The Shepherd’s Voice

A fire started on some grasslands on a farm near a barn. The county fire department was called to put out the fire, but the fire was more than the county fire department could handle. They called a nearby volunteer group.

The volunteers arrived in a dilapidated old fire truck. They rumbled straight towards the fire, drove right into the middle of the flames and stopped! The firemen jumped off the truck and frantically started spraying water in all directions. They very quickly snuffed out the center of the fire, breaking the blaze into two easily-controlled parts.

Watching all this, the farmer was so impressed with the volunteer fire department’s work and was so grateful that his farm had been spared, that right there on the spot he presented the volunteers with a check for $1,000. A local news reporter asked the volunteer fire captain what the department planned to do with the funds.

“That ought to be obvious,” the Captain responded, wiping ashes off his coat.
“The first thing we’re gonna do is get those brakes fixed on our truck!”

Sometimes I feel this way about the Christmas season. We get so carried away putting out all the fires associated with Christmas buying presents, decorating the house, buying a tree, and when it’s over we wish we had put the brakes on so we could have approached Christmas more thoughtfully. How can we extend the Spirit of Christmas in our lives?

Don’t you experience a little let down as you watch your Christmas tree get brittle and deteriorate? We’ve tried lots of things in our Christmas tree. We put sugar in the water, then we would try solutions given to us at the lot, but regardless of the mix of solutions the tree would always wither and die. Why, because it had been cut off from its roots.

May that be our problem today? Maybe we have trouble making Christmas last because we have become cut off from our roots. Or, to put it another way, maybe our celebration of Christmas is not deeply rooted enough in the message of hope.

Did the birth of a baby light a spark of hope in your heart only to have it be put out with all the trappings of the season? Don’t get me wrong much of what we do around Christmas with family and friends is good, but is that what Christmas is really all about for you?

In our Gospel text we see Simeon, an old man, filled with anticipation for the coming of a Messiah. Simeon believes he will not see death until he sees the Messiah first hand. V26 Simeon anticipated the coming of a Messiah much like we anticipate Christmas. It says Simeon was guided by the Spirit. Are the things we do in this life guided by the Spirit?

When Simeon saw the parents and the baby Jesus who had been brought to the temple for the right of their purification, that is of Mary and the baby, Simeon took the baby in his arms and praised God.

There are two very important points need to be made here.
1. Simeon embraced the baby in his arms. Have you fully embraced the baby Jesus in your arms? Has Christmas once again allowed you to see that this season is all about new birth? Not only for you, but for relationships in the family of God, which are born out of anticipation and love for our Creator and Redeemer? For Simeon it was a pivotal event in his life. Christmas should be a pivotal event in our lives. In order for Christmas to last the roots of Christmas must be allowed to burrow deep into our hearts. If we are cut off from God the source of all life, the Spirit of the Messiah’s birth cannot take root nor grow. So embrace the baby, hang on to God’s Spirit in your life, and allow your spirit to marinate in the sauce of the season.
2. Secondly, acknowledge what Simeon acknowledged. Simeon said 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.” We sang the Canticle of Turning last Sunday, which was all about recognizing the world is about to turn or experience change. Simeon tells us that salvation has come in the form of a Messiah and this is for all people. It will enlighten not only Israel, but the Gentiles, meaning all non-Jews. This was breakthrough stuff at that time and it still is today.

When I contemplate the question where’s the fire I’m not only concerned with the speed at which the season passes, but I’m concerned about WHERE is the fire in your soul, the fire in your belly that translates into passion or zeal for Christ?

Simeon said, “My eyes have seen your salvation.” This was something he was anticipating and the fulfillment reached a crescendo with the birth of Christ. Check your own spiritual temperature; do you have a burning desire to tell others about Christ? If not why not?

Has your spiritual experience been more of a flash in the pan than a long cooking roast that fills the air with the sweet aroma of salvation for all?

Paul Tillich a famous Lutheran pastor and theologian says:

“There is something surprising, unexpected about the appearance of salvation, something which contradicts pious opinions and intellectual demands. The mystery of salvation is the mystery of a child. A child is real, and not yet real, it is in history and not yet historical. It’s nature is visible and yet invisible, it is here and not yet here….. Salvation has the nature of a child.”

We are all promised salvation as Christians. There is salvation in no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. (Acts 4:12) One of the primary battle cry’s of the Reformation was that we are saved by grace through faith. As Lutherans we understand the significance of faith taking root from God’s act of love in sending a Savior, the baby Jesus.

Our Gospel lesson today is really a story about life. We’re born, we are under the law, subject to the law, we see God’s salvation being offered with our own eyes or through witnesses and we are put on a path to life or destruction. Which path are you on today?
Simeon kept moving forward, anticipating a happening, an event. He was told him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Messiah. Simeon’s life was fed with this anticipation which captured his soul and imagination. How would it happen … and when? I’m sure he dreamed of that historic and glorious moment when God would reveal himself.

We all know that without dream tissue in our thought-life, living deteriorates into mere existence. There must be new horizons that beckon, new visions that feed the soul for without vision or hope, life becomes dull and we become people who perish in our own pain.
If we also examine the prophet Anna, at 84, we see something in her that is very noteworthy. Scripture says she worshiped and fasted night and day. Obviously she had staying power. She showed great vitality as it says, “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.

Not all of us have such energy to follow Christ no matter what, but you can see age is not a deterrent to vitality. Vitality is a function of the soul, the spirit of a person.

There was a fellow who wanted this kind of vitality of the soul and he was told join this monastery and take a vow of silence, this will give you peace and long term vitality of spirit: While on the quest he’s allowed only two words every 7 years so he enters the monastery.
After the first seven years, the priests bring him in and ask for his two words.
“Bed Hard,” he says. They nod and send him away.
Seven more years pass. They bring him back in and ask for his two words.
He clears his throats and says, “Food Bad.”
They nod and send him away. Seven more years pass. They bring him in for his next 2 words.
“I quit,” he says. One priest standing near by looks at the other one and says -
That doesn’t surprise me, I knew he’d never last he’s done nothing but complain since he got here.”

Do you have the staying power necessary to make Christmas last in your home, in your family, and in your heart? Do you have the fire in your belly so you can talk about the child born on Christmas like Anna the prophet?
Jesus came so that we could know a new way to live. Our reading from the letter to the Galatians says, “But when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, in order to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as children.” God has made us heirs to the kingdom.
Heirs are what? They are important, they receive inheritance, they are God’s own children, and because of this “God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!”
You are important to God. Simeon and Anna had roots that anchored their faith and as a result they expressed joy over the birth of the Messiah and their spirit bloomed with freshness.
We have some roses that have been growing in our backyard for many years. These roses grow really well when they are trimmed and fed. God makes them grow and they show off their beauty to the whole world.

As God trims and feeds you, grow well and bloom this coming New Year. Amen