God’s grace, peace
and mercy be with you. My sermon is entitled Seasons, Scene and Sense, and
my focus is our Gospel (Luke 2:22-40). Let us pray. Heavenly Father, the
psalmist wrote, “I rejoiced when they said to me, ‘Let us go to the house
of the Lord.’” Now that our feet are within your gates, we rejoice to
hear your Word. As we listen, may your Spirit enlighten our minds and move our
hearts to love deeply as Jesus loved. This we pray to you, Most Holy Trinity.
Amen.
Season. The
Sundays after Christmas and Easter are like the second game of the season in
baseball. Everyone wants to attend the home opener. The second game, not so
much. Yet, like baseball, Christmas has a season. The Christmas Season started
with the Christmas Eve Divine Service and runs for twelve days or through
January 5th. On the Catholic calendar, the season runs though the
Baptism of the Lord, this year on January 8, 2024.[1]
The Byzantine and the Syro-Malabar (India) Churches have different names for
some of their seasons, and the Orthodox hold fast to celebrating Christmas on
January 6th. My Serbian high school classmates would skip school in
January to celebrate Christmas, and others would lament not exchanging presents
in December. In other words, not all Christians observe the Christmas Season
consistently.
The Church Year,
as you see from page 8 of Lutheran Worship, consists of Seasons and Major
Festivals. Lutherans have also maintained some lesser festivals, which are
listed on page 9. Periodically, festivals fall on a Sunday, which gives pastors
a choice to observe them or not. We often forget that we have retained the
Feast of Stephen (Dec 26), unless the words of “Good King Wenceslaus” remind us
that the snow that day was deep and crisp and even. We remember the Apostle and
Evangelist St. John on December 27, and The Holy Innocents the following Day.[2]
The Naming and Circumcision of Jesus are observed on New Year’s Eve and Day.
Unfortunately,
many Christians have gotten into the habit of celebrating Christmas as some
secularists do. They start as early as November 1st, skipping
through Thanksgiving and cancelling Advent. Of course, the trees are at the
curb if not at the local drop off site by December 26th. Christmas
music ends at 11:59 PM on December 25th, and if it were not for one
particular song, we might even forget that there are Twelve Days of Christmas. Lest
I belabor the point, we move on to our Gospel scene.
Scene. Picking up
with what I said on Christmas, I turn to a sermon by Martin Luther on today’s
Gospel.[3]
Luther had a keen use of language. Reading his sermon on this passage, you see
that he is part Biblical professor and part preacher who does not hold back on
his criticism not only of the Catholic Church, but also of his hearers.
As he speaks about
the response of Joseph and Mary to Simeon’s words about the Baby Jesus, Luther used
the word marvelous more often than Fernando Lamas. These marvelous things were
the words Simeon had spoken when he took the child Jesus in his arms. What
Simeon publicly said in a holy place about a poor, despised baby, whose mother
was poor and insignificant, and whose father, Joseph, was also poor, was
rightfully marvelous. Luther asked, “How could such a baby be considered the
Savior of all People, the light of the Gentiles, and the glory and honor of all
Israel?” Today, it does not seem such a big deal, but it was when Simeon
prophesied this.
Some may wonder
why his father and mother marveled at what was said about Jesus. After all, did
not Mary recall what was said by the Archangel Gabriel – that this child “will
be great and will be called the Son of the Most High”? Did she not
recall what the shepherds reported? Didn’t Joseph remember what was revealed to
him by an angel of the Lord? (Mt 1:20-21) We need to keep in mind that Simeon,
whose name means “one who hears,” represented all the prophets who foretold the
coming of the Savior, and that when Joseph and Mary saw their poor baby in
Simeon’s arms, they clung to “what was said about” that baby.
