A sermon by Senior Minister John B. McCall, January 5, 2009
Luke 2:22-35
Christmas is all over: Shepherds, back to your flocks and fields! Christmas trees – out to the curb! Teachers and students, back to your classrooms! Workers, back to the office, the store and the factory.
Christmas is all over! Some of the toys have been broken. All the batteries are drained. There’s a pile of items to return to the retailers. And it’s time to face reality.
But wait… is anything different because we’ve come to the manger? Do you look at life any differently, or have you resolved to live in a different way because of Christmas?
If we’ll let it, Christmas reminds us of what matters most. And every year, don’t we try to learn something from our trip to the manger? I sure hope so.
Sure, if Christmas is about trees and presents and school vacation… well, yes, it’s all over. But if we know that Christmas is about what God is doing with us, in us and through us, then this really can be a time that changes our hearts and our lives.
Let’s remember some really important pieces of the story: Mary and Joseph were faithful Jews. They followed the laws of the temple, and did what the law required. When Jesus was 8 days old, they took him from Bethlehem to the temple in Jerusalem – just a few miles – for the ritual of circumcision. If you know what that is, you know this is an act of obedience by which every Jewish male is brought into the covenant. If you don’t know what that is, ask your mother.
Mary was also there at the temple for the ritual of purification. New mothers were expected to separate themselves from everything until
Simeon was an old man. He knew all the promises that God had made through the prophets. And he knew that God had promised a Messiah, an anointed messenger in whom God would save the people of Israel.
More than anything, more than anything, Simeon wanted to see the Messiah. So God’s Holy Spirit told Simeon that his wish would be granted and he wouldn’t die until he actually saw Messiah. Scripture doesn’t tell us how long he waited, but the day came and Simeon went to the temple. There he saw Joseph, and Mary cradling a little child in her arms. And Simeon knew. And then he uttered a prayer: “Now, O God, I, your servant, can die with a peaceful heart because I have seen Messiah – the one who will bear salvation for all your people.”
Joseph and Marry were amazed at that. And then Simeon blessed them and said to Mary, Jesus’ mother: “Your child is destined for the rise and fall of many in Jerusalem; he will reveal what’s truly in each heart; and even so, you will feel heart-broken.”
Once Simeon had seen the Messiah of God, and had offered his blessing to Mary and Joseph, he could die a happy man. There was just nothing better in life. This was the mountain top.
Do you know what that feels like – having some dream or hope so important that it feels your whole life is focused like an intense beam of light right on it? And you just know that if you could live that dream or experience that moment, that would be enough?
Maybe you saw the movie this past year called “The Bucket List.” Jack Nicholson plays a corporate executive and Morgan Freeman plays a mechanic. They live on opposite sides of the tracks, but then end up as room mates at the hospital. Their illness became a great equalizer. Nicholson is deeply depressed and terribly grumpy. Freeman is positive and hopeful. Their illness became a great equalizer. So they decide to leave the hospital and life out some of their dreams – things they had always wanted to do and never quite gotten around to – sky-diving, race cars and a whole lot more.
A little silly, perhaps; not a great movie. But the point is fascinating. Many of us dream great dreams and then life gets in he way. The dreams may get messed up and layered over; we may just give up.
Some of you remember Fred Hale who died in November, 2004. He was two weeks short of his 114th birthday and was the world’s oldest man. Fred lived right here in South Portland for many of those years, and he was an enthusiastic Red Sox fan. He was 28 when the Sox had last won a Series in 1918. And just six weeks after they had won a second time, he breathed his last.
On a grander scale, think of the amazing reality of an African-American being elected President of the United States. You and I heard interviews of old folks who were recalling 50 years ago when they were prevented from voting at all; when they had to sit in the back of the bus and use separate restrooms because of the color of their skin.
Martin Luther King articulated the dream that some day the children of former slaves and former slave owners would work together for the common good. But even he couldn’t have imagined it would come to pass in the lifetime of his own children.
But this part of the Christmas story from Luke reminds us that God is at work in the world and in our lives. And the real importance of Christ’s birth is the truth that God is at work redeeming the world and working through our lives and filling us with reason to hope… reason to hope.
What do you hope for as we crack open the door to this New Year? What might be possible if you remember that God is at work?
For the old man Simeon, seeing the Messiah was that kind of dream. What about you? What experience or achievement, or hope or accomplishment is top of your list?
Is there anything you think about, or wish for, so deeply you might say to God, “once this happens, I, your servant, can depart in peace?”
Howard Thurman, a distinguished pastor, teacher and writer – and Chaplain at Boston University when Shirley Curry was a student there – wrote a poem that’s one of my favorites. It’s called The Work of Christmas:
When the song of the angel is stilled,
When the star in the sky is gone,
When the kings and princes are home,
When the shepherds are back with their flock,
The work of Christmas begins:
To find the lost —
To heal the broken
To feed the hungry –
To release the prisoner –
To rebuild the nations –
To bring peace among brothers and sisters –
To make music in the heart.