Sermon December 27, 2020 Rev. Peter Hofstra
“The
consolation of Israel”, “the redemption of Jerusalem”, “a light for revelation
to the Gentiles”, and “the glory to your people, Israel.” These are what Simeon and Anna saw in the
baby Jesus when his parents brought him up to Jerusalem for his dedication to
the Lord. As the firstborn son of the
family, according to the law of Moses, he was “designated as holy to the
Lord”, to be redeemed by a sacrifice of a pair of turtledoves or two
young pigeons.
What
it means to be “holy to the Lord”, as the firstborn, was established in the law
of Moses at Passover. Because of the
tenth plague, where every firstborn of Egypt died to move the heart of Pharaoh
to let God’s people go, the firstborn of all in Israel was holy to the Lord, to
be redeemed by a sacrifice offered in the stead of the first-born son.
It is
about five and a half miles to Jerusalem from Bethlehem, so Mary and Joseph
could have done this in a day-even traveling with a newborn.
This
is the ritual required of all families on the Jewish faith, the redemption of
the first born. What makes this one
different is that it is Jesus. He is not
simply ‘holy to the Lord’ because he is the firstborn, but he is straight up
‘holy to the Lord’. Simeon and Anna are
there to lay out what this will mean for Jesus’ parents.
The
consolation of Israel and the redemption of Jerusalem are the return of Israel
to right and free relationship with God.
Israel is the entire nation and Jerusalem is the center of worship for
the nation, so they are virtual synonymous. The Promised Land will be restored
to them, under God’s reign where they shall be free of the foreign
interventions and invasions that mark Israel’s history. This promise is to come to pass with the
coming of the Messiah-that the people have been waiting for. That is what the Holy Spirit revealed to
Simeon, he would not die till he had seen the Messiah, this is what the Prophet
Anna spoke of on behalf of God.
Being
a light of revelation to the Gentiles, that is good news for all of us. Because the Messiah is not simply reserved
for the nation of Israel, but for the whole world. This goes back to a promise God made to
Abraham, that through him, all nations (the Gentiles) would be blessed. The fulfillment of this promise made to
Abraham is the glory of God’s people, Israel.
Their glory comes as the whole world is brought into right relationship
with God through the coming of the Messiah.
And
all of this joy and wonder is being dumped into the laps of a couple bringing
their newborn into the Temple to fulfill the requirements of God’s law. First, a crazy old man and then a nutty old
woman both come wandering up, making grand and insane sounding pronouncements
about an 8 day old, before they each go tottering off, praising God.
I
wonder if Mary, when she stood at Calvary, watching her son slowly dying on the
cross, hearkened back to that last bit Simeon said to her, “a sword will pierce
your own soul too.” His words would
make me exceptionally cautious about ever taking my child out in public
again. Who else might be out there who
will come up and pronouncement more things about their son?
It
could be that Mary and Joseph were getting used to it by now. After all, on the night of His birth, the
rather…fragrant…environment of the stable became even more so with the arrival
of a band of shepherds, for whom baths were few and far between-given their
keeping the sheep out in the fields on the overnight.
Huge,
world changing events are swirling around this child. And as much as we want to acknowledge the
still of the night when the Baby Jesus was born, Luke is committed to us
getting that something far greater is happening.
Before
Jesus, when it comes to God’s communication with humanity, it comes in three
basic forms. The first is what comes
through Simeon and Anna, it comes through the Old Testament passages pointing
forward to birth of Christ, they are prophecies, they are words. God says it and that is that. But there are times when God upgrades from
words to deeds, it is not simply the Lord saying something is going to happen,
but in a display of divine power, the authority behind the prophecy is
established, it is when God sends a sign.
Gideon, in Judges 6, is probably the most direct challenge a human ever
aims at God. Gideon is called to lead
the people, but before he will, he insists on what are essentially magic tricks
to be convinced that God has the power to do what God says God will do.
On
Christmas Eve, we read about the angels, talking to the shepherds, echoing the
promise given in Isaiah 7, that God’s sign to them would be the birth of a baby
from a virgin mother. When Moses came
upon the burning bush in the wilderness, that was another sign of God. When Elijah was fed in the desert by ravens,
that was another sign of God. Jonah in
the belly of a fish for three days was another sign of God. These are demonstrations of God’s power,
designed to show that the full faith and measure of heaven is behind the words
that God speaks.
