Ordinary Folks

St. Paul's United Methodist Church
Luke 2: 22, 25 - 38, Marianne Niesen, December 28, 2008

 

This is one of my favorite Christmas stories – that image of old Simeon and old Anna taking the  baby Jesus from his mother and father and raising him up before God in praise and thanksgiving.  He was what they had been waiting for!  As Christians through the years have heard the story, we hear it as an affirmation and a confirmation of just how important Jesus was – right from the beginning.  He was identified at the crib as the Messiah, the hope of the world.  Simeon and Anna could die happy, knowing he’d finally come.

So, how did they know?  How did they recognize Jesus?  There was no halo.  No angel cherubs hovering around him.  No magi – those are in Matthew’s gospel. Here’s my theory . . . they didn’t.  They didn’t know what Jesus would become, they only knew what was possible - and what was needed.  I believe Simeon and Anna were ordinary folks who met each and every child brought to the temple with the same reverence and grace with which they met Jesus.  They saw in every child God’s gift of life and God’s blessing of potential.  And they proclaimed it.  As Jesus grew and followed his particular call as Messiah, he fulfilled their proclamation in a way that has changed the world. We believe that.  For us, Jesus was Messiah and Lord but, humanly speaking, I don’t really think Simeon and Anna knew all that in the temple that day. Instead, they knew their calling and it was an ordinary one . . . to pray and wait and look and proclaim God’s eternal hope evident in every birth.  God used them - as God uses us - ordinary folks - to make a difference.  Sometimes in a big way. Sometimes in a little way.  Still, everyone matters.

Theirs was an important role . . . and yet Simeon and Anna were quite ordinary folks.  Simeon was simply an old man who was faithful.  He was not a priest.  He had no official role in the temple. He was just there when Mary and Joseph arrived with their 8 day old child.  And Anna, though it says she as a prophetess, was an ordinary one.  No one of renown or great training. Like Simeon, her claim to fame seems to be that she was faithful and her faithfulness was inspiring. She had no role at the temple.  She was just there that day as she had been there every day for most of her 84-plus years.

And I believe that Simeon and Anna remind us ordinary folks gathered here today that our call is no less significant and no more ordinary than theirs.  What greater call is there than to greet every child as a beloved child of God and do all we can to insure that all of our children “grow strong in body and wise in spirit?”  We have been so blessed as a church community with lots of new babies. - new life and hope.  Lynn just read the names of those babies born and we celebrated together.  Here’s the deal -  our call is to be Simeons and Annas to them all.  It’s not an age thing, it’s a ministry.  Every time we baptize a baby; every time we sing This, this is where children belong to welcome the children to children’s time at the 11 service, we’re doing a Simeon-and-Anna ministry. My goal at children’s time here in church is to do my best to let every child know she has a place here, that he is loved and worth spending time with. Because they are!

Long ago, Jesus was called and claimed by a faith community.  He embraced that call in a way that has changed our lives.  We call it salvation. But his fulfillment of his work doesn’t mean there isn’t more work to be done.  We need us all – and our children – if we are to truly follow the path Jesus taught which, we believe, will change the world.  Us ordinary folks, Simeons and Annas all, have big work to do.  And yet, fundamentally, it is very simple work . . . it is the work being faithful, hopeful and generous with who we are and what we have every day in the temples of our lives.

Let us pray . . .       

Just as Simeon and Anna noticed the child Jesus that day long ago, so did God, in the gift of Jesus, notice us. We are neither out of sight nor out of mind. We are eternally and intimately the objects of attention and affection.  That is good news.

And, Simeon and Anna remind us that God needs us, just as God needed them, to make that love real. The same quality of love that enabled him to grow “strong in body and wise in spirit” is meant to live in us and, through us, be a gift to our children and to all children.

May it be so, Amen!