Bucket List

Scripture:  Isaiah 60:1-6,  Psalm 148

        Luke 2:22-40  Matthew 2:1-23

Tomorrow begins the new year, 2018.  While local newspapers don’t send me advance info on their editorials – I can predict that at least some of them will print some version of the familiar New Year’s Day cartoon of the year of the old year, in this case 2017, as an ancient, exhausted man shuffling off the stage to make room for the new year, 2018, portrayed as a bouncing baby.  Youth and age – endings and beginnings – an appropriate theme for the end of one year, and the beginning of another.  The month of January, which begins tomorrow, is named after the Greek god Janus, which had two faces, one looking back, and the other forward.  And so as the old year ends and another begins, we took look back and look forward at the same time.

A cartoon of today’s reading from Luke’s gospel might look a bit like one of those familiar New Years Day cartoons Luke gives us an account of a poignant meeting between the baby Jesus and two aged saints, Simeon and Anna, who have spent their lives in waiting for the hope this baby represents.  Sort of like Red Sox fans waiting all those years, from 1918 to 2004, 86 years, to win a World Series, for the so-called “curse of the Bambino” to be broken.  Think of the generations of Red Sox fans who lived and died without their team having gone the distance.  Or maybe like Philadelphia Eagles fans waiting for a Superbowl win…our last national championship win was in 1960, and they didn’t call it the Superbowl back then.  Since then, year after year has left Eagles fans hoping that we’ll live long enough to see that magic day, after which we can say, “Now I can go to my grave in peace; I saw the Eagles win a Superbowl.”  Let’s hope it’s not 86 years.

Today I also had us read the Gospel reading for Epiphany, even though it’s not celebrated until next Saturday, January 6.  Because of the way the calendar falls this year, the lectionary schedule is a bit compressed, so that next Sunday we’ll be remembering the baptism of Jesus, which took place when he was an adult – as well as our own baptisms – and also celebrating the baptism of Baby Caden.  What a joyful way to begin the new year.  But I didn’t want us to leave the Wise Men out in the cold and forget them entirely, and so today’s readings are a combination of readings from today and Epiphany.

Both our readings from Luke and Matthew take place after the birth of Jesus.  The events from Luke’s reading – the presentation of Jesus at the Temple in Jerusalem – would have taken place within 40 days of Jesus’ birth.  Women who gave childbirth were considered ceremonially unclean for 40 days after giving birth, after which ritual was done and a sacrifice offered to restore their status of being ceremonially clean.  Also, the firstborn male child was considered holy to the Lord, and so there was a ceremony of dedicating the firstborn to God.  By contrast, the visit of the Wise Men came later.  Unlike our Christmas manger scenes, the Wise Men wouldn’t actually have visited Jesus in the manger – the Gospel reading states that they entered a house, not a manger, to offer their gifts.

Mary and Joseph came to the Temple to offer their sacrifice – since they were a poor family, the sacrifice was designated as two turtledoves or two young pigeons (Leviticus 5) – and to dedicate their son to God.  We’re told that in Jerusalem there was an elderly man named Simeon, who was righteous and devout, who looked for the consolation of Israel.   He knew that Israel as it was – occupied by Rome, with even its religious leadership in cahoots with Rome – wasn’t as God intended it, and so he looked to God for better things to come….had spent his whole life waiting, in fact, waiting and watching for the Lord’s Messiah, the one who would lead Israel to freedom.  Year after year he waited and watched.  We’re told that the Holy Spirit rested on him, and had revealed to him that he would not die until he had seen the Lord’s Messiah.  Because the Holy Spirit rested on him, Simeon would have had an unusual ability to perceive the workings of God – and guided by the Spirit, he decided to make a visit to the Temple that day.

There would have been many people going in and out of the Temple, and likely any number of young couples bringing their firstborn children to be dedicated.  Mary and Joseph wouldn’t have stuck out…they wouldn’t have had halos over their heads…they’d have been just one more weary, bedraggled, down at the heels couple making their way to the Temple.  But somehow Simeon knew this couple, Mary and Joseph, were bringing this baby, Jesus, the salvation for whom he had waited all his life. 

