“Depart In Peace”

In a “Peanuts” cartoon by Charles Schulz, Lucy throws up her hands in utter despair and shrieks, “For months we looked forward to Christmas. We couldn’t wait till it came, and now it’s all over!”

Even Christmas can be a disappointment for some.  For a few brief moments there is a special glow in the air.  Life is softer, happier, more exciting somehow. For a few breathless moments the world is a magic land where everybody’s happy, and problems melt away.

But then the magic moment is passed.  The tinsel wasn’t silver at all, but only aluminum foil.  The problems all return in full force, and the fun and laughter turn out to be only whistling in the dark.  The warm glow of friendship disappears, and people become strangers again, passing each other by, unknown and unrecognized.

Is it really that bleak?  Now, these post-Christmas days become somber!  Right after Christmas day, the church calendar reflects this somber tone. December 26th commemorates the first martyr, St. Stephen.  December 27th focusses on St. John, the only Apostle who did not die a martyr’s death, but this would have been the date of his death, nonetheless.  December 28th honors the holy innocents, the little boys who were killed in Bethlehem because of Herod’s hysteria to protect his place on Israel’s throne. 

So, we have returned to the reality that we are born, we live, we beget sons and daughters, and we die.  Nothing has changed since the days of Adam and the ancient patriarchs.  No matter how meaningful we attempt to make our days and lives.  Still, as the preacher says, “it is vanity.  It is to inherit the wind.”

Although we fight hard against giving ourselves over to pessimism — still among the thoughtful and those who are reflective and retrospective concerning the facts of life, without something happening between us and our Creator, death is the end and that’s that.  That’s how most people in today’s world look at it.  And so, this time of the year gives way to hopelessness and despair. Even among good people the post-Christmas season is a letdown.  For sinners, it ought not be surprising that life, too often, is less than what we hope it would be.

Today, we look at the perspective of two old people in the post-Christmas days immediately following the birth of Jesus.  First, Jesus is named and circumcised on the eighth day as the Law proscribes.  Let this be done so that all righteousness may be fulfilled.  Secondly, in Leviticus, chapter 12, the spiritual legalities as regards the purification of a mother are set down.  If she has given birth to a daughter, she must not touch any sacred thing or enter the sanctuary for 66 days, but if she has brought forth a son the days of her purification will be 33 days instead of 66.  She shall bring a lamb for a burnt offering and a turtledove or a pigeon as a sin offering.  If she is unable to provide a lamb, then two birds will do… So, the priest will make atonement for her… thus says the Lord.

Mary, Joseph, and the baby Jesus have arrived at the temple to complete these requirements of the Law of Moses for Mary’s purification.  They are unable to supply a lamb (they have not yet received any gifts of gold, or of frankincense or myrrh, for that matter) and so two birds will be enough. 

From this we are reminded that Jesus, our Savior, and God incarnate, was born into the simple and common life.  He is not insulated from the troubles and difficulties of want and day-to-day existence.  Yes, He who was rich, for our sakes, became poor.  He entered the world and lived in it as the vast majority does.

But now there is a bit of serendipity in this scene of the holy family arriving at the gate of the temple in Jerusalem.  A bright scene of happiness opens with Simeon and Anna completing their daily rituals in this holy place.  Simeon is a determined man.  He has been scanning the crowds for the fulfillment of a special promise revealed to him.  Somewhere and at some time, in his presence, with his own eyes, he would behold the “Consolation of Israel.”  This was tantamount to being told that 4000 years of promise and history would come to fruition in your lifetime.  The Holy Spirit, clearly and distinctly, had blessed Simeon with a special and personal word that this old man would not taste of death until he and the Holy One had met physically and face to face.  Now there’s a Christmas present for a mortal that could only come from heaven above!

Simeon, then, preaches to us a post-Christmas sermon with two parts, one for rejoicing then and through the ages, and one for sorrow to a new mother with her tiny son in her arms.  Simeon has some good news and some bad news.

How strange those words must have sounded to Mary and Joseph, not knowing the background from whence they arise, but Simeon’s words are also very strange to those who with their fingernails dug in spend every waking moment dedicated to the prolonging of life under any and all circumstances.  Simeon says that death can now take him for the Lord’s promise has been fulfilled and he has seen the salvation of Israel and the light of the Gentiles with his own ancient eyes.  In one moment, in the looking upon the Christ child, Simeon’s life has reached its climax, and now the only blessing left for him is to depart in peace… not just from the temple grounds, but from life and to enter into the presence of His Creator and Lord.

Simeon’s joy in God’s promise is unmistakable and it has given meaning to his life and hope in the face of death.  This same child, two thousand years later, has the same effect on us. He gives meaning to our life through the Word and promises of the Spirit of God, and He gives us hope in the face of the death that yet awaits to claim us, but which cannot hold us.  Simeon saw death as peaceful release.  He had a vision through Jesus that could peer beyond death to heaven, and that made all the difference between a meaningless life on one’s own and a meaningful and complete life in God.

