To raise a child is an experience of both incredible joy and devastating heartbreak. Every parent’s life is “pieced” with turmoil, disappointment, illness, desperation, and fear. Certainly every mom and dad knows what Mary and Joseph went through. Within our families, our sons and daughters embrace and are embraced by the love we have known and seek to know better, to be grasped by the hand of God who has grasped us by the hand.
The prophet Simeon proclaims that this Child will be a “light” for Israel — but that light will endure great suffering and pain before finally shattering the darkness. Luke’s Gospel of the Child Jesus reminds us that the crib is overshadowed by the cross, that this holy birth is the beginning of humankind’s rebirth in the Resurrection.
In baptism, we incorporate our children into the life of the Risen Christ;
within our home, we try to guide them in learning the Gospel values of
compassion, love, forgiveness, justice and peace that we have embraced.
Our celebration of Jesus’ Presentation in the Temple calls us to recommit
ourselves to giving our sons and daughters the best that we have -- our faith
in the God who loves us -- so that they may grow “and become strong, be filled
with wisdom; and the favor of God upon them.”
Anna and Simeon live among us today in our own families and communities and
"temples." They inspire gratitude and teach compassion by the
lessons of their long lives. In the wisdom that comes with age, in the
love and care they extend to us in their grace and joy, in their faith that has
been made strong and unshakable through a lifetime of struggle, the Anna’s and
Simeon’s of our time and place are rays of God’s light shining through all of
our lives, illuminating the way to God's eternal dwelling place.
A childhood memory from an accomplished writer and
preacher:
“I would learn to read in the first grade, I was told as a young child, and I
couldn’t wait to go. As it was, I was dependent on the schedules of the
adults around me for stories, having to wait until there was somebody who could
read to me. I feasted on pictures in fairy-tale books, of course, and
made up stories with my dolls. And we had a television, which had more
stories . . . But my parents and my brothers read happily in silence for
hours. Sometimes you would have to call the boys’ names twice, or even
three times, before you could get them to look up from their books.
Reading was that absorbing. I longed to join the club.
“Somehow I had the impression that I would learn to read that first day, that
learning to read was just a secret that would be imparted to me at the proper
time . . . I didn’t grasp that learning to read was a process. Imagine my
frustration, then, when we began to go over the alphabet and the sounds each
letter signified. That was all very well. ‘But when are we going to
learn to read?’ I asked the teacher as the afternoon wore on. She told me
that this was learning to read, that this is how you started. Oh.
This was the biggest disappointment my short life had yet encountered . . .
“Soon, the thrill of the chase took over. It was fun to sound out the
words on the page, to begin to recognize a whole word, to read and write longer
and longer sentences. But it was work, too. To grow in wisdom
doesn’t just happen to us, while we sit there on our hands folded in our laps
and do nothing. We acquire wisdom. We pursue wisdom. We
follow in her ways.”
[From Let Every Heart Prepare: Meditations for
Advent and Christmas by Barbara Cawthorne Crafton.]
Jesus patently did not see himself as a political and
military leader. Indeed his claims are in striking contrast of the messianic
portrait in the reading from Jeremiah which is the first reading today.
Story:
A famous novelist came back to his home town after many years.
He had pledged to contribute two million dollars for a new hospital. Many of his friends from his school days were invited to a reception for him and his wife. Some of them ignored the invitation. Why only two million, they muttered. He could have paid for the whole hospital with all the money he has. The rest went to the party, but they were not particularly happy about the whole event. Who does this guy think he is?
He’d been a quiet, unobtrusive little guy when he was in school, the kind of person you’d hardly notice. He generally was not invited anywhere. None of the women in his class would have considered dating him if they had been asked, only he never asked. They had heard rumors that his novels were about the town and about them. They believed the rumors of course, but since they hadn’t read any of his books, they didn’t know for sure. He had to find a freshman to take to the senior prom! So he’d made a lot of money on his novels? Why did that make him a big deal? OK give the money for the hospital, but you should have given more with all you have, but don’t show up in town and expect us to cheer for you. You’re not a big deal now and you never were. Nor were they impressed with the beautiful woman he had married. (They had known her as an obnoxious freshman.) Anyone can look beautiful if her husband has a lot of money. She was still cheap despite all their money. They didn’t join the receiving line, because they didn’t want to have to talk to either of them. However, he had the nerve to walk around the room and say hello to everyone and recall incidents from their school days which they never remembered. They tried to be polite but it was very hard. Then they went home and said to their children.
