Most Inspiring Person of 2009” by beliefnet.com. Just what makes Zach so inspiring? Well, for starters, this year he walked 1200 miles from his house in Tampa, Florida to the White House to raise money for homeless children. But before that, he organized a city-wide project in Tampa, collecting backpacks full of school supplies, toiletries, and other necessities for families that were homeless. But before that, at the ripe old age of six, Zach organized his neighborhood to collect bottled water for victims of Hurricane Charley. He collected the water in his red, Radio Flyer wagon. Today, Zach has a foundation started to assist him in his work—it’s called the Little Red Wagon Foundation (littleredwagonfoundation.com).
Now the great thing and the problem with stories like this one is that they get us thinking: What big thing might I do to address the problems of this world? That’s a great question to ask, but at times it can be an overwhelming and stifling one, too. The problems of this world are overwhelming, and so we often balk in the face of potential solutions that seem too unwieldy themselves.
Another question to ask is this: Where did it all begin for Zach Bonner? Before the 1200 mile walk to Washington, before the backpack program, and even before collecting bottled water in his red wagon: Where did it really begin for him? Or, to put it another way, What infant promise in Zach Bonner’s life did someone recognize and nurture?
Let me speak plainly about this. We need this in the church right now. We’ve got problems here in Racine. You know that. Homelessness, hunger, poverty… lots of problems in our neighborhood around us and in our city. Sometimes the temptation is to try and address big problems with big solutions. But you know what we need? We need some of you—a few of you—maybe a few dozen of you even—to see the promise of a solution in its infancy.
We need just a few of us to welcome and celebrate something of God’s infant promise of hope. Just as God’s love in Jesus Christ began with a fragile, humble birth, God’s love in action today just might begin with a fragile, humble thought—an inkling of an idea, a quick conversation over coffee, a daydream.
Some of those plans are already on the way: HALO, the Health Care Network, the HOPES Center… And part of our call is to join them and add our very best to the work that they do. Another part of our call is this: to welcome God’s infant promises—those tiny seeds of ideas and visions that no one’s even thought about yet. And then, just like Simeon and Anna, we’ll scoop up those infant promises in our arms, and worshipfully say, “Yes! This is what God is doing! This is but a tiny taste of God’s hope to come!” Amen.
Thanks. :)
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