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"Grace Happens"
December 7, 2003 The Rev. Judie Ritchie
It is wonderful to be back and to look out and see lots of faces that I know. I think of many of you so often, especially a lot of the older members that I had the privilege to visit with. So you all are a wonderful congregation and I just rejoice that it just seems like God has a lot of good things in store for you with the coming year. So I have prayed and continue to pray for all of you in this time of transition.
Our Scripture this morning is from Luke chapter 2, starting with verse 25. And I am going to stop at verse 35. Hear the Word of God:
Now there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon, who was righteous and devout. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel and the Holy Spirit was upon him. It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord's Christ. Moved by the Spirit, he went into the temple courts. When the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him what the custom of the law required, Simeon took him in his arms and praised God saying, "Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you now dismiss your servant in peace, for my eyes have seen your salvation which you have prepared in the sight of all people, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel." The child's father and mother marveled at what was said about him. Then Simeon said to Mary, his mother, "This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against, so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed--and a sword will pierce your own soul, too."
Let's pray. Lord, thank you for these words that are ancient, and yet, ever new. Be with us in the power of your Spirit. And may the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts together be acceptable in your sight, our Lord, our Rock, and our Redeemer. Amen.
I wanted to begin by telling you a story about a gift and a giver. I was the receiver of the gift. This happened . . . well, gosh, it was I guess more than ten years ago now. A few days before Christmas, the doorbell rang in the middle of the day. It must have been my day off. As I went to answer it, I saw the Gabbert's delivery truck outside. My first thought was, "Hmmm. I guess one of the neighbors is getting some new furniture." As I opened the door, imagine my surprise that the Gabbert's delivery man was on my doorstep and he had in hand a beautiful dining room chair with a big red bow on it. The first words out of my mouth were, "You must be at the wrong house." (It matched our dining room furniture, but, you know, I'm a little slow.) He checked his delivery records, and he asked my name, and he said, "No." No, he was at the right place. Well, I was really confused. Why was a delivery man standing on my doorstep with this beautiful, brand new chair?
Now, at that moment my husband Dan came downstairs and I didn't really notice the funny look on his face. I was still so puzzled: "A chair for me? Well, who would have given me such a gift?" Now, maybe the answer is becoming obvious to you, but it wasn't to me--because up to that point my husband's most lavish Christmas gift to me had been a bathrobe, so I just wasn't kind of putting two and two together. Then I thought I had it figured out: I was serving over at Christ Presbyterian at the time and Barb and Jim Gabbert are active members there. They still are today. So my brainstorm was that Jim Gabbert had sent it! I was surprised. I mean, I knew them, and I had baptized two of their children, and we had been in a small couples group together. But I thought it was kind of surprising and I was really just kind of overwhelmed that Jim would send me a chair. Well, of course he had not! It was my poor, dear, longsuffering husband who had saved some extra money, unbeknownst to me, and had gone out and picked out this chair, and bought it to surprise me. Think how he felt when I didn't recognize either the gift or the giver!
Well, our Scripture for this morning talks about a gift and a giver. It talks about Simeon, who recognized both the gift and the giver. The prophet that we often call the prophet Simeon, knew the gift for who or what it was and he praised the giver. Well, Simeon was a righteous man, the Bible tells us. And he was probably one of those folks that other people would call "religious," as the world puts it. But the words that the Bible used to describe him tell us that he was not a hypocrite as sometimes people will use that word to tell you, "Oh, he's so religious." He went about praying, and fasting, and giving alms, and attending worship in the temple. His inside--his soul--really matched his outside behavior. And the Scripture says that, "the Holy Spirit was upon him." In fact, Simeon was one of those people who had received a direct message from God, and the message was that he would see the Messiah, the great hero that had been promised to deliver the nation of Israel. That Simeon would not die before he saw the Messiah. Now this would have been an amazing promise because the Jewish people had been waiting so long for the Messiah. If you count from when the Davidic dynasty started falling apart, you could say they had been waiting 600 years. If you count between the last book written in the Old Testament (Malachi) and when this was, you could say 450 years. A very long time to keep that hope alive, and yet this man, this righteous man, felt that he had the promise from God that he would personally see the Messiah.