He’s not a big deal. He never was.
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2. Sermons.com: Matthew 5:1-12 - "The True Nature of Happiness"
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Some years ago the Raleigh, North Carolina News &
Observer published an article entitled: "How Do You Measure Up As A Man?
The article stated that some extensive research had been conducted on the 20th
century standards for measuring a man. The criteria were quite interesting and
I thought that I might list them for the men here this morning just to see how
they measure up.
1. His ability to make
and conserve money (That lets me out already).
2. The cost, style and age of his car.
3. (This is my favourite) How much hair he has.
4. His strength and size.
5. The job he holds and how successful he is at it.
6. What sports he likes.
7. How many clubs he belongs to.
8. His aggressiveness and reliability.
Jesus Christ also once set down eight principles for the measure
of a person. His standards stand in stark contrast to the aforementioned. There
would appear to be a wide gulf between the popular image of the successful
person and what God sees as the successful person.
Here's what happened: Jesus had just started his ministry
and was gaining in popularity. Large crowds were gathering. He had just picked
out his disciples. And in the quiet of the rolling grassy hills of northern
Israel by the Sea of Galilee, Jesus delivered a sermon to a multitude. Acres
and acres of human faces. The crowd represented a cross section of humanity...
"Mushers" and people who travel by dog sled over snowy, frozen terrain. "Mushers" have a saying: "If you're not the lead dog, the scenery never changes."
That "Mushers" saying has become a centerpiece doctrine of the leadership literature that has been inundating the corporate and church worlds of the last thirty years. If you are not the "top dog," in other words, no matter how far you travel your journey is just going to be a "tale of tails."
Striving to be "top dog" is the goal we are encouraged to achieve from our earliest childhood to our graduate school education. No one wants to be the "under dog" or the "low dog." Being "on top" means getting the best grades in school, in order to get the best opportunities, the best treatment, the best salary, the bst office, the best seats in the house, the best table, the best of everything everywhere you go. Who could possibly not see the advantages that come with being at the "top" and not the "bottom" of the heap?
In 1897 vision scientist and psychologist George M. Stratton
(1865-1957) created a pair of glasses that turned the world upside down.
Actually, he turned the world right-side-up because our eyes project an image
to our brains that is naturally upside down. Our brains take an image and
invert it - giving us our "right side up" perception of the world.
Stratton strapped on his goggles and proceeded to blunder into things for
several days. In this new, now "upside-down" world, his brain was
seeing liquids "poured up," he saw himself walking on ceilings.
Everything he viewed was completely inverted.
But only for a few days. Our eyes are our cameras, but the
pictures we take with our eyes are developed by our brains. After a few days Stratton
recorded that his most powerful visual organ, his brain, had figured out that
something was amiss. After a few days his brain re-inverted the images it was
receiving, and the world no longer looked upside down to the scientist. His
brain completely flipped the images and presented him with a right-side up
world once again. The process took about three days...
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1. Having Lost All, All Is Found
"Having reached the end of the Beatitudes, we naturally
ask if there is any place on this earth for the community which they describe.
Clearly, there is one place, and only one, and that is where the Poorest,
Meekest, and most sorely Tried of all men is to be found - on the cross at
Golgotha. The community which is the subject of the Beatitudes is the community
of the crucified. With Him it has lost all, and with him it has found
all."
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship
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2. Balance: The Law of Love
Plato once imagined the spiritual journey as a chariot
moving through the wilderness of life, with the soul as the charioteer trying
to rein in two powerful horses: the horse of anger or passion, and the horse of
reason or order. Plato understood that both passion and reason can be
life-giving, but only when they are held in dynamic tension, only when each
power neutralizes the potential destruction of the other. This morning Jesus
tells us that we must balance the passion of anger with the discipline and
reason of love. And he tells us that the law of love can best be fulfilled, not
through rules, but through relationships.
Susan R. Andrews, The Offense Of Grace, CSS Publishing Company, Inc.
