Light and Glory – January 1, 2023
Isaiah 61:10-11, Luke 2:21-40
January 1, 2023
Once again, Happy New Year! This is the first Sunday after Christmas. And, although New Year’s day is always exactly one week after Christmas Day, both of those celebrations can be on any day of the week, can’t they?
That means the first Sunday of the year can fall anywhere between January 1st and January 7th. (I believe I did the Math right on that one. If I didn’t, I’m sure you’re going to tell me!) And if that first Sunday of the year is closer to January 6th, then we will often use that first Sunday to celebrate, what? Epiphany. Epiphany is on January 6th, and usually not on a Sunday, and that makes it tricky to know when to celebrate it!
So, once every six years or so, (depending on Leap Year), the first day of the year falls on a Sunday. And that’s what we have today. Of course that also means we will have the earliest Friday the 13thpossible!
That means that next Sunday is the Sunday closest to Epiphany, so that’s what we’ll celebrate that. And what that also means is, because of the foibles of the calendar, we get to do something this Sunday that was don’t always get to do. This Sunday we get to talk about the Dedication of Jesus.
So that’s what we’re doing today. Today we read the story of what happened when Mary and Joseph brought Jesus to the Temple in Jerusalem to dedicate him to the Lord, as was the custom of the Jewish people. And here we find the story of this man, Simeon.
Now, we have to remember something here that you’ve heard me say before. That is, we the readers always know more than the people in these stories knew! In this case, we know who this baby was! The people in the Temple that day didn’t. They didn’t say, “Look! Here comes Mary and Joseph with their baby Jesus! He’s the Messiah, you know!”
No! They didn’t know that! And it’s hard for us to put ourselves in their shoes – that is, their sandals. It’s hard for us to “unknow” what we already know! But I want us to try. Because, to those people that day, this was just another peasant couple, bringing their first born into the temple as part of one of the standard religious rituals that they all saw, all the time.
If we can think of it that way, if we can see this as just another Sabbath, with just another “baby ritual,” then maybe we can see more of the wonder of what this man Simeon said that day.
As it turns out, Simeon knew some of what we know about this child! And that’s what makes this story what it is. Simeon was told, by God, that this baby was the Christ – the Messiah! God promised him he would see the Messiah before he died, and now he has. And although he didn’t actually use that word, Messiah, he spoke in terms that made that clear. In blessing the child, he said to God, and to everyone there, “My eyes have seen thy Salvation.”
Now, imagine being there, and hearing those words for the first time. And remember, if you had been one of the many people there that day, you wouldn’t have known about the angels, the shepherds, the star, or the Wise Men. But now you were hearing this! Now, you were hearing about God’s salvation!
But Simeon went even further. He spoke about light and glory! And this is the part that “jumped out” to me! This child and his story was to be “a light for revelation to the gentiles, and for glory to the people of Israel.” That had to have been amazing to those people hearing that! Although, I’m not sure the part about the gentiles would have gone over very well! But I wonder if the words of Isaiah would have come to their minds, that “nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising!” (Isaiah 60)
I also wonder how this played out in the years to come. I wonder if some of those who were there that day and heard the words of Simeon, would remember those words about the light and glory when they heard Jesus speak for the first time! Think about that! It would be some 30 years later, but I wonder if some of them would be there in the Synagogue in Nazareth, or in the crowd at the Sermon on the Mount, or even back there in Jerusalem for that last Passover when this Jesus would be arrested, and the unthinkable would happen to him. I wonder if they would remember Simeon’s words about “God’s salvation!”
And I think it’s important that we connect all of that. Because there comes a moment in everybody’s lives when Jesus stops being just a baby, or just another religious man, (or just something people yell when they hit their thumb with a hammer!) There comes a moment when they see “the light and the glory” that Simeon was talking about. And that’s an important moment!
Do you remember when that was for you? And maybe it wasn’t just a moment. Maybe for some of us, it was a time when just a spark, a small flicker of understanding, began. And then in time that grew into a blaze, because it had the right fuel and oxygen. In other words, it grew because we were given the things we needed to nurture that faith – things like prayer, Christian fellowship, and sound teaching.
Do you remember that time? We’re all in different places on that. For some of us, that spark is there, and we’re figuring out how to feed it and fan it into flame. For some the fire of faith is growing all the time. For some that fire of faith is blazing. For some, it has blazed up, but seems to be dying down, maybe because the fuel is used up, and maybe more fuel is needed!
My challenge to you this New Year – the Year of our Lord 2023 – is to think about where you are in your faith. Are you like the people in the temple, first hearing Simeon’s words about the light and glory of the Christ child? Are you just trying to figure it all out? Or, are you rejoicing in that light and glory? Or, have those things faded a little, and maybe you need to recapture them?
Mary and Joseph were there that day to perform their religious obligations. But it became much more than that! In the course of what they knew as the “routine” of their faith, they saw the light and the glory. And so did all the others who were there that day. May we have that same revelation ourselves! Even in the “routine” of our faith, may we see the light and the glory in this child, and in the man he would become!
Prayer
Eternal God, we thank you for sending your Son into our world and into our lives. Help us to remember how he became way more than a baby in a manger. Help us to know what Simeon knew, that he was your salvation. May our faith grow in this new year, so that your light and glory may be seen in us. For this we pray in his name, Amen.