Sermon 1/1/06
Glimpses - Luke 2:22-40
(view lectionary notes for this text)
New Year’s Day. I love New Year’s Day because it is so full of promise. On January first, we haven’t yet had the opportunity, probably, to mess up on our resolutions. Ten hours into a new year, and there is all the hope still that a new year promises. It’s like a blank sheet of paper, just waiting for our pen to fill it with words, but still free of scribbles and mistakes and scratched out errors. I know some people say that they don’t make resolutions for New Year’s. I think this is probably because we have so much experience with failed resolutions. Why bother to make resolutions at all, if we’re bound to fail anyway? Aren’t we just setting ourselves up to feel bad about ourselves?
But I’m not ready to give up on resolutions. I can’t help it. I’m not always successful with them. But sometimes my resolutions hold up, and I’m able to make changes in myself and in my life. And besides, the resolutions I make help me clarify what I really want, what I’m looking for. They help me try and plan, try and articulate what I’m hoping for myself in the New Year. And hopefully, they help me envision where I think God wants me to grow and learn and change in the next months. I guess I think that making New Year’s resolutions gives me a glimpse, a picture of who I could be, if I lived into all the potential that God has given me. A glimpse, of God’s promises and blessings and love come to bear fruit in my own life because I finally cultivate all that God has given me. The promise of a New Year is full of all that hope and possibility.
A glimpse. Sometimes all we need is a glimpse to get the whole picture. It was the cover of a recent edition of Games Magazine that inspired my children’s message this morning. The cover featured little pieces of everyday objects. Little snippets of something, and the challenge was to guess what the object was from the tiny portion you could see. I think maybe all we need to stick to our resolutions is a glimpse of what God sees us becoming. If we could see what God sees for us, then perhaps we could make our resolutions last to February and beyond.
Sometimes all it takes is one glimpse. One pastor (1) shares his story of Christmas glimpses. He writes: “The Christmas our oldest son was ten, he had asked for a bicycle. Not just any bicycle but a Bandit BMX bicycle. He pointed it out to us one day in the store. That's all he talked about for three months before Christmas. Of course we got the bicycle. We put it on layaway that very day. I picked it up a week before Christmas. Still in the box, I wrapped it and brought it home. Then, in a very conspiratorial way, I asked him to help me carry it into the house. I told him it was a set of bookshelves which Mom had asked for. We slid it in behind the tree.
“When Christmas morning came, he kept wanting to give Mom her big present and I kept telling him to wait. Finally, all the presents but one were open. We told him to pull it out and then pointed out a card that was hanging on the tree. We told him to open the card first. He opened the card and it read, "Paul, open the big box." He started tearing the paper off and uncovered a hand hole for carrying the box. And whatever it was that he saw through that hole was just enough of a glimpse to give the whole thing away. That one little glimpse was all that he needed to know what was in the box. He leaped across the floor and hugged my neck and then went running to hug Mom’s neck. All it took was one little glimpse.”
One glimpse. Today we come across a gospel lesson that we rarely glimpse in our cycle of lectionary readings. Today is the First Sunday after Christmas in our church calendar, but usually, this Sunday gets “skipped” in favor of celebrating Epiphany, a day when we talk about the wise men, and the epiphany – the revelation of Jesus’ birth and its significance. Epiphany rarely actually falls on a Sunday. It is the day after the twelfth day of Christmas, so it is usually just moved to the preceding Sunday. But this year, we’ll celebrate Epiphany in our Saturday Worship. So today, here, we deal with this unique text from Luke.
Mary and Joseph bring a newborn Jesus to the temple for the traditional rite of purification, as all parents would bring their newborns. Their sacrifice is as laid out in the Law of Moses. There they find a righteous man, Simeon, who we read has been “looking forward to the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit rested on him.” God had revealed to Simeon that he would not see death before he had seen the Promised One, the Messiah. So Simeon comes into the temple, and sees Mary and Joseph with the baby. They would have been one couple among many who were bringing a child for purification. But there’s something about Jesus. All Simeon needs is this one glimpse of Jesus, and he becomes overwhelmed to lay his eyes on this baby. “Master, now you are dismissing your servant in peace, according to your word; for my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples.” Simeon takes just one look at Jesus – he catches just a glimpse of the baby – but in the face of Jesus he sees his salvation, and the salvation of all people. In Jesus’ face, he sees a plan of salvation that extends to all people, not just some, not just the Jews, but the Gentiles also. In a little baby, a plan of salvation that touches the whole world. In this one glimpse, he trusts that God’s promise to him and to all people has been fulfilled. Another, a prophet named Anna, who lives in the Temple, also sees a glimpse of Jesus, and begins praising God for the redeeming of Israel.
A glimpse. Simeon and Anna are offered a glimpse of God’s promise fulfilled in the baby Jesus. In this infant, they can see someone who will change the world, who will bring hope and meaning to the lives of all people, Jews and Gentiles alike. In a glimpse, they see, trust, and believe. Even though they may not live to see this baby grow into the man who will be crucified, even though they may never hear him speak and teach or watch him heal and touch, their glimpse is enough.
Is a glimpse enough for us, too? Simeon sees a little baby Jesus, but catches a glimpse of savior who can touch people all over the world with his loving ways. We see our own selves – broken, sinful, sad, in need of repair and resolutions – and we are weighed down by the work that must be done in our world and in our selves. Yet, can we catch the glimpse? Can we glimpse what we will look like with God working within us? Can we see a small part of ourselves, of what we are when we are touched and loved by God, and believe in God’s promise to work the best in us when we open ourselves to God’s call on our lives? I look at this congregation, full of such unique and gifted people, and sometimes, in our best moments of community, our best outreaches of ministry, our best work as a family of faith, I catch a glimpse of all that is possible for us when we live as God calls us to. Can you see it in yourself? In this place?
One of my favorite scripture verses reads, “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love God.” (1 Cor. 2:9) But I think sometimes we look at ourselves and our failures and shortcomings, and wonder where God’s promises are for us? When are God’s promises going to be fulfilled in us? In you? In me? It is so easy to be discouraged, and begin to doubt our own value and worth. But God is faithful. And God has created in you the potential for things that your mind cannot even yet conceive. In you is hope and promise. In you is what you can be when you are shaped by the loving hand of the one who created you. Look in the mirror. Catch a glimpse of God’s promises reflected back at you. For our eves have seen the child, and in the child salvation, and in that salvation, our hope for the word, and our hope for ourselves.
Amen.
(1) Rev. Billy D. Strayhorn, http://epulpit.net/991226.htm