Seeing Salvation (Luke 1: 22-33) 12/25/11

            

Today is the day. All the props are in place. The shepherds have heard the heavenly choir. Mary is delivered of her precious cargo. He is wrapped and swaddled and lies peacefully in the straw of the manger. Exhausted, Mary naps beside the baby, as shepherds mingle with sheep and goats in a makeshift nursery. Joseph, still amazed at all that has happened in just these few short months, stands watch at the front of the stable. The time of expectation has become the time of fulfillment. God has come. Oh yes, he’s just a baby, but he is here. No more waiting. The world will never be the same. Advent is over, for the Christ child is born. God has come.

Like the good Jews that they were, Mary and Joseph kept the law. They circumcised the child on the eighth day. They named him Jesus as the angel had instructed Mary. After observing the thirty three days of purification required by law, they traveled to nearby Jerusalem to the temple to consecrate the child. On the fortieth day, they offered the prescribed sacrifice of either birds or a lamb, depending on the economic status of the donor. For Mary and Joseph, it was a pair of doves or pigeons, as they were not a well to do family. Once again, the number 40 enters the dialogue. It denotes maturity or perfection. The Incarnation, the birth of the Son of God, is complete.

Luke tells us that Simeon was both righteous and devout. This is the kind of man that Luke wants in the story. He is righteous. He knows and obeys the law. He is devout. He doesn’t just obey; he does his obedience with desire and love. Luke, ever the reporter, gives us some background on this man. He lived in Jerusalem, where he was waiting for the consolation of his people. Luke says that the Holy Spirit came upon him, that he had a revelation that he would not die until he had seen the Christ. Under the movement of the Holy Spirit, Simeon goes to the temple courts. There he sees and meets Joseph, Mary and the baby Jesus. It’s a fair guess that Simeon is now an old man since he is concerned with death and apparently preparing for it. The young mother surrenders her baby to the old man, who utters a hymn.

We could use some more Simeons, don’t you think? We could use some more folk who are both righteous and devout, who hang around the temple on occasion, who pick up babies and bless them even when they aren’t related to them. We could use some more Simeons in every community. But I have to tell you; sometimes they come disguised as people with different names and very ordinary lives. Often, they answer to the name of Grandma or Grandpa and they move in the world of baking and gardening and showing up on Wednesday nights for Bible study. I think this is their version of hanging around the temple. Every church has its Simeons. You just have to have your eyes open to recognize them. They always seem to have time for the right things. They always seem to know what is really important. Their lives, once complicated, have become simple with the observation of birthdays and anniversaries and births and church events. I bet you know a Simeon.   

          Back in the temple courts, Simeon sings:

                   Sovereign Lord, as you have

promised,

                   You now dismiss your servant

in peace.

                   For my eyes have seen your

salvation,

Simeon is neither Pharisee nor Sadducee nor zealot. He is Old Testament faith personified.  The Simeons of Israel had no dreams of conquering heroes or power or violent government overthrow. Their hope rested in lifelong vigils invested with prayer and obedience and watchfulness. They waited with humble and faithful expectation.  They believed the prophecies of old and waited for them to come to fruition. In their obedience they found their rest. God had promised and God would deliver. For Simeon in the temple courts, holding the Messiah, he saw that his time had matured. He trumpeted his own end, having seen the Messiah whom he had been promised in the vision. Think about God’s providence at work here. Simeon is not known to be a regular presence at the temple courts any more than the infant Jesus would have been, but on the day divinely appointed, the two come together in a most providential manner. Just an hour’s difference and they would have missed each other. But our God has perfect timing. When Simeon says to God to “dismiss” him, it is the same as saying that he be “allowed to die.” Simeon is ready, for his eyes have seen salvation.

What does it mean to see salvation? Simeon saw it in the form of a newborn baby boy. But Simeon had eyes to see beyond a firstborn son being dedicated in a temple. The Bible says that the Holy Spirit was upon him. His vision was that of the heart, formed through years of obedience and trust. Simeon lived in a time of Roman occupation, a time when the nation of Israel longed for the days of the Promised Land when they could see God’s presence in the tabernacle. The spiritual connection of the nation of Israel was drought stricken and in decay. And yet, Simeon could see salvation coming in the little baby he held in his arms.

