Worth the Wait

Luke 2:41-52

 

When architect Frank Lloyd Wright was asked at age 83 which of his works he would select as his masterpiece, he replied, "My next one!" It is this kind of hope in the future by Wright that characterizes our gospel lesson. Simeon and Anna are people of hope. They hope for the consolation of Israel. They hope for the Messiah, the Christ, to come. They hope for God to be God...but first they wait.

 

Much of our lives are spent hoping...and waiting.

 

Ø      We hope the cute girl in class will look this way so we can catch her eye.

Ø      We hope to graduate next year.

Ø      We hope for a promotion.

Ø      We hope for a happy delivery, a healthy birth.

Ø      We hope the treatment will bring relief.

 

We hope all the time...and while we hope, we wait.

 

 

There is a play written during the so-called "absurdist" period called "Waiting for Godot," which is about two people waiting for their friend, Godot, who never arrives. In the play Godot represents God. The play is meant to ridicule religious faith: we wait and wait for God, but God never arrives, or so says the play. According to the play, all religious faith is an absurdity, merely "Waiting for Godot." As people of faith, we object to this play, "How dare he say our faith is absurd," and yet, deep down, a part of us wonders, "Could he be correct?" We want to say, "No, he cannot be correct," and yet we wait and are still waiting for God to be God.

 

 

Simeon and Anna are the patron saints of waiting. Simeon is led to the Jerusalem Temple by the Holy Spirit to witness the Christ. It is almost an obsession with Simeon. The Spirit promises him he will see the Christ in his lifetime, and that becomes his driving passion. This devout Jew is led to the Temple at exactly the moment Mary and Joseph bring the baby Jesus. As Simeon approaches Mary, Joseph and Jesus, he knows – somehow he knows! – this is the Christ of God. Simeon reaches out his arms as Mary and Joseph are going into the Temple and asks for the baby. As he holds the Christ Child in his arms, his life comes into its fulfillment. In the front of the sanctuary is a painting done by one of my church members in Texas. I love the look on Simeon's face; it is a look of longing no more, of absolute, utter completeness to one's life. Simeon's wait is  over. And for Simeon, at least, what he sees fulfilled in his hands is worth the wait.

 

 

As Mary and Joseph continue on into the Temple, they encounter Anna. She is identified as a prophetess, the daughter of Phanuel, which means "the face of God." She is also identified as a member of the tribe of Asher, one of the lesser Jewish tribes. One of the main themes of Luke is the uplifting of the downtrodden; Anna represents the downtrodden. Anna, a devout Jew, demonstrated her faith by praying and fasting in the Temple every day. As Mary and Joseph approach, Anna immediately recognizes Jesus as the Christ. Like Simeon, she gives thanks to God, for her hope also has been fulfilled, Her waiting is over, and the babe she sees is worth the wait.

 

 

Simeon and Anna provide a contrast in the gospel to young Mary and her husband Joseph. In Luke 2:35, we discover that Mary is "amazed at what is being said about him" by these two older prophets. Earlier, when Mary was visited by the angel Gabriel, Mary was said to be "much perplexed" by Gabriel's greeting when he said, "Greetings, O Favored One. The Lord is with you." As Luke recalls the shepherd's visit on Christmas morning, Mary is said to have "pondered their words in her heart." Later on, when Jesus is found in the Temple (again!) arguing with the biblical scholars even though he is only twelve, Mary and Joseph are "astonished" to find him there and "do not understand" what Jesus is talking about when he says, "Didn't you know I had to be in my Father's house?" The picture of Mary and Joseph is a rather stark contrast to Simeon and Anna. Simeon and Anna seem to recognize that Jesus is the Christ far more readily than do Mary and Joseph, and we are left to wonder what is going on with the holy couple: can they really be as clueless as they appear to be?

 

 

I am tempted, I must confess, to label Mary and Joseph clueless. After all, how many times does God have to speak a clear word to them, through Gabriel, through the shepherds, through Simeon and Anna, through Jesus himself, before they are able to see God's gift before their very eyes? Why can't they see time and time again what Simeon and Anna see after only a brief glimpse?

 

 

Do you know what Mary and Joseph's problem was? Their problem was that they were young; they were so young! They were just at the beginning of their journey of faith. They had not been prepared yet to see Jesus for who he was. Simeon and Anna, they had spent their whole lives preparing for this one moment. And while they were waiting and hoping, they were not idle. The Scriptures tell us Simeon and Anna were devoted to what we would call the spiritual disciplines: they fasted and prayed; they went to the Temple to hear God's Word everyday; they were allowing God to prepare them to be able to see the Christ. Mary and Joseph aren't clueless; they're merely not yet prepared. But they are trying!

 

 

In Luke's gospel, Luke goes out of his Way to paint a picture of Mary and Joseph as faithful, obedient Jews. They present Jesus for circumcision and then for purification, offering the sacrifice in keeping with the Law. Later on we will learn that they went to Jerusalem every year to celebrate the Passover. In other words, Mary and Joseph were doing what God said they were supposed to be doing. And yet, they still weren't ready to see what God had to show them. That's not their fault. Hopefully someday they would be ready to see what God had to show them, to see God as God, but they're not ready now. Until such a time, they would need to wait...and, like Simeon and Anna, continue to be faithful to the work of preparing themselves in God's way. Some day, if they waited long enough, they would see God as God...and no doubt it would be worth the wait.

 

In our lives it is the same thing. As we pass by an old year and enter into a new one, we hope for many things. Oh, sure, some of our hoping is for trivial things: the  New Year’s resolutions most of us probably won't keep. But some of our hoping is serious: some of our hoping has to do with our kids' lives, or our marriages, or our careers, or our health, or the spiritual well being of a friend. Some of our hoping is not so self-absorbed and yet equally important as our hoping is directed toward peace for Jerusalem, or good education for all the children in our community, or healthcare for the poor of our country, or relief from the AIDS epidemic for the people of Africa. We hope in all these things for God to be God. And as we hope...we wait.

Will we see God in our lives this year, in the midst of our waiting and hoping? Will we see God fulfill for us the promise to be our God and to make us his child? Well, that depends. It depends first and foremost on God. God is fiercely and forever free: he will not be hurried by our anxiety; he works according to a calendar we cannot see and of which we know not a single thing! God will be God.

 

But it also depends in part on us. When God comes, will we be waiting for him? Will we have spent our lives preparing to recognize him? Will our lives be so immersed in daily prayer, so searching of the Scriptures, so constant in worship, so faithful in service that when God's salvation appears we will not need to consult an expert to understand what we are seeing but will be able to see the Spirit’s work around us, to hear the Spirit's whisper to us, to feel the fulfillment of our God? God will be God. But when God fulfills our hopes, will we be waiting? Will we be like Simeon and Anna?

 

I hope so, for when "Godot" arrives, his presence in our lives is worth the wait.

 

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