Turning on a dime,
Luther had this to say to those who wish they could have held the baby in their
arms. “Some think that if they were to see the baby Christ with His mother,
they also would joyously bless Him. But they lie for they would certainly have
been averted by His infancy and poverty and His contemptible appearance. They
prove it by disregarding, hating, and persecuting such poverty and humble
appearance in the members of Christ. But Simeon was not offended at His
appearance. Simeon was a preacher and a lover of the Cross and an enemy of the
world.”
Luther taught that
what Simeon said next can be set into four points. First, Christ “is
appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel.” Christ is not the
cause of this fall; arrogance is. “Christ came to be the light and Savior of
all the world, … and everyone is justified and saved through faith in Him. For
that to happen, all other righteousness which is sought in ourselves with works
apart from Christ must be rejected. … People who rely on works and seek their
own righteousness, who must take offense at Christ and faith and must fall …
persecute and kill whatever speaks or acts against them.”
Luther reminded
his listeners – and us – that we need to be aware that we can be misled by
pastors, parents, professors, partners or anyone else who “tell us what God’s
Word means.”
Second, Simeon
says that Christ is “a sign that is opposed.” Christ is the sign
that is always opposed. I know that we often think that our enemies are taking
aim at our faith and values, marriage and family life as we once understood it,
the Church, our schools and kids, one nation under God and so on. All of this
is based on Christ’s teaching. All of our enemies have set their sights on one
target, Jesus Christ.
Luther reminds us
that even enemies, such as Pontius Pilate and Herod, become friends once they
take their aim at Jesus Christ. This, he said is the fulfillment of Psalm 83: “They
say, ‘Come, let us wipe them out as a nation; let the name of Israel be
remembered no more!’ For they conspire with one accord; against you they make a
covenant—the tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites, Moab and the Hagrites, Gebal
and Ammon and Amalek, Philistia with the inhabitants of Tyre; Asshur also has
joined them; they are the strong arm of the children of Lot.” (vv. 4-8)
In Luther’s words,
“From this we learn and become certain that we may take comfort and be happy …
when many people take offense at our words and faith and oppose them,
especially the great, the learned, and the spiritual.” Furthermore, we can take
comfort knowing that Christ “is a sign that is opposed, but not overthrown or
destroyed.” My father used to say, “What you learn, no one can ever take from
you.” It’s why we teach from the Bible and Luther’s Small Catechism. Once we
know what we believe, we take comfort knowing that the world’s best and
brightest cannot destroy our faith.
Third, “a
sword will pierce through your own soul.” This is not a physical sword,
but the fact that Mary would endure great sorrow and grief in her heart.
Indeed, every parent and grandparent knows heartache. My mother would always
say when we were sick, “I wish it were me rather than you.” It’s easier for a
parent to suffer than to see your children suffering. Heartache is bitter, and
Mary, whose name means bitter, will come to understand that heartache
throughout her own life. It is why many women can relate to her when they
experience suffering in this life.
Finally, Simeon’s
conclusion, “so that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed.”
Luther points out that there are two kinds of scandal and temptation among men.
The first temptation is to coarse sins – disobedience to parents, killing,
unchastity, stealing, lying, blaspheming and so on. These are all sins against
the Fourth through the Tenth Commandments.
The greater
scandal, the greater temptation is performed by those who “build on their works
and themselves” because these disobey the First Three Commandments. Those who
commit such sins, says Luther, “endeavor to destroy and interfere with all that
belongs to faith and God.” Of course, Luther saw this in the acts of popes,
bishops and almost all of the clergy.
He goes on. “In
order to protect us, God has set up His Christ as a target (at which they
stumble and fall…) so that we … may not accept and follow their life as good.
Before God no life is really good without faith; and where there is no faith,
there is nothing but lies and deception.”
I summarized
Luther’s sermon on this passage, focusing only on that scene involving Simeon,
Joseph, Mary and Jesus because something that was said 500 years ago, still
makes sense for us today. That brings me to my third point, Sense.
