Consolation - Psalm 148, Luke 2:22-38
Sometimes there is a moment, a point in time,
where all the elements are present and things click into place.
Maybe it’s the moment you first lay eyes on someone –
and – click – you know, you just know this is the person you will marry.
Or maybe it’s the split second you complete a project, do something really well,
and – click – you realize this is my calling,
this is what I will do with my life.
You can’t predict this kind of moment. It just happens.
You could chalk it up to mere coincidence,
but if you are sensitive to the idea of God’s Spirit working in you,
if you do believe that you are part of something bigger than yourself,
then these moments of sudden awareness
are nothing less than God working God’s purpose out – in you and in me.
Simeon and Anna are two of those characters in the Scriptures
who take up little space in the story,
but the brief references we have to them make me want to know more.
Simeon, we’re told, had come to the realization through God’s Spirit
that he would not die before he saw the Lord’s Messiah.
Is that something he would keep to himself, I wonder?
Or is it the kind of thing he would tell over and over –
until all his friends had heard it a hundred times.
Can’t you see him at the Men’s Lunch on Thursdays waiting for an opportunity
to slip into conversation yet again how the Holy Spirit had revealed to him
that he would see the Savior before he died.
We all have our favorite stories, why should he be any different?
And Anna…what was she like?
Married seven years and a widow for eighty-four.
Did she still wear her wedding ring?
Was she literally in the temple every time the doors opened?
Did she have a daughter who tried to get her interested in other things -
Going to yard sales? Playing Canasta?
We tend to attribute supernatural abilities to people we find in the Bible,
imagining them to be more alert to God’s plans than we could ever be.
They’re in the Bible, after all!
But could it be that Simeon and Anna’s ability to see in Jesus something extraordinary
had to do not so much with extra special supernatural powers
but simply with their WILLINGNESS to see?
Their DESIRE to see?
Something clicked into place for Simeon and Anna when they saw Mary and Joseph
offering their sacrifices in the temple,
lifting up their son, their first born, to dedicate him to God
Was it because they had some kind of divine ESP?
Could it be that they recognized God’s savior
because they EXPECTED to see God’s savior?
Simeon and Anna both lived in a state of expectation.
They knew the story of God’s covenant with God’s people inside and out
and they knew God wasn’t finished yet.
As it was, Simeon and Anna didn’t have it so bad as Jews living in Jerusalem.
The Roman presence was annoying
but they had free access to the temple.
And, let’s face it, they were old.
Simeon may have been as old as 53!
What difference did it make to them if Israel ever found her consolation?
What did it matter to them if God’s Messiah ever came?
But it DID matter because Simeon and Anna saw themselves, they saw their lives,
not as individual tracks running parallel
but as part of a complex web of relationships reaching back into the past,
back to Abraham and Sarah
and reaching forward into the future,
forward to a time when there would be no artificial barriers
separating any of God’s children,
forward to a time when both Jews and Gentiles
would worship God together.
They knew they would never see the end of Salvation history
BUT they expected to see God’s hand at work – day by day,
and they expected to be part of the process.
Mary and Joseph brought Jesus into the temple
and for both Simeon and Anna there was this moment where it all clicked,
a moment where it all came together and they knew
there was something special there in their midst.
Luke says they recognized something special in Jesus,
and that’s part of it, sure, but I wonder….
I wonder if they didn’t also recognize something special about Mary and Joseph, too.
I don’t mean the angelic visitations
or the circumstances surrounding Jesus birth.
I mean their presence there in the temple,
their full involvement in their religious tradition,
their example as poor but proud parents who have come
to dedicate their son to God.
And maybe it wasn’t just Mary and Joseph that Simeon and Anna noticed,
but the whole picture – the priests in the temple,
the other devout people gathered there to worship God,
to offer their prayers for the fulfillment of God’s plan for God’s creation.
Maybe it was the community of faith gathered around the baby boy
that gave Simeon and Anna a new sense of hope for the future,
a feeling that in this faith community
God truly could do wonderful things through this one child.
We have the privilege this morning of observing the sacrament of baptism
as we welcome Tyler Gregory Fahy into God’s family.
While it is our usual practice to encourage parents to have their child baptized
in the particular church where they are active,
the Session took into consideration Tyler’s special situation.
Tyler is Carolyn and Greg Frahm’s grandson.
Carolyn and Greg are relatively new members of this congregation,
but they have quickly become active in the church’s life.