But I wonder what kind of image Simeon had in his mind as he went to the temple that day. I wonder if he expected to see a baby. I think that perhaps he might have had in his mind that he would go into the temple and he would see someone come in--kind of a mighty man who would just stand out and perhaps just be like Judas Maccabeus was, who 150 years earlier had wrested the temple away from the Romans and rededicated it. So maybe he had that image in his mind as he went to the temple and he was looking around for that Messiah. Or perhaps he expected some sort of king, in the sense of looking for someone who came from the wealthy, privileged, a member of the priestly caste in the Jewish community. Maybe he was looking around the temple and looking at these people and thinking, "Who might be here that is the Lord's Messiah?"
But because Simeon was really open to God, because he left his heart receptive to the Holy Spirit, he was able to recognize the real Messiah as he entered the temple. And what a surprise--a baby! That's who the Messiah was, a baby. A baby that was born to parents who were so poor that they were only sacrificing two pigeons. The law requested that families sacrifice a lamb and a pigeon for their first-born son, but Joseph and Mary were so poor that they could only bring two pigeons, which was acceptable if that was all you could bring. So here was this tiny, helpless infant that was born to this poor, humble couple. And Simeon somehow had the eyes to see that this baby was the "consolation of Israel," that this was the Lord's Christ.
Now, I have to kind of ask myself (and maybe you would kind of ask yourself) honestly, how would you have reacted? Would we have been a little bit embarrassed, or maybe confused? How could the Christ be this baby? Or would we have also felt a little twinge of regret that, you know, this is not what I'm looking for. This is not who I'm expecting. What happened to that fine figure of a man that I was expecting, or that mighty man of valor, or that leader who would be so recognizable? But apparently Simeon was not disappointed. He was elated! And his speech with those famous words, "Lord, now let your servant depart in peace"--it's the speech of a faithful slave who has kept watch for his master, perhaps for a very long time, because his master was expecting an important visitor. And finally the important person has arrived and the servant can go off duty.
Simeon knew for whom he had waited, and he recognized Him when He came. This takes what we call in the spiritual life "discernment." Simeon was able to discern the work of God right now, in the present moment. How many of us can see what God is up to right now, in our present life? How many of us can live right now in the present, but yet with hope, believing that God does work among us, right here and right now? Simeon had waited for so long! For most of us, it is really difficult to wait. It is especially hard, I think, to wait open-handed, or to wait in an open way. We are really impatient people. And we usually have in mind exactly what should happen and when it should happen. And we usually spend some time, if we pray, telling God about those two things--you know, what should happen and when it should happen.
Well, I love this quote from Henri Nouwen. He says that "Impatient people are always expecting the real thing to happen somewhere else, and therefore they want to go somewhere else. The moment is empty. But patient people dare to stay where they are. Patient living means to live actively in the present and to wait there." That is so difficult, and yet it's so wise. And Simeon was a patient man. He had been told by God to wait with this hope, and he waited patiently. He was able to stay in that present moment and to see the gift in it rather than straining towards the future or missing what God wanted to reveal right now, right then, to him.
Well, maybe you are waiting right now. Maybe you're waiting for a child to be born, or a relationship to be healed. Or maybe you're waiting for news about a job or you are waiting for the results of a medical test. Usually there is something in our lives which we're waiting for. Maybe you're waiting to find the right person to marry, or maybe you're just waiting to find a new friend. Sometimes we can get so wrapped up in our concrete image of what we think the future should or will bring, that we miss the gift of the moment, of the present. And you know, all we really have here on earth is this present moment, and the promise of eternal life. C. S. Lewis in his book Screwtape Letters has a wonderful passage. If some of you have read that book, it's kind of written in reverse. It's advice to a junior-temptor, a junior-demon as to how to tempt this new Christian. And in one part the kind of senior-demon is instructing that one of the great ways to tempt Christians, to get their vision off of God, is to either get them so wrapped up in the past, with regrets or things they wished they had done, or to get them so focused on the future, that they miss what's going on right now. And what Lewis says is, "Really, all these little creatures have is right now, but they don't want to realize that." And that is what we have, right now, and the promise that God gives us of eternal life. But that eternal life begins right now.
