Sermon for 1st Sunday in Christmastide

(The above advertisements are in no way endorsed by this website.)

Sermon for 1st Sunday in Christmastide

Year B

"Looking the Right Way"

Isaiah 61:10-62:3

Luke 2:22-40

"Singing Carols after Christmas"

Galatians 4:4-7

Luke 2:22-40

"Singing Carols after Christmas"

Galatians 4:4-7

Luke 2:22-40

The first time I did it people thought I was crazy. The Church pianist looked at me funny. The Choir members looked puzzled. Then someone said what they were all thinking. "Preacher, we can't sing Christmas carols then. Christmas will be over."

It was the Wednesday night choir practice before Christmas. Because we would not meet the week of Christmas we were covering the music for the Sunday after Christmas too. And on cue the pianist asked, "What are the Hymns for the Sunday after Christmas?" When I said, "Joy to the World," "Angels We Have Head on High" and "Silent Night" that is when the commotion started.

Of course I explained to them that Christmas lasts for twelve days after the 24th. I also told them that I had asked the Worship Chair to leave the Chrismon tree up until after the new year. They humored me. I guess they figured, "Well you know Alex. He means well. He's just - well - different." But they still gave me strange looks.

People must have looked at Simeon and Anna strange too. Here were two old and devout people. They both spent all their time at the temple. They probably prayed and listened to the rabbis. And all of a sudden out of the blue they started praising God.

The Bible says that Simeon took Jesus in his arms and began to praise God saying: "Master, I can finally die now! I have seen the Messiah! I know for sure that your promises will come to pass soon. I know that the whole world will see your glory."

This solo of praise then became a duet when Anna added her alto to his cracking tenor and praised God too. People in the temple knew them these two old people of God. They probably thought, "What's the commotion all about. We see boys brought in here every day for circumcision. Why do they do this now?" They probably humored Simeon and Anna. I can see the younger men and the priests patting Simeon on his back. I can imagine some of the younger women holding on to Anna and telling her not to get too excited because of her blood pressure. Then they would turn to each other and say, "You know they mean well, but they're - well - different."

But true praise is like that. It's - well - different. So many times true praise wells up from inside. It's not something that we create. It is a gift from God. It may seem inappropriate to those who can't see what God has shown us. They view it as out of place because they don't see a reason to rejoice.

For Simeon and Anna there was nothing else they could do but praise God. They had seen the long awaited Messiah. The Prince of Peace, Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, the promise of the ages was in their midst, Emmanuel! Simeon had held the Son of God in his arms, Anna had seen the Holy of Hollies in the flesh and possibly pinched the cheek of the Almighty. They could see with the eyes of faith that their every hope and dream was coming to pass.

But others could not see it. They saw just another Jew born under oppression. Not a second Moses who would lead people out of oppression. Just another Son of Abraham born to be a slave to the Romans. So to them Simeon and Anna's praise seemed inappropriate, ill timed, out of place. It seemed a reminder that all was hopeless. Anna and Simeon knew this, but true praise cannot be contained and so they just burst with joy and with their old rough voices they out did all the heavenly hosts in praising God.

When my children were small one of my greatest joys was coming home. When my children were small and I would come home they would come running to me yelling "Daddy Daddy." The sound of my children singing for joy to see me warmed my heart. It is the sound of love that just overflows and bursts forth. In their joy they can't help but lift up their voices.

Paul said, "But when the time had fully come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as children. And because you are children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, 'Abba! Father!' So through God you are no longer a slave but a child, and if a child then an heir."(Galatians 4:4-7)

God has send his son. Our Heavenly Father has come to be with us in Jesus. I am sure it would warm his heart to hear us cry, "Abba, Abba" - "Daddy, Daddy." In fact Paul says that because we are children the Spirit wells up in our heart with praises to God. It is not something that we create on demand but something that God places in our hearts. It is something that should not and cannot be contained.

