First Sunday after Christmas
Luke 2:22-40
"A Big Breath"
22 And 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
23 (as it is written in the law of the Lord, “Every male that opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord”)
24 and to offer a sacrifice according to what is said in the law of the Lord, “a pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons.”
25 Now there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon, and this man was righteous and devout, looking for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him.
26 And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he should not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ.
27 And inspired by the Spirit he came into the temple; and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him according to the custom of the law,
28 he took him up in his arms and blessed God and said,
29 “Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word;
30 for mine eyes have seen thy salvation
31 which thou hast prepared in the presence of all peoples,
32 a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to thy people Israel.”
33 And his father and his mother marveled at what was said about him;
34 and Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother, “Behold, this child is set for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is spoken against
35 (and a sword will pierce through your own soul also), that thoughts out of many hearts may be revealed.”
36 And there was a prophetess, Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher; she was of a great age, having lived with her husband seven years from her virginity,
37 and as a widow till she was eighty-four. She did not depart from the temple, worshiping with fasting and prayer night and day.
38 And coming up at that very hour she gave thanks to God, and spoke of him to all who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem.
39 And when they had performed everything according to the law of the Lord, they returned into Galilee, to their own city, Nazareth.
40 And the child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom; and the favor of God was upon him.
Grace and Peace to you from our Lord and Saviour, Jesus who is the Saviour. Amen
There once was a boy named Tommy. Tommy was like most boys of the age 5, he like to run and play. He liked to get himself all dirty, especially in mud puddles after a nice rain. Tommy had two little dimples on his cheeks and when he smiled, they made him look just like an angel. But Tommy didn’t smile as much as he could for you see Tommy was lonely. Tommy lived in an orphanage because Tommy’s parents had been killed.
The people in the orphanage like having Tommy around. They liked to see his dark hair flopping in the breeze as Tommy ran around the furniture and all over the house. These people loved Tommy very much, but Tommy knew that it wasn’t like having real parents of his very own. Tommy wanted parents that would love only him.
One day while Tommy was playing dodge ball, and Tommy was pretty good at that, he was usually the last one out, in the court house down the street from the orphanage, court was in session. This session of the court was very important to Tommy even though Tommy knew nothing of what was taking place. Judge Johnson was holding court that day. Now Judge Johnson liked to make people happy if he could. He was a jolly man who was always smiling and finding good in people. In today’s court, the Judge was deciding if some people who saw Tommy at the orphanage could adopt him as there very own child. The judge was making a decision that would affect Tommy’s whole like from that moment on, and Tommy didn’t even know what was happening.
Judge Johnson after hearing all the testimony decided that Tommy could have these people, this couple, as his parents. The Judge decided that these people had a lot of love in their hearts and they would share that love with Tommy. He felt they would be good parents
Can you imagine how excited Tommy will be when these people come to the home and they tell him they are going to be Tommy’s new parents. Tommy will no longer have to be lonely, he will have parents to take care of him, to love him, and to be loved by Tommy. The judge made a decision that would affect Tommy forever.
God made a decision that affects our whole lives in the same kind of way that Judge Johnson made his decision. It is that decision that we celebrate tonight and tomorrow. It is that decision that all the world celebrates during this Christmas season. It is that decision that creates all the excitement, all the joy, all the happiness this time of year. God made a decision that affects our lives, a decision that without our consent, without our knowledge, without our approval. A decision was made that would affect our lives now and for the rest of eternity. That decision was for God to send his son to earth, for God to put skin on, so that we might have the opportunity to have eternal life. God made a decision out of love for us, out of love for the creation, God decided to come to earth, to walk among us, to be like one of us , so that we could see in a very real way how much he loves us.
God made a decision to do this without consulting us, with out asking our permission, without us really having anything to say about the matter. God wanted our salvation to be in his hands, not ours. God decided that sending his son to earth having him walk among us, live with us, then die for our sins and rise on the third day, would be the only way that God the father could be reconciled with the children of his creation. So God decided to do this for us. God decided because he is a God of love, a God of mercy, a God of compassion. God made this kind of decision because he knew that we could not by our own merits, our own works, our own efforts make ourselves worthy in his eyes. God knew we could never live up to the perfection he wants, so he decided he would live up to that perfection himself, then punish himself for our sins, and then tell us that by believing in what he has done for us. We would be made right with him.
This is the decision that we celebrate this Christmas season.
I have some good news for you today, take a big breathe, hold it let it go, relax, Christmas is over, you can relax, take it easy, the food is all baked, the tree is all decorated, the presents are all unwrapped, the holiday is finished. The bad news is, the clean up job remains. The Christmas decorations need to be put away, the trees undecorated, then either put back in the box, or hauled outside. There are piles of wrapping paper to put away and throw away, there are those added pounds to be lost, because you had such good food during these holidays. The bad news continues when you think of the gifts that have to be returned, because they didn’t fit right, or weren’t the exact color, and more bad news comes when you find that even though you were trying to be careful, you somehow over-spent and now you wonder how you are going to pay for all that good news.
These leftovers items are also part of the holiday, also part of the Christmas season, also part of our celebration. Somehow the leftovers seem to be an anticlimax to the Christmas celebration. Somehow these things cleaning, loosing weight, taking things back, putting things away, don’t seem to fit in just right with that Christmas Spirit. Somehow these leftovers just don’t feel right with the glitter, the excitement, the wonder, the awe, the majesty and the beauty of Christmas.
