First Reading—Ephesians 1: 3-14
Praised be the Maker of our Savior Jesus Christ, who has bestowed on us in Christ every spiritual blessing in the heavens! Before the world began, God Chose us in Christ to be holy and blameless and to be full of love; God likewise predestined us through Christ Jesus to be adopted children—such was God’s pleasure and will—that everyone might praise the glory of God’s grace which was freely bestowed on us in God’s beloved, Jesus Christ. It is in Christ and through the blood of Christ that we have been redeemed and our sings forgiven, so immeasurably generous is God’s favor given to us with perfect wisdom and understanding. God has taken pleasure in revealing the mystery of the plan, through Grist, to be carried out in the fullness of time, namely, to bring all things—in heaven and on earth—together in Christ.
In Christ we were willed an inheritance; for in the decree of God—and everything is administered according to the divine will and counsel—we were predestined to praise the glory of the Most High by being the first to hope in Christ. In Christ you too were chosen. When you heard the Good News of salvation, the word of truth, and believed in it, you were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the pledge of our inheritance, the deposit paid against the full redemption of a people who are God’s own to the praise of God’s glory.
The Gospel Lesson—Luke 2: 22-32
When the day came for them to be purified, as laid down by the Law of Moses, the couple took Jesus up to Jerusalem and presented him to God. For it’s written in the Law of our God, “every firstborn heir is to be consecrated to God.” They likewise came to offer in sacrifice “a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons,” in accordance with the dictate of the Law of our God.
Now there lived in Jerusalem a man named Simeon. He was devout and just, anticipating the consolation of Israel, and he was filled with the Holy Spirit. She had revealed to Simeon that he wouldn’t see death until he had seem the Messiah of God. Prompted by her, Simeon came to the Temple; and when the parents brought in the child to perform the customary rituals of the Law, he took the child in his arms and praised God, saying,
“Now, O God, you can dismiss your servant in peace, just as you promised; because my eyes have seen the salvation which you have prepared for all the peoples to see—a light of revelation to the Gentiles and the glory of your people Israel.”
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GOD, we open our hearts to you—as we turn to you in this new year, may we become new in your spirit. May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts bring praise to your name. Amen
I will admit it. I am one of those people who has quit making New Years’ resolutions. Couldn’t stand the pressure and that ugly, self-imposed feeling of guilt when I lost my commitment to whatever I thought was important on December 31st that just didn’t seem so important by, oh, say—January 10th or so. And the older I got, the more I realized that change comes gradually and grows out of a new way of seeing—it isn’t something that we can order ourselves to do and expect it to last much past the time it takes us to write it down. Growing spiritually is a very similar phenomena, and as much as we tell ourselves that this year I am going to pray more or study the Bible more or learn to meditate—none of that will happen unless the way we view our spiritual life and relationship with God changes—that is, unless we see with new eyes.
The story told in our Gospel lesson today is crucial in several ways to understanding the new sight that we will receive when we wait and prepare our hearts for our eyes to see. Now, at the time of Jesus’ birth and subsequent presentation at the Temple there were at least two kinds of Jewish Religious leaders. One is the kind we hear the most about—the ones who were waiting for a Messiah who would come as a military leader who would conquer all their enemies and restore the Jewish people to glory as God’s chosen people. They were not looking for a tiny baby to be born in a rough stable to a poor, insignificant couple from Nazareth. They were looking, all right—but in all the wrong places—they had a vision but no way to understand what was really happening. Failing to recognize that God was working out the divine plan in their midst, they were unable to see at all.
There was a second kind of Jewish people at the time of Jesus’ birth. Except for Simeon, we hear very little about them. They were called THE QUIET IN THE LAND. They read the ancient scriptures and spent their lives in constant prayer and quiet waiting for God to send the Messiah. They spent their lives in peaceful and patient readiness to see all that God would show them about the coming of the Messiah. Their lifestyle of unassuming spiritual insight primed them for when the “right time” should arrive.
