"Recognition and Response"

A New Year's sermon by The Rev. Keenan Kelsey
Noe Valley Ministry, Presbyterian Church (USA)
January 1, 2006

Text: Luke 2:22-40

²² 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 ²³ (as it is written in the law of the Lord, “Every firstborn male shall be designated as holy to the Lord”), ²⁴ and they offered a sacrifice according to what is stated in the law of the Lord, “a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons.” ²⁵ 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. ²⁶ It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Messiah. ²⁷ 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, ²⁸ Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying, ²⁹ “Master, now you are dismissing your servant in peace, according to your word; ³⁰ for my eyes have seen your salvation, ³¹ which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, ^32a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel.” ³³ And the child’s father and mother were amazed at what was being said about him. ³⁴ 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 ³⁵ so that the inner thoughts of many will be revealed ¬and a sword will pierce your own soul too.” ³⁶ 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, ³⁷ 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. ³⁸ 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. ³⁹ When they had finished everything required by the law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth. ⁴⁰ The child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom; and the favor of God was upon him.

PICTURE this old man with the baby in his arms. Perhaps he is chuckling, giddy with delight. Or perhaps he gazes with streaming tears on his cheeks. Or do you imagine him lost in transfixed wonder? However he stands, he is so very happy. The moment is enough for him; he is now ready to die. He has seen salvation and he can depart in peace. But what has he seen, really? It’s just a little child in his arms, a powerless, speechless newcomer to the world. Whatever salvation this baby might work is still only a promise and a hope. Whatever teaching he might offer will remain hidden for many years. Nothing has happened yet. Herod still sits on his throne and Caesar governs from afar. The world looks as it did before.

An old woman also breaks into song. Like Simeon, she had almost given up hope for Israel. She has spent her days at the temple in constant prayer and fasting, uttering sighs of deep contrition and mourning, in grief over the pain of her people. Yet at the moment she sees the child, she began to praise God. Soon she’ll be telling everyone about this baby whom she saw for just a few minutes.

How might we, this very day, be able to receive this call to complete uninhibited joy? How shall we speak of peace and hope in a world full of war, division, corruption?

It is hard to understand Simeon and Anna. At a friend’s family gathering, I talked to a great grandmother. She spoke with pride about her two sons, eight grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren. “I love my family,” she said, “But I fear for my great-grandchildren. I worry about them. What kind of world is this to give them? I suppose all generations feel the same, but it seems an awful time to be beginning life. They don’t know enough to be afraid, but I am afraid for them.”

So many of us live in fear and dismay. Our President has sensed this. In fact, many of his statements boldly assert, “We will not live in fear.” His statements attempt to convince us that the way to ensure that we will not live in fear is to allow ourselves to be spied on and searched, to cut back on social support systems and homeland emergency response mechanisms – and to make war Iraq. He suggests that we can live without fear if we exert our power and eliminate the threat of our enemies.

He offers us a vision based on anger, on the illusion that overpowering use of violence is most likely to cast out fear, and he hopes that it has the same impact on us that a vision of salvation had on Anna and Simeon. And in truth, we might well be attracted to the President’s vision in a very frightening and crazy world of runaway snipers and suicide bombers and nuclear stockpiles and international lying. We don’t even know how to account for our angers and fears anymore, and there is the temptation to believe that might will make right. But is this premise true? Will it align us with Anna and Simeon? 1 John 4:18 says “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love.” God asks us over and over to hold to the promise, a vision, of joy, peace, and fulfillment. Throughout both Testaments, God emerges on the side of peace, and God’s realm is one of justice and harmony and reconciliation.

Is this vision so difficult to embrace these days because of our anger? Anger is often the opposite of peace, and always the catalyst of war. And anger is most often based on fear. Perhaps, just as perfect love casts out fear, perfect fear casts out love. Or is part of the alluring character of a preemptive strike is that presumably we will not have to suffer. “We’ll strike before they can hurt us.” Of course, that logic will lead us to retreat further into our secure bunkers and make us more unwilling to engage in the risk and vulnerability that are necessary components of love.

Or is it simply that we are rejecting the promise of fulfillment because so often we have been disappointed in our hopes? Are we being blinded to the light we have seen because there is still so much darkness ahead? Is it because there is something humiliating in admitting that what we need is completely in the hands of God?

