Luke 2:22-40
Christmas 1 - Year B
Led by the Spirit, Simeon entered the Temple. Led by the Spirit, John entered the desert and Jesus entered the wilderness. When the Spirit is loose in one's life there is no telling where it will lead.
As we draw nearer to a traditional time to use the Covenant Service John Wesley adapted for his use, it is helpful to remember the lines:
"Lord, put me on whatever task You will; rank me with whom You will. Put me to doing; put me to suffering. Let me be employed for You, or laid aside for You, exalted for You, or trodden under foot for You. Let me be full; let me be empty. Let me have all things; let me have nothing. I freely and heartily resign all to Your pleasure and disposal."
So where have you been led - into Temples to hold babies and benedict - into the slums to accuse a brood of vipers - into the wild on a Spirit Quest - into ...?
Enjoy the ride. Bless, preach, clarify, whatever - but do it well.
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2002/december2002.html
No, we aren't fooled. The Sunday after Easter/sunrise and the Sunday after Christmas/eve will not live up to the numbers of those highly public days.
These are Sundays for the Anna's among us. Her persistence is noteworthy.
Luke records that Anna never left the Temple. She worshiped through fasting and prayer. If this is not hyperbole, a part of us wants to know the details of how this happened. Did she have a "son" during her years of marriage (was it during her betrothal?) who grew and became strong, filled with wisdom: prosperous, by G*D? Did this son see to his mother's welfare out of his own? Was it another relative? Was her acknowledged spirituality rewarded by gifts, "Now don't forget to take a little something to the Temple to help old Anna, you will be rewarded for your good deed to this saint among us!"?
But, beyond the gossipy part of us that wants details, how are we progressives doing with our Anna-shaped challenge to sing our joy on a Low Sunday for seeing, even in these difficult times, a renewed expectation for the freeing of Jerusalem when cities of peace everywhere are bombarded with rival claims to right and privilege and power? Let us not give up. Let us hoist Anna and all callers-to-freedom on our shoulders to sing an everyday angel song of peace to all.
So often at the end of the year we close with "Old Father Time" who cyclically passes away. This year, as we have a cup of cheer, let us bring Anna Lang Syne to mind (modern translation of Anna Phanuel Asher).
Be persistent not only in doing good but in expecting redemption for all as we move from days in the past to life available in this moment.
- - -
Joyce (Reader)
I think the gospel passage is about the way messages are revealed to us, how we least expect such revelation. This is especially true in our modern culture where the aged are not respected as they were in ancient cultures. The passage also raises the issue of the inclusiveness of the gospel -- no one is excluded, no matter age, race, gender, sexual orientation, or stated faith. Your comment about other faiths -- we need to be open to what other faith traditions have to say about our view of God.
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2002/december2002.html
Even the newest revelation seems to require the oldest of traditions to affirm it. Later we will find Jesus transforming the rituals, but here the folks around Jesus seem to need more than angelic visitations and reports from the shepherd. They need the affirmation of the traditions that will later take second place instead of first.
In addition to the angels and shepherd from a few days earlier, we now have Simeon and Anna raising their witness about this babe.
There is a sense in which the best clowns need to have the highest skills, be among the best practitioners, of what it is they are spoofing. In this sense Jesus needs the firmest foundation in the rituals and the study of the faith of Israel. With these under his belt he can teach with authority and move beyond the rituals and accumulated wisdom of the people.
If Mary and Joseph had been up for following up on the angels and shepherd, reinforced by Simeon and Anna, they might have begun the process of stepping away from what had been. This, apparently, wasn't a possibility for them and so pigeons are sacrificed.
For now a question of ourselves and what traditions we still feel necessary for our well-being. What tradition coming up will you be able to walk away from? Will it be New Year's Resolutions, Epiphany Gifting or Assumptions of a heterosexual-only Valentine's Day?
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2006/january2006.html
How fortunate, Simeon -- one of so many who are so sure they will see G*D in their life and who claim that surety is completed in one heart-warming moment or other.
I am not so sure. Time after time -- justice is delayed, meanness rises to the top. I no longer expect to see the healing of the peoples, but rejoice in the healing of this one or that. The falling all too real: the rising all too distant. Anna's who have so much to say are still not heard.
And yet I am called to finish that which has come down to me and to grow further in wisdom. We polish the past and open the future.
