JAN. 1, 2006 PASTOR SCOTT FULLER
IS 61:10-62:3; PS 148; GAL 4:4-7; LK 2:22-40
Prepare our hearts, Lord, to receive your Word. Silence in us any voice but your own that in hearing we may believe and in believing we may obey your will revealed to us in Jesus Christ. Amen.
Dear friends in Christ: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
As if… used to be a pretty popular retort. When people said something outlandish or claimed that they deserved to be praised, the skeptics around or in us would scoff…as if! Cousins to that comeback were: in your dreams; or you wish; or even yeah, when hell freezes over…
A look at our lessons for today might nudge some of us with a similar skeptical response. Stuffed as we may be on Christmas cookies, our sleepy, spirits slouch in sharp contrast to the sentinel certainty of those seers, Isaiah, Simeon and Anna. Perhaps what perturbs us is that they might just stir us from our sated, self-satisfied slumber and send us down a road that is neither comfortable nor secure, and yet still so much more fulfilling.
Their optimistic assessment of the future begins with the Old Testament lesson. With the certainty of an expert gardener, Isaiah proclaims, For as the earth brings forth its shoots… so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring up before all the nations (Isaiah 61:11).
How confident he is in the Creator’s credibility, how certain about the Savior’s sincerity, how satisfied with this sensational scheme of the Spirit! For Isaiah, this Word of the Lord is as good as gold, a guarantee to set God’s people on the path to a good life…yet his words fall on ears that are struggling to hear any sort of good news.
Granted, his people have some things to celebrate: they’ve been released from captivity in Babylon (ancient Iraq); they’ve survived their trip through daunting desert; I’m guessing that they wept with gratitude when they crossed the Jordan into their beloved homeland; and I’m certain that they felt blessed to walk up that road to Jerusalem, that holy place for which they had prayed unceasingly and about which they had dreamed for decades.
Yet I’m also fairly certain that they wept bitter tears, then, to discover the devastation that had once been their delight; that they wailed to see the weeds where once stood the city walls; that their hearts hurt to behold the hovels that once had been their homes. Good growth ahead? As if…more like good grief ahead!
I’m also thinking that centuries later, things hadn’t changed much, that many had similar struggles even as Simeon sang his song of praise and Anna her delight as their aged eyes beheld the babe from Bethlehem. The Romans ruled with an iron fist, the country’s royal court was corrupt, and the church mostly blessed those who didn’t really need it. Glory to the people Israel? As if…more like woe to the people Israel!
And wouldn’t you say that things haven’t changed much today, that lots of folks have similar struggles? Think of all who are hurting from the effects of Iraq or Katrina, death or disease, pain in their hearts, their heads, their homes…they might also be tempted to say to those seers of old: as if…!
…And yet…we have a huge problem on our hands if we wait for something good to happen before we dare to be positive, trusting or filled with hope. Truly, there wouldn’t be much to faith if we could experience the miracle, the majesty, the moment and then believe. Instead, we are called to a way of faith that involves, according to C.S. Lewis, a deeper magic: trust… as…if…God…is…in spite of what we experience. And here is where God’s Word works its magic.
Its power is best personified by our prophets from the gospel. Anna, a widow for some sixty-plus years, did not have an easy life. Yet she never left the temple but worshipped there with fasting and prayer night and day…
I don’t think she expected God to make things right in the world through that baby’s gurgles and slobber. Nor did Simeon start praising God because the Child would somehow chase the legions back to Rome. They didn’t celebrate the promise of salvation because this son would soon be a superhero. Nor did they insist on seeing the plan before they would begin to believe. They trusted, the way they had for years, that because God is good and loves us, whatever heaven has planned will be good and loving, too.
When we limit our expectations, when we back off our demand that God change the world RIGHT NOW, when we refocus our attention from conflict between nations to conflict between neighbors, the problems of the world to the pain of people, then things become a little clearer, this good news sounds a little better, hope springs more eternal, light shines brighter, music sounds sweeter, and maybe, our ministry is more meaningful.
Marva Dawn, a wonderful theologian, reminds us that early Christians were called “People of the Way.” The title can suggest that we have a secret knowledge that helps us walk with certain steps and unfaltering faith…as if!
I wonder if it might be more accurate to call ourselves People in the Way. I kind of like that, it takes the pressure off. Then we don’t have to act like we know where we’re going and how we should get there. Instead, we can trust that God is leading us by the Light of the World, according to the Spirit’s map. So here’s a good New Year’s Resolution for us: Let’s commit to being People in the Way, placing ourselves in God’s path and trusting that we will be put to work in the kingdom as if we were servants of the Lord. Amen.