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"What Now?" Luke 2:21-40 |
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Location: Blogs Brad's BlogBrad's Sermons |
 | | Posted by: Brad Miller | 1/2/2008 10:42 AM | “What now?”
It’s a common question, isn’t it? After a big event that we have anticipated with great excitement, it is not unusual for us to ask, “What now?” And certainly that is a question that many of us in the church are asking after we have spent the advent season waiting for the celebration that comes with Christmas. And for too many of us, the celebration ends with Christmas.
A former professor of mine is fond of saying, “There is nothing so over as Christmas.” She would point out the great speed at which we could clean out the trappings of Christmas, get rid of the Christmas tree, put away the presents, file away the Christmas pictures, use up the leftovers and get things back to normal, as soon as Christmas was over. And, when that happens, we find ourselves asking, “What now?”
It is also true of the church. Soon, the decorations will be down, the Christmas carols will be a memory, and we will continue on in what the church calendar calls “ordinary time.” And for the church, the question of “what now?” can also loom large.
Certainly it must have been an almost constant question for Mary and Joseph. They had been through an incredible experience. Angels visiting both of them, precarious travel during Mary’s last month of pregnancy, the birth of the child in a stable, the gathering of strangers, shepherds from the fields, brought to them by a heavenly vision. Now what?
Let’s be serious: for most people, the more or less ordinary birth of a child leads to a large dose of “what now?”, but imagine if you had an inkling that this is no ordinary baby; but the messiah.
If I were Joseph or Mary, I might be tempted to wait for more angelic advice. It seemed to have work for them up to that point.
This passage that we heard read this morning is a very important passage for answering that all important question, “What now?” It is a passage that is not used often in worship, and I think we skip over it at our loss. I have heard a preacher say that it adds no new information, it simply confirms what we already know about Jesus: that he is indeed the messiah. The implication is that it is boring and redundant. But I disagree. I believe it adds lots of new information. Yes, it confirms what we know about Jesus and it does not present any radically different take on the whole nativity experience. But it does give us some solid information about what kind of family Jesus grew up in. It affirms God’s choice of Mary and Joseph as Jesus’ parents. It lets us take a peek in and glean an answer to the “what now” that we face in our lives.
The readings we know so well from Christmas Eve end with the wise men, the magi from the east, returning home in such a way that would not endanger the life of Jesus and the holy family taking refuge in Egypt. Immediately following is where our scripture lesson for this morning picks up: “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. When the time came for their purification according to the law of Moses, they brought Jesus up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord.”
Contained in those two simple sentence is one of the more important pieces of information we could know about Mary and Joseph: in the face of the greatest “what now?” moment of their lives, they relied on the teachings of their faith to move forward. They went to Jerusalem, to the great temple built by Solomon, the holiest of holy places in all of Judaism. There, they did those things that their faith had taught them: they dedicated their son, they had him circumcised, they went through a ritual naming ceremony, they made their sacrifice to God. Did they need to? After all, they knew that their son was blessed. Their son had already been named by the angel Gabriel. He was special, and they knew that. But they went to the temple because they believed that God had blessed them, that God had delivered them from harms way, that God had touched them and they sought to honor God by continuing the practices of their ancestors. They went to the temple because they believed that God was a very real part of their lives, and God would be a very real part of their son’s life, come what may.
There is something else of importance here. Not only did they go to the temple to honor God. They also went to show themselves as part of the larger community, the community of faith that would help nurture their child as he grew from infancy to manhood.
In their journey to the temple, they had two special encounters with members of their faith community. Pious, good people, who spent their days in prayer, awaiting the turn of events that would redeem their beloved Israel. Praying for the messiah’s coming. Praying that oppression and domination would end for the Hebrew people.
These people were named Simeon and Anna. God had revealed to Simeon that he would not die until he had encountered the Messiah. Anna had been a widow for 84 years and never left the temple, constantly praying and fasting and honoring God.
When Simeon met Jesus, he took the baby in his arms and said, “God, you can take me home now, for I have seen the messiah and know of the salvation he will bring.”
When Anna encountered Jesus, she immediately began to praise God and to tell all who would listen that this child would bring redemption to all.
What were Mary and Joseph’s reactions to all this? Depending on which translation of the Bible you are reading, the were either, “amazed”, “overcome”, “marveled at what they heard” or were “speechless.”