So in this Advent season of waiting, Simeon is the example that we all need of waiting in an open-ended way. Simeon waited in complete trust of God. As I said, most of us, I think, wait for a very concrete result that we want. And we often keep telling God what it is and how God should do it. But Simeon waited in anticipation and trust. He was willing to be surprised by God, surprised by this baby that came into the temple.
And think again of what Simeon actually saw: an eight-day-old baby. Now, I don't know how recently you've been around an eight-day-old baby, but you know, they're kind of pink or red, and they're kind of wrinkled up, and let's face it: We all say, "How beautiful!" but what are we really thinking inside? You know, my standard line is, "Oh! Who does he or she look like?" You know, I think, "What else can I say?" No, that's mean. But, I mean, little babies, very young babies, are pretty wrinkled-looking and helpless-looking, and they need us. That's who Simeon saw was this tiny baby and this poor couple, this poor husband and wife. And again, that this was the Messiah that God had promised for so long, for hundreds and hundreds of years. Yet Simeon could recognize the gift, the gift of God, in this special baby.
And I think that Simeon could recognize that gift of God in the Baby Jesus because he was probably the type of person that often saw the gifts of God every day--in the way that God took care of his needs every day, or just in what he saw in nature, as he was going to the temple, to see a breathtaking sunrise or sunset. I think Simeon was the kind of man who could glimpse grace constantly, who could discern God's gifts in all the small things of life as well as the big things. So he could believe that this baby could be a "light for revelation to the Gentiles," that all that could be wrapped up in this small package.
Well, in your Scripture it's interesting to see the reaction that Mary and Joseph have to Simeon's words. The Scripture says that they "marveled," or they "were amazed." You know, I'm constantly encouraged by the very humanness of the people in the Bible. That Mary and Joseph just marveled at what was said about Jesus. Now, this is the same couple that had seen angels, and Joseph had been visited by God in his dreams. And they had heard the words of the shepherds who said, "We have been sent." And yet they still marvel at Simeon's words. Probably they were especially surprised that Simeon was saying that their child, Jesus, would extend this salvation to all nations, that he would be this "light to the Gentiles." Because the Jews tended to think that salvation was just for them, for Israel, and that the Messiah was going to come and lead them into a new era of peace, but it didn't really have a lot to do with the rest of the world. And here was Simeon emphasizing, "No. This Messiah is for the whole world."
Well, if Mary and Joseph can marvel, and be surprised, and can learn more about Jesus, then I guess that you and me--that we can learn also. Doesn't this say that those of us who claim to be Jesus' disciples have never really arrived? That we never know all there is to know about who Jesus is and what He wants to be for us or for the world. We need to be open and we need to keep being open to change, and to grow in our understanding of all that Jesus wants to do in our lives and for others. I'm encouraged that Simeon, in this Scripture, is an older man. Because I think sometimes it's too easy, as we grow older, to think, "You know, I'm just tired of changing! I've been there, done that. I just want to stay the same. I just want things around me to stay the same." And, again, what this story teaches us, is that we never get too old to learn more, or to see the marvels of God, or to keep changing.
When I do "spiritual direction" or counseling with people, and as I listen as they share their lives, or their struggles, or their pain, I'm constantly amazed at God's grace. I'm constantly amazed at the way--the gracious, unexpected ways--that God can reach out into our lives and meet us, sometimes in the most unlikely places and times, or through the people you would least expect. Being surprised by grace, having that openness--it's a sign of health and it's a sign that we're growing towards God, and not away from God. But being surprised by grace is just that: It's a surprise! It's not exactly something that you could capture, or program, or make happen.
I had the privilege yesterday of speaking at a Women's Breakfast back at Christ Presbyterian. It was really the first time I had been back there doing something in an official way for two years, since I had left there. I knew that I could do this because there were two people speaking at this breakfast. I was speaking and then a just dear, dear friend of mine, an older woman--I think she said she's 76--who is the person I want to be when I grow up! So I knew that God would speak to her and so I was kind of off the hook. I mean, whatever I said would be frosting because I knew that God would speak through her, and He really did. She told me this amazing story as we were both eating breakfast. Like I said, I guess she's 76. She's one of those people whose chronological age is, I don't know. She's so wonderfully young at heart and so wise. But none of her children are really active in a church and I know that this has been a great concern, and really a heartache for her.
