Endings and Beginnings
A sermon by Danielle Morton on Isaiah 63:10-62 and Luke 2: 22-40
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable to you
O Lord our rock and our redeemer. Amen.
Merry Christmas!
So here we are a week into the Christmas season and we have one of the few Gospel narratives of Jesus as a baby/child and a story that is only found in the Gospel of Luke.
Today we pick up almost where we left off on Christmas Eve with Mary and Joseph bringing the baby Jesus to the Temple in Jerusalem. Oddly enough, the compilers of the lectionary decided to leave out one verse that connects the two sets of readings: “After eight days had passed, it was time to circumcise the child; and he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb.” (Luke 2:21). Through circumcision, boys enter into God's covenant with Abraham and his descendants—it is a chain linking him to the very beginning of the Jewish nation. It is custom to name a child during this ritual so that the Jewish name is given to them at the time they become members of the Jewish nation, just as Abram became Abreham at the time of God’s covenant with him.
Then at the beginning of today’s reading we have moved ahead 33 days to Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus heading to Jerusalem for the time of their purification and the presentation of Jesus in the temple. Over the past two Sundays of Gospel passages, we have seen Mary and Joseph attend to a number of civil and religious duties. The registration of all citizens, circumcising their son, naming him as the angels declared, and now presenting him in the temple and attending to the purification rituals following childbirth. But what is the presentation and purification?
The presentation of the first-born male child stems from the Passover when God claimed possession of every first born in Israel. In this manner, Jesus, the firstborn male child, is bought back from God. Obedient to the religious laws, Mary and Joseph present Jesus and the required offering, which, as a poor family, was specified in Leviticus as two turtledoves. This seemingly small detail reminds the reader that God is working through the poor.
Now, to the purification ritual. After giving birth, there was a three-step purification process for the woman. Amy-Jill Levine, Professor of New Testament and Jewish Studies explains this tradition: “Impurity, which is not to be confused with sin, was a daily factor in Jewish life: one is impure because of menstruation or ejaculation, childbirth, or burial of a corpse. Purity marks matters of life and death. To regain the status of purity, which was needed to enter the Jerusalem Tempel, people practiced certain rituals such as bathing and, in some circumstances, sacrifice was also mandated. Attending to purity concerns allows practitioners to sanctify the body as well as to mark all times of either the beginning of life or its cessation.” End quote.
Over the years, the Christian church has found various ways to honour the experience of childbirth. For instance, in our own Anglican tradition, the 1962 version of the Book of Common Prayer for the Anglican Church of Canada has a liturgy called “The Thanksgiving After Child-Birth”. The focus of the prayers and the ritual are thanksgiving to God for delivering the mother from the perils of childbirth and for the ongoing divine protection of the mother and child.
One of my favourite traditions that we have commonly practiced at SBT, and which I haven’t seen in an Anglican church before, seems to reflect elements of honouring the significance of childbirth and a new baby—although I do not claim to know the specifics for how this practice began. When a baby is brought to church for the first time there is a brief pause during announcements at the end of a Sunday service. The priest gathers up the little one, introduces them to the community, blesses them, and offers a prayer for the wee one and the family that has welcomed them. It is a simple gesture of recognition, welcome, thanksgiving, and hope for the future. It is an honouring of the change of seasons in the life of one particular family but also in the life of the congregation.
Of course, the gospel reading today doesn’t end with Mary, Joseph, and Jesus going to the temple, saying some prayers, making an offering, and then leaving. Now we get to the second part of the passage where two elders, Simeon and Anna, enter the scene. Simeon had come to the temple that day—a common activity for someone described as “righteous and devout”—however it specifies that on this day he was guided by the Spirit. We hear that the Holy Spirit had revealed to Simeon that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Messiah. Upon seeing the new family enter the temple, and presumably recognizing Jesus for who he was, Simeon took baby Jesus into his arms and praised God, saying:
Master, now you are dismissing your servant in peace, according to your word;
for my eyes have seen your salvation,
which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples,
a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel.