Hooray for Simeon sure and assured by such a little thing as a baby. Tonight we host our adopted grandson while his parents are off for a relaxing night away. Hooray for us and all who are unsure and still nurture a baby.
May we work with the Children's Defense Fund and UNICEF and all others, sure and unsure, who simply care for babies whose strength and wisdom may finally polish off our past and open their own future beyond our wars and rumors of war. To catch a glimpse of such a future read The Fifth Sacred Thing by Starhawk or anything by Ursula LeGuin.
For now, join Anna in speaking what you can about re-redemption (going past buying or ransoming to graceful hope in so little). In so doing we honor Christmas, have the energy to enter one more year, and bring our Epiphany gift.
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2006/january2006.html
"For as the earth brings forth its shoots, and as a garden causes what is sown in it to spring up, so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring up before all the nations." [Isaiah 61:11] An echo of this can be found with Malvina Reynolds' God bless the grass (sung) and (lyrics).
Another echo is in Luke's recording of Simeon's experience, "It has been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord's grass growing in the present garden (otherwise translated as the Lord's Messiah).
Messiah often gets narrowed down to one example. A particular one is claimed as true because of the results, as many are named along the way and were found to disappoint. Sometimes, though it is helpful to think of a messianic imperative, that will simply bring to fruition all the potential that has lain fallow.
Taking both these later echoes into account, we might read the vindication/righteousness/justice of Jerusalem to be her finally living up to her name without being distracted by who is occupying her now or promises of sitting at the head of the table of nations.
In the fullness of time we rather see all peoples and all rulers, men and women, old and young - together!
When the fullness of time came G*D seeded the world with grass - a babe and a woman to break through the cement of law to adopt all into a new togetherness.
- - -
god bless
grass
worms
cow fodder
fish food
dropping nutrients
for more
worms
grass
blessing that echoes
through generations
through spacious time
through one life
through all life
through to new blessing
god bless
grass messiahs
wriggly messiahs
dopey messiahs
silent messiahs
lamed-waw messiahs
sacred-cow messiahs
denied messiahs
god bless
one messiah
all messiahs
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2006_12_01_archive.html
The wholeness of salvation is this – light for all – not revelation qua revelation or glory for glory's sake (there's entirely too much of that going around – it gets us to react from the gut and receive blowback).
This wholeness is for more than one's own. It is for "them" as well. It is for the devout and for the prophet, for Gentile and Jew, for those passed by and those not yet.
This wholeness is also in process – there is more growing to do – and so this wholeness is not yet whole. Salvation is never as finished as any ritual of purification might be after all is said and done according to law.
Hooray for Simeon and Anna, for a willingness to be guided and alert to a disturbance in the force for status quo. Hooray for any who can see beyond ritual fulfillment to a fullness of life ready to grow and grow.
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2008_12_01_archive.html
What’s the right time to move toward purity/justice? The right time to be dedicated to larger visions?
Are you going to wait for New Year’s midnight plus a minute? How about another 40 days for purification, which would take us to Groundhog Day 2012? [What would happen if Mary presented herself for purification and she didn’t cast a shadow?]
Poor Mary, here to be purified and instead of that being the biggie we have Simeon and Anna butting in to talk about Jesus. Even after the ceremony is done, it is not talked about in terms of a new start for Mary to look toward more teen pregnancies but the focus is on Jesus growing strong and wise. The favor that was Mary’s is transferred to Jesus, just like that - ahh, patriarchy.
In Luke we find other details overlooked - the redemption of the firstborn (5 shekels) as well as a reference to the cost of betrayal (30 pieces of silver).
These details aside, a question remains about what rituals you see as important enough to go out of your way to fulfill? Would you have stayed on in Bethlehem for 40 days? It was probably out of the question to walk back to Nazareth and to return to Jerusalem in that time. Did Joseph have enough saved up? What did he do about jobs carpentry jobs previously contracted? Do any of these practical questions have anything to do with anything?
At any rate, Luke seems to not know all the rituals required for birthing. Even without them, blessings from Simeon and Anna come forth. Note the blessings that arise in your life even when not following the straight and narrow. You might almost think that G*D is about being a prodigal blesser. And your image of G*D; your being in G*D’s image?
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2011/12/luke-222-40.html