Tyler is part of a military family.
His parents, Megan and Nat, live in Eastern North Carolina
and Nat just returned from a tour of duty in Afghanistan.
They are waiting for new orders, so they are somewhat betwixt and between.
In a few moments Megan and Nat will present Tyler to be baptized
so you old people, listen up!
You young people, take notice!
This is the kind of moment where things can click into place,
the kind of moment where we expect God’s Holy Spirit to be especially active.
All indications are that Tyler is not God’s Messiah come again,
but his little life still represents the power of great potential.
We see this potential not only in his small self,
but also in those who take seriously their responsibility to introduce him to God’s love.
There are his parents, Nat and Megan, who will shoulder the larger share
of this responsibility,
but clearly they can’t do it alone. No parent can.
His sisters will help, his grandparents, too.
And then there are the rest of us.
We won’t have the opportunity to have much of a direct influence on Tyler,
but we’ll still be his family of faith in the larger sense.
Anytime we love a child, or support a parent,
we’ll be doing it on Tyler’s behalf.
But more than that, most of us are old.
If Tyler grows up to do something that benefits all humankind
most of us won’t see it. Most of us won’t benefit from it.
Most of us probably can’t even imagine the new things Tyler might do,
but neither could Simeon and Anna’s contemporaries
imagine a time when there would be no barrier in worship
between Jews and Gentiles.
The point is, even though we can’t SEE the future,
we are part of the future – part of Tyler’s future.
When we baptize him in a few moments
implied in the promise we make to him and his parents
is that we will care about his future.
We will do everything in our power to lay the groundwork for his future
so that God will be able to accomplish great things
through him and his generation and in generations to come.
All of this doesn’t mean it will be smooth sailing for Tyler,
Simeon was looking for consolation in Jesus, but it was a funny sort of consolation he found.
When he looked at the innocence and purity of the baby before him
he knew the world into which Jesus had been born
was not nearly so innocent or pure.
He probably wished he could have bitten his tongue off rather than say it,
but he was honest about the feeling of foreboding he had
concerning Jesus’ ultimate fate.
Still, it was consolation just the same;
consolation found not in only Jesus’ potential,
but in his parents, the temple and the family of God
who cared enough to welcome the new baby boy into the fold
and launch him into God’s future.
where all the elements are present and things click into place.
Maybe it’s the moment you first lay eyes on someone –
and – click – you know, you just know this is the person you will marry.
Or maybe it’s the split second you complete a project, do something really well,
and – click – you realize this is my calling,
this is what I will do with my life.
You can’t predict this kind of moment. It just happens.
You could chalk it up to mere coincidence,
but if you are sensitive to the idea of God’s Spirit working in you,
if you do believe that you are part of something bigger than yourself,
then these moments of sudden awareness
are nothing less than God working God’s purpose out – in you and in me.
Simeon and Anna are two of those characters in the Scriptures
who take up little space in the story,
but the brief references we have to them make me want to know more.
Simeon, we’re told, had come to the realization through God’s Spirit
that he would not die before he saw the Lord’s Messiah.
Is that something he would keep to himself, I wonder?
Or is it the kind of thing he would tell over and over –
until all his friends had heard it a hundred times.
Can’t you see him at the Men’s Lunch on Thursdays waiting for an opportunity
to slip into conversation yet again how the Holy Spirit had revealed to him
that he would see the Savior before he died.
We all have our favorite stories, why should he be any different?
And Anna…what was she like?
Married seven years and a widow for eighty-four.
Did she still wear her wedding ring?
Was she literally in the temple every time the doors opened?
Did she have a daughter who tried to get her interested in other things -
Going to yard sales? Playing Canasta?
We tend to attribute supernatural abilities to people we find in the Bible,
imagining them to be more alert to God’s plans than we could ever be.
They’re in the Bible, after all!
But could it be that Simeon and Anna’s ability to see in Jesus something extraordinary
had to do not so much with extra special supernatural powers
but simply with their WILLINGNESS to see?
Their DESIRE to see?
Something clicked into place for Simeon and Anna when they saw Mary and Joseph
offering their sacrifices in the temple,
lifting up their son, their first born, to dedicate him to God
Was it because they had some kind of divine ESP?
Could it be that they recognized God’s savior
because they EXPECTED to see God’s savior?
Simeon and Anna both lived in a state of expectation.
They knew the story of God’s covenant with God’s people inside and out
and they knew God wasn’t finished yet.