Simeon was one of these “quiet ones”. He was also, really, really old. He hardly ever left the Temple, spending his days there in prayer and watchfulness. And he was ready. Several weeks after his birth, Jesus was taken by Mary and Joseph to the Temple for several reasons. First, there was the “redemption of the firstborn”. Because God had saved all the first-born sons of the Israelites when they were enslaved in Egypt, resulting in the celebration called the Passover, all first-born sons were presented to God at the Temple. There was a ceremony of dedication and redemption. Secondly, because Mary had given birth to a son, she was considered religiously unclean and needed to make an offering at the Temple. Those who were considered with means were to sacrifice a lamb and a pigeon. Women like Mary, because they were poor were allowed to bring two pigeons. This also confirms for us that Joseph and Mary were ordinary people who lived without luxuries and struggled financially. Nevertheless, Mary and Joseph were pious people who made every effort to obey all the laws of their religion.
Simeon was there in the Temple and watched all of this unfold. You can almost see him standing in the shadows, looking up from his prayers every once in a while. Simeon’s name is apt—it means “hear and obey”. All his life Simeon has watched, and prayed and waited for this precise moment. In one of his many conversations with God, the Almighty had promised him that he would live to see the coming of the Messiah and suddenly, the time is right. Simeon watches the sacrifice of the two pigeons, and then, he sees the child—a tiny baby, barely a month old. Led by the Holy Spirit, Simeon goes over to take a closer look. And, after years of waiting, Simeon knows the truth—that this one is the Messiah—this very baby, He is the one. Imagine his excitement—can you possibly put yourself in old Simeon’s place for just a moment? He walks, or shuffles, over to Mary and Joseph and asks to hold the child. Knowing by now, that the child belonged to more than just them, they handed him to Simeon. Holding the child who he knew to be the salvation of the world, Simeon breaks into song. It’s a simple song, but in those four lines, all the preparation and waiting has come full circle—God has made good on the promise--
“Now, O God, you can dismiss your servant in peace, just as you promised; because my eyes have seen the salvation which you have prepared for all the peoples to see—a light of revelation to the Gentiles and the glory of your people Israel.”
As we start our Winter Walk in the Spirit, what can we learn from Simeon about living in the Spirit? First and foremost, we can learn that we need to be ready for God’s gift of insight and wisdom to be bestowed. Secondly, we learn that being ready is all we can really do. God’s Holy Spirit does not work at our command or on our time schedule. God works with us over time to ready us for spiritual insight. This is how we grow—this is how our walk becomes deeper and we understand more and more as we go along, ever watching, ever ready to hear and obey.
I’d like to tell you a story, a personal one. My call to preach and to sing came when I was 17 years old. And, I, immediately had a plan. I started singing first, because I already knew how to do that—and I grew some—but not so much. After college and a year or two of teaching, I decided to get serious about preaching and went to seminary. And I grew some—but not much there, either. And then, life happened—and I grew some—a little bit more. I dealt with all the confusing questions of life, of identity and of call. I was rejected and hated, and lost and then found—and I grew—quite a bit more. On my 50th birthday, I reminded God that I still believed that I was called to pastor and to preach. And I entered the discernment process for the Anglican priesthood. And God said “wait”—and I grew a lot. A little more than 40 years after my first experience of call—I became your pastor—and I continue to grow every day. I’d like to tell you that I knew all along what God was doing; and, every once in a while, I’d get a brief glimpse of what God could do. Working two jobs most of my life to keep me active in ministry, I grew—not so much in the direction of absolute clarity or revelation, but I became an expert in waiting—not always so patiently, but waiting nonetheless. And while my spiritual practices may have waxed and waned, my belief that God had made me for a special purpose never truly left my heart. And, most of the time, I had no clear understanding of why I thought God was at work in my life, preparing me for another time and place and people, I just did. And so I look at you, every one of you; and I hear, “now is the time”, and I weep, as Simeon must have wept, in joy and expectation.
It is not necessary for you to have all the spiritual insight that you think you need in order to grow. There is no list of characteristics that you might seek to develop in order to become, “spiritual”. This is not how God’s Holy Spirit works. Our only responsibility is to be found ready—ready and prepared to follow the soft, sweet call of the Holy Spirit in our lives. And, so, today we begin our winter walk in the spirit. These winter weeks give us time to ready our hearts, to seek the guidance and inspiration of the Holy Spirit, to read God’s word and learn of Jesus whom we follow, and to open our hearts and minds to the wonder of prayer.
Now is the time because our eyes have seen the salvation prepared by God for all the peoples to see—a light of revelation for us all. Amen and amen.
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