Sunday after Christmas, Year B [Luke 2:22-40] (31-Dec-2017)

This sermon was preached at St Matthew's Lutheran Church, Maryborough, 8.15am, and Grace Lutheran Church, Childers, 10.30am.

Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ.

[Simeon] took him up in his arms and blessed God and said, “Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace, according to your word.”

Prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.

In the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, the events are written down about Jesus’ birth, and there are also written a number of events which occurred after Jesus was born, when he was still a baby. And there have been different days in the church year when these events have been traditionally commemorated and celebrated.

So in the Gospel of Matthew, we read a very short description of Jesus’ birth, and tells us about how the angel spoke to Joseph in a dream to take Mary to be his wife. In Luke, we then read a lot more detail about Jesus’ birth. We read about how Mary and Joseph travelled to Bethlehem because of a census that was on at that time, and we read about how Mary gave birth, and placed Jesus in a manger, because there was no room in the inn. Then also in the Gospel of Luke, we read the details about how an angel went to visit the shepherds in the fields to tell them about this wonderful good news. We also read about how after the shepherds heard this, a wonderful choir of angels, a multitude of the heavenly hosts appeared to the shepherds and sang a wonderful Christmas carol straight out of heaven: Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to those with whom he is pleased! It has been a custom in the church that every Sunday we would sing this song too, joining in as part of our Sunday service with the angels who are constantly gathered around God’s throne. Then Luke tells us about how the shepherds visited Mary and Joseph and the baby Jesus and told the new parents about how the angels has visited them. Mary considers all these things quietly, she ponders them in her heart, and yet the shepherds are full of excitement, praising and glorifying God.

Then we have a number of events that occur after Jesus’ birth, while he was still a baby. The first event is written in Luke, and we are told about how when Jesus was eight days old that he was circumcised. This was to fulfil the law that was given by God to Abraham. Also, there was a custom that on that day to give the child his name. And so we also read that on the day of Jesus’ circumcision, he was given his name, and unlike most children, whose names are thought over carefully and given to them by their parents, Mary and Joseph were both given the name of the new child by angels. The angel says to Joseph in his dream: You will call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. The angel Gabriel says to Mary: You will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. A special point is made of this by Luke, that the name Jesus was given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb. In the church year, this event has been traditionally remembered and commemorated on New Year’s Day, the first of January, because this is eighth day after Christmas Day.

Now Joseph and Mary didn’t live in Bethlehem: they lived in Nazareth, in the region of Galilee. They only happened to be in Bethlehem because they had travelled there to register for the census. Sometime while they were still in Bethlehem, we read that Mary and Joseph and the baby Jesus received a very strange visit from some very strange visitors. These visitors are often called the Three Wise Men. In Greek, the word for the wise men is Magi. St Matthew actually doesn’t tell us how many wise men there were, but he does tell us that they brought three unusual gifts: gold, frankincense and myrrh. And so, Christians have often assumed that there were three wise men because of the three gifts, but there may have been more. This visit of the wise men the church has normally celebrated on the sixth of January, twelve days after Christmas, which we call Epiphany.

Now also sometime after this, we read about how Mary and Joseph go down to Jerusalem. This wasn’t a very long distance to travel, maybe about 10 kms or so, a bit like coming into Maryborough from Oakhurst [coming into Childers from Apple Tree Creek, or Cordalba]. Mary and Joseph travelled to Jerusalem to make a special visit to the temple there, and this is the event that we read. This event was often celebrated in the church on February the second, which is exactly 40 days after Christmas.

Sometime after this event, we read in Matthew’s Gospel that there was a reaction to the fact that the wise men had come to visit Jesus. They had followed the star that they saw to Jerusalem, and had asked King Herod where the King of the Jews was to be born. King Herod became very worried when he heard this, and thought that this new king might be a threat to him. He had asked the wise men to come back and report to him when they had found the baby Jesus. However, the wise men were warned in a dream not to return to Herod and they departed to their own country by another way.