Many of us will be familiar with this part of Simeon’s prophetic announcement in the words of the Nunc Dimittis or The Song of Simeon. In particular this canticle is placed as the climax of the Compline liturgy (or Night Prayers). It is prayed right before the Apostle’s Creed, inviting all participants to pause to reflect on the moments of God’s salvation that each have experienced that day. To see God’s salvation in moments of joy, but also grief, pain, and loneliness. It is a recognition that God has and continues to fulfill His promise to His people and that we continually choose to put our trust in God throughout life and as we prepare for new beginnings and endings—whether of days or of life.
Just as quickly as Simeon declares that the child who marks the presence of salvation is in their midst, he turns to Mary and Joseph, blesses them, and says to Mary: “This child is destined for the falling and the rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be opposed so that the inner thoughts of many will be revealed—and a sword will pierce your own soul too.”
Simeon’s prediction echoes what Mary sung about in the Magnificat earlier in the Gospel and provides an external confirmation of what Mary had already recognized regarding the nature and content of Jesus’ mission. The “falling and rising of many” that both Mary and Simeon declared suggests that Jesus will disturb the existing structures of power and will consequently face resistance. In short, He will become a stumbling block to many in the nation. Even though Joseph is present, and Simeon blesses both parents, his phrase “and a sword shall pierce your soul” is directed specifically to Mary. In drawing attention to that, the Gospel writer is emphasizing Mary’s role as someone who has already been integral in Jesus’ story and who will walk with Jesus through his earthly journey.
Simeon is confirming for Mary that even as we are celebrating the anticipation of salvation through Jesus, not everything that is about to happen will be joyful. Being the mother of a son who will challenge the empire is not going to be easy and there will be consequences and possibly danger, for all who follow. As Raj Nadella, NT professor at Columbia, explains: “Mary’s destiny is tied to that of the nation, but the same news that brings comfort to the nation will bring her immense pain.” In other words, her life, and heart, can not be separated from Jesus and because of that, she will experience a particular type of grief and pain in the future even as she, and many, now celebrate a new beginning.
Anna, the other elder in the temple, is considerably less well-known—most likely because her words were not recorded. We do know that she was an elderly widow, somewhere between 84 and 105 years old. We know that she was devout, never leaving the temple, but worshipping there night and day with fasting and prayer. We are even told the name of her father and the lineage of her family. BUT perhaps the most incredible part of these couple of verses is that Anna is called “prophet”. We do not know the words she said and still she is the only woman in the entirety of the New Testament to be called “prophet” . Like Simeon she recognizes and praises God for who Jesus is, but then Anna goes about spreading this good news to all who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem, just as she had been praying and fasting for. She takes something that was revealed to her internally and makes it an external message.
With Simeon and Anna, the story shifts from the birth narrative to what Jesus will do in his earthly life. We witness the beginning of a new era. It was not immediately apparent what that would look like, in fact people needed to wait a couple of decades to even start to get a sense of what this meant. But through the words and actions of Simeon and Anna, readers now can find three central themes: 1)gratitude and praise to God for who God is, what God has done, and what God will continue to do; 2)recognition that following God/Jesus is not and has never been an entirely easy thing; and 3) a commitment to live and act in the light of God’s Good News and to share that with all.
With tonight being New Year’s Eve, we can look to Simeon’s song and Anna’s actions as words of comfort and hope, moving from one ending and into a new beginning. Through the changing of a season of sorts, we celebrate and look for new opportunities and at the same time we also honour that we carry certain unmet hopes and painful griefs with us. And yet we do so, knowing that the God who sent his son to be born in a stable, who called on the poor, the lonely, the hurting, walks with us into each new beginning for our eyes have seen God’s salvation and we are to be a a light for revelation and for glory to God’s people.
Amen.