But she told me that her grandson had called her up recently and asked her to tell him a little bit about her faith and how she had come to believe in God. She asked him, "Why do you want to know?" And he said, "I was walking down the street one day"--this is a high school student. I think she said he's a senior. "I was walking down the street and suddenly I knew that God loved me and that I needed to turn my whole life over to God." Talk about being surprised by grace! I'm sure that she has prayed for this grandson for probably the 18 years of his life. And I remember her bringing (it may have been him) a couple grandkids to Vacation Bible School, and that kind of thing because their parents didn't. And here, just kind of really like the proverbial lightening bolt out of the blue, this young man is just struck by the grace of God. So she said, "You know, rather than us just talking about this on the phone, I am going to be telling my faith-story at this breakfast at church on Saturday. Would you like to come?" She said, "You know, it will be all women." (It was all us women in our Christmas sweaters!) And there in the back of the room, by the kitchen--my heart went out. It looks like one of my boys, you know, with the baseball hat on kind of backwards and the slouch. And it was early for a guy that age, too--I mean, it was about 9 o'clock in the morning on a Saturday. But he came to hear his grandmother tell her faith-story, and I was just so touched. And, again, it was such an image of we never know when that grace of God is going to break through, and we can't capture it, and we can't program it. That's very frustrating to many of us who live in a world where we'd like to be able to push the buttons on the microwave and make it happen. But it doesn't happen. The most that we can do is just to open ourselves up, and to be receptive, and to be attentive, and to look for that grace breaking into our lives each day.
Well, what are your expectations in your life?--especially this Advent season. Are you waiting for God? Are you just waiting for something good to happen? Is God maybe another good thing to pile into your life, along with, you know, a satisfying career, a close and happy family, and enough material well-being that you can feel successful, and then there's God. Or perhaps you are waiting more specifically, and with great hope, to feel God's presence somehow in your life.
But most of us would like the waiting to end soon. It's so difficult to wait, as Simeon did, in this open-ended way--to wait with hope, but to wait for what may be a surprise from God. And sometimes we don't recognize the gifts that God pours into our lives because, like me with the chair, we have all the wrong expectations. You know, I never expected Dan to give me such a beautiful gift. (I hate to say it. I told him I was going to preach on this and all yesterday he says, "Do you remember when I spent all that money that I got for that course overload and I bought you that nice ring?" I mean, he kept that up all day yesterday!) So I confess, this is my problem! It's not his. I just never expected him to give me that beautiful gift, and so I almost didn't accept it. It was almost like I was telling the Gabbert's guy to take it back with him because my expectations were all wrong. There was nothing wrong with the gift or the giver.
So here is my challenge for all of us in the days that are left before Christmas: Try to put aside whatever really specific thing that you are waiting for. In other words, like Simeon was waiting for the Messiah, but if he had some specific notion of what that Messiah should look like, he needed to let that go. Just put aside maybe some of the real specific, the concrete, about what you're waiting for and ask for the grace to see God in some way, large or small, just this day, everyday. And live every day in that hope and that trust that God will break through. Maybe not in the way that you were expecting, but that God will break through.
And end each day, then, with just a few minutes of quiet reflection and ask yourself, "Where did I see God today?" "Where did I see God's grace?" "Where did I see God's presence?" "How did God meet me in this day?" I think that if we could do that during this Advent season, we would be so much more ready to greet, in a new way, the birth of the Savior.
We may not see some sort of supernatural vision or hear angels sing. We may not even receive whatever very specific thing we are waiting for. But I trust that we will catch a glimpse of the grace of God through even the small things in life, and I trust that we will have a better recognition of the gift, and especially the Giver. May the same Holy Spirit that was with Simeon keep us receptive to see the gifts that God, the Giver, pours out on us, and to respond in praise and obedience. Amen.
The Rev. Judie Ritchie Guest Preacher, former Minister of Visitation Faith Presbyterian Church Minnetonka, Minnesota
[Transcribed from an audiotape of the 9:00 a.m. worship service on December 7, 2003.] |
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