   It has been said that the lesson of Simeon is that we must be ready to die if we are to glean the real fruit of the Incarnation, the birth of the Son of God. It has been argued that we cannot understand the birth of the Christ child until we transfer all our trust to him, that only then can we be prepared to die. While this may indeed be true, I would suggest to you that the more important reason, the greater lesson, of the coming of the Messiah is that he gives us the way to live.  To understand Christ is to unlock the door to life, and life abundant. Seeing salvation gives us hope, love, joy and peace.  And Simeon sings:

          For my eyes have seen your

salvation,

          which you have prepared in

the sight of all people,

          a light for revelation to the

Gentiles

and for glory to your people

Israel.

Jesus was there for all to see. His life was an open book. The suffering servant prophesied in Isaiah was the life that Jesus chose. Simeon saw the coming salvation that the birth of Jesus signaled. He saw it for the revelation that it was. He sang his hymn as the prelude to revelation not just for the people of Israel, but for all nations. That revelation proved to be a hard lesson to learn, both then and now. It is a sad tribute to the selfishness of mankind that its own creator could hide in plain view, but it is true. We could not see salvation even though it had a name and a face and a ministry in our own backyard. But is doesn’t have to be that way. We must be as Simeon, with open eyes and love that trusts our Creator God to lead us.

Can you see salvation? Tell me that you can. We have so much more today than did poor old Simeon in the temple courts of the first century. We have not just the Hebrew Bible; we have the Gospels. We have not just the prophecies of old; we have the life of Christ. We have not just the Incarnation; we have the resurrection. Think of the themes of Advent. With the birth of Christ, all who had no hope now can be reborn. With Jesus, all who had no love are now renewed. With our Savior, all which was resigned to dreariness now becomes joy. Through Emmanuel, God is with us, and we can see our salvation and be at peace in a world which otherwise makes little sense and offers us lives of toil, troubles, snares and fear.

Can you see salvation? Today of all days, the vision of the mountain is clear. He is born. He has come. He lives. Look around you. You can see salvation in the restoration of a friendship; the forgiveness of some old wound. You can see salvation in the baptism of a child. You can feel salvation when you partake of the Lord’s Supper. The lesson of Christmas is that we can rest in the knowledge that he has come, that he will lift us beyond our own frailties, beyond our own limitations, if only we will do as Simeon and trustingly believe and obey. We too can see our salvation.

    There is more that Simeon says to Mary and Joseph. His happiness in seeing salvation is couched in his cautions of the days to come. Even at birth, the shadow of the cross looms large for our Savior. But this ominous foreshadowing is the subject for another day. For today, let us rejoice. Let us do as Luke tells us that Jesus’ own mother and father did hearing the words of old Simeon. Let us marvel at what was said about him, for in him, we can see salvation.

He is come, and he is coming.  Amen and Amen.    

The Highway of the Lord (Isaiah 35: 1-10, Matthew 2: 9, 10) 12/11/11

It’s sixty six miles from my living room to this sanctuary here at Rocky Creek. Not too bad. On a normal Sunday morning, it’s about an hour and a half, give or take ten minutes. If I were to go on down to Hartsville, it would be about 80 miles and would take about two hours.  That’s about the same distance that Mary and Joseph traveled from their home town of Nazareth to Bethlehem.  It took them a little longer than two hours. Nazareth lay in the region of Galilee, and Samaria lay in between there and little Bethlehem down south in Judea. To have traveled through Samaria would have been unsafe and unfriendly. Chances are pretty good that Joseph chose a route along the eastern side of the Jordan River until they could cross back into Judea. It has been speculated that a fit man walking with a donkey could make about twenty miles a day. But Joseph was older and Mary was near term with her pregnancy. So an educated guess is that Joseph and Mary, traveling on one donkeypower, probably took about a week to get to Bethlehem. They didn’t have a choice. A government census was being taken and families had to go to their cities of origin.   I travel here in the comfort of an old Chevy truck. Mary got a donkey and Joseph walked. Their highway was basically a cartpath. But it will not always be that way. Today’s passage in Isaiah points to a heavenly interstate, the Highway of the Lord. This is the time of expectation. This is the third Sunday of Advent, usually identified with the theme of Joy. Such is the highway that Isaiah prophesies for God’s people.