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3. The Key to the Beatitudes
The idea of being poor in spirit is the key to all that is
to follow in the Beatitudes. I like the note in the Life Application Bible:
"You cannot mourn without appreciating how insufficient
you are to handle life in your own strength.
You cannot be meek unless you know you have needed
gentleness yourself.
You cannot hunger and thirst for righteousness if you
proudly think of yourself as already righteous.
You cannot be merciful without recognizing your own need for
mercy.
You cannot be pure in heart if your heart is full of pride.
You cannot be a peacemaker if you believe that you are
always right.
You cannot identify with Christ in the face of negative
reactions from others without dying to yourself and renouncing your own
rights."
All of these beatitudes are rooted in humility, being poor
in spirit.
Owen Stepp, Unlikely Blessings
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4. God Shows Through
One Sunday as they drove home from church, a little girl turned to her mother and said, "Mommy, there's something about the preacher's message this morning that I don't understand." The mother said, "Oh? What is it?" The little girl replied, "Well, he said that God is bigger than we are. He said God is so big that He could hold the whole world in His hand. Is that true?" The mother replied, "Yes, that's true, honey." "But Mommy, he also said that God comes to live inside of us when we believe in Jesus as our Savior. Is that true, too?" Again, the mother assured the little girl that what the pastor had said was true. With a puzzled look on her face the little girl then asked, "If God is bigger than us and He lives in us, wouldn't He show through?"
That is what the beatitudes are about - God showing through.
Jerry Shirley, When God Shows Through
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5. God Means Everything
"Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the
kingdom of heaven."
William Barclay says this verse means, "Blessed is the
man who has realized his own utter helplessness, and who has put his whole
trust in God. If a man has realized his own utter helplessness, and has put his
whole trust in God, there will enter into his life two things....
He will become completely detached from things, for he will
know that things have not got it in them to bring happiness or security; and he
will become completely attached to God, for he will know that God alone can
bring him help, and hope, and strength.
The man who is poor in spirit is the man who has realized
that things mean nothing, and that God means everything."
Mickey Anders, The Beatitudes Are Not Platitudes!
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6. "Best All
Around"
Similarly, if you could make the Beatitudes as a sort of
checklist for Christians, they could see the areas they need to improve in.
Perhaps if they could check all of the Beatitudes off the list, they might
qualify as a sort of "Best All Around" Christian, a great inspiration
and role model.
Jim Forest, The Ladder of the Beatitudes
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7. Better than Average
while back, I read that 85% of all drivers in America consider themselves "above-average" drivers. Of course, this cannot be true: By definition, I believe only 49% of drivers are above average. However, the survey gives us an insight into human nature: People generally view themselves as better than others. And if they are better than others, then they are doing a good enough job.
This transfers over into religion far more than we are
aware, and it becomes apparent in how these Beatitudes are taught. Often one
will hear, "The message of the Beatitudes is that, if I do these things
well enough, then I will be happy. If I am good enough at these things, then I
will be blessed." It's a human standard of measure: "If I am better
at this than average, then I'm in good shape." But does this work for
sainthood?
Tim Pauls, What It Takes to Be a Saint
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8. You Can't Make It "By The Book"
A small parable: Once upon a time, there was a company who
had two junior executives. One did everything by the book, was diligent and
trustworthy, always made sure he was covered and, since he always went by the
book, rarely made mistakes. The other also was a hard and diligent worker, but
he often tested the rules, sometimes received some criticism, and sometimes
made mistakes. One day an opening came up for a senior executive position, and
the owner of the company promoted the one who made mistakes over the other. Of
course Mr. "By the Book" was enraged and asked his boss why - after
all, he had a better record, didn't he? He NEVER made mistakes. He ALWAYS
followed the book. To which his boss replied, "Yes, but what will you do
someday when something comes up that isn't covered by the book. You know the
rules, but he knows what we are doing here, and why we are here. He UNDERSTANDS
the company. And that's why he was promoted over you."
How do we obtain God's blessing? Well, the answer, of
course, is that it's not something we obtain - it's not for sale. It's
something he has already freely given to you, but which you can only recognize
when you accept it as a gift, and live in it.