Two old people recognize Jesus as the beginning of a new age, one in which the old order would be turned upside down. The story of this once joyless couple, now filled with joy, asserts for us all that something has indeed happened, something has been born among us that not only will, but also already has altered the course of history. The birth of Jesus, in Luke, is the beginning of a real revolution.

By the time a mature Jesus comes onto the stage of history, Simeon and Anna will be long dead. So will most of those shepherds who came to see the child and possibly Joseph, who watched over him, and some or all of the magi who feature in the other nativity story. Even those who saw the baby, knelt at the stable or laid their tributes would not know what became of this baby. They would only know what they had heard and seen and felt back then. Yet there was rejoicing. In our current culture, efficiency has become a moral requirement and credit-card purchasing a way of life; delays are frustrating. Instant messaging, fast food meals, and express deliveries reinforce a sense that waiting for anything is a waste of our time and a poor use of our gifts and resources. Orientating our lives around long-term commitments seems particularly risky and unnecessarily constraining. Accounts of fidelity under challenging circumstances puzzle us nearly as often as they inspire us.

Can we possibly align ourselves with twoold people who have spent inordinate amounts of time waiting, faithfully, looking for the fulfillment of a single promise. Isaiah said in waiting and rest you shall be saved in quiet and trust will be your salvation.

Waiting and fidelity are closely connected and many of us struggle with both. Yet here are Anna and Simeon, trusting that fidelity would bear fruits, content at last to recognize and proclaim that here was the consolation of Israel, and God had fulfilled her promise.

My first call to ministry was at Church of the Roses, a typical congregation filled with upheaval and agitation, church feuds and lagging attendance. There was a lifelong member named Irene. Well into her 80’s, she and her husband Richard spent much of their week in intentional prayer and church service. They attended Bible study and worship, worked at the front desk and as a volunteer sexton. Irene particularly lived on tiptoe, looking for signs of renewal in the church, joyfully reporting every evidence of God’s work in the world. She lived as our biblical Anna, in anticipation and hope, expectation and worship.

The story of God’s redemption shaped her life in ways that kept her open and attentive to God’s presence and present work, living according to the promise of God locates us where we are most likely to regularly encounter the One who is life, fulfillment, and freedom.

On this New Year’s Sunday, it seems like the world has resumed its accustomed form. After last night’s frivolity, the world, in the light of day, seems largely unsaved and unchanged. So we wonder whether we have spent much of our lives in empty hopes and misguided dreams. But God says otherwise. On this seventh day in Christmas, Simeon and Anna do not really belong to the gospels’ pre-history. They are a paradigm for our own experience. Amid the debates about our strategy toward Iraq and our posturing here at home, God gives us scriptures that school us in hope and attentiveness. We have stories and covenants and signs. We have God’s promise.

On this first Sunday of Christmastide, we are reminded that our calling as believers is to live Christmas all year long. The rest of the world has dropped the carols and is busy tearing down the garland and the lights. But we are called to keep living the truth of God's coming in the flesh every day, all year long. We do that by following God's will, by wanting what God wants!

Isaiah’s vision reminds us that the Creator intends for all people to have a decent life. The good things in life are for all of us, and as long as they are divided with gross inequity, none of us will be happy. We know that human life is enriched by connections and impoverished by isolation; and that our economic systems and our governments and our international relations will only function for the common good when they enhance local and global connections. We know that true humanity rests on two basic attitudes about ourselves: a sense of dignity and a sense of humility – And we know that these are the starting points that will always bring us back to God.

We know what God wants - Jesus spent His entire ministry telling us. God wants us to live in such love that we forgive even those who wrong us, that we seek peace even with our enemies, that we sacrifice our own wants for the needs of the poor and down-trodden, that we work to make the world a place of justice, of faith, of love, of healing, of joy. The world without God doesn't want any of these things, and resents those who do. These days, talking about loving your enemies can get you in trouble with the folk who enforce the Patriot Act. Jesus' call is a radical one - but it's what God wants. And if we are to follow Jesus, we are called to want what God wants all year long.

As we begin the New Year of 2006: let us re-commit ourselves to wanting what God wants, every day, in every decision, every word, every deed, every moment. And then, be patient, and be faithful. Perhaps you too will find the peace and joy that Anna and Simeon found even at the end of life.