December 28, 2014 – Luke 2:22-40
Luke 2:22-40
Song of Praise
First Sunday of Christmas – December 28, 2014
First Lutheran Church – Winnipeg, MB
When Simeon and Anna first see the child of promise,
they don’t rush out and buy a gift.
They don’t wonder why Joseph hasn’t handed out cigars.
They don’t plan a baby shower.
What they do is, they sing!
It’s forty days after Jesus has been born.
And because Mary and Joseph are devout Jewish people,
they go to the Temple to present their firstborn son.
They come to offer a sacrifice and consecrate their child to God.
They come in a mood full of joyfulness, full of solemnity, full of hope for this child.
Full of anticipation of just what this child’s life will look like,
maybe not unlike how Kelly and John felt coming here this morning to have
Juliet baptized.
And then, as they’re in the Temple, something a little out of the ordinary happens:
an old man, Simeon, comes and takes the child in his arms –
and begins to sing!
He sings a song of praise and thanksgiving to God for this child through whom
God will bring healing and justice and peace to an ailing world.
He sings! He is so happy, now he can die in peace with the hope of knowing that
God is doing something for a world in need.
And he’s so happy, he just has to sing.
Old Anna who comes to the Temple to pray every day also comes over,
and she too is so full of Thanksgiving that, too, has no response other than to sing.
It’s like that moment in the musical where characters are so overcome by
joy, or grief, or sorrow, or love – that the only response is to sing.
And even though we know that this is not how people usually respond in real life –
We buy it!
Because we know that sometimes, the only real appropriate thing to do – is sing.
We too have sung all kinds of songs already this Christmas –
we have sung many Christmas carols because in some ways that is
our best appropriate response to what God has done in this person Jesus who has
come among us.
Some are songs of praise that praise God forthrightly, like Hark the Herald Angels Sing or
Joy to the World.
Some are lullabies that reflect on how gently and graciously God comes among us in Jesus,
like Silent Night or Away in a Manger.
Others take seriously the fact that Jesus came not just for the joyful, or for children,
but for the despairing and for all the vulnerable.
A carol like In the Bleak Midwinter reminds us that God comes in the bleakness of our lives.
The holidays are not full of joy for everyone.
The holidays are maybe not completely full of joy for any of us.
But God in Christ comes anyway, full of mercy, full of grace, to shine a light on us in darkness.
Some of us are well acquainted with regret and strife.
Some of us know well the spectres of grief and loss.
Some of us struggle with hopes that have been dashed and longings that will go unfulfilled.
Some of us despair over headlines, some of us struggle with health,
some of us are working hard as caregivers, and some of us have trouble finding work.
But our songs reminds us that God comes precisely to where we are broken and hurting,
in order to bring light and healing.
Most of you know that I try and visit all our shut-in and home-bound members at Christmas.
Last week I visited one of our members who I’ve known for 14 years and who is now,
like Simeon, close to death.
This particular member was not having a good day.
She was grumpy!
And she has over the years regressed into childhood and
sometimes seems to have a child’s capricious temperament.
Because she was so anxious, I asked her if she was worried about anything.
She said, “Yes!”
So I said, naturally, “What are you worried about?”
And she said in exasperation, “I don’t know!”
I tried to tell her about Christmas.
I tried to tell her how beautifully our worship space was decorated this year.
But it just made things worse.
And then I remembered Simeon and Anna in the Temple:
and I remembered that sometimes all you can do it sing.
And so I sang Jesus into that care home room of anxiety and stress.
I sang Silent Night, and then I sang Jesus Loves Me.
And as I sang, she reached out, took my hand, and held it firmly until she calmed down
and went to sleep.
And that is how I left her.
That is the power of our song – sometimes all you can do is sing of this child and
the grace and the hope and the peace this child brings.
Juliet Grace today is baptized into the life of that child.
Today she receives that assurance that no matter what turbulent waters she encounters in this life,
Christ is with her.
Today she receives the assurance that she has been baptized into the life of one who brings
healing to an ailing world.
Today she receives the assurance that along with Christ she becomes a child of God,
an apprentice to God’s work of healing and feeding and forgiving and blessing
this world that God so loves.
Today she receives a promise that she, along with Christ, is an heir to God’s gifts,
an heir who receives all the tools she needs in order to do the work she is called to:
the work of joining in God’s loving mission to bless, heal, and set free
this whole world and every person in it.
This is an amazing day for Juliet Grace,
just as it was for the child Jesus all those years ago in the Temple.
May it remind us of our own baptisms, our own gifts, our own commissioning in
God’s mission.
May it remind us that God’s come to us in vulnerability and brokenness.
May it reminds us that God comes to us in hope, and that from small beginnings
come great things.
I often say that this day of baptism is the most significant day of a person’s life.
Like Kelly and John, we come with joy, with solemnity, with anticipation,
and with curiosity as to how this child’s life will turn out.
What difference she will make in the world and in the lives of those around her.
How she will use those gifts given her this day as an heir with Christ.
There is so much to wonder at, so much to give thanks for, so much to take in,
with all the promise and possibility of a human life given into God’s gracious hands.
Sometimes, all you can do is sing.
So together, let us sing, and together, let us say, Amen.
Pastor Michael Kurtz
If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
