"Patient Witnesses," Sermon on Luke 2:22-40, by John Oakes, All Saints Episcopal Church, Belmont, Massachusetts, February 2, 2014.
1 - Sermon on Luke 2:22-40 - John Oakes Most of us learn from quite an early age that patience is a virtue. But that s not always easy to live by, is it, especially when we live in such high pace, consumerist society? A 2012 article on the Time website about an MIT research project highlighted just how extreme our need for getting what we want as soon as we can get it can become. You probably haven t measured this. But apparently ketchup flows out of a glass bottle at a rate of.028 miles per hour. That's slower than a Galapagos tortoise, which, according to the San Diego Zoo, manages to walk at 0.16 miles per hour, or almost six times faster. And some seem to have found the agonizing delay between tipping the bottle and waiting for ketchup to fall on their plates simply too much to bear. Thankfully, Time reported that a PhD candidate and a team of mechanical engineers and nano-technologists had finally offered a solution. After months of research, they had developed LiquiGlide - a "kind of structured liquid [that's] rigid like a solid, but lubricated like a liquid." The researchers said that coating the inside of a bottle with this would cause ketchup to slide out faster than a Galapagos tortoise. They also claimed that the sauce industry, which earns $17 bn. a year, was keen to get its hands on the invention. 1 I guess that remained to be seen. But in the meantime, many of us wrestle with much more serious issues of timing. If we re sick or waiting for medical results, if we re without work and looking for some, if we re lonely or seeking to mend broken relationships - whatever personal issues that we may be struggling with right now, we know that there s simply no quick fix for many of them. We need patience. Even in our relationship with God, we can go through slow or dry periods, when we find it difficult to see God s grace, never mind experience it personally. Or we fail to see the realization of God s promises. And so we wait in hope, longing for fulfilment. Whenever we face such situations, the great good news of the gospel, of course, is that we are never alone. However much patience God asks of us, God is with us. But we can also find vivid role-models to encourage us in Scripture. We need only consider the powerful examples of Simeon and Anna in our reading from Luke 2 this morning. Parental Duties The context in our passage is clear. We already know from Luke that on the eighth day after Jesus' birth, Mary and Joseph have arranged for him to be circumcised and to be formally named in accordance with Jewish law (Gn. 17:12). Now, probably some 30 days later, they take a trip to the temple in Jerusalem, where two further rituals take place, Mary's purification after childbirth and Jesus' presentation. Jewish law required Jesus to be formally presented at the temple, because he is Mary's first-born son and thus, by custom, to be dedicated to God (Ex. 13:2, 12). It also stipulated that a woman was ceremonially unclean for 40 days after the birth of a son and that she could only be ritually purified by the offering of a sacrifice (Lv. 12:1-13). So Mary and Joseph meet both these obligations, according to verse 24. They bring Jesus to Jerusalem and they offer "'a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons'" 1 Keith Wagstaff, "MIT Scientists Figure Out How to Get Ketchup Out of the Bottle," TimeTech (5-22-12): http://techland.time.com/2012/05/22/mit-scientists-figure-out-how-to-get-ketchup-out-of-the-bottle/.
2 - Sermon on Luke 2:22-40 - John Oakes (Lev. 12:8) as a sacrifice in the temple. In fact, verse 39 tells us, they do everything required by the law of the Lord. All this reminds us of something that can be far too easily forgotten about Jesus, which is his observant Jewish heritage and upbringing. We need to take account of that, if we re to understand him properly, and thankfully, the church helps us do so by means of our liturgical calendar. You see, The Presentation of Our Lord Jesus Christ in the Temple, which is also known as The Purification of the Saint Mary the Virgin, is a major Holy Day. Although its regular day of celebration is February 2, this is one of only five fixed dates in the Episcopalian calendar that takes precedence over a regular Sunday, when it happens to fall on that day. February 2 is also famous for another reason, as Groundhog Day. And that has given rise to a great movie comedy, as well as to a very dubious means of predicting the winter weather. But you hopefully don t need me to tell you that however keen you may be to know whether the polar vortex is going to return to keep us cold for weeks to come, the The Presentation is much more important than the alleged prognostications of Punxsutawney Phil the groundhog! And if anyone has any doubts about that, the stories of Simeon and Anna and their moving encounters with Jesus can surely put them to rest. Placing Difficulties Most of you don t know me well enough to realize that I have a bad sense of direction. Before the marvellous invention of the GPS, I could quite easily get lost in a neighbourhood that I d known for years if I made the mistake of deviating from one of my standard routes for getting from A to B. I don t drive much around here. So there s no major cause for concern. But you probably shouldn t ask me for directions. And as my wife Kirsten found out on a recent visit, I wouldn t be your best navigator through the busy streets of Boston - with or without a GPS. Another factor that doesn t help my driving is that I m not always very observant of what s going on around me. As a rather spaced out teenager, I once walked past my mother on the street without noticing her and I ve lost count of the number of people in the Vancouver area who ve told me that they saw me out running, when I obviously didn t see them. Thankfully, most are more aware of their surroundings than I am. But the scene in today s Gospel can also remind us that there s one place where we can all struggle to connect with people and that s in crowds. Unless we were arranging a specific time and place to meet, none of us would probably tell a friend that we d see him at Fenway Park or at the fourth of July fireworks downtown. The chances are that we simply wouldn t run into each other. And the same would have been true at the Jerusalem temple in the first century, especially if you d never met the person you were looking for, like Simeon and Anna in our Gospel. To get a clearer idea of their situation, it's important to remember the scale of this building and the size of the crowds who would normally have gathered there. Rebuilt by King Herod and his successors from around 20 BC onwards, the temple was situated
