SermonStudio

David and Lori brought their baby to church for the first time
and the whole place celebrated the joy of the birth. Little Angie
had not been a Christmas baby but she had come close. People
marveled in all the customary ways about how "tiny they are when
they are new." It was too soon to attribute her features to the
mom or dad but we all tried. Yes, we learned, mom was fine, and
there were all the usual interactions about the night-time
schedule. When I took to the pulpit for the reading of the gospel
this Sunday I was struck by the suddenly familiar nature of the
event in the lesson. In today's lesson, wherein Simeon and Anna
greeted the newborn Jesus and his family as they brought him to
the temple for the first time.
Most parents here today can identify with David and Lori and
that helps us identify with Mary and Joseph. We can appreciate
the delightful effect of a baby on two older members of the
congregation. Not accustomed to having children around them as
much as they might like, we understand what a heart-warming
effect it can have upon the older folks when a baby is around.
Simeon and Anna would naturally treasure the opportunity to enjoy
the baby Jesus.
Babies and children are a wonderful blessing in the daily life
and routine of nursing home residents and the elderly

everywhere. One cannot help but enjoy the feeling of welcome
relief that seems to come over these older people when a child is
present. For some it is easy to imagine that the feelings are
those raised by the memories of their own children or
grandchildren. One's own family, if one has one, may live too far
away to visit very often. Any young visitor will be a welcome
reminder of the extended family that is no longer able to be
there. And that's a part of daily life that would be so
refreshing. For others it may be the memory of their own
childhood. Each young visitor, no matter the specific
circumstance, brings to mind for all of us the hope of life lived
closer to its beginning than its ending. Babies often are a
welcome symbol of the enjoyments and blessings that have occurred
along the way.
Any baby represents the hope and the promise of life; even
more so as we grow older. That is what is so hopeful about births
and baptisms. It's not just that we are grateful to God for the
healthy baby delivered to all of us by a healthy mother. We are
thankful for the future that is represented by the precious and
promising life as it draws its first few breaths. It is not only
that we rejoice with the family as a new little life is brought
to church to be shared with us. We need the sacrament of
initiation into the community almost as much as the one who is
baptized. We need such a reminder that we are still a part of the
fellowship of those who by God's grace know the life of faith.
It's a sacrament of renewal and rebirth that gives us hope for
our future as well.
Simeon and Anna might even have commented in some of the more
familiar ways: "How old is he? Eight days? Good. He has his
father's nose, I think." That's the way this sort of event might
go.
In a more significant way, though, this was no customary
event. How surprised Mary and Joseph would be when the frail and
ailing Simeon rose to the occasion and proclaimed their son the
Messiah. With a burst of energy he had been saving for years,
Simeon announced to all who were present that now his own life
was fulfilled. God had finally fulfilled our salvation -- this was
the baby!

Then, as if all this wasn't enough for any mom and dad, Anna
came forward with her own contribution to the occasion. With the
congregation already reeling from the words of Simeon, they were
about to hear still more from Anna. Of course everyone knew about
Anna. She was a mixed blessing. Ultra pious, if somewhat
eccentric, she was known for her confusing outbursts; the sort
that were hard to figure out. If she made sense at all, you
weren't sure if it was prophetic and profound or just pathetic
and something to be endured. Anna virtually lived in the temple
and just about as many people as thought her a nuisance took
seriously her religious ramblings.
This time Anna seemed remarkably serious. There was a strange
weaving of joy and foreboding in her as she, too, became
captivated by the baby Jesus. She spoke as if she knew all about
him. Mary and Joseph were astonished. The last few months had
been more mysterious than they could understand, but they were
starting to appreciate it all. It was all so astounding. Maybe
what Simeon and Anna said helped; and maybe it would make the
parents' confusion even more complicated. There had been those
conversations with angels; the visit and worship of shepherds,
and now this. Soon there would be Jewish astrologers from the
East and things would take on global proportions. For now all
they could do was marvel.
The holy parents would come to need these messages in the
years ahead. After a hasty middle-of-the-night departure for
Egypt and staying out of evil's sight for a time, things would
return to normal in Nazareth and Jesus' childhood would seem
quite ordinary. Except for that strange event when the preteen
Jesus would get lost in the temple in Jerusalem and scold them
for not getting it. Other than perhaps an occasional incident
like that there would be little between his birth and his public
ministry to remind Mary and Joseph about the destiny of their
child.
But how did all these people know? A willing mother, a
trusting husband, simple shepherds, venerable travelers coming
across great distances, warnings in dreams, and now this: Simeon
and Anna. How did they know who he was, and why?

Perhaps it was their willingness to look upon the baby Jesus with
the eye of faith. Maybe that is what has to make the difference
for us as well. What separates his birthday celebration from the
festivities for any other baby ever born, except that this child
must be seen with the eye of faith? The entire human race looks
to this baby with the eye of faith.
All those who surrounded the newborn Christ in those first
days, weeks and months, had to be open, receptive and even eager
to see things differently. The spiritual point of view always has
the potential of making important things surface more significant
than they seem. And with the eye of faith, what we may have
perceived as significant takes on an even more important role.
And so it was for Simeon and Anna.
Open, receptive, watchful, patient and eager, they expected
the communication of holy things. Waiting and wondering, they
then were so faithful that they believed it when they saw it. For
Simeon, all that prayer and devotion, all those years of praying
for Israel's consolation, culminated in this. He saw the baby
Jesus with the eye of faith. For Anna all those years of
loneliness, days and nights in the temple, enduring patient
people as well as those not so tolerant, led to this. She looked
at Jesus and beheld the baby with the eye of faith.
Their whole lives came to a creative climax in that one
moment. Had they been absent they would have missed it, but they
saw the day with the eye of faith and knew they belonged in
church. Such simple people history might have left fameless.
Instead they persevered and attended to the promises and
proclamations celebrated in God's House. Faithful to old age,
they were present when the ultimate worship event of their life
took place. They saw Jesus with the eyes of faith and through
them we get a clearer picture of the baby. Looking at Simeon and
Anna with the eye of faith we now see them more clearly; and see
him as well. No longer nameless, anonymous, eccentric or
peculiar, history has recorded their faithfulness, their messages
and even their names.
Faith has a way of doing that to the simplest folks. When you
look at people and events that way, the eye of faith has a way of
changing things.