If
signs are the second form of God’s communication, what is the third? It is the coming to pass of what God said was
going to happen. So in the case of
Gideon, after the signs, he led God’s people to triumph. The ten plagues in Egypt are awful signs of
God’s power, to reinforce the message “Let my people go.” In the end, the people were let go.
Here,
at the beginning of the life of Jesus among us here on earth, the words of the
prophets Simeon and Anna come to Mary and Joseph, looking forward to what Jesus
is going to accomplish. We could, I
suppose, consider them to be doddering old people who come wandering up and
chatter on about the baby Jesus, but I would suggest that we consider them each
to be a sign to the parents of Jesus.
Yes,
Mary was visited by Gabriel and yes, Joseph was visited by God in a vision, but
to read Luke, they missed the angelic lightshow. Honestly, that is probably the last thing
Mary needed after giving birth, a multitude of the heavenly host shing in her
face. It reminds me of certain comedic
scenes in television shows. The mother
is in the birthing suite, the husband and the nurses are present, when the
doctor comes in, parading along his class of interns, because this is a
teaching hospital. Probably for the best
that the angels went to find the shepherds and not come to the stable.
On
the whirlwind that was Christmas Eve, that was the birth of Jesus, as much as
Mary pondered all these things in her heart, how much would have just flown
right past? She was a mom, for the first
time, she had a lot on her plate.
So
now, it is eight days later. They are in
THE place where the Lord is worshipped.
The Temple was the one place to offer sacrifice to the Lord. In the scattered communities, they had their
synagogues, but those were places people came to hear and learn the word of
God. The Temple was where they came to
worship and, through the sacrificial system, realign their lives rightly with
the Most High God.
It is
in this environment, in the heart of the worship of God in Israel, that Mary
and Joseph have come. And yes, I made
light of them, but Simeon is described as a man who was righteous and devout,
in his old age certainly. But Luke tells
us that when he wrote his gospel, he sought out the truth, spoke to
eyewitnesses and earwitnesses. The
legacy of Simeon carried forward to the time of the writing of the gospel. He was not just some random citizen, he was
known for the life he lived in devotion to the Lord. The Holy Spirit was upon him, he was one to
be listened too.
Anna
as well. She is a prophet of the
Lord. A prophet is known for the words
they speak on behalf of God. And it
seems she was a fixture in the temple.
She was eighty four now, widowed after a marriage that lasted seven
years. Given the age at which girls
married at that time, if she’d given the rest of her life over to prophecy and
worshipping in the temple, she could very well have been known in the temple
for sixty years.
Thus,
if Mary and Joseph had considered reporting these two strangers accosting them
to security, the credentials, the bona fides, the nature of the devoted
relationship each of these two had to the Lord would have been well
established. I believe these two served
as a confirmational sign to Mary and Joseph, in God’s House, that all God had
told them in regards to Jesus was already known and being shared ahead of them.
Because
that is what Christmas is. It is a sign
for us of the power of God. God has told
us about the Messiah and what the Messiah is going to accomplish. That is the first way God communicated at
that time. The coming of Jesus was the
sign to us of God’s power. These two
were the sign to Mary and Joseph of God’s power. And the words and deeds of the Lord at this
moment, at Christmas and the days following, they are borne out in the actions
of God in the life, the death, and the resurrection of Jesus that we celebrate
at Easter. Every word and story in the
Gospel reaches forward to be a sign and confirmation to all of us.
Jesus
is the revelation to the Gentiles.
Brothers and sisters, we are the Gentiles. The promises made about Jesus have come to
us. Christmas has become for us the sign
of God to the whole world. We have heard
what God has to say, we have seen what God has done as signs to demonstrate
God’s power, we have lived through and into the prophecies of what God has said
would come to pass. What do we do with
all of this? I think Anna provides a
good role model.
We
should praise the Lord for what has been done and let the world know of what
has been accomplished in Christ Jesus.
Amen.
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