MY EYES HAVE SEEN YOUR SALVATION
Luke 2:22-40, Galatians 4:4-7
Sometimes it seems like Christmas is all about waiting. Children (and adults) wait for the presents they will receive. Students and teachers eagerly anticipate the time they will have away from schoolwork and other folks revel in thoughts of what they will do with several days away from work. Those far from loved ones look forward to the day they get to travel (with fear and trembling if they're flying). And almost everyone enjoys thoughts of the food that will be set on the table for Christmas dinner.
Amidst all the waiting, we also undertake a great deal of preparation. We spend hours thinking of and finding presents for our dear ones. Christmas decorations are unearthed and hung. My mother begins cooking and baking weeks in advance, making cookies and candies for gifts and lasagna for our family's Christmas feast. And I spend hours wrapping presents and arranging them just so under the tree.
As we know, this season is a time of waiting and preparation in the church, too.
The month of December is reserved as a time of waiting for Christ's birth. The songs we sing are full of longing. The texts we read foretell Jesus' coming. Our prayers are full of hope for what is about to be and what Jesus' arrival means. We try our best to think about what it must have been like in the days before his birth. During the waiting, we prepare our hearts, trying to understand the feelings of those who awaited the Messiah, not knowing when or how that event would take place.
There is also other, more mundane, preparation for the celebration of Jesus' arrival. Choirs take extra time to practice. Children learn lines for their Christmas programs. We collect gifts and food for families in need. Like our homes, the church is decorated with candles, poinsettias, and the colors of the season. Special services are planned to welcome Jesus once again into our lives and hearts.
Then Christmas Eve comes, with its services and pageants. Churches burst at the seams. We joyfully proclaim the arrival of our God on earth, the one who chooses to dwell with us. With candles aglow, we sing about a long ago silent night and picture the tiny, infant Jesus asleep in his mother's arms. Peace on earth seems really possible in such moments of worship.
On Christmas day, we wake up early to open presents and enjoy time with our families. My family wears pajamas until noon while sipping coffee or hot cocoa and watching our favorite Christmas movies. The cook in every family hustles about the kitchen, preparing a tremendous feast. Friends and extended family gather to enjoy the meal. We eat until we can't eat anymore, then push back from the table, ready for a nap.
But then what?
What about the day after Christmas? Or even just that afternoon? The presents that took hours to find and wrap lay heaped in piles around the living room. The meal that took days to prepare has been consumed in record time and the leftovers are stowed in the fridge. The pageant and cantata that took weeks of practice have been performed. The gifts and food gathered for those in need have been distributed.
It's not at all unusual to feel a little let down once the celebrations are over. It's tempting to rush on to the next big event on the church calendar. Christmas is over. Let's start planning the Easter service. We barely catch our breath before we dive back into busyness.
Once the preparations are over and we have torn apart the wrapping paper and eaten the turkey, what then?
I'd like to suggest that we take a little more time to think about what it means that Jesus has arrived. We've taken a month (or more) to prepare; let's take at least a few more moments to reflect on what all the preparation was for. Maybe one of the best ways to do that is to think about what Simeon and Anna, the folks introduced to us in this morning's reading from Luke, saw in the newborn baby Jesus.
Simeon is described in the reading as "righteous and devout" and "eagerly waiting for the Messiah." The text even says that God promised he would see the Messiah before he died. One day, the Holy Spirit drew him to the Temple. He was there when Mary and Joseph brought their firstborn son to be dedicated to the Lord.
As soon as he saw the baby, Simeon raised his voice in praise and gratitude proclaiming that he had witnessed the coming of Israel's salvation. Perhaps it wasn't in the package he was expecting, but he knew God's promises had been fulfilled when he took the tiny infant Jesus into his arms. This baby would be the glory of Israel and a light to the Gentiles, through him the promises made to Abraham would be fulfilled.
Simeon wasn't the only one who recognized who Jesus was. Anna, a prophet, was also there in the Temple. Eighty-four years old, she had lived in the Temple from the time her husband died, probably five or more decades before the day of Jesus' dedication. She fasted and prayed and waited for the Messiah's coming.
At the same time that Simeon was proclaiming the arrival of the Lord's Messiah, Anna began to speak of Jesus' coming "to all who were waiting for the redemption of Israel." Can you imagine the excitement some of the people in the Temple must have felt? After years of waiting and preparation, God's promises were coming true! The Messiah, the redeemer of Israel, was in the Temple.
Both Anna and Simeon had been waiting for the Messiah. We don't know how long it had been, exactly, but over the span of years they continued in the faith that God would fulfill the promises made generations before they were born. They didn't know how the Messiah would come, but when he did, a period of preparation made their hearts ready to recognize him and welcome him with praise and thanksgiving.
In the midst of our Christmas preparations and celebrations, we often lose our sense of anticipation. Our wonder at the promises fulfilled by Jesus' birth wane, especially in the aftermath of the holiday season, when it's time to throw away the wrapping, take down the decorations, and return to the daily grind. Some of us grow weary of it all even before Christmas day comes because there is no place to turn where we don't see candy canes and Santa Clauses and blinking lights.
But as we grow tired of the noise of the secular celebration of Christmas, that begins earlier and earlier every year, let us not also grow weary of what makes this season so important.
In our reading from Galatians, we learn that when the right time came God sent Jesus into the world so that we could become God's children. So, that's what we've been waiting for. Like Simeon and Anna, we've been waiting for Jesus to come, for God's son to be born in a stable, because through his birth, life, death, and resurrection, we can become children of God. We can be saved from the penalty of the law and saved for good works.
There's nothing wrong with enjoying the more secular celebrations, but let's not allow the sound of such things to drown out the joyful music of Christ's coming.
The busyness of the Christmas season can be wearisome. Fortunately, such busyness comes to an end. We put away the decorations, resume our usual choir schedules and get back to our normal lives. Even more fortunately, the person we celebrate during this season remains with us. Jesus' arrival is not an end, but a beginning. We "wait" for his birth each year because this waiting reminds us there was a time before Christ's arrival. There was a time when the Messiah had not yet come. For years before they greeted Jesus in the Temple, Simeon and Anna waited for what we now have in Christ: a redeemer.
We can be grateful that the time before Christ has passed. Our Messiah has come and through him, we have become children of God. Though our waiting for Christ's birth is symbolic, a way for us to remember as a community that our Savior was born in Bethlehem centuries ago, our excitement at his arrival should be just as great as that of Anna and Simeon. Maybe it should be even greater, for indeed, we have seen and experienced the Lord's salvation.
December 28, 2008
Kate Elliott
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