I.N.I.
a sermon
to be preached at Our Savior Lutheran Church, Arlington, Virginia on
the Sunday after Christmas, 27 December 2015, and based on the Holy
Gospel for the day: St. Luke 2:22-40
Grace,
mercy, and peace be yours in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Dear
Brothers and Sisters in Christ.
Can I
ask those of you who are or were parents to think back to when you
first became parents, and left home or hospital for the first time
with your "little bundle of joy." Those of you who don't
have that vocation, just try to play along in your imagination. If
this trip happened at all recently, you had a secure car seat
installed in your car and felt compelled to use it for your child's
safety. Then in addition you probably took along a diaper bag, and
maybe a bag of gifts that people had left for the baby, perhaps some
flowers. And -- if you were like most first-time parents -- you also
brought along a very large bag of fear and concern and questions. As
your baby got older it seemed for a while that with every trip, every
"first time" trip say to the doctor, or to a store, or to
visit friends or the new grandparents, that every trip meant taking
along yet more things than you carried on the last outing: toys,
food, extra outfits, and so on. Life had very suddenly gotten way
more complicated than it used to be.
Here on
the first Sunday of Christmas (and there are only ever 1 or 2 Sundays
that fall in the Christmas season) we always pause to consider in the
Gospel for the day the story of Jesus going to the Temple for the
first time. Our Savior was just 40 days old when His parents brought
Him there, along with their sacrifice of two doves or pigeons, the
poor person's sacrifice. Chances are that they walked, though if they
did have transportation, a donkey perhaps, there certainly was no
infant car seat. No special diaper bag. Almost none of the things
that today's parents consider necessities on these newborn outings.
Mary and
Joseph weren't on a long trip with Jesus. Jerusalem is only about 6
miles from Bethlehem. But verse 39 tells us that the holy family went
on back home to Nazareth after they had visited the Temple, so they
may have had everything packed up for a several days' journey if they
left Judea directly without circling back south to Bethlehem. Either
way they had lots to think about. And I think there's every chance
that they were hoping for a quick in-and-out at the Temple. It's easy
for me to picture Joseph as a practical planner, a carpenter who had
to make estimates, buy wood, produce his work on schedule. I think of
him as a man who was certainly going to do everything required of
them by the Law, but who was also hoping to get out of Jerusalem
ahead of the traffic and wanted to make their stop at the Temple as
efficient as possible.
It
didn't turn out that way.
As the
family was making its way into the Temple someone accosted them, a
righteous and devout man. He took this special baby into his own arms
and launched into a blessing and prayer. And at that very moment an
old woman approached them and began bubbling over with prayers of
thanks to God that He had sent this child. Simeon and Anna are
remembered to this day as early witnesses to the new and special
thing that the Lord was doing for the entire globe in this baby boy.
I want to spend some time with you this morning thinking a little
about what Simeon had to say that day in Jerusalem.
Simeon's
poem, or song, is today commonly called the "Nunc Dimittis."
That's the Latin title, that translates the first couple words. It's
really a remarkable opening line: "Lord, now you are letting
your servant depart in peace, according to your word." (verse
29) I think all the depictions that I have seen of this moment show
Simeon as an old man who has been waiting and waiting for this event
for years. But that could actually be based on the very brief
biography we are given of Anna which tells us she was 84 years old
that day in the Temple. But, actually, we aren't told Simeon's age. I
can see this as just as remarkable story if Simeon is a younger man.
The point would then be that he had only recently received
this promise (verse 26) "that he would not see death before he
had seen the Lord's Christ." And yet . . . he was now willing to
"depart in peace." We might think that a startling thing
for a young man to say that, but what else would a Simeon of any age
have to look forward to? There was no higher point he could ascend in
his earthly life. Simeon had now seen the Lord. Simeon had seen the
Lord, and more than that, had gotten to hold the baby Jesus in his
own arms. He was ready to go directly home to Heaven.
How
about you? Are you ready to "depart in peace"? I would hope
we all are. But I'm pretty sure that's not the case for everyone. I'm
not suggesting we all make 'death wishes,' though. God has given us
life and we ought to preserve it. But at the same time we also should
be ready to lay it down when God calls us. That is the deepest and
richest 'life wish' any of us can have. God speaks to us through His
servant Simeon to instruct us in the path from life to eternal
life.
So,
again, are you ready to go? At the drop of a hat? At a moment's
notice? In an instant, a twinkling of the eye? At any time this Baby
born in Bethlehem, and then presented in the Temple, this little
Child we've been singing about and reading about, this Jesus of
Nazareth will suddenly come back. But there's an awfully good chance
that some or all of us will be snapped out of this life into the next
even before that. If we're not ready for either of those two options,
why not?