So Simeon approaches the couple, who must have been a bit wary about this elderly stranger holding their baby.  And then Simeon begins to speak, and my goodness, all the wonderful things he said about this baby whom he’d just met – he used words like salvation, revelation, glory.  But Simeon also warned that not everyone would welcome the child or his mission, that he would be seen as a troublemaker,  that the child would bring about the falling and rising of many in Israel, that by their actions the enemies of the child would reveal their evil intentions – and that the opposition to the child would reach Mary as well. An elderly prophet named Anna – we’re told she was aged 84 years, and a widow for most of her life -  also saw the child, and began tell anyone she thought would be receptive about the child.

We see Simeon’s words play out in our reading from Matthew’s gospel – it’s as if Luke uses the story of Simeon and Anna to tell readers what would face the Christ child, while Matthew with word pictures shows us what it looks like.  Simeon said that the child would be a revelation to the Gentiles, and we see those words play out as the Wise Men – gentile Wise Men, likely astrologers from Persia, from modern day Iran – come to pay the child homage and offer him gifts.  We also see Simeon’s description of Jesus as a sign to be opposed play out in Herod’s response, as the Wise Men inadvertently tipped off Herod to the existence of one whom Herod saw as a rival to his throne.  As far as Herod was concerned, there was only one King of the Jews, and his name was Herod.  No others need apply.  Herod had been appointed by Rome to keep the peace over an unruly, rebellious people, and Herod used brute force to do so.  While Herod tried to hide his intentions from the Wise Men – he told them he intended to pay homage to the babe – Herod’s actions in ordering a slaughter of small children revealed his depravity.  Meanwhile, Mary, Joseph and the babe were refugees, fleeing to Egypt to live there until Herod’s passing.

Simeon’s whole life – Anna’s too - was one of waiting for the salvation they somehow knew was coming.  If Simeon kept what nowadays is called a bucket list – a list of things he wanted to do before he passed from this earth – seeing this child was at the very top of it – perhaps the only thing on his bucket list.

Where do we find ourselves in this story of Simeon and Anna and Mary and Joseph and the Christ child?  It’s a very rich story, offering much to process and ponder. We can come at this question from a number of different angles, depending where we are on our life’s journey.  Do you have something that’s on your bucket list, that if you experienced it, you could go to your grave feeling content? Watching an Eagles superbowl win?  Maybe a trip to the Grand Canyon?    Or like the Wise Men, is there something worth leaving the comforts of home and traveling to the ends of the earth to see, if need be?  Or maybe it’s not a single destination or event, but the accomplishment of some good that we want to see in the world.  It may be something very personal – seeing our children through to adulthood, perhaps watching our grandchildren in their early years and feeling confident that they have a good start in life.  Or maybe it’s a goal beyond ourselves, some way to serve God by serving those in need.  Beyond the day-to-day routine, is there some life goal that’s keeping you going?  

Or, another way to find ourselves in the story, particularly if we’re farther along on our life’s journey – what are the ways in which, like Simeon and Anna, we can bless and guide those who are just starting out in life.  What guidance can we offer?  What assistance can we give?  How can we who have been through many  of life’s ups and downs offer to those who have yet to experience some of these rites of passage.  In a way, I feel like our congregation has been like Simeon and Anna….going from week to week, even with our small numbers, waiting, waiting patiently, waiting with a sense that God was not done with us, that God could still use us to bless our neighbors.  And now some younger members and families have joined our congregation.  Perhaps for some of us, seeing younger families with children in our midst, knowing the congregation will continue beyond our own lives, is a long-awaited blessing.  God willing, next Sunday we’ll begin 2018 with a baptism.  Next fall, God willing, we might have a small confirmation class, our first in many years.  Who saw that coming?

And some of our families are like Mary and Joseph – raising small children, feeling stretched to the limit sometimes.   This church can be a resource.  We’re not a wealthy congregation in financial terms – far from it.  But our longtime members have a wealth of life experience – experience navigating the ups and downs of family life, experience raising children, work experience, experience with illness and recovery, all kinds of life experience.  Not everybody will have the answers to all of life’s questions, but most of us will be able to share our experiences, and often it’s just a matter of knowing who to ask any given question.  And it doesn’t have to be just Sunday mornings and just here on Fillmore Street – remember that Mary and Joseph expected to be blessed inside the Temple through the prescribed ceremonies, but their real blessing came outside the Temple in their conversations with Simeon and Anna.   Many of Emanuel’s best blessings can be found beyond Sunday mornings as well, in conversation with our members.  Most of us have phones, and many of us are reachable via email and Facebook as well.  Stay connected.

