“Christmas Reality Check”
Luke 2:22-38
Allen Huff
Jonesborough Presbyterian Church
12/28/14
Simeon. He is often referred to as a priest – in fact the priest to whom Mary presents herself
for the purification required of all Jewish women after giving birth. But all
Luke says is that Simeon is a man who is “righteous and devout, [and] looking
for the consolation of Israel.” Luke calls him holy, but not a priest.
Anna. Like Elizabeth, Anna is a crone, a woman of great
age, wisdom, spiritual discipline, and depth. But she is a woman. It is not
likely that she has a theological education. And she has almost certainly not
been ordained to priestly office. For decades, however, “fasting and prayer”
have been this widow’s way of life. And such practices evoke and develop a
person’s spiritual awareness more graciously and generously than any academic
study or priestly rank ever can. Honoring her, Luke grants Anna the high status
of prophet.
So, we have Joseph and Mary. Then the shepherds. Now we
meet Simeon and Anna. Soon enough the disciples will come. Jesus may have some
rabbinical instruction, but as a carpenter’s son, his primary training is
probably of the real-world variety.
He knows the Torah, but his parables, and the other images he uses reveal
first-hand knowledge of what it means to subsist. He knows what it means to be
grateful just for having enough in
the midst of the impoverishing excesses of both Rome and the Jewish elite.
Jesus specializes in practical rather than systematic theology.
The Jesus movement is like that, isn’t it? It’s a grass-roots
movement. It is instigated by regular people, men and women without formal training, except in things like fishing,
tax collecting, begging, and prostitution. Christmas, then, is all about the
call of regular folks to be, to do, and to become remarkable things in and for
the creation. Christmas dares us, just like Simeon, to stare both life and
death in the face, and to do so with no less gratitude for one than the other.
Christmas unleashes in all of us, just like Anna, a well spring of praise.
It is a very familiar thing to extol the wisdom virtues of
the very young and the very old. “From the mouths of babes,” we say. And how
many stories depend on the active presence of some wise elder, male or female?
The very young and the very old both have something going for them that the
rest of us are old enough to have forgotten and too young to remember. At some
early point we learn not just to use but to wield the pronoun “I.” At a much
later point we begin to conquer our prejudiced fear of the pronoun “them.”
Between these two critical moments, most of us struggle mightily with or
capitulate entirely to the ego and its Black Friday appetite for
self-aggrandizement. We muster our precious energies and cast these pearls
before the ravenous swine of greedy competition, achievement, and most of all
control.
Now, we all need a healthy ego. It is part of what allows
us to embrace the liberating good news that we are made in God’s image, and that we are loved beyond all failure and fault. Still, spiritual growth is
virtually impossible when we are under the influence of a free-range ego.
Without boundaries, ego does nothing but take – legally or illegally, gently or
by force, but it takes. And like a wolf tasting blood, ego will take without
ever entertaining the idea of enough.
It always wants more.
“And the child’s father and mother were amazed at what was
being said about [Jesus].” Having heard such bright, wonderful things from
Gabriel, Elizabeth, shepherds, and now Simeon and Anna, Joseph and Mary face a
critical moment. How will these simple folks process all of this shiny
affirmation? Just as Jesus is tempted to allow his own ego to make his life and
everyone else’s all about him in the most inappropriate ways, Jesus’ parents
are tempted to cash in on this child who is causing such a stir.
In his wisdom, Simeon sees the presence and the promise of
God in this infant. And he also sees the potential for the baby’s parents to
let ego take over and to raise a celebrity rather than a son. So the wise elder
turns to Joseph and Mary and says, Bless
your hearts. Then, Simeon lowers the boom on Mary. In so many words he
says, Watch out. This child is going to
turn the world upside down. And he’s going to turn you, Mary, inside out. It
will not be all roses. There will be thorns, and there will be nothing you can
do about it.
The story of Jesus’ presentation in the temple is a kind of
Christmas reality check. Let’s face it. Much of our Christmas revelry is pure
indulgence and excess. Simeon’s ominous blessing turns us back toward the
steady, blue-collar, grass-roots work of faithful witness, and to the
relentless flow of life and death, and life anew. We have seen God’s salvation
yet again. We have been singing praises, and now we’re off to share the
soul-piercing good news of who we are
and who we can be as God’s people.
Both here and at home, this has been a most memorable
Christmas for me. Marianne, the kids, and I had a wonderful four days together.
And I look forward to gathering with extended family tomorrow night in Augusta.
And in all of this there are redemptive joys and revealing new beginnings.
Revealed in all of this, too, have been inner thoughts that are full of
heartache and even tears.
Joy to the world, indeed. For joy really has nothing to do with the happiness we all want and
expect from ribbons, bows, and wassail. Joy has to do with plodding forward
faithfully into our new life, aware, like Simeon, that we are seeing only the
beginning of the fulfillment of all that God promises. But we have seen, and we are seeing, in ourselves and in one another, the presence of God’s
Christ.
God is with us. Our temporary lives have eternal purpose
and meaning. Even as this beautiful world suffers under violence, greed,
poverty, and fear, faith, hope, and love not only survive; they thrive. And
they will prevail. This is the promise of Christmas, and of Easter. And it is
the message that is born and resurrected within us day, by day, by long,
beautiful, weary day.
Joy
to the world! The Lord is come.
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