What a character is Isaiah! Sometimes referred to as the Prince of the Prophets, he preceded the birth of Christ by about 700 years and is thought to have prophesied the Messiah in a number of passages. The dominant themes in the book are judgment and salvation. Amidst a long condemnation of nation after nation and city after city, Isaiah takes time to prophesy a royal son from the house of David:

For unto us a son is born,

to us a child is given,

And the government will be

on his shoulders.

And he will be called

Wonderful Counselor,

Mighty God,

Everlasting Father, Prince of

Peace.  (Is. 9: 6, 7)

In the passage for today, Isaiah talks about joy, specifically the joy of those who will be redeemed. Isaiah says that nature itself will burst open in bloom and shout for joy; that the glory and splendor of the trees of Lebanon and the fertile valleys of Carmel and Sharon will be given to the desert. He says that the weak will be strengthened, that the faint of heart will take courage. He says that God will come to save you. He says that blind eyes will see, deaf ears will hear, cripples will run and the mute shall shout for joy. That’s twice. First nature itself and then the most helpless among us will be shouting for joy.  

          Isaiah goes on. The desert becomes a beautiful lush oasis where everything grows. And in the midst of it all, a highway will spring up. Isaiah calls it the Way of Holiness. It’s like a reverse toll road.  You have to prepay to get on with your behavior, and uncleanliness, wickedness, violence and other such vices will keep you off this road. The Way is for the ransomed and redeemed. It is the high road of complete safety, complete peace. Isaiah says that those who traffic this highway will be crowned with everlasting joy, that gladness and joy will overtake them.

          Joy. I think it is an underused word. I’m glad for that. We Americans hear a word and if we like it, we tend to overuse it and sort of cheapen it in the bargain. How many of you are impressed with a star these days? The word wore out and had to be upgraded to superstar. Sort of like percentages. It doesn’t seem to matter anymore that 100% is all there is. We still want to give 110% to everything. Not the case with joy. It still flies under the radar most of the time. People want to be happy. They don’t go for joy very often.

          I was tempted to look up joy in the dictionary, but then I thought: Wait a minute. I know what joy is. At least I know when I have felt it. I bet you do too. Joy is different from happiness. Joy is different from relief. Joy is both personal and generic. Joy is small enough to get right in your heart but big enough to make you want to shout, just like the desert and the people in Isaiah 35. Joy is hearing her say Yes when you propose. Joy is seeing a newborn son or daughter or grandchild for the first time. Joy is watching that child say mama for the first time. Joy is doing something for a stranger and seeing a tear of acknowledgment form in their eye. Joy is a shoebox offering on its way to Uganda. Joy is realizing that you are loved, that you are not alone, that you are forgiven. I think joy is something you feel when you look at someone or something way bigger than you that touches you in a personal way.

The passage from Isaiah talks about the joy that will come from that Highway of the Lord being carved out by the Holy One of Israel. In the exile, it is God himself. In the prophecy of what is to come 700 years later, it is a manger and a baby and a promise fulfilled. In both instances, Isaiah has spelled out joy for those who believe. Through Isaiah, God reveals his divine purpose so many generations before the event itself. The ransomed and redeemed will abandon their sighs and sorrow and be overtaken with gladness and joy.  

The Gospels echo the theme of promised redemption. When they were fit to travel, Mary and Joseph went to nearby Jerusalem to dedicate the child in the temple. The prophetess Anna was there. She was eighty four years old and full of decades of living at the temple fasting and praying, She came up to Mary and Joseph and gazed at the newly named Jesus. The Gospel of Luke tells us that she gave thanks to God and spoke of the child to all who were looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem (Lk. 2: 38). 