As 2017 ends and 2018 begins, we can take stock of the past year, give thanks for its blessings, learn from its mistakes.  Like Simeon and Anna, like Mary and Joseph, may our eyes and our spirits be open to encountering God’s grace, even in unexpected people and unlikely places.  May God bless us in the year ahead, and may God use us to bless others.  Amen.

Pregnant With Possibilities

Scripture:  2 Samuel 7:1-11, 16,  Psalm 89:1-4, 19-26

       Romans 16:25-27,  Luke 1:39-55

Today’s gospel reading picks up where last week’s reading left off.  Remember last week, we read of the angel’s announcement to Mary that she would bear a son, who would be great. (expand on this)  The angel also told Mary that her relative Elizabeth, who was long past the age of childbearing and had previously been unable to bear children, was now in the sixth month of her pregnancy.  In today’s gospel, Mary sets out to visit Elizabeth.  “Old Elizabeth six months pregnant?  Now I’ve heard everything! Could the angel’s words be true?” she may have said to herself.   She arrived, and we’re told that the baby Elizabeth was carrying – who would become John the Baptist – leapt in her womb at Mary’s arrival.  

Each of the four gospels has its own unique features, because they were written for different audiences.  The early part of Luke’s gospel reads like the script for a musical, because there are four canticles or songs – Mary’s song, called the Magnificat, Zechariah’s song, called the Benedictus, the song of the angels, called the Gloria, and Simeon’s song, which we’ll read next week, called the Nunc Dimittis.  These names are from the Latin for the first words of each song.  And so today we read Mary’s song, the Magnificat.

And what a song!  Mary begins by praising God – “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior” – and giving thanks to God for remembering her – “For he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant.”    But then she starts looking to the future – “Surely from now on all generations will call me blessed; for the Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name.  His mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation.”  As she looks ahead to what her child will accomplish, she speaks of great change, and speaks as if this change has already happened:  He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the imaginations of their hearts.  He has brought down the powerful from their thrones and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich away empty.  He has helped his servant Israel, according to the promise he made to our ancestors, to Abraham and to his descendants forever.”  Whew! What a mouthful!  A picture of a world turned upside-down – or maybe turned right side up  – and the baby hasn’t even been born yet!  And yet Mary speaks of all these things as if they’re already a done deal!  So Mary’s song is not only a song, but also a prophecy.

Our Old Testament text from Samuel seems a little out of place in his Advent season, but it’s there for a reason.  The backstory is that King David, having been established on the throne of Israel, recognized that he dwelt in a palace while the Ark of the Covenant, where God was thought to dwell, had no permanent resting place.  David thought of building a Temple, and told the prophet Nathan of his plan.  At first Nathan encouraged David to go ahead, but was later told by God that David would not be the one to build a house for God, because on his path to the throne, David had gotten a whole lot of blood on his hands.  Moreover, Nathan said, God would build David a house.  This is a play on words – David meant to create a physical building for God, but God meant to create for David a house in the sense of a dynasty that would rule over Israel.   Jesus, a descendent of David, would be a further fulfillment of this prophecy.  This further fulfilment of God’s promise to David was one of many things that Mary celebrated in her song.

Some of us look at the world around us, and see what is.  Some look and only see what isn’t there, what’s missing, what’s broken, what’s lacking.  But God looks on people and on the world with different eyes.  God looked on old, barren Elizabeth, and saw a mother for John the Baptist.  God looked on young, unmarried Mary, and saw a mother for Jesus.  The same is true of God’s people.    Mary was able to consider the baby Jesus – to whom she hadn’t even given birth – and see what could be, the amazing possibilities of her baby.  Indeed, in the birth narratives, every character looks on Jesus with different eyes. Joseph initially saw a baby out of wedlock and the likely end of his relationship with Mary, until the angel opened his eyes to greater possibilities. Elizabeth saw Mary, and saw the child within Mary as her Lord, just as Elizabeth felt the movement within her own expanding belly and sensed the joy that the unborn John the Baptist felt. Elizabeth’s husband Zechariah saw a sign of God’s favor, a mighty savior for Israel from the house of David.  Simeon and Anna, whom we’ll meet next week, saw a light of revelation to the Gentiles and the glory of Israel, saw one who was destined for the falling and rising of many in Israel – and saw one who would cause a sword to pierce the soul of Mary.  The Wise Men, whom we’ll meet in two weeks, saw a new ruler to whom they paid homage.  And Herod, whom we’ll also meet in two weeks, saw a rival to his throne, whom he tried to have eliminated.

