“THE SIGN THAT SPEAKS AND FEEDS ”
Saint Luke 2: 33-40
Sunday after Christmas: 30 December Anno Domini 2018
Father Jay Watson SSP
Promises made. A Promise. Promises kept. A Promise. The “sign” that speaks peace is The God/Man Who is Peace.
Just why did Saint Joseph, “Guardian of our Lord” and the Blessed Virgin “marvel?” They didn’t marvel at Simeon’s age, wisdom, or fidelity in Temple Worship. They marveled at what he preached to them—they marveled at The Word of God. This marveling is marvelous because it is Faith. Faith worked by The Holy Ghost. The Words spoken by Simeon are the same words spoken to you, here, in a different temple, The New Testament Church. The words are good news because they are Promises delivered! A Promise. Promises kept. A Promise. The exact sermon, Simeon’s Nunc Dimittis is not included in this morning’s appointed reading. But you know it by heart because you sing it with him every Lord’s Day—right after you too have been given Jesus. The old prophet can now depart his way while the Holy Family can go theirs. Why? Because his eyes (and ears) have seen God’s salvation, “according to Thy Word.” The Holy Scriptures contained the Promise of God’s Word—In the Flesh by the very words God gave His men of old to write. They wrote, but more importantly they preached. The Word of The Lord endures forever. Simeon has held in his very hands, God. That is the greatest mystery there could ever be: Incarnation, enfleshment, “for Him!” And for you too. This Baby is for all people. This Baby is the Light for Jews and for Gentiles.
What Simeon revealed to Mother and Carpenter were words that had been made, promises, that now were beginning to be kept. The Gospel the God preached to Eve (and Adam) after the Fall (Gen. 3.15), the good promise of a Messias to be sent, a Deliverer Who would come, has “now been fulfilled.” He now longer simply belongs to The Virgin Mother who carried Him, and gave birth to God, but He is the Light for all nations, all peoples.
All fulfillment of the Promise, made In The Word by The Word, is received In The Word by The Word. It’s all Jesus. As fundamental and crucial as the Hebrew Scrolls were—they are not found in this morning’s close-up shot. As fundamental and crucial as the Greek Scriptures (and as translated into English) are—not even they are displayed in this Temple encounter. That’s okay. For even though we believe, teach, and confess, Sola Scriptura, we understand that it isn’t really sola in that there are three or four other “solas” that accompany its truth. The key is always Jesus. For not only is the Key of David which unlocks the Old Testament, but He is The Key of everything “for you,” for In Him is found Life—Forgiveness of Sins! All the Bible is found in that Baby! Yes. For do you not also confess that all important doctrinal matters, those teachings which have been in controversy almost since the beginning, are contained in the Evangelical “symbols” of The Confessions? Yes, yes you do. And do you not concur with The Reformer that the beloved Small Catechism is the “layman’s Bible?” Yes, yes you do.
And Simeon blessed them too. The blessing wasn’t so much an acknowledgement of a wonderful and “actualized potential” but a Benediction. The Word had been preached and the Sacrament, THE Sacrament had been given. Promise kept.
Truer than true is that The Truth, The Baby, is always destined for the “fall and rising of many in Israel.” Because all goodness is given to you freely by His own falling in obedient Law-Keeping, and then in suffering and death. All freedom, peace, and joy is given to you freely by His own Resurrection from the dead, and His Ascension to the Right Hand of Majesty…which for you is right here this day. Is not this “fall and rising” also the “Blessed Exchange” that Luther talked about, because he found it in the Word of God—in the History of The Hebrews, The Exodus, Hannah’s Song, The Psalms of David, and the great Magnificat of The Blessed Virgin? Oh, yes.
That very “exchange” is given to you in your own “falling and rising” which occurred once at the Holy + Font—buried with Christ into His death and raised with Him in His Resurrection—but also in your daily “drowning of Old Adam” by contrition, confession and Holy Absolution.
This is the “sign” that shall be spoken against! The Cross is the sign that is spoken against. Because the free forgiveness of sins, without works, graciously given through faith in the Baby, The Lord, is spoken against. It’s always and only Jesus. Jesus is spoken against. Jesus’ Words are spoken against. The Good News is a scandal: “but we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a ‘scandal,’ and unto the Greeks foolishness.” [1 Cor. 1.23]
The truth of Christ Crucified for forgiveness is always going to be blasphemed, warred against, and attacked with vengeance and hate—and as many deaths as the demons can deal. “For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.” [1.18] Every day the World, the devil, and sadly, even your own fallen nature repeats Pilate’s tragically works-centered ego retort: “What is truth?”
Truth was in Simeon’s hands. Immanuel. The Christ-Mass. When one has received God’s Body and Blood, then of course, one departs IN Peace. The Blessed Virgin believed this. Her words normed by The Word: “Behold the handmaid of The Lord; be it unto me according to thy Word,” and “whatever He saith unto you, do it.”
The sword that would pierce Mary’s soul would of course be both the sword of sinful flesh—growing older, having all the ravages of this fallen world’s “change and decay” affect and impact her, and it does you. And of course, the sword is also the singular anguish and pain of a Mother knowing what was going to befall her precious baby, and then living to see it unfold in a supremely-poignant and bloody tableau on Calvary. But it’s all Jesus. So, the sword is the very sword that Paul mentions in his letter to the Hebrews: “The Word of God is quick (life making), and powerful (the Dynamite of The Gospel) sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit…and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” [Heb. 4.12] Jesus is The sword of the Trinity as He is The Angel, The Prophet, and The Word of The Godhead. How one treats the Word shows their heart. How one treats the Church, here also represented by Mary, is how one treats Christ—The Word.
Faithful Pastor Simeon has preached. The Holy Family is hungry for more Grace, i.e. more God. He holds aloft the True Host of Heaven, The True Bread of The Father, The Mana of Mercy, and Blesses them…He gives Mary (back) the Baby to receive, to “hear, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest.” First the Consecration—The Incarnation and Nativity. Then elevation of Immanuel—The Crucifixion and Resurrection. And for you now, finally the repeating Gloria in Excelsis to all “Holy Families.” “Take eat; take drink.” Depart in Peace…In The Word…
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of The Holy Ghost
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