Now Lord!

Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace, according to your word; for my eyes have seen your salvation that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your people Israel.(Luke 2:29-32 ESV) God’s timing and action are revelatory. This is evident in our Gospel lesson today. What may appear to us to be the random ritual actions of first-time parents living in accordance to the law and instruction of the Old Testament prophet, Moses, God is helping us to interpret both His timing and His action to save us. Today at International Lutheran Church we learn not only about the timing of God’s salvation for us and all people, but also the means and way in which this salvation is accomplished.

Luke not only details for us the events of the Christmas story, the shepherds in their fields, the swaddling clothes and the “no-room” inn, but he includes with it the events following the remarkable birth of Jesus as was dictated to the children of Israel in Exodus 13 and its connection to how God brought them out of Egypt. This sacrificial substitution or redemption of the first born was to be a lasting reminder to God’s people of how God brought them out of Egypt and their bondage to Pharaoh with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. It was also a sign and symbol of how God would in the person of His Son, deliver and save us. Through His own substitutionary death and the exchange of His righteousness for our sin, God was showing Joseph and Mary, Simeon and Anna that day just how He would save us not with the blood of bulls or goats, lambs or pigeons, but with His own precious blood.

God’s action to save was accomplished by His own hand, His own arm. Not surprisingly, the Bible uses the image of an arm to signify strength and power. Yet, in the Babe of Bethlehem, God literally shows His naked arm to his parents, to shepherds and even Simeon and Anna. On the cross, His Hand again is opened to receive the nails that would pierce them even as His naked arm was stretched across the wood of the cross for us and our salvation. You know doubt are familiar with the need to sometimes “roll up your sleeves” or even “get your hands dirty” as a way of showing your involvement in what is going on and taking part and working together with others to accomplish a task. Simeon and Anna witnessed that day how God was literally taking part in accomplishing our salvation. It wasn’t “once upon a time” or “a long, long time ago” but it was now. This is what helps us to see that God’s salvation is a present and revelatory action to change the immediate condition we are in. Paul says, “Today is the day of salvation!” (2 Corinthians 6:2) And that in and through our Baptism into Jesus, we are a new creation, even now (2 Corinthians 5:17).

The Song of Simeon, also known as the Nunc Dimittis, has for centuries formed our liturgical response to the reception of our Lord’s Body and Blood in the Sacrament of the Altar. In a real way we have witnessed in with and under the humble elements of bread and wine, both God’s light to the Gentiles and the glory of His people Israel. Simeon’s words too have often formed the meditation of many families at the side of a loved one who is dying in the faith. Our “departure” is not a going away, but rather a coming home and the culmination of our faith, with the reception of the crown of glory that awaits us, who wait in faith for His appearing. Jesus saves now. and in doing so, we are ready and eager to depart and be with Him as Paul reminds us (Philippians 1:23). Yet, in God’s wisdom and timing our lives are lived now in faith, not for self but for our neighbor who needs our witness and our faith lived out in our daily lives and vocation that their eyes might be opened too (Colossians 3:12-17), so that like Simeon and Anna we all would see the Lord’s Salvation, and the Glory of His people Israel.

Merry Christmas!

Pastor Carl