When we consider the Christ Child, what do we see?  Two thousand years after the coming of Christ, can we still feel the hope that made Mary sing?  Or is this yesterday’s news?   Is it maybe like an empty box and some crumbled wrapping paper after presents are opened, something that held something that was  precious to us once, but comes up empty for us now. Perhaps we feel some nostalgia for hopes we held at one time, but have lost sight of as life has beaten us down.  Sometimes it can be hard to hold on to hope – as we look at the world around us, the powerful are still on their thrones, the lowly are still feeling low,  the rich are richer than ever, and the hungry are hungrier than ever.  Can we look past the world as it is to envision the world Mary saw, the world Mary knew her son would bring about?

As we read the words of Mary’s song, the Magnificat, we can join Mary in looking to Jesus with hope.  The hopes we place in Jesus can change how we look at everything else….how we look at our lives, and how we look at our church, Emanuel Church.  We’re an old congregation, a small congregation, a struggling congregation.  But over this past year, I have seen new life here.  Over this past year, something has shifted, in a very positive direction.  Something is happening.  Members who hadn’t put themselves forward in the past are stepping up to take on new projects, to try new things.   I’m hearing more and more often, “No, Pastor Dave, you don’t have to get involved with that, we’ve got it covered.”  Music to my ears….though I struggle sometimes to let go of responsibility ….that will be one of my New Year’s resolutions for 2018, to stay out of the way and keep my mitts off things when you’re on a roll. And there’s a good spirit between members here, as I see you checking in on each other, praying for one another, calling and texting to encourage one another through difficult times.  We’ve seen prayers answered and seen healing take place, and Millie saw a miracle with Albert having returned to health.   And people from the neighborhood are starting to find their way here.  Over my first 9 years here, I did one wedding, and that was in my first summer here.  Before that wedding we had gone ten years or more without a wedding, and afterward we went eight long years without a single wedding.  This year I did four weddings…people are starting to learn that yes, Emanuel Church is still open and yes, we do weddings here. Two weeks ago we had a social hall full of children, so many children, in a church that ten years ago had none.   And there’s more to come in 2018!   Something is happening.  God is in this.  God is at work here.  And what God will do with us, I have no idea….as the hymn says, “God is the potter; we are the clay.”  But just as God looked on the aged and barren Elizabeth and saw a mother for John the Baptist, just as Mary looked on Jesus and saw a world of possibilities, God is looking at our old congregation and seeing new possibilities...possibilities for bringing uplift to the lowly and food to the hungry……and I pray we can catch a glimpse of God’s vision, for Emanuel Church and for our own lives. 

Are we willing to join in Mary’s song?   Do we want a world where the powerful are dethroned, the lowly empowered, those who are hungry – for food, shelter and clothing, for love and connection, for meaning and purpose – filled, and those who hoard wealth made to share, like the story of Zacchaeus, also found in Luke’s gospel along with Mary’s Magnificat, a story in which a dishonest and very wealthy man after meeting Jesus promised half his possessions to the poor and fourfold repayment to anyone he had defrauded?  And truly, even though much poorer at the end of the story, Zacchaeus was blessed, as Jesus helped him break his addiction to wealth to embrace a way of life that was truly lifegiving to himself and his community. Zacchaeus is what the words of Mary’s song look like when put into action.    But is this a dream for us, or a nightmare?  Is it a Christmas present, or a lump of coal?  What do we think of Mary’s song? Are we willing to sing along, and having sung, to act as midwives to help give birth to Mary’s vision?

May God grant us ears to hear the beauty of Mary’s song, and to join in.  May God grant us eyes to see that just as the angel of the Lord showed up in out of the way places like Nazareth and Bethlehem,  among shepherds and in a manger, God shows up in Bridesburg as well.  May God give us eyes to see that Emanuel Church is pregnant with new possibilities, and that our own lives at whatever age are pregnant with possibility.  May we all help to midwife and birth those possibilities into a world seemingly overwhelmed with impossibilities.   And at the end of it all, may we join the angels in singing “glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace and goodwill to all.” Amen.