But then we read about how Herod flew into a rage over this and decided to obliterate Jesus from the face of the earth, and ordered that every baby boy in Bethlehem under two years old was to be killed. Can you imagine the heartache and the wailing and the suffering of the mothers and fathers in Bethlehem when that happened? We often call this event the murder or the slaughter of the Holy Innocents, and this murder of these children are often remembered on the twenty-eighth of December. Jesus and Mary and Joseph escaped to Egypt, and stayed there until Herod had died. We often call this event the Flight to Egypt. And then they went back and lived in their hometown of Nazareth where Jesus grew up. We also read about this at the very end of our reading today. So these are the events that we read about in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke that occurred when Jesus was still a baby. It’s important for us to recognise that there was a historical sequence of events here.

Let’s now come to our reading today, which tells us about the event when Mary and Joseph took the baby Jesus and visited the temple in Jerusalem when he was 40 days old. There are also a number of different things that happened when they went to the temple, and a historical sequence of events.

First of all, we read: When the time came for their purification according to the Law of Moses, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord (as it is written in the Law of the Lord, “Every male who first opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord”) and to offer a sacrifice according to what is said in the Law of the Lord, “a pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons”. Here St Luke explains for us what they were doing in the temple. In the book of Leviticus, we read that there was a special law that 40 days after a woman had given birth to a boy, she had to remain outside of the temple, and then bring and offering of a lamb for her purification. But if the people couldn’t afford a lamb, they had to bring two turtledoves or two pigeons. This passage shows that Jesus and his family carried out everything according to the law of Moses, and that Jesus fulfilled the law for us. It also shows us that Joseph and Mary were poor, because they took the less expensive option of the birds, instead of a lamb.

Secondly, we read: Now there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon, and this man was righteous and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ. And he came in the Spirit into the temple, and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him according to the custom of the Law, he took him up in his arms. This old man Simeon was not one of the people in the temple, like the priests, who had an official duty to perform. Instead, Simeon was told by God to go to the temple at that particular time, and when he went there with all the people, he was able to pick out from the crowd exactly who that baby Jesus was.

The third thing we read in our reading is that Simeon speaks a wonderful word of blessing, which we often call the Song of Simeon. We read that Simeon blessed God and said, “Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace, according to your word; for my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your people Israel.” Simeon prays a prayer of joy that he can die in peace, now that he has taken in his arms the baby Jesus. You will probably recognise these words from our Sunday service which we often say or sing after the Lord’s Supper.

After we read this, we come to a fourth part of our reading, where Simeon gives a special word of blessing to Jesus’ parents. We read: His father and his mother marvelled at what was said about him. And Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother, “Behold, this child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is opposed (and a sword will pierce through your own soul also), so that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed.” These are very strange words indeed to be spoken to a couple with a child.

The fifth part of our reading tells about another person who was there on this occasion. We read: And there was a prophetess, Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was advanced in years, having lived with her husband seven years from when she was a virgin, and then as a widow until she was eighty-four. She did not depart from the temple, worshipping with fasting and prayer night and day. And coming up at that very hour she began to give thanks to God and to speak of him to all who were waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem. Here we read about an old woman, Anna, who St Luke calls a prophetess. Simeon had lived somewhere in Jerusalem and had come up at exactly the right time to meet the baby Jesus. But this lady was always there in the temple, and lived a life of fasting and prayer. And she began also to praise God and talk about this baby Jesus.

Now we come to the sixth part of our reading, which says: And when they had performed everything according to the Law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth. We read here that after they met these unusual old people, Simeon and Anna, Mary and Joseph did everything that they had gone to the temple to do, to offer the sacrifices which were prescribed in the law of Moses. And then after that, they returned to Nazareth. It sounds here like they went back to Nazareth immediately, but in Matthew’s Gospel we read that somewhere in the mix they had returned to Bethlehem and fled to Egypt and then after a couple of years returned to Nazareth and Galilee.

And then we read the seventh and final detail of our reading: And the child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom. And the favour of God was upon him. Here we read about something that now takes place over years. With a couple of sentences, St Luke describes the whole childhood of Jesus. He grows, becomes strong, and becomes wise, and it is noticed that the particular favour of God was upon him. So this is the order and the historical sequence of the events in our reading today. There are so many things going on, and so many things that we can talk about.