As it was, Simeon and Anna didn’t have it so bad as Jews living in Jerusalem.
The Roman presence was annoying
but they had free access to the temple.
And, let’s face it, they were old.
Simeon may have been as old as 53!
What difference did it make to them if Israel ever found her consolation?
What did it matter to them if God’s Messiah ever came?
But it DID matter because Simeon and Anna saw themselves, they saw their lives,
not as individual tracks running parallel
but as part of a complex web of relationships reaching back into the past,
back to Abraham and Sarah
and reaching forward into the future,
forward to a time when there would be no artificial barriers
separating any of God’s children,
forward to a time when both Jews and Gentiles
would worship God together.
They knew they would never see the end of Salvation history
BUT they expected to see God’s hand at work – day by day,
and they expected to be part of the process.
Mary and Joseph brought Jesus into the temple
and for both Simeon and Anna there was this moment where it all clicked,
a moment where it all came together and they knew
there was something special there in their midst.
Luke says they recognized something special in Jesus,
and that’s part of it, sure, but I wonder….
I wonder if they didn’t also recognize something special about Mary and Joseph, too.
I don’t mean the angelic visitations
or the circumstances surrounding Jesus birth.
I mean their presence there in the temple,
their full involvement in their religious tradition,
their example as poor but proud parents who have come
to dedicate their son to God.
And maybe it wasn’t just Mary and Joseph that Simeon and Anna noticed,
but the whole picture – the priests in the temple,
the other devout people gathered there to worship God,
to offer their prayers for the fulfillment of God’s plan for God’s creation.
Maybe it was the community of faith gathered around the baby boy
that gave Simeon and Anna a new sense of hope for the future,
a feeling that in this faith community
God truly could do wonderful things through this one child.
We have the privilege this morning of observing the sacrament of baptism
as we welcome Tyler Gregory Fahy into God’s family.
While it is our usual practice to encourage parents to have their child baptized
in the particular church where they are active,
the Session took into consideration Tyler’s special situation.
Tyler is Carolyn and Greg Frahm’s grandson.
Carolyn and Greg are relatively new members of this congregation,
but they have quickly become active in the church’s life.
Tyler is part of a military family.
His parents, Megan and Nat, live in Eastern North Carolina
and Nat just returned from a tour of duty in Afghanistan.
They are waiting for new orders, so they are somewhat betwixt and between.
In a few moments Megan and Nat will present Tyler to be baptized
so you old people, listen up!
You young people, take notice!
This is the kind of moment where things can click into place,
the kind of moment where we expect God’s Holy Spirit to be especially active.
All indications are that Tyler is not God’s Messiah come again,
but his little life still represents the power of great potential.
We see this potential not only in his small self,
but also in those who take seriously their responsibility to introduce him to God’s love.
There are his parents, Nat and Megan, who will shoulder the larger share
of this responsibility,
but clearly they can’t do it alone. No parent can.
His sisters will help, his grandparents, too.
And then there are the rest of us.
We won’t have the opportunity to have much of a direct influence on Tyler,
but we’ll still be his family of faith in the larger sense.
Anytime we love a child, or support a parent,
we’ll be doing it on Tyler’s behalf.
But more than that, most of us are old.
If Tyler grows up to do something that benefits all humankind
most of us won’t see it. Most of us won’t benefit from it.
Most of us probably can’t even imagine the new things Tyler might do,
but neither could Simeon and Anna’s contemporaries
imagine a time when there would be no barrier in worship
between Jews and Gentiles.
The point is, even though we can’t SEE the future,
we are part of the future – part of Tyler’s future.
When we baptize him in a few moments
implied in the promise we make to him and his parents
is that we will care about his future.
We will do everything in our power to lay the groundwork for his future
so that God will be able to accomplish great things
through him and his generation and in generations to come.
All of this doesn’t mean it will be smooth sailing for Tyler,
Simeon was looking for consolation in Jesus, but it was a funny sort of consolation he found.
When he looked at the innocence and purity of the baby before him
he knew the world into which Jesus had been born
was not nearly so innocent or pure.
He probably wished he could have bitten his tongue off rather than say it,
but he was honest about the feeling of foreboding he had
concerning Jesus’ ultimate fate.
Still, it was consolation just the same;
consolation found not in only Jesus’ potential,
but in his parents, the temple and the family of God
who cared enough to welcome the new baby boy into the fold
and launch him into God’s future.

