Sermon for 1st Week of Christmas – Luke 2:22-40

Merry Christmas! Does it feel like Christmas, though? I have a friend caught up in nostalgia right now. On Facebook he’s been posting photos of these ugly plastic ornaments from his childhood. Bits and pieces missing. Tape holding barely holding together the pieces. It’s nothing beautiful, but they still give him a lot of comfort. It’s funny how these kinds of rituals give us comfort when nothing else wants to go right. Rituals are powerful stuff.

Today’s gospel reading is all about rituals. Joseph and Mary bring baby Jesus to the temple for the ritual of purification. Now remember, this little family has walked such a hard road. The unexplained pregnancy, the scandal of that, the moving from place to place, their poverty and uncertainty. Yet here they are. Presenting their baby to the Lord. Somehow they even managed to get the turtledoves for sacrifice. It’s not perfect. It’s a second-rate offering. But they can’t afford a lamb, so they do the best they can, and maybe things can be just normal enough for a minute. Do you think they’re sick to death of surprises? Maybe this will give them a little comfort, like how our rituals comfort us.

Except lo and behold, here comes this stranger named Simeon to ruin all that. We don’t know much about him, just that he’s righteous and devout. Hoping for the consolation of Israel. Remember, it’s hard to be Jewish in the Roman Empire. Second-class citizens. Sure, a few learn how to play the system, but there’s nothing right or fair about that. Simeon longs for God to do something for once. Send a Messiah to set all things right. That kind of waiting is hard, but the Holy Spirit keeps him going, and tells him he won’t see death until he sees the Messiah. Imagine having that kind of faith.

So the Spirit draws him to temple. He sees baby Jesus and he just KNOWS. So he can’t help but sweep up the baby in his arms and praise God. “Master, now you are dismissing your servant in peace, according to your word.” Which sounds like a last wish. Is that good news or bad? Bittersweet I think. But Simeon is caught up in the joy of God’s promise kept. “For my eyes have seen your salvation. A light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your people Israel.” Now, Mary and Joseph are stunned, but the word can also be “disturbed.” I mean, weird stranger sounds like a crazy street preacher and he’s got your baby in his arms? That’d put any parent on edge. But then he tells Mary these fateful words. “This child is destined for the falling and the rising of many in Israel. A sign that wlll be opposed. Revealing the inner thoughts of many. And a sword will pierce your own soul too.”

How do you process something like that? Joseph and Mary finish their business and go home. Would it be a stretch to imagine them trying to forget the whole episode as best as they can? You know, we often hear this story told like some kind of triumphal message, but what if it’s not? What if it’s really just distressing for Joseph and Mary? Here’s the thing. This isn’t the rosy picture that the angel Gabriel painted. Gabriel just talked about greatness and God’s kingdom without end. Nothing will be impossible with God. That’s inspirational. But Simeon doesn’t sound like that. He paints a dark picture. The child destined for political upheaval in Israel. A flashpoint to be opposed. A whistleblower. When you live under the thumb of the Roman Empire that only means one thing. They’re going to kill him. And this will pierce Mary’s own soul. God only just gave them this child and already plans to take him away.

What kind of God would do this? Deliver an innocent baby to be killed? Maybe the kind of God who commands Abraham to bind and sacrifice the son he desperately longed for. Maybe the kind of God who kills all the firstborn children of Egypt to show them who’s boss. Maybe the kind of God who gave us the year 2020? We see hundreds of thousands of innocent people die, while CEOs bet on the pandemic and see their stock portfolios increase. What tragedies have shattered us this year? Death. Injustice. Hunger. Loss. What a year of reckoning. What makes sense anymore? What’s safe? So we hang all our hopes on things like a new year, or a vaccine, or a new administration starting in a month, or whoever promises folks dangle in front of us. But, who can really predict the future? What kind of God do we have?

Well, we have the God who brings life out of death. The God who sends us Jesus, Emmanuel, God with us and among us. Jesus our friend and our savior. Thank God we know the whole story, that this baby Jesus will grow in wisdom and Spirit, to heal the sick, to feed the hungry, to forgive all our sins. He willingly took the weight of the whole world upon his shoulders when he went to the cross to be crucified. But after three days he was raised. And he promises to raise us with him. Not because we asked him to, but because he knows we need to be saved from ourselves. And everything in heaven and earth has been accomplished for us.

We know this is true, but we’re like Joseph and Mary. We have trouble wrapping our heads around what this all means. We go back home and get inundated by a mountain of bad news about the pandemic, and injustice, and politics as usual. Our same old daily struggles. It’s too much. But Jesus won’t let any of that be the last word. Jesus fills us with a heaping helping of his own Spirit because he knows that’s what works. It gives us hope, and that’s power. We get to see through all the tumult and know that God is doing an amazing thing, even if we can’t see it right now. As the prophet Isaiah said, “For as the earth brings forth its shoots, and as a garden causes what is sown in it to spring up, so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring up before all the nations.”

You know, it may not feel like Christmas, but Simeon reminds us that we have so many gifts to praise God for. For giving us vaccines going into arms. For giving us political renewal. For giving us neighbors who pitch in and help folks in our community with food and financial assistance because these are tough times. For God granting us with compassion that spurs us into action. For God making us want to reach out to folks who feel isolated because we want to know how they’re doing. It’s not a chore. It’s a joy. And by the grace of God we get to see the calendar turn over from 2020 to 2021 and let our imaginations run wild with the joy of starting over, because we’ve seen it all and we’re dying to see something new. So when Jesus sends us from this sanctuary back out into the world, just like Simeon we can say with confidence, “Master, now you are dismissing your servant in peace, according to your word; for my eyes have seen your salvation.” This may not be the Merry Christmas we wanted, but it’s the Merry Christmas that we need to hear right now. May it be so for us in Christ Jesus our Lord.