Sunday February 2nd, 2025 Worship

Growing up in church, I remember watching all the kids over the years who were brought forward by their parents and godparents for baptism. Most of them would cry, especially as the water touched their foreheads; while others would sleep, no clue what was happening around them. And, I distinctly remember our Pastor, Paul, holding the babies like Simba in the Lion King after they had been baptized…This did not help their inclination to cry! He’d raise them up for the whole congregation to see and declare that this was our new sibling in Christ. And, then he’d walk through the rows carrying the baby so that people could catch a glimpse. I didn’t often pay attention to the details, too busy with my coloring pages or flipping through the hymnals, but I do remember the time that one of the babies spit its pacifier out right into the pocket of Pastor Paul’s shirt! Despite the comedy, it said something about the faith of the parents, the faith they wanted to raise their child in, that they brought their baby before the community to be baptized.
While our baptismal practices differ from denomination to denomination, including a huge debate about the validity of infant baptisms, and these practices are certainly different from the dedication rituals that we see in today’s Gospel reading, it still becomes clear in our reading that Mary and Joseph were grounded in the practices of their faith. This whole story wouldn’t have happened if they hadn’t brough this 8-day old Jesus to the Temple to be dedicated to the Lord. They are following the practices of Leviticus chapter 12, of waiting the customary time and then bringing your first born son to the Temple for dedication on the 8th day, including bringing a sacrifice of two turtledoves or two pigeons (Luke 2: 24) because they could not afford to bring both a bird and a lamb. They brought their child, they traveled from Bethlehem to Jerusalem, before even returning home to Nazareth, to dedicate their child to God. Now, I know there is so much of this sacrifice language that we could follow, including Jesus often being identified as the “Lamb of God,” but that isn’t quite the direction I want to go today.
Instead, I want to focus on what these two prophets, Anna and Simeon, are saying about who this Jesus is. After all, at this point he’s just the 8-day old son of a relatively poor family. There is nothing to distinguish them from every other family of their status bringing their child to the Temple. As I have said before, this is not who the people expected the Messiah to be! Yet, before he is even old enough to act, to show the powers that he actually holds, these two old prophets approach his parents to make declarations about who he is and what he is going to do for the world. Guided by the Holy Spirit, Simeon took one look at the child and knew (Luke 2: 27-28). While Anna and Simeon both make declarations about who Jesus is, it is Simeon’s testimony that is given more length. I don’t want to dismiss Anna’s role in this either, and at the same time I want to focus a bit more on what Simeon is doing here.
Now, I don’t know this for a fact, but I imagine that when you have a child, you don’t expect a stranger to come up, hold your child, and then declare to you, “ 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” (Luke 2: 34b-35). For all the talk about John the Baptist being the one who points the way for Jesus, today’s Gospel gives us one of the first testimonies of Jesus’ identity. It is not coming after he has taught, preached, or performed miracles. He hasn’t had to do anything for the people to believe that he is truly the Messiah. In fact, the other people in the Temple were probably looking at Simeon as if he had lost his mind. Jesus didn’t have to prove anything to either of these prophets, they just knew that there was much at stake in the life of this young one.
Simeon’s words have so much power in them. This isn’t a casual, “I can tell this child will do great things” kind of statement. This is a declaration. “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” (Luke 2: 34b-35).” To connect back to what I was saying last week about how the Good News of the Gospel sounds incredible to some people and a challenge to others, that is what Simeon is saying about Jesus’ ministry. He doesn’t say that everything is going to go wonderfully. That people will listen to Jesus and just change their ways automatically. That no one will be threatened by the drastic changes Jesus is asking of them.
Simeon, in making this declaration, is acknowledging the power of Jesus to change the world, and the hardship that will come to both Jesus and his mother as a result of it. Jesus is not only going to change the lives of those around him, but as a result will be seen as a threat. From all the talk of the Magnificat, Mary’s song about her son and God, we always hear about how the poor and lowly will be lifted up, the mighty will be cast down, etc. (Luke 1: 46-55). And, while on an intuitive level, we know that the people in power aren’t going to like that very much, until this point, we have always remained in the hope piece. Simeon still keeps the hope a bit, but also brings in realistic elements. Jesus isn’t old enough to know what this all means for him, but Simeon is adding to the Magnificat from the last chapter, reminding Mary that all of this will unfortunately come with a price, and she’s holding him in her arms right now.
The prophets themselves represent so much of the hope of the Israelites. Here you have these two old prophets, which by 1st century standards would have lived incredibly long lives. When we hear those ages now, they are special, but not remarkable, but to live into your 80s in the 1st century was almost a miracle in and of itself. But, I think it is supposed to represent just how long these Israelites have been waiting for the Messiah. It changes the impact when we hear Simeon say that now he can depart in peace, that he can die, because his waiting for the Messiah is over (Luke 2: 29). And, I think we are supposed to have this contrast between two people who have been living and hoping for the coming of the Messiah for decades and this baby who is just barely a week old. It’s a representation of just how long the people have waited for this promise, that wouldn’t have had the same effect if the prophets were say the same age as Mary. Theirs was a hope that went beyond just what the Messiah’s coming would do to impact them, but it was really a hope for the whole world, for all the ways that change was coming, even the ways that they couldn’t imagine and definitely would not live long enough to see.
The people had been waiting a long time for the Messiah. And, I think the important thing to remember about Simeon’s declaration is that even the people waiting for a Messiah are going to have their lives impacted by the way Jesus is calling for changes in the world. Life isn’t going to continue in the same way it always has for any of the people. For us today, we are called to remember that being disciples of Christ changes us, that it is supposed to change us. But, like any type of growth, that doesn’t mean that it is always going to be comfortable or easy. If we get anything from Simeon and Anna’s story today, I want us to remember what it means to hope, and I mean that in the active sense too. To pray, to work, to live our lives in ways that demonstrate the love that God has for the world. They could have easily given up hope, after decades of waiting for the world to change. They could have easily dismissed the idea of hope after a while too, knowing that any changes that were going to be made wouldn’t happen until after their lifetimes. But, I think about what it means to love and care about the world so much that we can’t help but hope for a better future and do everything in our power to start the shift toward a world we want to see.