In Isaiah, the prophet says: “Be strong, do not fear; your God will come” (Is 35: 4).  In the Gospel of Luke, an angel of the Lord says to shepherds: “Do not be afraid…Today a Savior has been born” (Lk. 2:9-11).  In Isaiah, He says: “Then will the eyes of the blind be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped. Then will the lame leap like a deer” (Is. 35: 5). In the Gospel of Luke, in response to a question about his identity, Jesus says to a follower of John the Baptist: “Go back and report to John what you have seen and heard: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor” (Lk. 7: 22).

Look at the correspondence between the prophet of old and the Gospel writer. It is not just coincidence and good research that these passages have so much kinship. God moves across the pages of history, forging his identity into the minds and hearts of believers and equipping us with all that we will need to come to that Highway of Holiness promised so long ago.

          It is Advent. It comes faster and louder now. Tonight, eleven choirs will gather at a local church to praise God in much the same way that the very angels of God once did on a hill near Bethlehem. Our own church will be there to take part.  The heavenly choir is in convocation as well. For He is coming.  And He is almost here. And the earthly chorus begins with a familiar hymn.     

              Joy to the world! The Lord is come: Let earth

              Receive her King; Let every heart prepare Him room,
              And heaven and nature sing. 

              He rules the world with truth and grace, And makes the

              Nations prove,  The glories of His righteousness,
                 And wonder of His love.

The hymn says Joy to the world. Not just believers, not just men and women, not just the Church. The hymn says Joy to the world. In the Gospel of Matthew, the Magi are being guided along by the star, until it comes to rest above the place where the child is. When they see the star do this, they are overjoyed. Another translation says that they were thrilled beyond measure. The Greek for that phrase translates literally that they rejoiced a great joy, exceedingly. * I like that. That’s the feeling I was trying to describe earlier when I talked about joy being something very personal and yet bigger than life. That’s the miracle of the Christ child. It makes us want to rejoice a great joy…exceedingly! He’s coming! God is on his way!

*With thanks to Joel Harlow, Professor of Greek and Hebrew studies, Gordon-Conwell Seminary, Charlotte, NC

So Big! (John 3: 16) 12/11/11

Advent. It is a season in the annual life of the Church. Literally, it means “coming” or “arrival.” It is a time in the life of the Church when we focus on both past and future. It is a season when we affirm that our Savior has come, that he is present in the world today and speaks through the Holy Spirit, and that he will come again in glory. This is the time of expectation, the time when the still, small voice of our Lord seems somehow louder, more discernible in the ebb and flow of our lives. Sometimes faint, sometimes distant, the voice of God seems somehow stronger at Christmas time. This is the time when that newborn baby enters the world stage, the time before we have hurt him with our sin. It is a time when we can rejoice and live expectantly, for the Christ child is coming to make things right. There will be time aplenty later to remember the burden of sin with which we saddled him. Today marks the second Sunday of Advent and is usually identified with the theme of Love. It is a big theme, perhaps the biggest of all those associated with Advent.

So Big. Do you remember the Little Golden Book called So Big? It was written in 1968 by Eloise Wilkin. I read it to all of my children about a hundred times each. It started out:   

How big is baby?

Is baby as big

As a ladybug

Walking on a marigold leaf?

My Baby’s bigger

Than a ladybug

Walking on a marigold leaf.

The analogies get bigger and bigger as the child explores the meaning of the word “big.” The final question in the book is “Then how big is baby?” And the answer is that “Baby is SOooooooo Big!” Christians have a similar problem with trying to see Christmas and Advent in the right manner. The spirit of giving sometimes becomes the duty of buying. Christmas is the biggest American holiday season, but its reason for being has nothing to do with many of the traditions we have come to observe. When we quit buying all the groceries and stop wrapping the gifts to go under the tree and put down the decorations, we try to grasp the concept of Christmas, and it is big. It is a simple concept. The apostle John delivers the message in just one short verse. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life.” God loves; God sends; God saves.  Couldn’t really get much simpler that that, could it? Simple it is, but small, it isn’t. It could not get any bigger, There is not a discovery or an invention or a voyage or a crusade or movement in the history of time itself that can begin to compete with the sheer size of the message contained in this one simple verse.