We can take the Chrismon tree down this week. But let's not take down our spirits. After all the reality of Jesus the Savior which that tree represents is not something that ends at Christmas. God sent his Son so that any who would trust in him could have eternal life. The joy of that Good News does not end with the New Year. It continues on forever.

So sing carols after Christmas. You can take down your Christmas tree. After all it is probably brown by now and a fire hazard. And a brown Christmas tree is not a very effective symbol of eternal life. But when you put away Mary and Joseph from the manger scene, sing a verse of "What Child is This." When you place the manger in a box, hum "O Little Town of Bethlehem." When you put the shepherds and their sheep away, sing "The First Noel." When you wrap up the baby Jesus in tissue paper, sing "Away in the Manger." When you put away the angels, sing "Angels We Have Heard on High" and "Angels from the Realms of Glory." When you put away the star, hum the tune to "Do You See What I See." And as you put away the figurines of victorian carolers and the little drummer boy, sing "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" with a "Ba-rum-ba-ba-bum." Then as you take the last load to the attic, sing with all your heart "God Tell It On The Mountain."

People will look at you strange if you keep up that kind of behavior - singing carols after Christmas that is. They will pat you on the back and say, "She means well. - He means well." Because you see, we have seen something they haven't. We have seen the Prince of Peace, the Creator of worlds, the Savior of all creation, fulfilling prophesies. We have seen the answer to all our prayers wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying is a manger. How can we help but praise God with Anna and Simeon and the Shepherd and angels.

People will say, "They're - well - different. And that's O.K. Because we are - well - different. We are daughters and sons of God, and we're just happy to see our Daddy.

"Looking the Right Way"

Luke 2:22-40

The story goes that there were these two astronomers. They had been up all night studying the stars. Taking measurements and recording data as astronomers do. As morning approached it became too light for them to make their measurements, so they started checking their data. The two of them were there humped over their star charts and computer printouts. The opening in the large dome of the observatory was pointed to the east and had been left open. One of the two astronomers looked up from his notes and charts and saw the brilliant colors of the sunrise. And he said, "God does paint a pretty picture." The other one, who I guess was the skeptic of the two astronomers, said, "God! What do you mean 'God paints a pretty picture?' You know that is nothing more that the rays of the sun being refracted and bent in the earth's atmosphere and then reflected off cloud formations producing a distortion of the wavelengths." The first scientist said, "Oh, yea! I know that! I can even identify the precise cloud formations and gasses in the atmosphere that produce each color. I can also diagram the process of fusion that produces the light in the first place. But when I see a sunrise like this I can still see the hand of God in it." The skeptic replied, "Well explain this to me. How come I can look at the same sunrise and not see the hand of God?" The first astronomer turned to the skeptic and said, "You're not looking in the right way."

You know, people are hard headed. Most people are like that skeptical astronomer. There he was looking right at the hand of God at work and he couldn't see it. In fact his life's work was studying the stars and yet he couldn't see the crafter's stamp on the work. He couldn't see the hand of God because he thought he had it all figured out. He saw that sunrise and like any good scientist he searched his knowledge for an explanation and he found one. Then he decided that because he could explain it, it was just a scientific phenomenon. So he said to himself, "This is just a common ordinary sunrise. It is just light being reflected and refracted to produce differing wavelengths. Nothing special. How can God be part of that? Like most people, he couldn't see God in the ordinary because he wasn't looking at it the right way.

Having made the point that people are hard headed, let us turn to the text for this morning's sermon. The story is basically that an old woman and an old man, who were both very pious and faithful people, were led by the spirit of God to proclaim the baby Jesus as the Messiah. To us there is nothing shocking or surprising about this story. It doesn't seem odd that people should recognize the infant Jesus and acclaim him as Messiah. It seems right and normal to us because that is the story we have all heard from childhood. We were brought up hearing that the Son of God came as a baby. So we are not surprised when we read that an old man picked up Jesus and blessed him as the Messiah, or that on old woman ran about telling people that the Son of God had come. It's nothing new to us.