I
believe the main reason we might not be ready is that we really don't
believe the rest of Simeon's first line, where he says "according
to Your word." He is singing to the Lord that His -- the Lord's
-- word has been fulfilled in this moment. It's a rich, multi-layered
promise, this word is. In the immediate context Luke just told us
(verse 26) about the promise Simeon had received. That
particular word of promise had just been fulfilled. Here in his arms
was the infant Child that Simeon somehow knew was "the Lord's
Christ," the anointed One, the One set aside by God. He is the
One Simeon had been waiting for. Now that Jesus was on earth, Simeon
was relieved of his waiting. He could go home to the Lord.
But the deeper, older meaning was that all the prophecies so well
known to Simeon and others were now fulfilled. All those old
prophecies about the coming of the Messiah, the ones that Simeon had
read and studied, the ones we hear in church, all those prophecies
had been fulfilled in the birth of this little baby being presented
in the Temple. All the conditions had been met. Here was the Promised
One, the Chosen One.
On
both counts, then, Simeon knew that the words of the Lord had been
fulfilled, both the general promises to Israel, and the specific one
to himself. The wonderful thing for us now is that as recipients of
the same promises, we too can know that God's word has been
fulfilled. And we really ought to live like it has been. That will
free us from the things that weigh us down and that make us not
ready to "depart in peace."
What do you suppose our lives would look like if we deeply believed
that to be the case? May I suggest that one set of characteristics
would be the things listed in our Epistle for today: Colossians
3:12-17.
In this wonderful passage Saint Paul refers to believers as "God's
chosen ones, holy and beloved". You might be struck as I was
with the way that sounds almost like a description of Jesus Himself.
"Chosen One ... Holy ... Beloved." Well why not? If we
Christians are indeed little Christs -- as our name implies -- then
why not indeed? So our lives when we ready to "depart in peace"
are at root lives that reflect our chosen-ness, our holiness, and our
beloved-ness.
Then
with that settled we "put on compassion, kindness, humility,
meekness, and patience." And that's just the first verse! Right
there is material for a whole raft of sermons or studies. Maybe we
can summarize them this way: if we are living lives in which we are
ready to depart in peace we will be overwhelmingly compassionate to
others, feeling the urgency of their situations over our own. If we
are ready to depart in peace, we will treat others with deep
kindness. Ready to depart in peace? If so, people will see evidence
of your humility and meekness because you aren't driven by an urge
for more and bigger and winning first place all the time in
everything. And then as Christians ready to depart and be with the
Lord, we will be ever so patient, modeling lives on Simeon and Anna
who weren't trying to bring the advent of God's kingdom by force on
their own timetables but were waiting for it day by day by day, and
eventually saw their reward.
Paul
goes on in Colossians 3 telling us that we are to be forgiving
others, and to "put on love". And
let the peace of Christ dwell in our hearts. AND
be thankful. I think here that Saint Paul is transitioning from a
focus on our relations with other people to our relation with God --
or, more properly, God's relation with us. It's not a sharp division
though because all that we are, everything we do, is a reflection of
what is in our hearts. It's a reflection of Christ in us.
And THAT, my friends, is how we can even begin to express any of the
items on this list of Christian virtues in our own lives. Paul tell
us in here Colossians 3 to "let the word of Christ dwell in you
richly." There is the power. There is the strength. There is
even the motivation. The word of Christ dwelling in us. I would urge
you all to make a New Year's resolution to read God's word more
regularly and devoutly in the coming year except for one thing: we
all know how long New Year's resolutions traditionally last. So
instead I will urge you to consider making more regular Bible reading
one of the objects of your prayers in the coming weeks, months, and
year.
While we're at that task, here's a way to work on the other things
Paul lists there in today's Epistle: spend a little time with
yourself over the next week thinking about the things Paul has
directed us to (compassion, kindness, humility, and so on). Whichever
one suggests itself to you as something that's not as evident in your
life as it could be, focus on that one thing, praying about it,
practicing it, yes even "working on it."
This is the formula for each of us to be able to "grow, and
become strong, filled with wisdom" with the favor of God upon
us. That's what the child Jesus did in the next years, according to
Luke 2:40. And that's how each of us become more like Him. That's
how we all can be God's servants, ready to depart in peace.
May that peace of God that passes all understanding keep your hearts
and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Amen
S.D.G.