Luke 2:22-32
And when the time came for their purification according to the Law of Moses, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord (as it is written in the Law of the Lord, “Every male who first opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord”) and to offer a sacrifice according to what is said in the Law of the Lord, “a pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons.” Now there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon, and this man was righteous and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ. And he came in the Spirit into the temple, and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him according to the custom of the Law, he took him up in his arms and blessed God and said,
“Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace,
according to your word;
for my eyes have seen your salvation
that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples,
a light for revelation to the Gentiles,
and for glory to your people Israel.”
And his father and his mother marveled at what was said about him. And Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother, “Behold, this child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is opposed (and a sword will pierce through your own soul also), so that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed.”
Amen, Grace, mercy and peace to you, from God our Father, from our Lord and Savior, Jesus, Christ. Amen, there is a great deal going on in our gospel reading today, all sorts of cool things that I wish I could talk about. All of them. We start out with a section about Mary and Joseph fulfilling the law of Moses. They offer up this sacrifice that reveals their poverty, as we read in the Old Testament, reading, you were supposed to sacrifice a lamb, but if you were poor, you could do some pigeons or two turtle doves. And it shows how important the choice of Mary and Joseph was in our salvation story, that they would be faithful to the law while Jesus was an infant. But we're not talking about that today, we could talk about Anna and the amazing prophetess who was in the temple as as a widow most of her life and celebrates the Son of God coming to the temple. But I'm not going to talk about that either. I know. I know disappointing. Today I want to talk about Simeon and about the song that he sings, the gospel of Luke. Has a lot of songs. In fact, the songs that Lutherans sing, we sing three from the Gospel of Luke. One of them is the Benedictus, named after the first word in the Latin This is sung by John the Baptist father, and it begins with, Blessed be the Lord or Benedictus. The other one is Mary's song, which comes right before this. We know it as the Magnificat. And it starts with that word in Latin, meaning, magnify My soul magnifies the Lord. And today we get Simeon in the temple, and he sings one of the three great songs from the Gospel of Luke The Nunc dimitti, which means, now, dismiss. Now you or as it's translated, Lord, now You are letting your servant depart in peace. This is a fascinating song. Simeon is in the temple. Luke tells us that the Holy Spirit has been upon him, and he's received a promise that he would see the Christ before he dies. Then there's this amazing moment when Mary and Joseph are carrying this tiny baby into the temple and Simeon sees the child and knows. And I wonder how that happened. Maybe it was like in the video games, when you've got a glow on the objective, it's like in you can see it way in the distance, and you go up and you press triangle to pick it up. Was it like that? Well, there's no controller, of course. Was there a little glow around Jesus in Simeon eyes? We couldn't possibly know, but it's one of those questions. Simeon runs up, he sees the child, pulls it out of Mary's hands. Little weird, right? And then sings this song and blesses God. He sings, Lord, now You are letting your servant depart in peace, according to your word for my eyes have seen your salvation that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for Glory to your people. Israel. He says, Lord, now I can die in peace. Your promise has been fulfilled. My eyes, not just my eyes, my hands have touched your salvation. Simeon, now knows promise is kept. He can die in peace. He's seen the promise, the great promise, of all of the Old Testament. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob Moses, David Solomon, everybody else, all of the prophets, wish they could be here for this moment.
Where children were taught to pray. Now I lay me down to sleep. I pray, my Lord my soul to keep If I should die before I wake. I pray, the Lord my soul to take good one for four year olds, right? But this is, this is the idea here, is that as you, as you're getting ready for bed, it's a moment to think on your mortality. And so they sing this song, Lord, now You let your servant depart in peace according to your word. For my eyes have seen your salvation, that you prepared in the presence of all people, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people, Israel. It's a song that we sing as trust, as we think about our future, as we think about what may happen next every time we go to bed, we realize maybe we won't wake up, but we've seen the salvation of God in Christ, who came and died for us and entered into the tomb so that We could rise on the last day with him. One of the other times we sing this song is right after Holy Communion. We don't do this here in our in first Lutheran, but if you look in our hymnals, it's in every single service. This was an edition that the Lutheran church added to the Western tradition of the liturgy. We would sing right after taking communion, you'd return to your seats. The pastor would say, please stand, and we'd sing, Lord, now You are letting your servant depart in peace according to your word. For my eyes have seen your salvation, that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel. And it transports us into this moment too, where we are like Simeon in the temple, and we have just taken Christ ourselves, his we ate his body, we drank his blood, and we go, yes, now I have seen your salvation, not just seen, but ate and drank it, Which means I have peace with God, I have life that lasts forever, not a child in my hands, but a savior in my body, who is united with Me that I can live with him. Our tradition. We first communion happens right after confirmation. We have our students, you know, 12, 1314, years old. They go through two years of preparation. They read the Bible with their pastor, and they look at the Small Catechism. We do all sorts of training. And then they come and they take Holy Communion for the first time, 1314, ish years old. And what an interesting time to think now, I can die in peace. We don't think about that for 14 year olds, do we? Now, I can die in peace because I have seen your salvation. And so the song then becomes a rehearsal for the rest of our lives, as we take in Christ's Body and Blood every single week we receive it, and we say, Now I can die in peace, because the peace of God has entered into me. Eternal life is there for me.
What a way of saying, God, I trust God, you have saved. The last time we sing this song is at a funeral service right at the end, just before we do the benediction, the pastor says, I am the resurrection and the life. Says the Lord, He who believes in me will live even though he dies, and he who lives and believes in me will never die. The congregation says, Lord, now You are letting your servant depart in peace according to your word. For my eyes have seen your salvation. Nation that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people, Israel. It's a pretty intense moment, but what it recalls is that when a faithful Christian dies, they are not gone forever. God has dismissed them into the new life of Christ in peace. It reminds us of every moment they came forward and take, take, took Christ's Body and Blood, every moment the salvation of God was delivered to them, and that now they have gone to be with Christ forever. It reminds us that we are all bound together in that body of Christ, that this is not the last moment, but a moment that means that they will be forever with Him, and whether that person is 40 or 100 we say the same thing, you can dismiss your servant in peace because we have seen the salvation of Christ and have a sure and certain promise that the One who has died will rise again and it reminds us that every moment we come back to this place, and we come forward and take Christ's Body and Blood, we are bound together with that person too, as it says in our liturgy, with angels and archangels and with all the company of heaven, we come together and are brought together with with Christ in his mystical body, so that you see just a little bit of your lost loved in the bread and the wine of Holy Communion. And then singing with this church, we say, Lord, now You let your servant departed. Simeon song has become a part of our worship tradition for a great reason. When we see the salvation of Christ, we know we can be dismissed in peace, whether it is when we go to bed or when we're 14 and we take his body and blood for the first time, or on that last ritual when we say goodbye to a lost loved one, we know that when we see The salvation of Christ, we can go in peace, in Jesus, name Amen.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
Find us on Youtube, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.