Fulfilling the Past to Greet the Future
David C. Myers
December 28, 2008
Galatians 4:4 - 7
Luke 2:22 - 40
Text: "When Joseph and Mary had done everything prescribed in the Law of the Lord, . . ." . . . Luke 2:39
One of the great things about Luke's Gospel is that we all get hooked by the romanticism and sentimentality of the Nativity story. The other Gospels aren't like that. Mark omits the Nativity completely and begins his Gospel with Jesus' baptism. John uses beautiful, but abstract language in his Prologue and doesn't get into the nitty gritty "practicals" of Jesus birth. Matthew reports a Nativity Story, but more in the fashion of Sgt. Joe Friday interrogating someone who had just witnessed a crime; "just the facts."
Luke, however, embellishes the story; tells it in great detail and with much more feeling than any of the other Gospels. And Luke is careful not to leave anyone out of this great drama.
So, in Luke's Gospel, we hear the story of the Christ Child as it intertwines in the lives of the characters - principal and otherwise. The story of Zechariah and Elizabeth, the parents of John the Baptist; the shepherds, the angels, the story of Joseph and Mary, and the story of Anna and Simeon - this morning's story. It gives us a glimpse of life in first century Judaism. We see what is required of a family of a first born child. And, not coincidentally, we see Luke's great concern that the birth of the Messiah did nothing to undermine the Hebrew faith; but would rather fulfill it; . . . and in a very ironic way. Luke here puts together two separate regulations of the Hebrew Law: the purification of the mother after childbirth (from the Book of Leviticus (12:1-8) in the case of a male child, 40 days after the birth); and the dedication of the first-born son to God (From Exodus 13:2, 12-16).
The purification rite called for the sacrifice of a lamb and a pigeon, except in hardship cases, when two pigeons or doves would suffice. Of course Luke takes special care in noting that Joseph and Mary qualified as a hardship case. It's all part of Luke's sense of irony. Remember how he begins the nativity story? "In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all in the world should be enrolled. . . ." Well, that was the Roman world with all its power and domination speaking. To which God responds with the angel Gabriel's message to Mary "the Lord God will give to Him the throne of His ancestor David. He will reign over the house of Jacob forever." The irony is that by the time Luke wrote this account of the Gospel, Augustus Caesar was dead and almost forgotten, and while this Son never became a king like David, nor did He reign over the house of Jacob, the Christian message was now permeating into Rome. Luke knew that irony of ironies, this baby for Whom there was no room in the inn was now changing the course of the history of the world.
The second ritual is the dedication, and this is where Anna and Simeon come in. Simeon was an aged prophet and Anna was an 85-year-old prophetess. We're told that the Holy Spirit promised them that they would see it through and one day would be in the presence of God's Messiah. Naturally, with that kind of prophecy, they didn't want to die until they had seen the Messiah or what Simeon called the "restoration of Israel." So they could be found in the temple in Jerusalem everyday looking for the Messiah. Their endurance paid off, for in time they witnessed Joseph and Mary bringing the 40-day-old child to the Temple for dedication.
Simeon and Anna were described as two of the best that Judaism had to offer. We, as Christians, are often in the habit of seeing Judaism as only Pharisees and Scribes, but Simeon and Anna are lifted up as the best that might be brought forth from the Temple and the Torah. Just as the church is forever open to the criticism that it is filled with hypocrites, we also have some very special people that everyone recognizes as ones who live like we all wish we could.
Anna and Simeon had none of the self-righteousness of the Pharisees. They had none of that arrogance of righteousness that is so often odious. They had met sorrow and not become bitter. They had experienced great disappointments but were still hopeful. They were the fullest and best expression of Judaism.
They were the type of people Mary and Joseph wanted Jesus to become. Much like we would bring our children to the church for Baptism, Mary and Joseph brought their Son Jesus to the Temple to place Him under the tradition and the rituals of their faith. They had come to fulfill all the requirements of the Law so that Jesus might be able to develop into the kind of people that Simeon and Anna were.
