Sermon for the Presentation of our Lord
Jesus Courage
By The Rev. Eric Christopher Shafer -
Jesus Courage, Sermon for the Presentation of our Lord, “A,” February 1 & 2, 2020, Mt. Olive, Santa Monica
We are now a more than a month after Christmas, so it is a bit unusual to focus on today’s Gospel lesson, the story of Mary and Joseph and baby Jesus traveling to Jerusalem so that Jesus can be circumcised, but that is the lesson for this Sunday called the Presentation of our Lord.
As I have shared with you previously, there is very little written about Jesus as a baby. The only Biblical sources of information about the baby Jesus are in Matthew’s and Luke’s Gospels, where you will find four stories about the baby Jesus:
- The first, and, of course, best known, is the story of Jesus’ birth as told by St. Luke – Jesus’ birth in a stable, the singing angels, the shepherds. We all know and love this story.
- The second is often combined with the first, the visit to the baby Jesus by the wise men from the east, as recorded in St. Matthew. In our Nativity scenes we want to put the wise men at the manger with the shepherds the night of Jesus birth, but good scholarship suggests they came days or weeks after Jesus’ birth. And tradition makes them three, but Matthew does not tell us that.
- The third, also from St. Matthew, is related to the wise men’s visit. Right after their visit to the baby Jesus, Joseph gets a message from an angel in a dream that Jesus’ life is in danger from King Herold and that Joseph and Mary and Jesus need to leave quickly and be refugees in Egypt for a time. After King Herod’s death, this story continues, Joseph is told in a dream that it is safe to return to Israel. As Joseph travels back to Israel he receives a third dream warning to stay away from Galilee since the ruler of Galilee, Archelaus, Herod’s son, is as evil as his father. Joseph then takes Mary and Jesus to Nazareth where Matthew tells us they made their home.
Most of us know the basics of these three stories of baby Jesus – Jesus’ birth, the visit by the wise men, the flight to Egypt and Jesus’ return to Israel where the family settles safely in Nazareth. We have looked at these three stories over the past month or so here at worship at Mt. Olive.
However, the fourth baby Jesus story, today’s Gospel lesson from St. Luke, is less well known. Jesus’ parents, Mary and Joseph, have taken baby Jesus to Jerusalem so that he can be circumcised. Scholars believe that this would have happened within the first two weeks of Jesus’ life which makes the timeline a bit confusing if we try to combine Matthew’s and Luke’s baby Jesus stories.
No matter. In today’s Gospel lesson from St. Luke, Mary and Joseph bring baby Jesus, most likely traveling still from Bethlehem, they bring the baby Jesus to the temple in Jerusalem for circumcision. They bring along a temple sacrifice, Luke is uncertain whether they brought turtledoves or pigeons, and head to the temple in Jerusalem where they meet two amazing elderly people, Simeon and Anna, both of whom have waited their entire lives for the birth of the Messiah and now rejoice and pray and sing as they meet their Messiah, the baby Jesus. If Simeon’s song, “Master, now you are dismissing your servant in peace,” sounded a bit familiar, it is because we use similar words, “Lord, now let your servant go in peace,” we use these words at times in our Lutheran worship liturgy.
Simeon’s song is an odd song to sing to these new parents, Mary and Joseph. It is a song about Simeon’s death. Simeon has been waiting all of his life for the promised Messiah, and, having beheld the baby Jesus and certain that Jesus is the promised Messiah, Simeon now asks to depart; that is, to die.
That’s beautiful, but I suspect it would have been more than a bit disturbing to Mary and Joseph. And the peculiarity of Simeon’s song does not end there. After praising God for the light Jesus will shed on all nations, Simeon blesses Mary and Joseph, but also tells them that their son will inaugurate the rise and fall of many and be a sign that will be opposed. If that is not enough, Simeon concludes by telling Mary that a sword will pierce her soul also. Other translations say that a sword will pierce Mary’s heart. Simeon seems to be predicting Jesus’ suffering and death to come.
Glory and anguish, beauty and sorrow, gladness and opposition. All these and more will be contained in this child. And, they are also part of our own lives, too.
And that is the reason this lesson is still important today.
You and I, we know all too well, that this life is both wonderful and difficult. God came in Jesus to be with us and for us through all of this life: the ups and down, hopes and fears, successes and disappointments, accomplishments to savor and mistakes to regret; all of it.
God is with us and for us. And God is not just there and for us some of the time, but all of the time, even when we do not act as we want, even when we do not live as God would like us to live, all of the time.
Which brings me back to Simeon’s plea: “Master, now you are dismissing your servant in peace.” When Simeon says “dismissing” he is talking about dying, but it is dying in peace. That is, Simeon is ready to die, ready to die with the confidence that God is with him, that God is keeping God’s promises, that God loves and will care for this world. Simeon can now depart in peace.
And that is my prayer today for you and me, for our nation and for the world: Peace and the courage that comes from confidence that God continues to keep God’s promises, that God is indeed walking with us, that God will in time bring all things – including the work we do and love we offer – God will in time bring all things to a good end, and therefore we and the world will experience peace.
I like to call this “Jesus courage” for it is rooted in the promise that in Jesus God became one of us and so is, indeed, Emmanuel, “God with us.” It is courage that allows us to anticipate opposition without fear, without hating those who oppose us. It is courage that allows us to acknowledge that when our hearts are broken our hearts do not have to harden but can be open to others whose hearts have also been broken. It is courage that grants the peace of which Simeon sings and leads us to the thanksgiving that his temple companion Anna offers. It is courage that allows us to continue to love and sacrifice and dare because it believes that no gifts given in love are ever lost or without meaning.
So, today, let us take up and hold onto this Jesus courage, courage that comes from knowing God is with us, that God is with us every day of our lives, courage to know that God grants us peace and confidence to face whatever happens to us every day of our lives.
And then let us let God’s courage lead us to thanksgiving for all God has done, and is still doing, to us, with us, and through us.
Our lives are full of glory and anguish, beauty and sorrow, gladness and opposition. Sometimes all of these in one day or week. And through it all, God is with us and grants us the courage to face each day, with all the good and bad it may bring, to face each day with hope and thanksgiving.
Jesus courage for you and me. Today and every day of our lives.
Amen.
(with thanks to the Rev. Dr. David Lose)
The Rev. Eric Christopher Shafer
Senior Pastor - Mt. Olive Lutheran Church
Santa Monica, California
February 1 & 2, 2020
