Hope Fulfilled

Luke 2:22-34

The shepherds are back with the sheep. The angels have fallen silent. The heavens no longer burst through to this reality. All is settling back into a routine. Mary and Joseph are getting used to little sleep. They’ve got this diaper thing down cold. The stream of well-wishers is down to a trickle. It is time to get on with things that need to be done.

That’s how it is when the first baby is born. Mom and baby come home from the hospital, and suddenly it’s all real. This is a child in need of tending. This is a baby on a cycle all his own—morning, noon, and night are meaningless. The crying is real. Mary and Joseph begin to notice what WASN’T in the melange from the baby shower. That’s just how it is.

Wonder turns to simple acknowledgment.

For Mary and Joseph, part of the routine is planning a trip to Jerusalem. They endured the 36 hour trek from Nazareth to Bethlehem. They made their way home after the census work was done—another 36 hours on the road, now with a baby in arms. Now, another 31 hour trip looms. But to be the good and faithful parents they are, it is a required trip. They have to get to the Temple to make the necessary ritual offerings. That’s just part of being faithful. 

So, off they go, joining the crowd making pilgrimage to meet the demands of their faith. Just another set of parents doing the parental thing.

Except…they aren’t just any parents, and Jesus is not just any baby.

We know that. We know who he is. We are here because of who he is because we, too, are trying to be good and faithful people. 

But they didn’t grasp all of that profound truth.

Not necessarily.

They are in their routine.

They stop at the temple grounds to make their purchases of the sacrificial doves for their offering. They proceed into the temple. They go through all the hullabaloo. Jesus fell strangely quiet inside the temple, but there was so much to entertain his infant eyes, tiny ears, and new sense of smell. 

They went outside.

Now things got weird.

Suddenly, from out of nowhere, a grizzled old man jumps up and grabs the baby from Mary’s arms!

Any mom will tell you that if that happened to them, one old man would be murdered! 

But the old man begins to sing about this child! This baby is hope fulfilled. He has been waiting his whole life for this child. This child is the messiah! 

Mary and Joseph rock back on their heels. They are suddenly completely overwhelmed.

Now, we need to pause and realize what this moment has to do with us here and now.

What Luke is trying to tell us is that miracles happen all the time, and they happen to us and around us in the very midst of our regular and ordinary lives. We just have to have eyes to perceive them. 

We have to awaken to the presence of God in the here and now—a presence that God promises to us.

I just returned from a wonderful visit with my parents. They are adjusting to life in their nursing center, but it has been rough. I got there for my first visit at Christmas in six years—being a pastor means sometimes Christmas is not a vacation time. But here I was. We did routine things that folks in their stage of life do. We went to he hearing aid store, then we went to the battery store. We did what we did in the pouring rain which is not that much fun when two of you are on walkers and getting in and out of a car is a major effort. But we did it. Then at dinner as we looked out the windows of their dining hall, the rain stopped and the sun broke through, creating a sunset that took your breath away.

God was here!

Attuned to that presence, I noticed other things in the dining room. Another adult child was feeding her mother supper. The mom has dementia and probably has not recognized anyone for a long time, but there—just for a moment—it was clear that she did know who was feeding her. That moment of clarity and recognition was a miracle. 

You just have to be awake enough to see them.

So, that is the invitation this text offers us—awaken to the presence of God. Miracles happen all around us. Simeon saw one. Anna burst into song, too. She saw it. 

Do we?

There is a miracle sitting near you. There is a miracle in a stranger’s face. There is a miracle in the every moment.

For a miracle is nothing other than a sudden moment when all is just as God made it to be and we are all we are meant to be.

Awaken! Arise, shine—you’re light has come!