Sermon “Coming to Church & Being Church.”
“My Eyes have seen your salvation.”
These are the beautiful words of the old wise Simeon in the temple when he took the little boy Jesus in his arms and praised God.
“My Eyes have seen your salvation.” These were the words silently expressed by the 84-year-old widow Anna in the temple, as she too saw salvation, light, and hope in the little child.
“My eyes have seen your salvation.” It is expressed so beautifully on the cover of the bulletin today. Look at that little content sleeping child, wrapped in cloth and held up by loving and thankful hands. Look at the Golden Halo around his head. Look at the color of his skin as he truly was and is a Middle Eastern brown-eyed brown-haired boy born in a time of unrest, where his family had to flee due to violence and threats of death.
The artist Lauren Wright Pittman painted this lovely piece called “Center Christ.”
She explains that Luke 2 inspired the painting, - today's Gospel, and that the passage to her highlights different postures of faithfulness. After intense interactions with Angels and impossible directives from God, Mary, and Joseph remain faithful to the Mosaic Law. And bring their firstborn to the temple.
The Gospel also tells us about the faithfulness of Simeon who despite a long life of anticipation, diligently and faithfully awaits the coming Messiah.
The Gospel also tells us about the faithfulness of Anna.
After losing her husband and living a long life in solitude, Anna faithfully worships, fasts, and prays at the temple. Their faithfulness and long journeys converge at the temple where Jesus is brought to be designated holy before the Lord.
All of this is told in the Gospel. All of this is told in the painting of Lauren Wright Pittman.
Mary and Joseph, Simeon and Anna, center Christ. Instead of centering themselves, they center Christ.
This piece of art is filled with symbolism and meaning.
Christ is at the center. Smiling. Wrapped. Held high. Haloed.
But they look at the patterns of the clothes.
Jesus is held high while swaddled in a cloth pattern in the imagery of radiant starlight and olive branches of peace.
Simon's sleeves holding Jesus high are covered with imagery of doves, the Holy Spirit resting on Jesus.
The prophet Anna knew immediately who the child was< she immediately praised God and shared the Good News with anyone who would listen. Her clothing is patterned with sound waves echoing the light of Christ.
The artist writes about her piece: “Silence was not an option for either Simeon or Anna and amid such desperate need for peace and justice in this world, silence is not an option for us either. Faithfulness moves us to action and calls on us to speak of God’s dream for the weary world. …..” And she ends with this prayer: “May we not be silent, and may our faithful journeys lead us to miraculous encounters with God.”
May we not be silent and may we in our journeys lend us and lead us to miraculous encounters with God.
This is why we are here today. This is why we come to church – Sunday after Sunday, year after year.
This is why we are a church of Happy Danes, rejoicing in our beautiful church with new solid wood flooring beneath our feet and beautiful beaming blue pews to greet us to sit and listen, to sing and pray – together as a congregation.
This is why we are called not only to come to church but to be the church in the world. To come for service and leave lifted and filled, blessed, and called to be church out there in the real world of despair, division, fear, and lack of compassion. We need to have hope, unity, faith, and compassion in the world. We need to speak up and not be silent when God’s vision of unity and humanity is threatened. We need to be light in the world.
As Simeon and Anna came to the temple with faith and awe – we came to church with faith and awe. And we are called to center Christ. Not centering on us or our political preferences or small grievances. We must center Christ – which means that compassion is always at the center.
Today faithfulness calls us to have compassion for all the ones who lost everything during the LA Wildfires: all the families affected by the terrible plane crash in DC: and yes all immigrants, illegal and legal worried about tomorrow, all of the LBTQA worried about their rights and protection, all the least, the most vulnerable, the most marginalized that we are called to have compassion for.
A church and a faith are never about just us within these beautiful walls, but a faith that calls us to go outside these walls and be a compassionate church, congregation, and individual.
Our wise bishop David Nagler wrote in a greeting to the synod and all the congregations about the now famous inaugural prayer Service, where Episcopalian bishop Budde preached and prayed for mercy and compassion to those who will be impacted by the new administration's actions. Her sermon and prayer have been called prophetic by progressives and disgraced by conservatives. Some have placed her in stained glass while others have called her Satan. One congressman called for her to be deported. To where? Is there a country for progressive bishops? Please let it be California!
The Bishop asks us to join him in the holy calling to be compassionate. To not be silent but to serve the most vulnerable. To act faithfully and gracefully with great discernment and respect.
“My eyes have seen your salvation.”
I hope and pray that our eyes have seen the salvation and grace through Jesus Christ: as the vulnerable trusting child in the manger, as the remarkable preacher, as the compassionate leader, as the courageous man on the cross.
A light and a glory for all people.
A grace and a hope for all people.
And we will sing the beautiful hymn by Marty Haugen:
Holy Child within the manger, long ago yet ever nearby.
Come as a friend to every stranger, come as hope for every fear. As you lived to heal the broken, greet the outcast, free the bound, as you taught us love unspoken, teach us to know where you are found.
Holy child within the manger, lead us ever in your way, so we see in every stranger how you come to us today.
In our lives and our living, give us strength to live as you,
That our hearts might be forgiving and our spirits strong and true.