          For God so loved the world. God loves. To get an idea of what this says, let’s look at what it could have said. It could have said for God so loved the Jews. It could have said for God so loved the United States. It could have said for God so loved all the good looking skinny people. It could have said a lot of things, but what it said, what it still says---is that God loves the world.  The Greek word for world is kosmos, which also means universe. It is bigger than you and me. It is bigger than even people. It could be translated that God so loved those whom and that which he had created. God can do some loving. John tells us elsewhere in his New Testament writings that we love God because he first loved us. John is not the only one to tell us of such news. The Old Testament refers to God’s love for us before we are even conceived.  God can do some loving. He loves the bad guys and the good guys, the cactus and the rose. He made thorns and petals and pussy cats and rattlesnakes.  God loves. His love is BIG! For God so loved the world…

          …that He gave his only begotten Son. God sends. How big is God? He is big enough to send himself, to make himself man with God the Son incarnated in that man. Now that is BIG. It is so big; it really is hard for us to comprehend it. I like what the David Crowder Band says in its song: “Heaven came down and glory filled my soul.” Heaven came down. Think about it. That’s exactly what happened. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son… we couldn’t get to heaven so God just made heaven come down to us. Out of a bigger love than you and I can really fathom, God acts. He acts not for his own sake, but for his children and for his creation. Instead of the punishment we deserve, he reaches out to us on our level to bridge that chasm of sin between where we are and where he wants us to be. God sends.

          …that whosoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life. God saves. “My sins were washed away and my night was turned to day,” says the song. Christianity is not God’s pacifier. He does not need us. He is self contained. He is the Trinity. He is, always is. Christianity is God’s gift. It is the way to salvation. It is the bridge to God. This is love. This is the “so big” of the Gospel. The good news is that God found another way. He never condemned. Rather, he offers us himself in the form of his Son as an avenue to knowledge, discipleship and the forgiveness that accompanies them. All we have to do is believe. That task can be daunting. To believe is ultimately to surrender the power and safety of our own creation to the power of the Holy Spirit as it moves within our hearts. Surrender is hard. It involves trust. It involves faith. But we have our example, don’t we. To believe in Jesus is no more or less than what God required of Jesus as he took his place on the cross. Such trust is the root system for the wellspring of love revealed in the Christmas story. God loves; God sends; God saves.

          Last week, we came into a sanctuary filled with greens and a tree filled with chrismons.  Today we see a new building on our church property. It isn’t much of a building. More like a lean-to or temporary shelter. It is simple and rather primitive. That is only as it should be, for the last thing the Christ child needs is adornment. It is enough that he has been sent. His arrival on the human scene is nothing less then a piece of heaven on earth. The shelter contains the symbols of the nativity: shepherds and Joseph and Mary and the baby. We worship none of these. They are simply the props that trigger our imaginations of the incarnation. The baby. Jesus Lord at thy birth.  New and weak and helpless, and containing the seed of all that the world will come to know as Savior and Lord. This is the love of God for his creation. It is SO BIG!

          There’s an old spiritual that says:

My God is so high, you can’t get over him,

he’s so low, you can’t get under him,

he’s so wide, you can’t get ‘round him,

you must come in through the Lamb.

Can you hear it? Halfway through Advent now, I am beginning to. It’s the sound of the little drummer boy getting a little louder now. It’s the gathering of angels for the big event. It’s the star from the east settling in over a lowly stable in tiny Bethlehem.  It’s getting stronger. It’s getting louder. It’s getting BIGGER! It is Advent and he is coming! God loves; God sends; God saves. That is a love story SO BIG that it is still, and will always be, the best seller of all time. For God so loved the world…