For the past several weeks we have been hearing stories about Jesus as an adult, his baptism, the beginning of his ministry, and the calling of his disciples. But our Gospel today takes us back to Christmas. It takes us back to his infancy when he was just forty days old. In some traditions, today is the end of Christmas. They have been singing Christmas carols, and have kept their decorations up until today because, as you heard at the end of the Gospel reading, today is the day Mary and Joseph went to the temple and then returned to Nazareth. This whole time they have been in Bethlehem, and some traditions celebrate that. It is not our tradition here because we have put that all aside after the Epiphany and have focused instead on the early years of Jesus’s ministry. But today we go back to his infancy. It might help us, as we hear the story, to get back into the Christmas mindset when we hear how Jesus was taken to the temple by his parents and is presented. We hear all the interesting details about that: they did what was customary under the law and offered a sacrifice of two turtledoves or two pigeons. This is an interesting detail, because it means they didn’t have quite enough money to get the lamb, but could only afford the bird offering.
While they were at the Temple, this really remarkable event happens. They meet two people, Simeon and Anna, who each have their own epiphany. We have been talking about epiphanies for weeks. An epiphany is a time when people encounter Jesus and encounter the Holy and Divine within Him. Today we hear of the epiphanies of Simeon and Anna and their experiences with Jesus. We hear Simeon’s story first. We hear that God had promised him he would not die until he had met the Messiah. As soon as Jesus comes in, Simeon recognized him as the one he had been waiting for: “Lord, you have now set your servant free to go in peace as you have promised. For these eyes of mine have seen the Savior whom you have prepared for all the world to see, a light to enlighten the nations and the glory of your people Israel.” These are the beautiful words we pray every night at Compline.
Anna’s story is that she has been a widow for many years. She is a prophet, and spends all of her time at the Temple. Unfortunately, we don’t have her words when she encounters Jesus, you might be able to figure out why that might be, but we do know that she is filled with joy and proclaimed to everybody what she had experienced.
With both of these stories, I am struck that when Simeon and Anna had their epiphanies, they did not keep it to themselves. You can easily imagine Simeon who had a promise, waited for this moment, and finally had the experience of meeting Jesus. He could have then said my life is complete and I shall go rest. But instead he proclaims it, and shares it with people. The same is true of Anna: she had the experience and could have kept it to herself, but she also shares it with people.
I think that sharing experiences of God in our lives with other people is one of the hardest things for us to do. Thank God we have the stories of Simeon and Anna today because they were willing to tell people, who then passed it along. Generations later, their stories eventually got written down so we have them today. The reality of faith is that it gets passed along. We have faith today because other people shared with us their experiences of God at work in the lives. Not just Simeon and Anna, but God continues to be at work in this world, people continue to have their epiphanies, and they continue to share them. All those stories then become a part of our faith story, as well. It nourishes us, it teaches us, we learn from it only because someone is willing to share it.
I want to do something rather unusual right now. I want you to think about who it was that shared the faith with you. I’m going to set a timer. You have one minute.
Who shared their faith with you? Thank that person. Offer a prayer thanking God for that person who shared their faith with you. If they are alive, consider thanking them by giving them a call or writing them a letter. They are part of your story. They are part of the reason that you are here today.
Who have we shared our faith with? If someone was willing to share it with us, who are we willing to share it with? My challenge for you this week is to think about that question. Who have you shared the faith with? Who do you need to share the faith with? As I was spending the minute thinking about who shared their faith with me, one thing that really struck me is that each one of their stories is a light in my life. Who in your life needs to hear the story that might be a light in the darkness for them? If you want to push it one more step farther, don’t think about who it is, but share your story with them.
AMEN
