The Wonders of Waiting, First Congregational UCC, Rock Springs, WY, 1/1/2012, Rev Steven R Mitchell

You may notice that there hasn't been any posting for the last two Sundays of December. That is because the children held the worship on Dec 18th and there was no Sunday worship on Dec 25th. So we start off this year's Worship reflections on the very first day, first Sunday of the New Year of 2012. There are many changes in the wind as I work toward separating myself from the transitional ministry of the past 2 1/2 yrs with First Congregational UCC, which ends on Jan 31, 2012 and begin to serve the Mountain View United Church of Aurora, CO starting on Feb 1,2012 as their settled pastor. Much excitement is being generated with this up coming move and I will address those items in the up coming weeks. Peace to you all and have a Prosperous New Year and in harmony with the reflection of this week, may you know and embrace "The Wonders of Waiting!"

The Wonders of Waiting
By Rev Steven R Mitchell
First Congregational UCC, Rock Springs, WY 1/1/2012
Based on Luke 2:22-40

This morning’s scripture reads pretty straight forward, yet as is generally the case, it has many directions in which one can contemplate. We can read how devout Joseph and Mary are in respect to their religious believes. Even as a very poor couple they follow the Law of Moses to the letter; having Jesus circumcised on the eight day, at which time they give the name Jesus to their son. Now they have journeyed into Jerusalem to consecrate their first born son. They lived within a covenant community and were determined to raise their children in the way of that covenant.
So, the most obvious way to take this morning’s reflections is to focus on the holy family. But the story also has two other characters, Simeon and Anna, who were also very devout Jews and very much a part of this same community. The theologian Fred Craddock says of Simeon and Anna that these two are, “miniature representation of Israel at its best: devout, obedient, constant in prayer, led by the Holy Spirit, at home in the temple, longing and hoping for the fulfillment of God’s promises. They embody what have been called ‘the wonders of waiting’, an art seemingly lost to us today.”
This is what I’d like to focus on this morning, the wonders of waiting. Simeon declares at the sight of Jesus, “God, you can now release your servant; release me in peace as you promised. With my own eyes I've seen your salvation;” Mary and Joseph were taking Jesus into the temple to be blessed, but before this could happen, Simeon, lead by the holy spirit to go to the temple that day, see’s them, steps up and takes the child into his arms and then Blesses God, not the boy! God had made a promise to Simeon back in his youth that he would not die until he had seen the “hope” of Israel.
Then comes along a ninety-one year old widow who also is devout, never leaving the temple and waiting upon God’s promises, sees the baby Jesus and then goes out into the city and declares to friends that God’s promise of “freedom” had finally come. We don’t know how old Simeon was, but he was up there in years, as was Anna, both who had been waiting to see the fulfillment of God’s promise to them! This begs the question, “How long are you willing to wait for a fulfillment of a promise? Especially one made by God? “
Because of these two peoples devotion to God, they had received particular visions of what they were to expect. For Simeon, he was promised that before he would die that he would see the promise of Israel. With Anna, she too had lived in hope of a promise, a vision that God would send one who would save Israel.
Having a vision, or rather gaining a vision in a world where there is so much at our finger tips is truly a difficult thing to do. I compare it to the story of Willie Wonka and the Chocolate factory. A story where a group of children a chosen to go through this candy factory and the one deserving child will become the new curator of this factory. Almost all the children were children of privilege in one form or another and one by one are dispelled from the factory. As a society, we are pretty much like most of the over privileged children, where we expect and at times demand what we believe we deserve, whether merited or not.
As a society, Christmas is a season where this becomes so painfully obvious. There are children who have an abundance of toys, yet expect to receive even more gifts and are disappointed if those expectations are not met. Then, there are children who live in very meager surroundings, very much like the economic level that Jesus was born into. When a present comes to them, they are filled with joy because it was something that they were not expecting, even though the season of Christmas promises the gift of presents. With some of these children they dare not even dream about receiving a gift. They have no expectations, no vision of what this season of giving promises. While others as the poem goes, “dream thoughts of sugar plums dancing in their heads.”
“A vision” is the life line of any person of faith. “Vision” is at the heart of any ministry for a church. For without a vision, you have nothing to look toward, no expectations, no promises to be fulfilled. I want to share with you a thought in this week’s “Sermon Seeds” as written by Kathy Huey. She shares a story of a friend of hers who is blind, “I once had a conversation about the vision thing with a colleague who had lost his eyesight many years before. We talked about this reading, about the ability of Simeon to see more than a baby in his arms, to see within and beyond this baby to God's hand at work in the world.
My colleague said that his own inability to see with his eyes is sometimes a gift because it enables him not to be distracted by things that might keep him from seeing "to the heart of things." Whenever he would say that something was "gorgeous," I wondered how he knew that, but he explained that his heart sees what his eyes cannot. He says that he sees the beauty of creation – instead of ugliness – because he can only see with his heart, his soul, and his mind. Most of all, he tries to see to the heart of each person he encounters, so the things that matter to the world matter very little to him. He looks, instead, within the person, to the Christ within. He believes that we're each called to see – to behold – the promise of God's grace and the Christ in one another – which helps us to understand better Jesus' teachings about things like loving our enemies and having the reign of God within us.” UCC lectionary study, 1/1/2012 Kathy Huey
If we can hold onto the same vision that Simeon and Anna had, in a world that too often distracts us with the false promises of wealth, easy living, enlarged ego’s, then we will be able to see the world as Kathy Huey’s friend see it, “the promise of God’s grace and the Christ in one another.” But it doesn’t just happen because we want it to happen, we must work at preparing ourselves for this type of vision, by practicing what our faith teaches us: things such as devotion, obedience, constantly in prayer, willingness to be led by the Holy Spirit, being at home in the temple, and longing and hoping for the fulfillment of God’s promises.
These are not easy attributes, they come with commitment through a covenanted group of people. It doesn’t come by just attending worship now and then, it comes from an intentional commitment of time, time that we commit to study, worship, prayer, fellowship, and a commitment of our money to make sure that these things will be available for us to pursue. Following our faith is not cheap, even as poor as Joseph and Mary were, they paid the cost of sacrificing two doves in order to follow and be true to their commitment to the Law of Moses.
Vision is a necessary thing to have, to hold onto, to work toward. It is the cornerstone of “faith”, and yet as we read these and other stories found in the scriptures, we quickly learn that our faith, our visions, will not be cheap. Amen!