But that was not at all the way the Children of Israel in Jesus' day were expecting the Messiah to come. When they were looking for the Messiah, they were not looking for a baby. They expected the Messiah to come in clouds of glory. They expected to see the heavens torn open and the Son of Man to descend with armies of angels. And all the peoples of the earth would see it. Then they expected the Messiah to sit on a throne and rule the world with a mighty fist. They were looking for a clouds of glory Messiah; not an infant.

It didn't fit their expectations that the Messiah should come quietly in the night to be born of common people. It wasn't what they had been told would happen. They thought the whole world would see the Messiah's coming. Instead, only a handful of shepherds heard of the coming. Many who saw Jesus in the days that followed didn't know he was the Messiah. They had it all figured out. The Messiah would come in clouds of glory, and sit on David's throne. They didn't see God's hand in Jesus' birth because they weren't looking in the right way.

These expectations even made it harder for faithful people to see clearly what was happening. Even Mary didn't fully understand what was going on. If there was anyone who would be likely to see these events clearly it would have been Mary. After all, the angel Gabriel had appeared to her and explained it all. But after Jesus was born and the shepherds had come and told how the angels had appeared to them, it says that Mary "Pondered these things in her heart." Even she didn't fully understand what was going on. She had to think about it.

Simeon and Anna were no different. They were faithful people who spent much of their time at the temple. They heard the Scriptures and the explanations of the teachers. I am sure they expected the Messiah to come in clouds of glory like everyone else. Simeon especially must have thought a lot about the coming of the Messiah. The Bible says that the Holy Spirit had revealed to him that he would not die before the Anointed one of God, the Christ, came. So year after year he came to the temple expecting that one day he would see the Messiah come. He probably stood outside of the inner court and imagined the Messiah coming out of the heavens and descending into the Holy of Hollies.

But when the Messiah did come it was not like he or anyone else expected. Instead of coming out of the sky the Messiah came through one of the gates just like anyone else. Instead of ending up at the Holy of Hollies Jesus ended up at the place where infants were purified. Now Simeon and Anna had seen hundreds probably thousands of children come through the temple to be purified. It was a common everyday event. There were probably other people having their children put through the rite of purification that day. Yet both Anna and Simeon knew that this child was different. The Spirit revealed to them that this child was the Savior of the world.

Now many people saw Jesus being brought into the temple. Why didn't they see that he was the Messiah? Because they weren't looking in the right way. Anna and Simeon were looking with the eyes of faith. Other people looked at Jesus and said, "Oh what a cute Baby." They did not see anything special about him. But Anna and Simeon were able to see the hand of God at work in that common everyday event.

People expect to see God in extraordinary events. They expect to see God in miracles or in earthquakes. They don't look for God in the ordinary. I guess people figure that God is so great that God can only appear at certain times and in extraordinary ways.

I think that is why people often expect to encounter Christ at special times of the year. Maybe they think that since Christmas time is such a special time that they are more likely to meet Jesus at Christmas. They expect to encounter Christ in the special only and not in the ordinary. Then Christmas is over and many people are disappointed. All the specialness of the season is past. And there are over 300 days before it comes again. The special time to remember the Messiah is over and they think their chance to see God at work in their lives is past for another year.

But I have some good news! The Messiah is here. God's hand is at work in our lives. You may say, "O.K. preacher then why can't I see it?" Because you are not looking in the right way. Jesus is with us in the midst of common every day events, that is the Gospel truth. But we can only see the hand of God at work in everyday events with eyes of faith. We have to be like Anna and Simeon. We have to expect to see the anointed one, the Christ, of God. And if we meet all of life with that expectation then the presence of God will be revealed to us just as it was to Anna and Simeon. And we will be able to see the hand of God where other people just see ordinary everyday things.

top of this page