The Wonders of
Waiting
By Rev Steven R
Mitchell
Mountain View
United, Aurora, CO 12/28/2014
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 reflect on 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 their son circumcised
on the eight day, at which time they give him the name Jesus. 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 has 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.
Next
in the story, a ninety-one year old widow who also is devout, never leaving the
temple and waiting for God to fulfill His promises to her, sees the baby Jesus
and goes out into the city to declare 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 we willing to wait for a fulfillment of a promise?
Especially one made by God? “
Here
is an important point: 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, 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 are 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 expelled from the
factory. As a society, we are pretty
much like those privileged children, where we expect and at times demand what
we believe we deserve, whether merited or not.
A
great example of this can be found in the opening scenes of the movie “Harry
Potter”, where the overly privileged Dudley throws a fit because his parents
had the nerve to buy him less gifts for his birthday than what they had given
him the year before. While the orphaned
child Harry living in care of his aunt and uncle, never has his birthday
recognized and sleeps under the staircase.
There are children who live in very meager surroundings, very much like
the economic level that Jesus was born into.
When a present does come to them, they are filled with joy because it
was something that they were not expecting.
With some of these children they dare not even dream about receiving a
gift. They have no expectations, no
visions of what life is like beyond their current meager subsistence
“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 shared by
Kathy Huey, who writes for the UCC website.
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 come cheap.
Amen!
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