Sword-pierced Souls

(Manuscript)

 

Sunday, December 28^th, 2008

Christmas 1B

Jerusalem Baptist Church, Emmerton VA

Luke 2:22-40

Theme: Reflections

 

²²When the time came for their purification according to the law of Moses, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord ²³(as it is written in the law of the Lord, “Every firstborn male shall be designated as holy to the Lord”), ²⁴and they offered a sacrifice according to what is stated in the law of the Lord, “a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons.” ²⁵Now there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon; this man was righteous and devout, looking forward to the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit rested on him. ²⁶It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Messiah. ²⁷Guided by the Spirit, Simeon came into the temple; and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him what was customary under the law, ²⁸Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying, ²⁹“Master, now you are dismissing your servant in peace, according to your word; ³⁰for my eyes have seen your salvation,³¹which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, ³²a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel.” ³³And the child’s father and mother were amazed at what was being said about him. ³⁴Then Simeon blessed them and said to his mother Mary, “This child is destined for the falling and the rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be opposed ³⁵so that the inner thoughts of many will be revealed—and a sword will pierce your own soul too.” ³⁶There was also a prophet, Anna the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was of a great age, having lived with her husband seven years after her marriage, ³⁷then as a widow to the age of eighty-four. She never left the temple but worshiped there with fasting and prayer night and day.³⁸At that moment she came, and began to praise God and to speak about the child to all who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem.³⁹When they had finished everything required by the law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth. ⁴⁰The child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom; and the favor of God was upon him.

 

Beginning about 9:30 Friday evening, and continuing through yesterday afternoon and even into early evening, the Park household was in a state of subdued uproar. 

 

In anticipation of family coming to visit, we proposed to get the house in order as quickly and as completely as was possible within that short timeframe. 

 

If you’ve been in the house anytime over the last … oh … three years, maybe four, you might’ve had a chance to peek into the study.  You would have seen progressively taller and wider stacks of accumulated STUFF … an embarrassing amount of junk mail, old newspapers, loose papers, empty envelopes, boxes, things-to-do-later and generally anything that didn’t have a place to land anywhere else in the house.  I came to terms with the fact that I am much more of a pack-rat that I cared to admit to myself.  For one who tries to not focus on the material, there was an awful lot OF ‘material’ in that one 10 x 12 room.  The good news is, it is done, and it should stay in relatively good shape at LEAST until we can welcome you to our postponed open house – to be announced sometime after New Year’s.   

 

Going through it was a trip ‘down memory lane’, as they say.  I came across lists of names for backpacks, craft projects from the children’s classes, books that we’ve received in the mail, letters and especially cards from dear friends and family … especially in this last year.  Going through them, reading the notes and cards that you wrote to us in the loss of my aunt this past spring and Nana just in the last couple of weeks, I was reminded of how loving and caring you have been toward us – at birthdays, special events, anniversaries, but especially in those times of family tragedies and loss. 

 

It made for a reflexive time in the middle of trying to triage the piles as they went through my hands – “Do I keep this?  Do I NEED to keep this?  Do I have ROOM to keep this?  Is this something I can still DO something about or with?” – All the while also thinking “what a blessing, to have these Saints of God watching over us, encouraging us, and comforting us when we need it.  Even when I goof and give Frannie the theme of the message as the title, there’s still room for grace to cover it all. 

As the floor became more and more visible, and the stacks became less and less, I was also thinking about what it is going to be like starting this New Year with – at least in one sense – a TRULY clean slate.  It’s going to be an adjustment – working in a new environment.  I’m still facing in the same direction, and the things on the walls are basically the same – I only changed one or two things – but the acoustics for one have changed.  There’s an echo in the room now.  I can actually SEE out the window.  There’s room on the desktop to move things around, rather than stack them on top of each other.  It’s a forward-looking environment at the same time that it touches those stones that formed me – there’s a copper bowl from Chile, a miniature replica of an Orreo – a grain barn from northern Spain; there’s a map of the world, my ordination certificate is hanging where it always has, with the palm leaves from this past palm Sunday draped over the top of it, waiting to be burned for ashes in February, and my high school diploma from Chile.  They are all a part of what went into me at one point or another in my life to make me who I am becoming. 

 

There is a sense of anticipation in completing a project like that.  It opens up possibilities that seemed to be stifled among all the stacks and disorder that came before. 

 

The kids were tasked with the basement – the WHOLE basement.  We took Hanna Zhu, Leslie’s friend from seminary, back to her room on campus Friday night, and on the way back we worked out an arrangement with the kids for them to take charge of the cleaning and organizing of the downstairs.  They did a phenomenal job.  The study and the basement were comparable in terms of stacks and disorder, and between the three of them they worked themselves to the point of near exhaustion – to put it to you this way, the boys took naps all by themselves this afternoon after they were done with the cleanup.  Do you know how unusual that is for a 9 and a 10 year old to do??

 

I wondered as I read the passage for today, how eager Simeon and Anna were, anticipating the coming of the Messiah.  I wonder how often they made sure everything was in order within themselves to welcome him?  I wonder if they picked up a memory or an attitude, looked it over a couple of times and asked themselves ‘Does this need to stay with me?  Do I have ROOM for it?  Will it keep me from recognizing the coming Messiah?’ 

 

I wonder if they knew right off, or if it was a slow dawning on them as they were in the presence of the baby that they realized through the prompting of the Holy Spirit who he was? 

 

Are we subject to the same distractions?  Do we end up cluttering our lives up with so much STUFF that we forget the simplicity of the Gospel – that God loved us so much that God God’s self came to be with us, to live with us, to walk with us, to eat and breath with us, to know what being human was because he loved us so, so much. 

 

You know, the fact that we clutter up our lives doesn’t mean that God loves us any less, it simply means that it is harder for US to see him and his work in the middle of it all – from the middle of all the activities and the busyness, from the stacks of things to do, and the working out a path through all of them to get to where we’re going. 

 

Realistically, we can talk about TRYING to de-clutter our lives … we receive several home and family- oriented magazines, and it seems like in the last two weeks we’ve received 4 of them … and at least 3 of them had at least one article about how to organize your home simply and quickly … the problem is, when we read those articles, we’re not exposed to what the homes looked like BEFORE they were so perfectly organized … I DIDN’T, but I wish I had taken a ‘before’ picture of the study as well as the ‘after’ shot… knowing where someone has come from and seeing where they’ve gotten to is a lot more encouraging than seeing where they are and wondering ‘were they ever in the same condition/situation/circumstance *I* am in NOW?’ 

 

The Gospel message for us today is that yes, God has been where we are.  He knows what we are facing, what we are going through, what we have ahead of us … he’s been there and done that. 

 

What does this mean for Jerusalem Baptist Church at Emmerton?

 

Let’s pray.