But, I would venture to say, these leftovers do go hand in hand with the Christmas spirit, these leftovers are part and parcel with Christmas.
These leftovers have as much to do with Christmas, as the event itself, because Christmas just doesn’t end after Dec. 25th, but what happened during Christmas lives on and on. It lives in our memories, it lives in these leftovers, it lives as we see anew what this Christ child means for us. The Christmas spirit, the birth of Jesus lived on in so-called leftovers of society as we read about Simeon and Anna in our gospel lesson this morning. Christmas does not end with the day being over, but Christmas, and what it truly means lives on each day.
The Christmas Spirit was revealed first of all to two old people, Simeon and Anna. As Pastor John Brokhoff says in his book, Wrinkled Wrappings, "They are leftover from the meal of life. By their wrinkled, shrivel bodies they appear as wrinkled wrappings. But leftovers can be good and delicious as the main meal. This was the case with the couple in wrinkled wrappings. They saw something 40 days after Christmas that no body up to that time had seen. The shepherds, the religious ruler who heard rumors of his birth, his father and mother, all didn’t really understand or see in this child the image of God. The only ones who recognized the Messiah in the man-child, God in Jesus, were two aged, wrinkled, wrapped left-over people, Simeon and Anna."
Simeon and Anna saw and they believed, they saw and worshiped, they saw and lived in that grace they experienced from that child, they saw and continued to serve God through others. These marvelous people, these leftovers, this wrinkled wrapped man and woman are a fine example for us of how God continues to reveal himself to the leftovers, the wrinkled wrapped people of society. God doesn’t always reveal himself to the powerful, the wealthy, the healthy, the wise, the famous, the upper crust of society. He reveals himself to the lowly, the outcasts, the leftovers, the wrinkled wrapped, who society has frown on, who society has disregarded as weak, and worthless, but God sees as whole and holy.
God came as a child to this earth to be with all of society, even the so-called leftovers. "A Negro died and went to heaven. He got together with other blacks and they started comparing their life histories. Finally, they approach God, and their spokesperson said, "Lord, you just don’t realize how tough it was down there!! I was born black. I was of a despised race!! And God said, "I was once a Jew." The black went on, "Yes, but I was persecuted. My daddy was innocent, but still the Klan hanged him." And Jesus showed them his own nail-scarred hand. "You don’t understand, Lord!!" The black went on, "I never had a cent, no education, no home. People laughed and scoffed at me. Why, when I was a baby, we had to flee our house and move to another city for thesafety of our lives." And God smiled tenderly. He placed his big arm around the black man’s shoulder and said, "I know how it is my son. I have been there myself."
Yes, He has. God did not send us a book, a picture, a song, or an idea. He did not send us a sermon or even a friend. Instead, God came himself. He gave us his presence more than he gave us an explanation. He gave us his own life, death and resurrection.
God understood the cries of the little one in this story:
One night a small little voice was heard from the bedroom across the hall. "Daddy, I’m scared!"
The response came quick: "Honey, don’t be afraid, daddy’s right across the hall."
After a very brief pause the little voice is heard again, "I’m still scared!"
Again a response: "You don’t need to be afraid. God is watching over you."
This time the pause is longer ... but the voice returns, "Daddy, I want someone with skin on!" Jesus is God "with skin on."
God came to earth with skin on. He came as a child born in a manger, he came with skin on so we would know that he understood the human predicament of sin. He came with skin on so he could take away our sins and give us eternal life.
God came to earth for the leftovers, for the wrinkled wrapped, for all those who acknowledge they cannot handle life alone. God came to earth especially today, for those who have not measured up by earthly standards. He came for the poor, the sick, the chronically ill, the despised, the broken, those experiencing broken relationships, and the handicapped.
God comes to all those who live in the humility that they cannot handle life alone. He comes to make winners out of losers. Notice, I said, He came to make winners out of losers, God does the work not us. He does it with His own timetable in His own way, through His own means.
Who would have thought that an old dying priest would be the one to bless the Baby and declare for all to hear that this baby would be the light to lighten the Gentiles. For Simeon says, "Lord, now lettest thou they servant depart in peace, according to thy word; for mine eyes have seen thy salvation which thou hast prepared in the presence of all people, a light for the revelation to the Gentiles, and for the glory to thy people Israel."
Simeon declared the mission and ministry of Jesus and his followers. It would be some 33 or more years later until that mission would truly begin in earnest to the Gentiles and that mission is not complete yet. God’s timetable is not for human minds or souls to understand, or predict.
I am glad that throughout the Bible, God has always seen past the negatives to the positives, that God has seen in the wrinkled wrapped, in the left overs of society a worth, a holiness, a dignity, that others fail to see.
Yes, Lord, I am thankful you have seen in the Simeons, the Anna’s, the wrinkled wrapped of this world, a holiness, a righteousness, a faith, and a dignity.
Lord, I am glad your eyesight is better than ours. You see the worth of the individual. Yes, Lord, thank you for the wrinkled wrapped, for the leftovers, because in your eyes, they are the beautiful packages.
Amen
Written by Pastor Tim Zingale December 26, 2005
