the holy gospel according to luke (2:22-40)
22When
the time came for their purification
according
to the law of Moses,
they
brought [Jesus] up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord
23(as
it is written in the law of the Lord,
“Every
firstborn male shall be designated as holy to the Lord”),
24and
they offered a sacrifice
according
to what is stated in the law of the Lord,
“a
pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons.”
25Now
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.
26It
had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit
that
he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Messiah.
27Guided
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,
28Simeon
took him in his arms and praised God,
saying,
29“Master, now you are dismissing your servant in peace,
according
to your word;
30for
my eyes have seen your salvation,
31which you have prepared in the
presence of all peoples,
32a
light for revelation to the Gentiles
and
for glory to your people Israel.”
33And
the child’s father and mother were amazed at what was being said about him.
34Then
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
35so
that the inner thoughts of many will be
revealed—
and
a sword will pierce your own soul too.”
36There
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,
37then
as a widow to the age of eighty-four.
She
never left the temple
but
worshiped there with fasting and prayer night and day.
38At
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.
39When
they had finished everything required by the law of the Lord,
they
returned to Galilee,
to
their own town of Nazareth.
40The child grew and became
strong,
filled
with wisdom;
and
the favor of God was upon him.
the gospel of the lord.
-----
born under the law, luke assures us that mary and joseph are
faithful followers of the law, coming to the temple for mary’s purification
and, just as hannah dedicated her longed-for child, samuel, to god’s work
and a life in the temple, mary and joseph dedicate jesus to god. following the law laid out for them,
they encounter the holy spirit, stirring things up again.
in case the angels and visit from the shepherds weren’t
enough, simeon and anna, faithful elders with prophetic wisdom and vision
encounter jesus and his parents in the temple and proclaim god’s work of
redemption in these unlikely bodies. anna, whose words we don’t have praises
god and announces the redemption of jerusalem—god will bail out jerusalem,
saving it from the occupation, doing a new thing.
simeon’s
words are to the point, jesus will be god’s salvation, yet more to the point
even than that, jesus will not be uncontroversial. simeon tells mary, “this
child is destined for the falling and the rising of many in israel, and to be a sign that will be opposed 35so
that the inner thoughts of many will be
revealed—and a sword will pierce
your own soul too.” as new
testament scholar, stephen hultgren, points out, jesus “will be both the stone
upon which some stumble and the stone of salvation.” jesus will redeem the world, but we know that the way our
redemption comes will not be the way many suspect or hope.
in
fact, jesus, who is born under the law, will redeem the world through a curse
under the law, as galatians 3 states, “christ redeemed us from the curse of the
law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “cursed is everyone who hangs
on a tree.”” jesus, being hung on
a tree, embodies the curse of the law, so that all may embody the life that he
brings. jesus will not be an easy
one to follow and mary will learn this perhaps more deeply than any other.
mary,
who will watch as her child grow and become strong, filled with wisdom. mary who will witness as her son comes
into his own, will walk with him through childhood into adulthood, will ponder
all that she experiences in her heart.
mary who will worry and fret as jesus’ public ministry unfolds and who
will watch her son as he is tortured and killed by the authorities. mary will indeed feel a sword pierce
her own soul. today, as we
continue to rejoice at the incarnation—god coming into the world as the baby
jesus—we catch a glimpse of what is to come. in his joy, even simeon cannot help but mention the pain and
sorrow that will also come as jesus grows up.
mary
will know the pain no parent should ever know, but we don’t have to wait until
the crucifixion to face the injustice and pain of parents who must bury their
children. today we also
commemorate the slaughter of the holy innocents, the unwilling martyrs. in other years we will hear in matthew
of the holy family’s flight as refugees to egypt and king herod’s fear at the
birth of the child jesus and abuse of power as he orders all the children in
bethlehem two years old and younger to be killed. killed because of a paranoid ruler—afraid of a threat to his
throne; afraid of the power of god’s love incarnate in the world.
[pause]
i
feel for herod, though. he is
right, after all, to be afraid. as
we heard last week in mary’s song, the magnificat, and this week in simeon’s
song, god’s presence and love in this world is a threatening thing for the
powerful and power-hungry,
because god’s love is not just for the upper crust of society, god’s love is
for everybody and when people start living that out, when people follow jesus,
the world changes.
as we
experienced in advent with the sunday school raising money for elca world
hunger, when we follow jesus, the hungry are fed. those in need receive shelter and clothing, even as jesus
comes into the world homeless and leaves naked. that is the power of our god: the power of love to change
things. god’s love changes who we
are and how we are in the world.
god’s love feeds the hungry, prays for strangers and “enemies.”
there
is a hebrew phrase, “tikun olam” which can be translated as “to heal, fix,
establish, or restore the world, or eternity.” that is the work of god. that is what god’s love does in the world. god’s love comes into this world, which
has been, especially in this last year, drowning in pain and violence, and
god’s love breaks into it with the cry of a baby that captures our hearts—the
cry of love, of god with us.
mr.
rogers has a quote that periodically makes its way around facebook. it is, “when i was a boy and i would
see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, ‘look for the
helpers. you will always find
people who are helping.’ to this
day, especially in times of ‘disaster,’ i remember my mother’s words and i am
always comforted by realizing that there are still so many helpers – so many
caring people in this world.”
it
is almost the opposite of simeon’s proclamation. simeon rejoices at the messiah and yet recalls the pain and
political unrest to come. mr.
rogers reminds us in the midst of crises—in the midst of the pain and violence—that
that is not all there is. love is
there as well. god is present with
and in those who are suffering. it
is in those moments of pain and suffering that mr. rogers reminds us to look
up. to be on the look out for
god’s love changing things.
god’s
love is in the people who run into, not out of, burning buildings; the ones who
show up in response to our 9-1-1 calls—who intervene during a domestic dispute,
who investigate a robbery; the ones who show up when there is flood, avalanche,
disaster. they show up and they
put their lives on the line. it’s
in the folks who didn’t get a day off this week for christmas because they were
caring for those who were hospitalized and keeping the rest of us safe. god’s love is in the prayers you all
wrote over the last month, prayers for strangers. in the animals we purchased, in malaria nets for health and
protection.
and
maybe in those moments where all hope feels lost, as we look up and look
around, we will see the helpers and god’s love will pierce our own hearts. our hearts, pierced again and again by
the pain of the world, instead filled and overflowing with the love that heals
wounds. the love that sends a
sheep, a pig, bees, a goat, and malaria nets to those in need. the love that laughs in the face of
stress. the love that embraces our
tears, embodies our pain, and frees our souls.
the love that comes to us in the waters of baptism, in the
bread and wine of communion. it is
god’s love in jesus, who captures our attention as the baby born to mary; that
embodies god’s love. it is through
the unlikely bodies of anna and simeon that god’s love is proclaimed—love that
feeds us, love that holds us—love for everybody.
thanks
be to god.
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