We entrust the future to God.
One of my favorite stories, worth telling again… old Harold….
We’ve had the flame of the good news of Christ passed to us. Perhaps it was long ago, perhaps it was just this morning. But it has been passed to you and to me. We carry it, as faithfully as we can, precariously at times out, into the world, and then we too pass it on from our nervous hands to the precarious hands of those who are younger than us. That is entrusting the future to God. That is being a vessel, letting God’s word and love move though us to be shared. It’s a wonderful image, I think, for us to ponder this first day of 2012. “God let me be a sharer of your light.”
You have chosen to mark this day and start this year, in the temple, in the sanctuary, in a holy place – where we like Harold, like Simeon and Anna, perhaps just as exhausted, but hopeful nonetheless, dedicate our lives, our new year to God. And it works both ways: in the offering we make, in the dedication we make here, God blesses us too. Except it’s not a transaction, like in the market place. It’s the joy of doing church together. It just happens as we are blessing God, God is blessing us even more. Our God doesn’t work in terms of if/ then (if you praise me, then I’ll bless you). No, for God it’s both/and.
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I’ve had the chance to hold 2 newborns since Christmas Eve – my new little niece Sydney and our friend’s Michelle and Tim’s little baby Kate – both 2 weeks old.
I can’t hold these tiny babies, during this season of Christmas, and not think of how incredible it is that God comes to us so vulnerable, so fragile. (If you get a chance – 5 days of Christmas left…J) What a strange gift! (Did you get any strange gifts this year for Christmas?) What a strange gift that God chooses to become so tiny and vulnerable. Our God: nursing every two hours, pooping and sleeping.
And in that strange way, that babies bless us, so God rests in our arms, in our hands at the holy table, in our hearts and our bones though the week. The Word is made flesh, the salvation of the world…it is this strange God, this infant Christ child to whom we entrust our new year.
It is this strange God who Mary and Joseph took to the temple. Nothing but a newborn baby to everyone else – incredibly cute and incredibly vulnerable, nursing, pooping, sleeping… but to Simeon and Anna this baby was even more.
The very, very young is held by the very, very old. And they get it: they get that they are being held too by this holy child! The salvation of the world, the light of life, the bread of heaven, held right there in their wrinkled hands.
They get it, Simeon and Anna do – how important, how fragile, how special this baby is: it is both sheer joy that they express, but also the prophetic acknowledgement that carrying this baby with us means we will be changed and challenged for the rest of our days, that, as Simeon says, “a sword will pierce your own soul too”, that this baby will bring opposition, he will tear down walls that divide, he will lift up the brokenhearted, the ones who the world pushes aside, this tiny one will bring the them to the center.
This baby will turn the world upside down with unconditional love. And that will be upsetting, Simeon says, even to you.
Holding the salvation of the world, as fragile as crumbly bread, we bless God and partake in the joy of Christ. “My eyes have seen at last the salvation of the world…AND the road ahead won’t always be easy. But we hold and bless this Christ child nonetheless…for the one we bless, blesses us even greater!
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Simeon has this amazing line, after he holds this tiny holy baby: He says essentially, “I can die now.” “Lord, now let your servant go in peace.” “I can die now, holding and knowing this Christ is that good!”
As you looking forward to this New Year, what are the things that you’re waiting for, what needs to happen in your life, where you could say, “God, I could die now. Lord, let your servant go in peace”?
I invite you this month to do some intentional thinking about this question. What are the things that matter in your life? People make new year’s resolutions, but I read the other day that 9 out of 10 people have pretty much forgotten them after 2 weeks time.
Consider your past year – highs and lows – prayer of thanksgiving for your highs, places you’ve failed, ask forgiveness and let it go, places of pain and need – name them.
And then write down …what your hopes, dreams and goals for this year.
Hold this day, this year as reverently (as prayerfully), as joyously, and as consciously as Anna and Simeon held the newborn Christ. And then entrust it to God. Pass it over, and live or even die at peace. I don’t want anyone to die, I don’t want to die, but if I do, Romans says, I die in Christ. I die in peace, knowing that salvation has been fulfilled. IN this bread and wine my own eyes have seen the salvation which you have prepared in the sight of every people!” I’m struck by the amazing peace that is present in a room both at the moment of new life and at the moment of death. The very very young and the very very old both seem to me to be the very best teachers of trusting…
God is holding us, and always will, through this new year, and into eternity. AMEN.
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