1st Sunday of Christmas
Isaiah 61:10-62:3 Psalm 148 Galatians 4:4-7 Luke 2:22-40 Christmas 1 12/27/2020 Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ, grace and peace to you from the one who comes to those who show up. Amen Merry Christmas! Yes we’re still in the season of Christmas, we will be until January 6th when the magi show up revealing once and for all that Jesus is the messiah. We’ve heard the story of the baby in the manger and today we have another story of Jesus as an infant, the story of Mary and Joseph presenting Jesus at the temple, of Simeon and Anna’s hope being fulfilled, a story of the Holy Spirit coming to those who are faithful, those who show up. Now, this isn’t intended to either shame or overly congratulate anyone but the truth of the matter is that those who are faithful, who seek the presence of God have a better chance of encountering God and while God can and does work outside of religious rites and institutions, God also works through them but in still surprising ways, probably because the Holy Spirit is so unpredictable. For as much as we trust that God is with us, that Christ comes to us especially in the sacraments, there are times when we feel the presence of God more than others, times when the Holy Spirit comes to us when we need her, times when she jumps out and surprises us. I experienced this perhaps most vividly at least for the first time in college. Gustavus is a Lutheran school and this Lutheran identity and faith are still a strong part of the mission of the school such that in the daily schedule of classes every day at 10am time was blocked off for chapel and a service offered For most students it was an extra half hour to sleep or finish up homework, or get breakfast. Some people went to chapel a couple times a week or once a week for the sung morning prayer service but there were a few of us who went pretty much every day. I know I started going every day because I was still working out my call to ministry and daily chapel seemed like a good place to start. I kept going because I realized that I didn’t know when the Holy Spirit would show up and I wanted to be there when she did. Not all the services were winners or deeply meaningful, just like not all Sundays are winners or deeply meaningful, but every now and then the spirit would show up, like the time the dance major who was giving his senior sermon and had clearly not prepared made us all get close together and hold hands and form connection, or the time Chaplain Brian bent over in the pulpit before starting his homily and when he stood up he was wearing an accordion and proceeded to preach accompanying himself on the instrument, okay maybe those were just very memorable times but there were times when the message was exactly what I needed to hear that day or when the choirs filled the air with beauty and truth that transcended words. So each day at 10am in college, you could find me in chapel, waiting, hoping that the Holy Spirit would show up. I suspect that some of you may have had similar experiences with other faith practices, like daily devotions or prayers at mealtimes. Where sometimes you do it because that’s what you do, you show up, and sometimes in the midst of that the spirit flashes through leaving you wanting more, and coming back each day. Simeon and Anna have been showing up at the temple and waiting for a long time, their whole lives, which Luke makes sure to tell us have been long. They have been waiting for the spirit to come to them, hoping for an experience of the divine and yet when they enter the temple this day they have no indication that this day will be any different from the others. and into the temple walk Mary and Joseph with the baby Jesus, they too are not expecting anything out of the ordinary they are they too are simply being faithful, fulfilling the law and the tradition of their people dedicating their firstborn son to the temple and making the appropriate sacrifice. And now the stage is set, we have four faithful people who have come to the temple to live out their faith and one baby messiah and in sweeps the Holy Spirit, first she directs Simeon to Jesus, now we are told that Simeon has already had an encounter with the Holy Spirit, who told him he would not see death until he had seen the messiah, ‘here’s the messiah’ the Spirit tells Simeon, who proceeds to take the baby in his arms and sing a song of praise to God, thanking God for the gift of seeing the messiah who will be a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel. In his song, Simeon, guided by the spirit expands Jesus’ mission beyond the people of Israel to the whole world. Mary and Joseph are amazed at Simeon’s words, you’d think that after several angelic visits they couldn’t be surprised any more but perhaps in the midst of caring for a newborn who needs the same care as any other newborn those experiences have faded, Simeon blesses the parents but closes with a warning to Mary, her Son will do great things but not without controversy and pain. Then Anna takes over, Luke tells us that she is a prophet and after being widowed early has spent the rest of her life in the temple she too praises God and tells about Jesus to all those present looking for the redemption of Jerusalem, and those others who showed up at the temple that day have their own unexpected experience with the divine. And then the moment is over, Mary and Joseph take Jesus home and go about the everyday task of raising their child and apparently nothing of note happens for another twelve years until that one passover where Jesus decides to stay behind in the temple debating scholars. This time in the temple was just a moment but one that everyone present would carry with them the rest of their lives. It’s moments like these that carry us forward in our faith, and it all starts with simply showing up, practicing faith in a regular way creating space for the Holy Spirit to enter into our lives. These practices don’t have to be as extreme as the prophet Anna who basically lived in the temple, or my college self at chapel every day, but something that regularity creates space within our lives, within ourselves for the Holy Spirit to show up for God to enter in Just as God entered into the world in Jesus, Emmanuel, God with us. Merry Christmas.
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AboutPastor Emily Johnson preaches weekly at Christ Lutheran. These are manuscripts of her sermons given at Christ Lutheran. Feel free to engage with them in the comments section of the blog. Archives
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