Preaching Helps: First Sunday of Advent-Transfiguration of Our Lord, series B

If we're fastidious about delaying the singing of Christmas carols until Christmas has arrived, now is the time to bring them all out in this all-too-brief season of rejoicing.

Pastoral Reflections

Luke 2 points the way for our rejoicing in preserving for the church both the poignant story and precious song contained in these few verses that flesh out what St. Paul referred to in the closest thing to a Christmas narrative he ever wrote: "When the fullness of time had come, God sent the 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" (Gal 4:4-5). Fidelity to what it meant to "be born under the law" is what led Mary and Joseph to bring their infant son Jesus up to the temple in Jerusalem "to present him to the Lord" according to the "law," a reference Luke considers sufficiently important to mention five times.

The Song of Simeon (Nunc Dimittis) is the third of the poetic songs or canticles that Luke has included in the first two chapters of his Gospel. Each has found a home in the various liturgies of the church. This one is included in Compline (Prayer at the Close of the Day) and in the order for the Burial of the Dead. It is also given as an optional post-communion canticle in the order for Holy Communion. I remember years ago a friend receiving a Christmas card from the noted church historian and biographer of Luther, Roland Bainton, who was also known as an inveterate caricaturist (I have a couple he once did of me that are far from flattering!). Bainton had sketched a drawing of Simeon holding the baby Jesus in his arms, and then wrote: "Simeon, the aged, held the baby Jesus, one would assume, for less than a quarter of an hour. Yet he could say that he had seen a light for revelation." Bainton went on: "Life is so full of brief encounters. Some of you, my friends, once close, I have not seen for all of sixty years. But the impact is not to be measured in length of days. Cherished memories and annual greetings are an inalienable blessing."

How much poorer the church would be if St. Luke had not included this little lyrically recounted tale of Joseph's and Mary's intentions to do "everything required by the law of the Lord" (v. 39a) and of the role of the faithful attendance on their actions by two ancient yet contemporary prophets of their faith, Simeon and Anna. Find a way--there are so many congregational and choral settings available-- to join in singing Simeon's Song on this day and throughout the church year. Tillis Butler's and James Harris's "Now, Lord, You Let Your Servant Go in Peace" from the Detroit Folk Mass, now available at WOV#624, is a beautifully bluesy setting easily sung by all.

John Rollefson

The Holy Innocents, Martyrs

December 28, 2002

Psalm 124

Jeremiah 31:15-17

1 Peter 4:12-19

Matthew 2:13-18

Simeon's prophetic warning to Mary about Jesus' destiny and his puzzling but ominous words that "a sword will pierce your own soul too" are reminders that even in this season of celebration, presentiments of a theology of the cross are present. The story of the Bethlehem infant and toddler boys slain by Herod's soldiers and the attendant texts appointed for this annual commemoration presents an opportunity to reflect on the "menacing of Christmas" that continues in our and every culture. The slaughter and abuse of the young has continued from Herod's day to our own. It's a time to "get real" about Christmas and, amid our rejoicing, set aside our sentimentalizing of Jesus' birth in favor of taking up our calling to join the angels' song of "peace, good will" amid a world that can be expected to wreak violence in the wake of such a challenge to the status quo.