Sense. What do
Simeon’s words have to do with life in our world today? As I was preparing this
sermon, two articles caught my attention. The first was an interview of Dr.
Anthony Fauci with a BBC reporter that was released in late November. The
interview occured in Washington, and one scene involved a walk past the church
where he and his wife were married. The reporter questioned him on his
religious upbringing and its impact on him today. Here is what Fauci said.
"My own
personal ethics on life are enough to keep me going on the right path, and I
think there are enough negative aspects about the organizational Church that
you are very well aware of. I'm not against it. I identify as a Catholic, I was
raised, baptized and married in a Catholic Church, but as far as practicing, it
seems almost like a proforma thing that I don't really need to do."[4]
Now, it would be
easy to target Catholicism, and I am sure that is what some readers did, but
that is missing the point. Fauci echoes what a lot of people think regardless
of what denomination or upbringing. As it relates to this passage, let’s back
up to what Luther said. To think that my own personal ethics on life are enough
to keep me going on the right path is foolish arrogance no matter how
intelligent I am, or think I am. This is the scandal and temptation to disobey which
is performed by those who “build on their works and themselves” because such
thinking rejects the First Three Commandments. You shall have no other gods.
You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God. Remember the Sabbath day by
keeping it holy.
If I think like
Fauci, and there are times that I do, and many more times I am encouraged and
tempted to do so by others, like sinful Adam, I make myself equal to God. Those
who commit such sins, says Luther, “endeavor to destroy and interfere with all
that belongs to faith and God.”
The other article
I read that caught my interest was simply its title, “Holy Abortion.” This
dealt with how mainline Protestant theologians have made choice the preeminent
religious value. I will quote only the ending of the article, but strongly
encourage you to read it on the website First Things. If you receive my
sermons, you will find the site in my footnotes or on my blog.
“Choice has become
a religious value, the bedrock of an emergent morality that bears no
resemblance to the Abrahamic tradition. It is a stealthy adversary, donning the
mantle of Christian love and charity to corrupt traditional faith from the
inside. In this topsy-turvy faith, the immoral is called moral. The
irresponsible is called responsible. The life-destroying is called
life-protecting. Murder is called rescue. The pregnant mother is, in her
omniscience and power, her own god. Her volition is sacred and absolute. And
her holy abortion is saving the world.”[5]
Friends, God so
loved the world, God so loves us that He sent His only Son to save us from
making mistakes as grave as Anthony Fauci’s that elevate the human to God and
every faulty human choice to an absolute good. We are not God, and we make
sinful choices all the time. That is why we need God and one another (Church). That
is why Simeon’s words are important to us. As we come to the end of the year,
behold the Christ that Simeon did. See in Christ and in Christ’s teaching the
wisdom that will lead you not only to a fuller life here and now, but eternal
life. See in Christ the only One who can forgive you and me for our sins, love
us mercifully and call us to love one another as brothers and sisters in our
Father’s family. And when you do, may the peace of God that surpasses all
understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
[1]
A good site for the Lutheran calendar is https://trinitylutheranchurch.360unite.com/the-lutheran-church-year-explained.
For the Catholic calendar, see https://www.usccb.org/prayer-worship/liturgical-year/christmas.
[2]
For an understanding of The Holy Innocents, see these pages: https://allthehousehold.com/the-holy-innocents/
and https://resources.lcms.org/history/the-holy-innocents/
[3]
A Year in the Gospels with Martin Luther: Sermons from Luther’s Church Postil,
Volume 1. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House (2018). For quoted sections,
see Luke 2:33-40, pp. 178ff.
[4]
Jacqueline Schneider “How Dr Anthony Fauci delivers 'inconvenient truths' to
world leaders.” November 30, 2023. https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20231130-anthony-fauci-interview-influential-katty-kay
[5]
Samira Kahwah, “Holy Abortion,” First Things, December 2023, pp. 37-41. https://www.firstthings.com/article/2023/12/holy-abortion
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