I wonder why? Didn’t they believe the angelic visitors? Didn’t they believe the shepherds? I’m sure they did. But this, this was different. These were people they did not know, whom no angel had visited. These were people who knew the truth about the baby Jesus, simply because they knew.
I think it’s important that the story is presented in this order. First, they went to do what their faith demanded of them. Then, they confronted the affirmation of the strangers. You see, when faced with the big “what now?”, the first thing they did was what they were supposed to do, what their faith told them to do. Only afterwards did they understand that their newborn son would have such support from their faith community, and that he would have such an impact on that same faith community. And then what did they do? They went home and began the process of raising their son.
And we know they raised him well within their community of faith. They taught him Hebrew and he was able to read and interpret the holy scriptures. They taught him the traditions of their faith, the celebrations and the rituals and the sacrificial system. In short, they laid the firm foundation of faith for who he would become. In so doing, their own faith was no doubt strengthened.
And it all came from what their faith told them to do: honor God within the supportive framework of God’s community.
What about us? Now what?
It’s not just a question about what happens in the church, it’s a question about what happens in our lives.
This is the time of year when we make resolutions. Resolutions aimed at being better people, healthier people, more organized people. I bet lots of us will make resolutions today and tomorrow. The new year begins Tuesday, so we need to hurry. And our resolutions will cover the gamut.
I want to lose weight. Some here want to quit smoking. Some want to learn more so they can do their jobs better. Some want to strive to be more patient. Some want to save more money so that their future will be more secure. Some want to exercise more. Those are all wonderful goals, and I hope that we can each find the strength and commitment to meet those goals in the coming year. But I want you to try another resolution on for size: In 2008, I resolve to honor God, to do what God would have me do, so that I might be the person God would have me be.
Honoring God. That’s what Mary and Joseph did. And it is something we can do, in all we do.
Carol recently told me about an interview she once saw with the figure skating champion Todd Eldridge. He said that before each event, the last thing he did before entering the arena was to pray. “Pray to win?” he was asked. “No,” he replied, “I don’t pray to win or to not be hurt. I pray that everything I do out on the ice would honor God.”
Mary and Joseph answered the great “what now” by doing everything they could to honor God. By raising their son in the faith. By being faithful role models. By bringing him up in a committed community of faith.
We can commit to the same thing, even if our circumstances are wildly different. We can work to honor God by working to understand God’s word. We can honor God by working to honor each person we meet through loving inclusion. We can honor God by using all of our talents and abilities and resources to their best use, by being good stewards of all we have. We can honor God by sharing our faith with the children entrusted to our care, either as parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, friends or teachers. And all of those activities need to take place in a place like this, among God’s people, in a community of faith committed to the nurture of all.
We simply can’t do it alone. Communing with nature is fine and good, but we need the fellowship of believers to move forward. We need to be surrounded by people who love us and will support us, and will even occasionally tell us when we goof up. We need each other, just as Mary and Joseph needed the support of the faithful Hebrew community both in Jerusalem, and even more importantly, at home in Nazareth.
In your bulletin this morning you will find a pamphlet titled “A Year with the Bible.” It is an aid designed to help us read through the Bible in one year. It is my gift to you for the new year, and it is my hope that you will use it to be even more grounded in the scriptures; scriptures that can guide us as we seek to find God revealed in our lives, and in this place.
I include it today because there is no doubt that many of us sit with the same question: ‘What now?’ Becoming immersed in the Holy Scriptures seems like a pretty good place to start to answer that question.
Some of us enter 2008 glad that 2007 is over. For some of us 2007 was a great year. No matter into which camp we fall, the big “now what?” that we face will carry a different answer for each of us. But, just like Mary and Joseph, I think that the answer for all of us will be found in immersing ourselves in a community of faith, and seeking to honor God in everything we undertake in the new year.
Exactly how do we do that? I’m not sure: but I think that this is a pretty good place to find out.
May your new year be everything you hope for, and may God’s richest blessings be upon all of us, as together we seek to do God’s will, honor God’s presence, and spread God’s grace to all we meet, this year, next year, and every year.
Let us pray: Loving and grace filled God, we give you thanks for beauty and wonder of what Christmas brings. Help us to embrace the example of Mary and Joseph throughout the new year. Help us to more fully understand how we can serve you, how we can honor you, how we can become the people worthy of your love. Bless this congregation, and all those congregations that exist so that we might know you better. In Jesus’ name we ask it all. Amen.
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