The Gospel Lesson                                                                Luke 2:22-40

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 (as it is written in the law of the Lord, “Every firstborn male shall be designated as holy to the Lord”), and they offered a sacrifice according to what is stated in the law of the Lord, “a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons.”

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. It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Messiah. 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, Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying,

“Master, now you are dismissing your servant in peace, according to your word, for my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the gentiles and for glory to your people Israel.”

And the child’s father and mother were amazed at what was being said about him. 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 so that the inner thoughts of many will be revealed—and a sword will pierce your own soul, too.”

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, 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. 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.

When they had finished everything required by the law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth. The child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom, and the favor of God was upon him.

Sermon Text

The world needs light. The world needs hope. The world needs something to testify to the fact that there is more than sadness at the end of the long road of life. Amidst hardships, amidst struggle, amidst the endless complications we face – there must be something that can give direction to the scattered particles of life. To paraphrase a favorite song of mine, “this page of strange gibberish [must] find a final punctuation mark.”[1]

Trouble is not unique to any age or any people, but shared across time and space. While we have been born into one of the most prosperous eras of history, at least relative to all other times, we are still faced with trouble. There’s the sorts of trouble that are seemingly universal and ever evolving: the increasing cost of living that shows no sign of slowing will continue to put pressure on each and every one of us, the weather will be increasingly unpredictable, global tensions show no sign of simplifying in our lifetime. Then there is the sort of trouble that never changes, but always takes on new forms for the people who face it – the threat of hunger and disease, the specter of conflict, and the very real and existential threats to life that come as a consequence of simply living.

The broken world in which we live, further orchestrated to be crueler by human sin, is the same world Christ was born into – simply in a different era of living out its troubles. Christ, who was born fully into humanity was also born fully into creation – a universe that is always changing, but essentially constant. The Hope of Christ is therefore unchanging, available to everyone in all ages equally – something that was clear to those with eyes to see from the moment he entered the world.

In our scripture today, Jesus is taken to the Temple by Mary and Joseph. Mary is going to pay the price given in the Torah that a woman must pay after giving birth, Joseph is going to pay the five shekels (as best I can calculate, equivalent to half of a day’s wages for a carpenter,) required of a first-born son.[2] The two are going to do “everything required by the law of the Lord,” showing their obedience to God. However, they are gifted something far greater than the trifling amount of money they paid. They receive Hope in the form of two prophecies, given by two lay people in the Temple.

One of the things left out of the story is who was holding Baby Jesus in the midst of these prophecies. Women could not enter the inner court where Joseph would pay the redemption price, and likewise Joseph would not be likely to linger in the Court of Women. I believe that the first encounter with Simeon the two parents were together and the second encounter with Anna, Mary was alone. What does this matter to the story? Very little ultimately, but as we shall see, Anna’s words are not recorded while Simeon’s are. I believe whatever praise of God which Anna gave was something private, secret to her and Mary, something that was shared between two women in the outer courts of the Temple long ago.

The one prayer we do hear is from the mouth of Simeon, a prophet not by birth but by the gift of God’s Spirit. He knew that he would live long enough to see God deliver the world from its present troubles, but he did not know what that deliverance would look like. I’m sure he pictured God redeeming Israel the way many others did at the time. A king would appear and destroy their enemies, the nation as a political entity would be revived, a new era would break out of greatness among God’s people. Whatever his vision was, in the reality of the infant Christ he saw something grander. Taking the infant in his arms, snatching him from his parents, the Spirit showed him just what Christ was going to do.

Firstly, he gave peace to the old man – he could now after years spent worshipping God in the Temple. Secondly, the salvation which Jesus was to bring into the world was going to go far beyond God’s people in Judah. Jesus was a light to the nations, a hope for all people, and though he was “prepared,” in Judah, he was meant for the whole world. Salvation, complete and total redemption of creation, would be a light of redemption to the world, it would show God’s presence to the people of Judah, this child would change everything.

With what I have to imagine was a heavy heart, Simeon also saw the hardships the child was to face. Disease, death, poverty – common troubles faced by all people – yet still greater hardships than anyone could imagine. Death on a cross, a redemptive sacrifice that was necessary for life to conquer darkness. The child he now held in his arms, would face the most incredible pain… In giving the child back to his mother, his words must have been frightening, “a sword will pierce your soul too…” Mary would know loss that no one should have to face, the loss of a child and the constant burden of the falsehoods spoken about him.

This child, our savior, is a hope we still bring into the world. If we are willing to make Christ’s presence among us known, we have to do as Simeon did and see Christ as Christ truly is. The sight of Christ made Simeon see a salvation beyond himself, a salvation that went beyond Israel to all nations. The sight of Christ made Simeon see a suffering messiah rather than a triumphant King. Simeon met Christ and changed his view of God, and in seeing God as God truly was, found hope.

We cannot replace Christ’s image with false images of our savior. We cannot diminish the universal nature of Christ’s offer of salvation, creating any distinction that would force us to separate ourselves from the essential truth revealed in Paul’s writings, “As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is no longer Jew or Greek; there is no longer slave or free; there is no longer male and female, for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.”[3] We build up walls to separate ourselves, portioning salvation and pouring it as we see fit. Christ has called for something far greater – for grace to be poured out again and again, on all people, as many as would receive it.

The table that is set before us is clothed simply, but the moment we join together in Holy Communion, it will be the most important piece of furniture in this room. On it, bread and juice will become the Body and Blood of Christ. We who take it will receive grace to empower us, encounter our God directly. We like Simeon will take Christ into our arms, in passing the peace of Christ to one another we will look the image of God in the face again and again… Will we allow ourselves to be changed by that? To offer hope to the world after having received it ourselves? That is the choice we must make today. Christ is among us, let us act and proclaim as if we believe that to be true. – Amen.

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[1] “Let’s Get this Over With” track 1 on They Might Be Giants, I Like Fun, Idlewild, 2018.

[2] There’s several problems with my calculation. Firstly, I’m using the Tyrian shekel as my basis which may or may not be the same measurement. Secondly, I’m using the average weight of a silver denarii to compare to a shekel. Thirdly, I’m using the income of a carpenter taken from the Edict of Diocletian to determine the daily salary of someone like Joseph. Joseph was probably paid by job, and so probably made much less than this. This approximation of income is, therefore, a conjecture that tries to tie the ancient numbers and measurements to modern concepts – like spending half a day’s pay.

[3] Galatians 3: 27-28