However, I’d like to come back to the words, the song if you like, of the old man Simeon. In the world today there are many false prophets, and there are many people who want to basically tell Christians that their faith is all about this life, and that the best time of our life is now. This is not true. Psalm 23 very clearly calls this life the valley of the shadow of death. The last prayer of the Lord’s Prayer is that God our heavenly Father would deliver us from evil. In the Small Catechism, Martin Luther applies this to the whole of our lives here on earth, and says: We pray in this petition...finally, when our last hour comes, [that our Father in heaven would] give us a blessed end, and graciously take us from this valley of sorrow to himself in heaven. If we haven’t realised this yet, then we have to ask ourselves why we come to church, why we pray, why we hear God’s word, why we want to be Christians. The most important thing that this baby Jesus has to give to us is a blessed end, a Christian death. This world is a sinful world, and we are sinners who are part of that sinful world. And because of our sin, God will pronounce a judgment upon us: one day we will die. We don’t know when it will be, maybe it will be when we are old, maybe it will be when we are young. St Paul says: The wages of sin is death.

But a wonderful thing happened in the life of Simeon. It was revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death [that he would not die, that he would not experience death] before he had seen the Lord’s Christ. And he comes into the temple and says: Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace according to your word. This is a wonderful prayer. And in the church we use this prayer in a number of different ways. Firstly, we use it as a prayer at deathbeds. Secondly, we use it as a prayer at funerals: it is an old custom to sing this prayer when we carry a coffin out of the church. Thirdly, it has long been a prayer which Christians use before they go to bed. And fourthly, it has been a prayer that we use after receiving the Lord’s Supper. Now these things all go together: death, sleep, and the Lord’s Supper. We often fear death, but we don’t fear going to sleep. But in many places the bible calls death a sleep. When St Stephen is stoned to death, it simply says that he fell asleep. Or when St Paul is talking about the resurrection, he says: We shall not all sleep, but we shall be changed. When by faith we take the baby Jesus into our arms and into our hearts as our wonderful Saviour, then we know that death will be nothing more for us than a peaceful sleep. And about the Lord’s Supper, it was once said that we should go to the Lord’s Supper as if we are going to our death, so that when we die it will be just like going to the Lord’s Supper. Up we will come to Jesus, individually, one at a time, one by one. Don’t you know what a wonderful thing it is to receive the body and blood of Christ, given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins? We take the body of Christ not just in our arms like Simeon, but into our mouths and bodies. And one day, Jesus will take us in his own arms, just as he already took us into his arms on the day of our baptism, and rescue us from all of our sin, and together with all our sadnesses and disappointments and worries and heartaches. And so we can say: Lord, now you let your servant depart in peace according to your word. St Paul also uses that word “depart” to talk about death. He says: My desire is to depart and be with Christ. What a wonderful thing it will be one day to leave this troubled world, and to be with Christ? It is just as when Jesus said to the thief on the cross: Today you will be with me in paradise. The word “depart” is a shipping word: it has the picture of a little ship departing, sailing off from the troubled shores of this earth, where we can lower our anchor down in the loving heart of our Saviour Jesus in eternity.

This is what the prayer of Simeon is about. In Jesus, he sees and we see not our condemnation and judgment, which we would deserve because of our sin. Without that Jesus in our arms, we have no hope of salvation and eternal life.  Instead, Simeon says: For my eyes have seen your salvation. But maybe we think that this salvation is only for certain types of people, but not me. Maybe we think it was only for Jews, and not for Gentiles, or only for holy people and not for sinners. But Simeon says: My eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the presence of all people. Jesus is your Saviour, and your salvation, and this salvation is prepared in the presence of all people, including you. Simeon says: A light for revelation to the Gentiles (that includes us, everyone who is not Jewish, like the wise men from the East) and the glory of your people Israel. Here Simeon prophesies that salvation is not just for Jews, but for Gentiles too, and that in Jesus Christ, all people of the world will be brought into one holy Christian Church. This Jesus is our salvation, our light and our glory. He is the way, the truth and the life and no-one comes to the Father except through him.

So let’s commend ourselves to this child Jesus. Don’t let your life end before you have taken him into your arms! Even though we live in a troubled, sinful world, and sin much ourselves, this life is not all there is. Jesus has promised a wonderful eternity to you too, so that, like Simeon, one day you will depart in peace according to his word, or as St Paul says: depart to be with Christ. And then you will sing for all eternity with all the angels of heaven with clearest tone and full voice like you have never sung or heard before: Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased! Amen.

Dear Jesus, according to your word and your timing, let your servants depart in peace. Save us, shine your wonderful light on us, and be our glory. Amen.