“This child is destined for the falling and rising of many
in Israel, and to be a sign that will be opposed…” Luke 2:34
I saw a TV commercial on Christmas Eve that almost perfectly
summed up how the world understands Christmas.
I don’t remember what it was advertising. Furniture, I think. Doesn’t matter. But as this couple is packing away the last
of their Christmas decorations the narrator says something like, “When the
holidays are over, and you realize how drab your house really is…” On Christmas Eve the world was already busy going
back to business as usual. Christmas
Eve!!! I just shook my head with
sadness.
In this week’s reading from the Gospel of Luke, we meet
Simeon and Anna, two prophets who look at the Christ child in Mary’s arms and
see anything but business as usual. They
see the changing of the world, the turning of the tide, and the healing of the
nations. They see the promise of God in
flesh and blood. They greet the baby
Jesus not with a drab sigh of resignation, but with words of praise and thanks
to God.
Then, right in the middle of all this praising and blessing
and rejoicing, Simeon drops a line that yanks us back into the very reality
Jesus came to address. Falling and rising. Opposition.
Inner thoughts revealed. He tells
Mary that a sword will pierce her soul. Simeon prophesies that Jesus’ ministry will be surrounded both by
praise and conflict. And so it was. And so it is today.
In the Gospel of Luke, time and again, Jesus challenges the
status quo and those who have power and privilege in his world. It doesn’t take long before Jesus is
cross-ways with the leaders of the religious establishment of his day, exposing
them and their counterfeit religiosity. In the end, the Romans, encouraged by these
leaders, nail Mary’s son to a cross to die while Mary stands watching with a
sword in her soul and tears of anguish in her eyes. The opposition appears to have won the
day. But, with God, opposition is never
the end of the story. Luke’s story of
Jesus ends with an empty tomb, the salvation of the world and Jesus sending his
disciples out to bear witness to the Good News that the opposition has not and
never will prevail.
As we head into the new year, it appears that 2018 will be
just like 2017 and the many years that came before them. Many will rise and fall. There will be opposition and turmoil and
violence and war. Revelations will shock
us and some, sadly, will not. People
will lament over their drab furniture and try to fill meaningless lives with
the latest meaningless thing being peddled in the popular marketplace. But the promise of the cross and resurrection
is that the son of Mary will still be there in the middle of whatever realities
we face. There will be opposition. Yes.
But redemption too. No matter
what happens in this new year Christ’s love and grace, compassion and mercy,
forgiveness and healing, will still be transforming people’s lives, still
bringing life from death and calling us to follow and bear witness to the Good
News that we find in him.
Peace,
Bishop Mike
Thanks for reading.
Pray that the New Year will bring peace, with justice, to our hurting
world.
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