But part two of his sermon is somewhat ominous.  It adds a touch of melancholy to an otherwise joyful scenario. In the distance Simeon also can see for this child a necessary something that no mother wants to hear or know about her child.  Mary will survive her son.  She will have to see the sword pierce him.  Her own soul will be brought low in the torture that her son must undergo so that Simeon, and all like him, who imitate his faith and hope, can remain optimistic as we face our mortality.

This Child, like all children, is destined to die, but not as a wage for sin which of His own he does not, and will never, know.  From eternity — this Child was meant to pass through flesh and life with the holy purpose of redeeming ours.  To that end it was morally necessary that this Child would pass through every phase of human life blessing and cleansing all the stages we pass through.  It was necessary — from day one (or even day 33) — that the one point that propelled Jesus forward would be “His demise which He would accomplish in Jerusalem.” 

Yes, Jesus would be back in town someday, and although wicked men, the high priests, and the elders of His own nation, would deliver Him over to be crucified, He was innocent… He was not guilty!  On the outskirts of town, on a lonely hill, under a darkened sky, the wrath of God against all sin of all people of all time would be poured out on this Jesus, the Consolation of Israel, and by His victorious resurrection, would quiet the qualms and fears harbored in our hearts at the prospect of our departure.  Simeon has to come and throw on our celebratory days this pinch of reality, and in the face of birth and the prospect of a full life, he adds this dose of death… his own and the future death of the “Prince of Peace.”  But “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.” 

So, Simeon, keep on singing and speaking to us the full, unvarnished truth, for, in the face of the depth of the grave, you raise us up to the heights of eternal life in Christ.

Simeon’s song, then, perpetually reminds us of the benefits of the body and blood of Jesus, the glories and blessings of His birth, life, suffering, death, and resurrection… forgiveness of our sins, the wiping out of our guilt, calming a troubled conscience, and giving the assurance of everlasting life and our dwelling in the presence of our heavenly Father.  So, we sing his song as our very own, and how sad it is when people leave this sanctuary before they have joined in the celebration of life’s victory over death that is the Nunc Dimittis, and how it pierces my heart through when — to save a few seconds or beat the crowds to breakfast — some folks depart neither joining in this glorious hymn or our joint thanksgiving prayers for the treasure and feast and forgiveness He has so richly provided. Perhaps bread and wine are a stumbling block to those who have no eyes to see?

Not to diminish Anna, after all, her faith is the same as Simeon’s.  She has been longing to see the “Redemption of Jerusalem.”  What we know of her is that, for this long-time widow, the temple was the place to be, and prayers were the activity of choice.  We are not given any special speeches that she made to that family on that day.  We do not include any songs she may have sung in our liturgical worship.  But her example is worthy of note and imitation among all Christians.  She would proclaim the baby Jesus to everyone who would listen to her testimony.  She must diminish, and Jesus would increase, a theme in the life of John the Baptist, and the proper perspective of every Christian.  This eighty-four-year-old woman had become a witness to the Christ child and would point out to those in need of a Savior that Jesus, even baby Jesus, fit the bill.

I suppose that Anna, too, could depart in peace based on what her eyes had beheld at the temple gate.  Her life was full and complete, because of the arrival of the Son of God, Jesus! Her words were Jesus-filled.  Her neighbor would be the focus of this heavenly message, that thereby, her neighbor would benefit just as she had.

My friends, in beholding the Christ child in the arms of His mother, and even looking upon His death on a cross, the full story of God’s love is revealed that we might have hope for this life and the life to come.

So have this same attitude as did these elderly saints of God whose stories are preserved for posterity on the pages of St. Luke’s Gospel, and in the paragraphs of Jesus’ biography.

Most of us desire to enjoy the least complicated and most peaceful life possible and that is impossible without the hope and faith of Simeon and Anna.

“Lord, as You have promised, you now dismiss Your servant in peace.  For my eyes have seen Your salvation.”  That was Simeon’s swan song.  He speaks like a merchant who has all his goods on shipboard and now desires the master of the ship to hoist the sail and head home. Indeed, why should a Christian – who is but a stranger here, on a brief and rocky pilgrimage – desire to stay longer in the world but rather to get to the blessed shore in heaven?

You have beheld the Christ child in and with the Words of the Spirit.  You have tasted of the Lord’s generosity in the forgiveness of Your sins.  Our celebration will not end.  Not with the Christmas season… and not with the close of our eyes in the slumber of the grave.  So then, now, because of what you have received from heaven… under any and all circumstances experienced here by weak flesh and fearful minds… Under divine blessing and by faith in the new-born Christ child, you may… depart in peace!... true and heavenly peace!  Peace for now… for you!  Peace for the New Year! 

Amen.