William Willimon, now United Methodist Bishop, but then Dean of Duke University Chapel, writes about confirmation classes and tells of a church that decided that what they hoped their confirmation class would be able to do is to enable all of their young people to become like three or four of the "saints" of their congregation. If they could just pair their young people with "so and so" and let some of his or her faith and joy rub off onto the young people, the confirmation class would have been a great success. No doubt, Simeon and Anna would have been two of the people the leaders of the Temple would have picked if they had been using that method of confirmation.
Mary and Joseph come to act according to the Law, that tradition that instilled values and meaning; for, like all parents they want the best for their son. And they knew that Jesus could not grow, or become strong, filled with wisdom and have favor with God if He is not placed in the protection and power of God from the beginning. Much as it is for us now with our Sacrament of Baptism.
And not unlike the story of Anna and Simeon we, in the Sacrament of Baptism, fulfill the past in order to greet the future. In Baptism we reaffirm our own baptismal vows and pledge that we will do all in our power to see that the child is "established in the faith."
Luke is very careful to make sure that as we read this story we understand that Jesus had fulfilled all that was required of the family by the old traditions. Jesus comes as an act of God not to destroy the old, but to fulfill and overflow it. Mike Rutherford suggests in his song In the Living Years, that "I know that I'm a prisoner to all my father held so dear, I know that I am a hostage to all his hopes and fears," but Luke knows the revelation of the new is only possible after we have mastered all that has been. There is no great new music until you have mastered the old. There is no great impressionistic art until you have learned to paint the basics. There is no LeBron James until you have learned to dribble, to pass, to shoot the way the coach says.
That is the purpose of the rituals, the practices, the disciplines of faith: to prepare us for the fulfillment of God's grace within us. We Methodists, after all, have our ways. We remind ourselves who we are - imperfect people who more often than we would like to admit fall short of God's image for us. And we also remind ourselves of who we can be - the people who know of God's grace - that even though we are not perfect, we struggle - together at meetings, at classes, at fellowship - to right the wrongs and to help others. By such disciplines we may become the Simeons and the Annas. We might be those who have devotion, who have hope and who are eager to greet the future.
We prepare ourselves by the fulfillment of faithful discipleship. We discipline ourselves by rehearsing the same hymns, the same songs, practicing the rituals of prayer, communion, and baptism so that we might be prepared to recognize and rejoice; to see and celebrate a glimpse of God's mercy and power in our midst, in our own lives. For it could be that just one glimpse of God's goodness, one glimpse of God's graciousness, that enables us to live with less anxiety and worry. It permits us to be more generous and thus receive more joy in giving.
By fulfilling the past, we can be ready to confidently greet the future. For Anna and Simeon it was to see the dedication of the Messiah. For us it is to see the young children in our midst, to see the new expressions of faith that emerge for new forms of worship. And with this we affirm the words that conclude today's Gospel Lesson, "the child[ren] grew, became strong and full of wisdom, and the grace of God was upon [them]."
One glimpse and we are more confident of God and less concerned about what kind of resources we have, more grateful for what God has given. One glimpse, one little look, and Simeon bust forth in a song that has vibrated down the ages, the "Nunc Dimittis", "Lord, let now Thy servant depart in peace." Not only will there be "glory to . . . Israel, but also there will be a light of revelation to the Gentiles."
And Anna, she also gives thanks to God and indicates that the hope of redemption is fulfilled in the child.
Well, that's the entire story of Anna and Simeon. How long they lived after that day we do not know; they're not ever mentioned again. But in their brief cameo appearance we admire and draw from them their remarkable staying power, their extra effort in hanging on, for seeing it through until they have realized the fulfillment of their vision. It's a good message for us on this last Sunday on 2008: the value of seeing it through, of preserving in our hopes and dreams until they are realized, until they get passed on to another generation.
And, for us it is a lesson of the old embracing the new.