Gary Roth, All of God's Blessings
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9. Healthy Are the Poor in Spirit
Some years ago a panel of doctors was appointed by the
Federal government to meet together and draw up eight laws of public health
that could be printed in pamphlet Form and distributed to the public. After
twelve days off exhaustive meetings, the doctors were unable to come to a
consensus. It seems that their areas of concern were so diverse: one was a
cancer specialist, one a cardiologist, one a psychiatrist, and they all
approached the problem from their own discipline. The chest expert was
concerned about coal dust from the mines and lint from textile mills, while the
psychiatrist was concerned about the effects off urban stress. Finally, Dr.
Harold Sladen offered Hospital in Detroit came up with an appropriate idea. He
said: Let's just republish the eight beatitudes of Jesus and simply replace the
word "Blessed" with the words "healthy."
Staff, Sermons.com
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10. Blessed Are the Cheese Makers
Here is the infamous bit from Monty Pythons "Life of
Brian." All great humor must have one essential element: Truth. This bit
certainly has that. Jesus' words when misunderstood has led to some pretty
fantastic conclusions. And so, this is dedicated to all those knuckle headed
interpretations throughout the years. There are two main characters in the bit
who are called Trouble and Bignose. They are at the back of the crowd when
Jesus is giving the Sermon On The Mount:
Trouble: Well go and talk to him somewhere else... I can't
hear a bloody thing.
Bignose: Don't you swear at my wife.
Trouble: I was only asking her to shut up so I could hear
what he was saying, Bignose.
Bignose wife: Don't you call my husband Bignose.
Trouble: Well he has got a big nose.
Jew: Could you be quite, please. What was that?
Trouble: I don't know... I was too busy talking to Bignose.
Man: I think it was 'Blessed are the cheese-makers'...
****
From Fr. Tony Kadavil:
1: “Would you hold my baby for me, please?” Years ago, a young man was riding a bus from Chicago to Miami. He had a stop-over in Atlanta. While he was sitting at the lunch counter, a woman came out of the ladies’ restroom carrying a tiny baby. She walked up to this man and asked, “Would you hold my baby for me? I left my purse in the restroom.” He did. But as the woman neared the front door of the bus station, she darted out into the crowded street and was immediately lost in the crowd. This guy couldn’t believe his eyes. He rushed to the door to call the woman but couldn’t see her anywhere. Now what should he do? Put the baby down and run? When calmness finally settled in, he went to the Traveler’s Aid booth and together with the local police, they soon found the real mother. You see, the woman who’d left him holding the baby wasn’t the baby’s real mother. She’d taken the child. Maybe it was to satisfy some motherly urge to hold a child or something else. No one really knows. But we do know that this man breathed a sigh of relief when the real mother was found. After all, what was he going to do with a baby? In a way, each of us, is in the same sort of situation as this young man. Every Christmas God Himself walks up to us and asks, “Would you hold My Baby for Me, please?” and then thrusts the Christ Child into our arms. And we’re left with the question, “What are we going to do with this Baby?” But an even deeper question is just, “Who is this Baby?” If we look at Scripture, we find all kinds of titles and names for this Baby we hold in our arms: Emmanuel, “God-with-us;” Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace, Christ the King, Jesus. In today’s Gospel describing the presentation ceremony, Simeon asks Mary the question: “Can I hold your Baby for a few minutes, please?” (Rev. King Duncan).
The pig grunted. “For you,” he said, “a plate of ham and eggs is just a cackle,
it’s all in a day’s work for you, but for me it’s the supreme sacrifice of my
life.”
Lord Jesus, as an infant You were brought to the temple by Your parents out of religious duty. Help all parents to take their duties to God seriously, to inculcate their faith in the next generation by their words and by their actions, so that the faith will be handed on where the faith is first learned—in the family and in the home.
12 Additional anecdotes
We are all familiar with Mother’s Day and Father’s Day which
we celebrate every year. Why is there not a Parents’ Day where we celebrate
father and mother together as a couple? Today should be a good day to focus on
both parents together, as we see both parents of Jesus, Joseph and Mary,
together make the long journey to Jerusalem to present their firstborn Child in
the Temple as the law of God required. In the image of Joseph and Mary presenting
Jesus in the Temple, we have a wonderful model of husband and wife united in
practicing the faith and in raising their child in the faith. (Fr. Munacci).
