1 January 2012

New Year Reflection

Text: Luke 2:22-40

Merilyn Carey

The Gospel reading set down in the Lectionary for today is the one we have just heard from Luke’s gospel. On the face of it, one wonders if there is a new year’s message in it, but as I reflected on it more and more I came to realise what an inspiring story it is that encourage us and challenge us for the year ahead.

In this story Luke tells us of the significant welcome the infant Jesus received at the Temple in Jerusalem.

It was not red-carpet treatment from the devoted students of the law, like the Pharisees. Nor was there a greeting committee from the high priests of organised religion.

Priests and Pharisees were never going to welcome Jesus into their spheres of influence. They had invested too much of their energies into their way of seeing and doing things, to allow anyone else to intrude.

No, the welcome came from two elderly folk. Neither is priest nor Pharisee. Each of them seems to be more like the Hebrew prophets. Both are genuinely devout and utterly devoted – not to external religion, but to God. They are people who see beyond the superficial to the deeper reality of things.

Jesus and his parents were greeted firstly by Simeon, a good man, a man who lived in the prayerful expectancy of help for Israel. And the Holy Spirit was on him and the Holy Spirit had shown him that he would see the Messiah of God before he died.

For a moment, let’s think what the scene would have been like. Up the stairway of the massive Temple trod two country folk carrying their first child. They entered into the courtyard where Jews from everywhere were moving to and fro. And amongst them was Simeon, waiting there because the Spirit had led him there. As Mary and Joseph came in Simeon stepped forward and took the child Jesus in his arms and praised God:

“God, you can now release your servant;

release me in peace as you promised.

With my own eyes I’ve seen your salvation;

it’s now in the open for everyone to see:

A God-revealing light to the non-Jewish nations,

and of glory for your people Israel.”

And in that court they are greeted by a second person, Anna – an old prophet who never left the temple, worshipping night and day with her fasting and prayers. And she broke into an anthem of praise to God and talked about the child to all those who were waiting expectantly for the freeing of Jerusalem.

How did these two people, of all the people who were in the temple that day, know that the child Jesus was the Messiah? How were they able to discern the voice that revealed this to them above all the other voices around them?

I remember an incident in my childhood when the Queen made her first visit to Australia in 1954. The school I attended was on the main road from Adelaide to the airport where the Queen was to arrive. All the pupils were lined up along the footpath to cheer and wave as she drove past. It turned into quite a long wait. In our class was a Greek immigrant girl who knew nothing about the Queen.

I don’t know how it started but someone called out, “here she comes!” and we all got ready to wave, including our Greek friend, but it wasn’t the Queen. This happened many times and each time we prepared for our welcome, only to be disappointed when it wasn’t the Queen.

Finally the “here she comes” was true, and we all waved and cheered excitedly, relishing the historic moment. All of us, that is, except our Greek friend who had been tricked once too often by the voices around her, and didn’t look. She missed the real thing.

There are many voices around us all the time, some trying to trick us, or lie to us about what we need to do or have for a fulfilling life, and if we’re not careful we may stop listening altogether and miss the genuine voice.

And so, how did Simeon and Anna, of all the people who were in the temple that day, know that the child Jesus was the Messiah? They knew because they were people of prayer who were open to the Holy Spirit and acted on what they believed had been revealed to them. The remarkable thing is that they recognised the child as the Messiah even though everyone else was looking for someone completely different.

And what is so inspiring for us? They were two ordinary people. Elderly folk who were still used by God to reveal his truth and proclaim his message. They were people who did not allow themselves to be distracted by everything else that was going on around them, but acted on what they understood to be God’s revelation to them. But their ability to discern God’s voice and act on it was not just something that happened on that day – they had spent their lives in relationship with God. They were people who had cultivated their life of prayer. Luke tells us they were righteous and devout and devoted to God.

Will we allow ourselves to be distracted by other things and other people trying to convince us that the way of Jesus is no different from the normal society and standards around us? Or will we commit ourselves again – or for the first time – to recognising Jesus as the Messiah (our Saviour) and to a life of prayer and action so that others too will also recognise Jesus? If we truly wish to follow Jesus he may well confront and upset our preferred way of seeing and doing things. But it will be worth it, for he has promised us life in all its fullness. Remember the invitation from Isaiah: Come and listen to me and eat what is good and your soul will delight in the richest of food. Or the words of Jesus: Come to me all who labour and are heavy-laden and I will give you rest. Take my yolk upon you and learn of me, for my yolk is easy and my burden is light.

At the beginning of this new year let us be inspired by Luke’s story of two ordinary people and resolve both individually and together to live, work and pray so that many others too will come to know Jesus who came and still comes to all who accept his invitation to life – satisfying, enriching and full of meaning and purpose.