Prelude to Glory - December 27, 2015

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Luke 2: 22-40

Worship is never more glorious than on Christmas Eve. Just three nights ago we gathered in a sanctuary softened by the glow of candles and yet brightened with masses of poinsettias. "Glory to God in the highest heaven," we sang and the bells rang. The story of Jesus' birth as told by the Gospel of Luke was the first Scripture I ever heard and for many years it was the only Scripture I knew. It remains one of my favorite texts. Truly Christmas is a glorious time.
Though the season of Advent which leads up to Christmas is a penitential season, it has its own glory. Again, the music is especially beautiful. We lit our Advent candles this year with songs of faith sung by groups or individuals in the Bible who figure in some significant way in Jesus' birth. Especially as we got close to Christmas we sang beloved carols.

We are blessed to live in a community with a wealth of so many glorious opportunities no one can possibly get to them all. How many of you attended the Palouse Choral Societies' performance of Handel's Messiah? The Washington-Idaho symphony? The Christmas Carol with our own Daniel Haley as Scrooge? The UI Holiday Concert in the Kibbie Dome with the Alpine Carillons Bell Choir playing? Each of them proclaimed the message of Christmas in some special way.
The Sunday after Christmas is a bit of a let down after the glory and wonder of all those events. Only the faithful few come to worship today. Many of the poinsettias have already gone home with their donors. We won't light candles to hold up in the dark. This year is an even more poignant time because after 26 years of dedicated service, today is TC's last Sunday as our music director – and with him goes his equally faithful partner Denise. They will still be a part of our church but they are bowing out of their leadership roles. It truly is the end of an era.
It seems then that today's song of faith is a postlude, like the little song at the end of worship which so often gets ignored as people put on their coats or kids run down to coffee hour like a swarm of locusts. Many people know "Gloria in excelsis deo" as sung by the angels on Christmas Eve. Lots of us know the Magnificat which Mary sang when the angel told her she was to give birth to Jesus. But how many know about the old man Simeon who blessed the baby when Mary and Joseph brought him in to the temple when he was forty days old? Even less well known is the old widow Anna who also showed up at the temple.
Simeon was righteous and devout. All his life he had waited for God to send the Messiah, the person who would deliver Israel from their troubles. All his life he had been led by the Holy Spirit and this day was no different. Guided by the Spirit he entered the temple and there saw a young couple with a six week old baby.
It was likely a familiar enough sight. Hebrew women were to offer a sacrifice for purification after child birth, so many couples came to the temple. The better off ones would have sacrificed a lamb. The poor ones, like this couple, offered two turtle doves. Somehow Simeon recognized that this little family was special. Guided by the Spirit he went to them and took the baby in his arms, and praised God and sang, "now you are dismissing your servant in peace," the one big item left on his bucket list now at last checked off. "Now you are dismissing," can also mean, "release me from my vigil." In this child Simeon saw the start of a new order which would shake the world powers. "My eyes have seen your salvation," he sang. His job was done. He could die in peace.
Simeon also offered to Mary a prophecy which must have both warmed her heart and terrified her. "This child is destined for the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be opposed so that the inner thoughts of many will be revealed – and a sword will pierce your own soul too."
I have had the joy of visiting many new babies and their parents – and these are not words I would say to them. "A sword will pierce your soul." Not much of a blessing. Simeon saw the trajectory Jesus' life would take. The fall and the rise. Note the order. He told the disciples, "Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth it remains alone, but if it dies it bears much fruit." Jesus suffered and died and only then was he raised to glory. In the tiny baby just starting to smile Simeon saw what was to come.
And then there was old Anna. Her Hebrew name is Hannah, the name of the woman who had prayed in the temple for a child, and after years of infertility gave birth to the prophet Samuel. Hannah's voice echoed in the widow at the temple. She recognized that God was doing something new to fulfill the age old promises.
Some postlude these two old people sang. Real music lovers stay seated after the benediction to listen to the postlude because they want to really hear its beauty. The rest of us miss out when we rush out the door, or launch into conversation with a friend.
On this Sunday after Christmas, Simeon and Anna's postlude is actually a prelude to glory. This day is not a blank space between Christmas and New Year's. Simeon sang, "My eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your people Israel." Anna too began "to speak about the child to all who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem." They both recognized the link between the redemption not just of the Hebrew people but of all nations and the glory of Christ. The rest of the New Testament tells how the earliest Christians realized that Christianity was not an adaptation of Judaism but a brand new thing. The church grew as it took the message of Christ to Gentiles, to people not like them. A major turning point in the history of the church came in the fifteenth chapter of Acts when the church leaders stopped requiring people to become Jewish, bound by Jewish customs, in order to be Christian. They realized that Jesus was a light for revelation to the Gentiles.
So you see, this Sunday after Christmas is only a start of the glory to come. Our faith doesn't end at the manger: it grows from there. Like Anna we are sent out today to speak about Jesus to anyone who is looking for hope in this sad old world of ours. Maybe they are the people standing in line at the service desk in the store, trying to return a gift that, quite frankly, was a disappointment. Or maybe the folks in the line at the food bank who never did share in the bounty of this season. Ask yourself, who it is right here in Moscow who needs hope? They are the ones who need you to tell them about Jesus.
As the song says, "This is a day of new beginnings." Hard as it is for us to celebrate Tom and Denise's retirement, we are filled with thanks for all they have done over the years: building the hand bell program from scratch; so much glorious music in anthems and cantatas; the remodel of so much of this building and more. Let us note: Tom is retiring, not going away. This is not his funeral – this is a retirement celebration. Tom and Denise will still be around, though not tied down to being here every Wednesday and Thursday night and Sundays from 9:30 in the morning to 1:00 in the afternoon. This is a new beginning for them.
And it is a new beginning for us. We have the opportunity to grow in new ways that will unfold before us. We have the chance to take our music and our ministry to people who long to hear the good news of Christ. Today truly is a prelude to glory.