Gospel:
Luke 2:22-40
Where the gospel reading starts today Mary
and Joseph are surely still recovering from the unusual events surrounding of
Jesus’ birth and they are probably anxious to get home to Nazareth, but before
they can do that they have to present their firstborn to God at the temple and
offer a sacrifice of two doves or pigeons according to the law of Moses.
Mary
and Joseph are new parents trying to figure out how to raise a child while away
from home, not to mention still coming to terms with the incomprehensible fact
that their baby is the son of God. Mary
and Joseph are navigating the temple when a guy takes Jesus into his arms and
starts praising God. Simeon speaks of
God’s provision and how in this child he sees the salvation of all people. My bible's translation states that Mary and
Joseph “marveled” at what Simeon said, no doubt proud to be the parents of this
extraordinary child, but I imagine they were also quite taken aback. Because
Mary and Joseph did not get the introduction we get at the beginning of this
reading. They probably didn’t know that
the Holy Spirit rested on Simeon and that God had promised him that he would
see the consolation of Israel before he died.
And just as quickly as Simeon had grabbed Jesus he returned him to
Mary’s arms and blessed Mary and Joseph, then left them with these
disconcerting words: “This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of
many in Israel and to be a sign that will be spoken against, so that the
thoughts of many hearts will be revealed.
And a sword will pierce your own heart too.” These words do not encourage Mary and
Joseph, they tell of a future where their son will bring change that won’t be
well received, that Jesus future is sure to have pain in it and that Mary and
Joseph are by no means exempt from this suffering, a sword will pierce their
hearts too. When reading those words I
recall the story of Jesus on the cross where Mary looks on watching her beloved
child die, how in that moment Mary’s heart is surely breaking. After this
encounter with Simeon I bet his words swirled around in Mary’s head as she
wondered when Simeon’s foretelling would come true.
The
reading goes on to talk about Anna, a prophetess, who has spent the better part
of her at the temple. She worships God
night and day praying and fasting, every moment dedicated to her heavenly
father. And then, as if one strange
encounter at the temple for Mary and Joseph isn’t enough, Anna comes up to them
and looks as the baby Jesus and starts thanking God and telling anyone who will
listen about the child and the redemption he would bring. This reading concludes by saying Jesus grew
strong, was filled with wisdom and the grace of god rested upon him. This is all we really know about Jesus young
childhood.
This
reading from Luke calls us to pay attention, to not just listen, but to hear this story. God called ordinary people to raise his
son. He did extraordinary things through
the unsuspecting betrothed couple of Mary and Joseph, people serving God and
living the plan they thought God had led them to until one day when it all
changed. He called them from the
commonplace to something much more difficult but something also more beautiful
and exciting than they could have planned for themselves.
This
last semester I took a general Microbiology class. It was an extremely interesting class and I
learned a lot about bacteria, fungus, and microbiological testing. One of the most fun experiments we did in the
lab was evaluating water samples. Every
group got a water sample from different places around Ames: Ada Hayden, The
pond at Research Park, Lake LaVerne, and college creek, among others. We did dilutions of the samples and added a
small amount to tubes with specific media, after a couple days we evaluated the
tubes for growth and then used some statistical analysis to assess the samples
for their presumptive contamination.
We came to the conclusion that all the water sources had too much
bacterial growth to be potable, which is, of course, to be expected being that
they are open water sources, but one body of water was extensively worse than
the others. The pond at the ISU Research
Park scored almost the highest rating possible for contamination.
My
professor talked about how this is because the water doesn’t go anywhere; there
is no incoming our outgoing stream of water from the pond. The water is stagnate and cannot support much
life beyond some particularly disgusting microorganisms. Now I can draw a faith reference out of
anything so what my professor said about the pond water got me thinking about
our baptismal waters. In baptism God
claims us as his children and calls us to new life as members of the body of
Christ. The parents, sponsors, and church
family vow to raise the newly baptized to faithfully worship, learn the Lord’s
Prayer, Apostles Creed, and Ten Commandments, to read the bible, pray, and care
for God’s creation. These baptismal
waters contain so much hope, so much love, and so much promise. But often times despite good intentions our
baptismal waters stagnate. We can get
lost going through the motions. We say
the Lord’s Prayer from memory without thinking about the words coming out of
our mouth, we take communion without being humbled by Christ’s sacrifice, and
we leave our faith at the doors when we walk out of the church building.
We can get
complacent, coming to church because we have to or just because it is what we
have always done. Mary and Joseph may
only have taken the 8 day old Jesus to the temple to fulfill the Law of Moses
but whatever their reasoning God did something extraordinary there. He blessed Anna and Simeon with seeing the
savior of the world and showed Mary and Joseph a glimpse of the glory of their
son. Even if we don’t have an “ah ha”
moment every time we come to worship, God is here. The Holy Spirit is in the familiar liturgy,
calling us from complacency to new life.
A few years ago
Lutheran Brotherhood sent St. Petri some magnets that had Martin Luther’s
Morning Prayer on one side and one of his quotes on the other side. I think there may still be a few somewhere
around the church and we have one at home on our refrigerator. The quote from Martin Luther says “When you
wash your face remember your baptism.”
Every day we have the chance to be washed and renewed in the waters of
baptism. We can read our Bibles, pray,
serve others, have fellowship with the body of Christ to bring refreshment and
perspective. By God’s grace we also have
the opportunity to let go of our struggles, sins, and burdens by giving them to
Christ. Just as Mary and Joseph were
called out of the ordinary so are we.
God has blessed each of us with unique qualities and abilities to bless
the world around us and he has called us here in this sanctuary for fellowship
and worship to be challenged and encouraged.
May we remember our baptism and go to our families, community and the
world ready to follow God’s lead. Amen.