7) Bundle of parents’ dreams: Every day, new parents bring their precious bundle home from its birthing place, convinced that their child is the most precious baby in the world, and they begin imaging all the great things this child will accomplish. As they share their dreams for their child with family and friends, there is always someone ready to throw cold water on their expectations. One couple recounting this experience when they had their first child spoke of how indignant they became when anyone would suggest that, first of all, the child would someday make an independent decision about life choices and in addition to that, there undoubtedly would be limitations to what the child might accomplish. Then one day a visiting friend raved about how wonderful the baby was and how lucky they were to have this precious bundle. The friend then offered them this bit of advice, “Love your child with all your heart and soul and present him or her to God every day, asking His blessings. Give the child encouragement in whatever interests he displays. If you do that, you will know that you have been good parents. But if you try to live out your dreams through what you child does, through what he accomplishes, you will only be frustrated when your child makes his or her own life choices, especially if they are not the ones you had hoped to see.”
8) “I know that you know Someone Else is taking care
of me”: Bruce and Darlene Marie Wilkinson in their book The Dream
Giver for Parents tell about a teenager who noticed that his father
worried himself nearly to death, trying unsuccessfully to be everywhere and do
everything to protect his child from life’s difficulties. This young man wrote
his father the following note: “I am sure you remember, Dad, how you used to
tell me stories when I was young and was afraid or insecure. Well, I have
noticed that you are often worried about what might become of me when you’re
not there to help. Now I want to remind you of one of the stories we read
together when I was little. It’s the story of the rooster who got up before dawn
every day to sit on the roof of the farmhouse and crow so that the sun would
rise. Because that’s what he really believed: that it was his responsibility to
make the sun come up. He was always afraid that if he didn’t crow, everything
would go wrong. He kept worrying: “What would happen if I fell ill, or even
died? How would the crops grow, and the children wake up in time for school,
and the frost melt, and the flowers blossom if I weren’t there to make the sun
rise? The world would become cold and dark; all the grass and the trees would
die and the people too eventually . . .” Then one evening, Rooster attended a
party and overslept the next morning. The other animals realized that he was
not there to make the sun come up and were just about to panic when they saw a
glimmer of light on the horizon . . . It was the sun rising without Rooster!
Rooster was miserable when he found out that he had nothing to do with the
sun’s rising every morning. And embarrassed! But he was also extremely
relieved. “What a weight off my shoulders,” he thought, “that I don’t have to I
can’t make the sun come up! Yet, every morning, there it is. There must be
Someone Else taking care of all this.”
Dad, you light up my life, but it really isn’t your responsibility to “make the sun rise for me.” I know that you know Someone Else is taking care of me. (Sisters, OR: Multnomah, 2004), pp. 102-103) That was a lesson that Mary and Joseph had to learn. And it’s a lesson I hope you and I have learned as well. God will take care of those we love, and God will take care of us. Mary and Joseph went on with their lives following Christmas, and so shall we. They faced life’s many challenges, but they did it with love and with faith in God. It was not easy, but they knew God was with them, just as God is with us. It’s good to know. Indeed, it’s the best Good News in the world.
9) “And what exactly would that be?” There
was a fascinating conversation on Rush Limbaugh’s talk show a while back.
Having just completed Tom Brokaw’s wonderful book, The Greatest
Generation, a book filled with inspiring stories of the WWII generation,
Rush had taken the position that the current generation of young adults, those
in their 20’s, are, for the most part, a bunch of whiners. He said that while
they are constantly whining and moaning about the difficulty of their lives in
fact, when compared to the hardships faced by their grandparents’ generation,
they’ve actually got it easy. Their grandparents had endured truly devastating
events like The Great Depression and WWII. The current crop of young adults, he
concluded, doesn’t even have a clue about real hardship.
Once Rush had finished his monologue, a self-professed member of this younger
generation of adults called in to offer a different perspective. Bright and
extremely articulate, the 23 year-old caller said that, while The Great
Depression and WWII certainly created terrible hardships for the people who
faced them that he, nonetheless, believed his generation faced an even greater
hardship.
Limbaugh asked, “And what exactly would that be?” The caller said, “The loss of
hope.” He said that his experience indicated that many of today’s young adults
had simply stopped believing that things were going to get better. They didn’t
expect to live as well as their parents had lived. They weren’t expecting a
brighter future. They have simply given up hope. Most of those in his
generation, he said, can’t imagine anything worth dying for…and they’re
committing suicide in record numbers because many can’t imagine anything worth
living for.” Christ’s presence in our lives is as full now as it was for
Simeon. The Christ of Christmas brings hope and so much more.
