Sermon

A different kind of New Year’s resolution

Scripture Text:

Luke 2:21-39 After eight days had passed, it was time to circumcise the child; and he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb. 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 firstborn male shall be designated as holy to the Lord’), and they offered a sacrifice according to what is stated in the law of the Lord, ‘a pair of turtle-doves or two young pigeons.’ Now there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon; this man was righteous and devout, looking forward to the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit rested on him. It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Messiah. Guided by the Spirit, Simeon came into the temple; and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him what was customary under the law, Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying, ‘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, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel.’ And the child’s father and mother were amazed at what was being said about him. Then Simeon blessed them and said to his mother Mary, ‘This child is destined for the falling and the rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be opposed so that the inner thoughts of many will be revealed—and a sword will pierce your own soul too.’ There was also a prophet, Anna the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was of a great age, having lived with her husband for seven years after her marriage, then as a widow to the age of eighty-four. She never left the temple but worshipped there with fasting and prayer night and day. At that moment she came, and began to praise God and to speak about the child to all who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem. When they had finished everything required by the law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth. The child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom; and the favour of God was upon him.

Sermon:

Maybe you’ve noticed that the name of this day on the cover of your bulletin is different from the name the rest of the world has for this day.  There’s New Year’s Day, the first day of 2012, while here in church, we’re celebrating a feast called “The Holy Name.” The way the world thinks of time and the way the Church thinks of time are different. Here in church, we try to order time around the story of God’s relationship with us, and out in the world, time is usually ordered around getting work done.  There are sayings like “Time is money,” that we’re slaves to time, that the older we get, the faster the years fly by.

 

January 1 is called “Holy Name” because it’s the eighth day of Christmas, and according to Jewish tradition, boy babies are named and circumcised when they’re eight days old.  There are actually a few Jewish traditions for baby boys all mushed together in the passage from Luke we heard today, but the most important part of the story is that Jesus is given the name God intended for him and that he’s recognized by two elderly Jewish leaders, Simeon and Anna, as the Messiah.

 

Simeon just happens to walk into the Temple at the same time as Jesus’ family. He bumps into them and he recognizes that this baby is the Messiah he’s been waiting for his whole life.  But he also recognizes that this Messiah is not quite the same as the Messiah he or the people of Israel have been expecting.  This isn’t a mighty warrior king or great scholar – this is a kid from a low-income family who can only pay for the cheapest Temple gift: two pigeons. This is a different kind of Messiah.  This Messiah is not going to save the world through raw power or will, but through love and surrender.

 

And then, we meet Anna.  It’s sort of amazing that Luke tells us that an older woman also welcomed the Christ child… an older woman he calls “a prophet.”  There are only four women prophets mentioned in the whole Hebrew Bible, and the New Testament sort of shies away from the idea of women as prophets.  Anna is 84 and a sort of nun, living at the Temple. Now, when Simeon meets the Christ child, his response is to speak to Mary and Joseph about who Jesus will become, but Anna’s response is to speak to everyone else –  “all who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem” – about the existence of this child.

 

Anna and Simeon, in their wisdom and age, were able to see Jesus for who he was, even when he was just a newborn baby.  They were able to see, too, that he wasn’t what the world was expecting a Messiah to be. The world sees time differently; the world sees a Savior differently…  and we’re in the world, so our tendency can be to see things the way the world does.

Maybe we look for redemption “in all the wrong places”?

 

I see this especially in New Year’s resolutions.  People make resolutions to lose weight, to exercise more, to spend more time with family – but the thing about making resolutions in that way is those things all become ends in themselves.  They’re “to do” lists.  Actually, they’re “anti to-do” lists.  They’re the wishlists we make for all the ways we don’t want to be.  Maybe they’re even a sort of self-critique.  “I wish I was thinner, better behaved, not a smoker, not a drinker.” “I wish I worked less, spent more time with family, had a better job, spent less money…”  The thing is, resolutions like that are all based on guilt – on feeling badly about who we are.  The best resolutions are more like God’s love for us: they’re based in a positive vision of who we are, already.  Sure, everyone has things they could do better.  Yes, sin is real and we choose things in our lives that hurt us and other people.  The thing is, when we dream about who we want to be on based on who we’re not, we’re always doomed to fail.

 

I’m not saying that you shouldn’t resolve to quit smoking or to spend more time with family because “forget about it, it’s always going to be what you do.”  But I am saying that I hope you will think about your life and who you want to be by trying to see things the way God sees them.  God looks at you and sees you, warts and all, and says, “This is one of my children.”  God looks at you and says, “What matters to me is not how thin you are or how successful you are or whether you have it all together, but whether you are living your life in truth and love.”  Do you pretend to be something you’re not? Do you believe you have to have everything under control? What if the most powerful resolution you could ever make it to resolve to believe that God loves you?  To resolve to turn your life over to God’s love?  Then really, the eating, smoking, drinking, working, and spending too much will probably all resolve themselves. Because all those other things are the sort of tranquilizers we give ourselves when life hurts too much – and life hurts too much when we don’t really believe God loves us.

 

And life hurts too much when people continue to choose to take care of themselves and forget to take care of their communities. This is something I’m just starting to uncover in my own spiritual practice – maybe you’re ahead of me on this one. What if, for instance, when we give ourselves another new pair of shoes we also give (or we give instead!) to the local Boys and Girls Club or homeless shelter.  Or instead of spending an afternoon with friends, we spend an afternoon with Feed My Starving Children or at the local high school.  Turning our lives over to God’s love is seeing how our physical and spiritual well-being is tied up in the physical and spiritual well-being of our community, especially the most needy and vulnerable. Jesus said, whatever you do for the least of these, you do for me.

 

Today is New Year’s Day and the Feast of the Holy Name: a feast for 2012 and a feast for our Lord, Jesus.

May it be a year when we reach out and care for the well-being of our community and not just our own well-being.

May it be a year when we resolve to choose what is life-giving, and not self-denying.

May it be a year when we believe that time belongs to God, not money; that growing older can mean growing in God; that we’re not slaves to time, but time belongs to us.

As Paul wrote to the Galatians in the reading we heard today:

So you are no longer a slave but a child,

and if a child then also an heir, through God.

May it be a year when you resolve to believe you are a child and heir of our God, that God loves you.

May it be a year for you to turn your life over to that love and to the one who claims that holiest of names, Jesus.

Amen.

Uploaded on January 1, 2012 in by RevHeidi

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