Let us pray...
Creator and maker of us all - bless the words of my lips and the meditations of our hearts - grow thou in us and show us your ways and inspire us to live by your truth.
Amen
A happy new year to you all!
My car has just depreciated $1000, and all my clothes are now last year's! Isn't time a mysterious entity? I'm amazed that I've experienced 55 'new year's - time has sped by so quickly. For children, of course, time has a different quality: for them eternity is the period between birthdays.
We human beings appear on the stage so transiently. We do our bit here and there, and move into the wings, to make way for others. The Egyptian Sphinx has watched Anthony and Cleopatra, Alexander, Napoleon, Mussolini and World War 1& 2 soldiers all stare up at it. They are now in the history books, but the sphinx remains...
'How strange is our little procession called life! Stephen Leacock once wrote: The child says, 'When I am big...' and then, grown up, he or she says, 'When I am married.' But then the thought turns to 'When I am able to retire.'
Then when retirement comes, we look back over the landscape. A cold wind blows over it. Somehow we have missed it all, and it is gone. Life, we learn too late, is in the living, in the tissue of every day and every hour.' Life is in the living!
And today in our Gospel reading we hear of Mary and Joseph going to the temple with their newborn son like every other parent of those days. Every mother went to the Temple after the birth of a baby boy for ceremonial purification and to dedicate her child to God. There they encounter two elderly godly people who love babies, Simeon and Anna.
Against the backdrop of the magnificent temple, Simeon reaches out and takes the baby in his arms, and praises God for this gift, this newness, this fresh life. This is an old man whose ageing dim eyes are not too dim to see that this baby is the salvation that God has promised for his people and a "light for the revelation to the Gentiles".
Many babies have been brought to temple for ritual purification over the years, but Old Simeon sees in this tiny child the salvation that people have been waiting for. Here in his arms is the one who will save all people. Old Simeon says that he is now ready to die now that he has seen the promise of God fulfilled.
Old Simeon reminds me of the true story about Clara. Clara was dying of cancer. She was near death for many weeks but she held on, telling visitors, "I'm waiting for the birth of my first grandchild". The day after that child was born, the little baby was delivered to the hospital and laid in his grandmother's arms, and you can imagine how she happy was. The whole family rejoiced because, on the day of the baby's birth, Clara took a turn for the better. Some hopefully thought that Clara might live longer than expected.
But that night, she died. A dying woman had held and celebrated new life, then she was ready to die. That's the way that Simeon said it was for him as he blessed this new baby and his parents. He had waited patiently for this child and now through his dimmed eyes he could see the salvation that God had brought to all people.
But in spite of his obvious joy, Simeon then speaks to Mary and speaks of the coming gloom. Simeon predicted, "This child of yours will cause many people in Israel to fall and others to stand. The child will be like a warning sign. Many people will reject him, and you, Mary, will suffer as though you had been stabbed by a dagger. But this will show what people are really thinking"
What strange words amid the joy of Christmas and the celebrations about this little baby! Simeon is talking about opposition - falling and rising – rejection - suffering. Is this appropriate language when parents are so full of hope for the future baby? Old Simeon tells us that this birth will involve as much pain as joy. The sword that will pierce Mary will inch its way ever deeper into her heart as Jesus experiences rejection that ends at the cross.
And so just as the old man’s wrinkled skin contrasts with the new, soft and cuddly flesh of the baby he holds, so also now we hear of a message of pain and conflict that contrasts with the joy and delight of a new born baby.
But even though all the Christmas parties are over, the buying and giving has come to an end, and even though the shopping malls are packing away their Christmas decorations, the church still celebrates joy, real joy.
Christmas joy is not just an annual fantasy trip that is here one day and gone the next. For the Christian, Christmas is about a God who loves us so much that he becomes one of us, he is born among us, looks like us, feels like us, lives and dies like us. A God who comes to us, to tell us the truth about our sinfulness will be resisted.
Simeon is saying that many people will stumble over this rock. Many people will turn away from Jesus, be offended by his stable birth, his death on a cross, his insistence that only his forgiveness can get rid of sin and that it is only through him that we can be given a place in our heavenly home. On the other hand, many will find comfort in name of Jesus. They will see in him God's love and forgiveness. As Simeon saidover two thousand years ago: This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many. Old Simeon had lived long enough to know that if God wants to bless us, to save us, somehow God must confront the worst about us, the things we do to one another, the terrible things we do to ourselves, the way we oppose and hurt God. That confrontation would not come cheap.
This cuddly baby Jesus in Simeon's arms would grow up, would speak the truth to us, would die for us. So a cross stands behind the manger this morning. The joy of old Simeon was not a joy that is here today and gone tomorrow. It is a joy more deep and complex than this.
It is a joy that is centered on knowing and believing that, in spite of who we are and what we do, there is a God who loves us and has sent his Son Jesus at Christmas because of us so that he could rescue us from every sin and danger by dying for us on the cross on Good Friday.
The salvation that God brings to us through the baby born in Bethlehem is going to cost the life of that child. There can be no joy for us, unless that baby in Simeon's arms dies for the sins of all people. And he prepares Mary for this when he says: And a sword will pierce your own soul too.
In the Gospels, it is clear that the death of Jesus Christ was in view from the moment he was born. It was part of the divine purpose and plan for him from the beginning. We have a hint of the cross in the words of the aged Simeon said to the mother of our Lord, "Many people will reject him, and you, Mary, will suffer as though you had been stabbed by a dagger."
I began by talking about the joy that we feel at the birth of a child, and especially the celebrations we are having because of the birth of Jesus in a stable in Bethlehem. Like Simeon we rejoice that God has sent his Son because of his great love for us.
But there is an element of sadness in Simeon's blessing - this baby must die. He must die because of our sinfulness. He will die for our salvation. For us his death on the cross gives us an even greater reason to rejoice.
We have a Saviour who loves us and has died for us. The challenge for us is to take this Christmas joy with us into the rest of the year. Even if we should die this year, be stricken with disease or face all kinds of misfortune, we can have that deep down joy and confidence knowing that Jesus is Immanuel. He is God with us every step of the way. This is Christmas.
My the peace of God which passes all understanding keep your
Heart, and your mind through Jesus Christ our Lord
Amen.
Rev. Samuel King-Kabu
January 1, 2006