10) “Witnessed by Sandy MacTavish.” Sandy MacTavish was one of the town drunks in a small village in Scotland. The local preacher had tried for years without success to get Sandy to go “on the wagon.” In a last ditch effort, the parson called a meeting at the church of everyone in town who had trouble with alcohol. He was delighted when he saw Sandy MacTavish show up and sit in the back pew. He was so inspired that he delivered the most eloquent sermon of his entire career, telling about the evils of drink and the harmful effects it had on both body and soul. At the end of the sermon, he announced that he was sending around a piece of paper that he wanted people to sign pledging that they would give up drinking. As he watched the list circulate, everyone signed it including Sandy MacTavish. After the service, he was so excited that he snatched up the list without looking at it and ran home to tell his wife about his victory. He unrolled the list before her eyes and sure enough, written across the bottom were the words, “witnessed by Sandy MacTavish.” Let Simeon and Anna who witnessed to the Messiah as a Baby, shape your response to the good news of God’s love shown to us in Bethlehem. It is what needs to happen once Christmas is over!
11) “Don’t be in a hurry; the teachings of Christ
take time to come to earth.”
In the early ’60s, at the height of the civil rights movement,
a group of white ministers issued a public statement urging Dr. Martin Luther
King, in the name of the Christian faith, to be more patient in his quest for
justice and to relax the relentless struggle for civil rights. King’s response
came in the form of the famous “Letter from Birmingham Jail.” In the letter,
King indicated that he had received similar requests for delay, indeed, that he
had just gotten a letter from a “white brother in Texas” who wrote, “… It is
possible you are in too great a religious hurry … The teachings of Christ take
time to come to earth.” Dr. King replied that such an attitude stemmed from a
sad misunderstanding of time, the notion that time itself cures all ills. Time,
King argued, could be used for good or for evil. Human progress, he said, is
not inevitable, but rather …
… it comes through the tireless efforts of men willing to be co-workers with
God, and without this hard work, time itself becomes an ally of the forces of
social stagnation. We must use time creatively, in the knowledge that the time
is always ripe to do right. King knew that complete justice must await the
coming of God. That was the theme of his final sermon in which he proclaimed,
“I’ve been to the mountaintop. I’ve seen the promised land.” But he was persuaded
that while we wait, “the time is always ripe to do right” [Martin Luther King,
Jr., “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” in Why We Can’t Wait (New
York: Harper and Row, 1964), p. 89.] Simeon and Anna were also waiting for God
to come, but they were not passive in their waiting. Simeon was full of
devotion and did what was just. Anna kept the lights burning at the Temple with
her ceaseless worship. They waited, but, while they waited, they did what they
could.
12) Barbicide: There is an amusing true story about a man named Maurice King. Maurice became displeased with his barber. His barber was not particularly adept with a razor. Rarely would Maurice leave this barber’s shop without a new collection of nicks and scratches. Even more disturbing, Maurice became a little concerned that his barber’s tools weren’t as sanitary as they could be. So he invented a germ-killing blue liquid that he began marketing to barber shops and hair salons. Even today, you walk into any salon or barber shop and you’ll see glass jars of this pale blue liquid on the counters. It’s used for soaking razors, scissors, combs and other equipment. What’s the name of this blue liquid? Barbicide. The name is a little inside joke thought up by Maurice King after a particularly bad trip to the barber. I say it’s an inside joke because the word Barbicide means “kill the barber.” Look for it at your favorite barber shop or hair salon. As foretold by Simeon, Mary and Joseph didn’t escape life’s nicks and scratches. Neither did Jesus. Jesus was a child like any other child, and as such he surely had his bumps and bruises growing up. Mary was likely in her late forties when she experienced the unspeakable tragedy of watching her son die an excruciating death on the cross of Calvary. You think you hurt. Imagine how she hurt. “A sword will pierce your soul.” Life can be very cruel even to the best of people. Can people ever get any better than the Holy Family of Nazareth — Mary, Joseph and Jesus? And yet they had difficult lives.