3 - Sermon on Luke 2:22-40 - John Oakes on part of a huge area known as the Temple Mount, where just one wall was some 1600 feet long. When completed, it was a massive structure some 10-16 stories high and within its central buildings there was a series of four great courts surrounding the place of sacrifice and the holy of holies where God was thought to dwell. The temple was built to accommodate a crowd of many thousands and even on an average day, it would have been a hive of activity, with people all over - in contemporary terms more like a marketplace perhaps than an average church. Yet what happens when Jesus is taken there by Mary and Joseph? There they are, doing their religious duties as Jewish parents, and there he is, a babe in arms, probably no more than six weeks old at the time, when two complete strangers come out of the crowds and home in on him. More than this, they make the most amazing statements about him. Prophecies of Deliverance Simeon is the first to meet the holy family and he does so in the temple courts, which would have been the busiest area of all. And what does he do? "Guided by the Spirit," verse 27 tells us, which is presumably how Simeon finds the baby in the first place, he takes Jesus in his arms. Then he begins to praise God in the words of what we now call the Nunc Dimittis, which is a regular part of Evening Prayer or Evensong in the Book of Common Prayer. And what does Simeon say? Basically, he recognizes Jesus for who he really is. He identifies him as the promised Messiah who has come to deliver Israel, and as the one who brings God's salvation and revelation into the world. Then Simeon blesses Mary, Joseph and Jesus and he adds a further prophecy. This special child will also cause strife and division, he says in verses 35 to 35, as people decide for or against him. At this point, the average parent would probably have tried to retreat to a quiet corner somewhere and even run away in terror. I suspect I would. But there is more to come for Mary and Joseph, because along comes another remarkable figure. Anna is identified as a prophetess, and although we don't hear her exact words, she seems to say something similar to Simeon. "At that very moment she came," we read in verse 38, "and began to praise God and to speak about the child to all who were looking for the redemption of Israel." In other words, in a just a few minutes, in the middle of the vast temple area, with crowds all around, Mary and Joseph are confronted by two very religious people, who approach them out of the blue and say great things about their son. They single him out as nothing less than a source of divine redemption, who brings God s salvation and the light of divine revelation, as Simeon says, to all people. There can be no direct comparison in contemporary terms, of course. But imagine how you might feel if you went shopping in Copley Square and a couple of elderly church leaders approached you with prophetic words of knowledge about one of your kids. If you didn t write them off as crazy, you might well be overwhelmed. More than this, and this is where we start to come full circle, it s not as if Simeon and Anna have just arrived at the temple and stumbled upon the baby Jesus. Because there s another thing that is so striking about the situations of these two godly seniors. They have both been waiting and they seem to have been doing so for a long time.
4 - Sermon on Luke 2:22-40 - John Oakes In verse 25, we're told that Simeon is "righteous and devout," and he has been "looking forward to the consolation of Israel," or to the coming of the promised Messiah. We don't learn exactly how old he is, but we do know that he seems near the end of his natural life. According to verse 26, "it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord's Messiah (or Christ)." So when he finally meets Jesus, he obviously regards his work as done. "'Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word, he says, to quote the timeless words of the old King James Version of the Nunc Dimmittis, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation. Master, now you are dismissing your servant in peace, according to your word, we read in our modern translation; for my eyes have seen your salvation." In Anna's case, the details, if anything, are even more striking. She is "of a great age," we learn in verses 36 and 37 - no less than 84, and she has spent most of her life as a widow. She is also incredibly devout, never leaving the temple, but spending her time with fasting and prayer night and day." And what has been the object of all this religious devotion? We don t fully know. But now she meets Jesus. She s spent years praying, when suddenly she finds the living answer to her prayers in the form of a tiny infant who has come to save the world. A Personal Discovery So the examples of Simeon and Anna can not only be inspiring to us. They can also raise questions. And especially when we live in a culture that so highly prizes fast results and a quick fix to our problems, the most obvious challenge that they present is surely to our own patience and perseverance. More specifically, when the going gets tough or when God s promises seem delayed, how much are we prepared to hang in there? How willing are we to fast and pray? How ready are we to stay focused and wait patiently, like Simeon and Anna, however long it takes? Because today s Gospel also reminds us of one last point that is so important, which is that, whatever our struggles or issues, with God, our patience will be rewarded. So the wait is always worthwhile. Our problems may not be resolved and our needs or desires may not be met exactly as we want. The ultimate outcome may not what we hope for and we may never even see it in this life at all. But if we keep our focus in the right place and we are ready to wait on God's timing, our prayers will eventually be answered. God will be faithful to God s promises, just as God was to Simeon and Anna. And what is the greatest answer to prayer that we can ever receive? In the midst of the busy Jerusalem temple, as Mary and Joseph go about their business, Luke 2 makes it so crystal-clear, because the answer is right there in their arms. As Simeon and Anna discover, when their long and prayerful wait finally comes to an end, all that they have ever been longing or hoping or dreaming for, is found in the presence of one unique person, God in the flesh, our Lord Jesus Christ. And when they meet him, whenever anyone truly encounters him in faith, their lives are never ever the same again.