There are many traditions which have been and still are being deeply honored when the first born child appears in a family. One of these traditions, still being practiced, can be evidenced by the fact that some males have a legal name which ends with the title Junior. Yes, I was named after my father. My son’s middle name was given to him in honor of his mother’s father. Some women, like my wife, have as their middle name the first name of their mother’s mother.
There has also been in the past the tradition of dedicating a first born child to the service of God. And so in our reading this morning from the Gospel of Luke (2:22-40) we find that Joseph and Mary are bringing Jesus to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord for purification. However, along the way they are confronted be two individuals who have been waiting a long time to see the will of the Lord come to completion.
The first was an old man named Simeon. He spent most of his elder years in the temple waiting for God to keep a promise. Simeon wanted to see the day that the Lord’s Messiah would be revealed. Simeon had seen how the world was continuing to deteriorate as most people turned their backs on each other and on God. The rich became richer and blinder, while the poor had what little they held taken away from them. God had promised all of us that this world had enough blessings to care for all of the people, but there have always been those who have desired to be in control of more.
When Joseph and Mary brought Jesus to the Temple, Simeon was there. Simeon reached out and held the baby Jesus in his arms and knew that God had kept the promise made for he said, “my eyes have seen your salvation.”[1] This is not the first time in Luke’s Gospel that we hear that Jesus will be the salvation of our world, nor will it be the last.
But our reading from Luke is not yet finished, there is still to be the encounter with the prophet Anna. At the age of 84, Anna now sees Jesus for the first time and begins to speak to everyone who is willing to listen that here is the one whom they have been looking for; here is the one who will be the redemption of Jerusalem. We need to be careful about the concept of Jesus coming into the world to be the redemption of “the chosen.” Sometimes this term becomes a tool of abuse, rather than believing that the choosen are to be waited upon … maybe we should remember that the choosen are blessed with gifts and talents so that they can better serve their brothers and sisters who have fewer talents and gifts.
When we “buy into” this worldly society’s practices and beliefs that only those who have the most stuff are truly the happiest in this world, then we are allowing ourselves to become slaves to this physical world and its momentary culture. We are selling our selves into a form of slavery, and we are called by God onto a different path. We are called to a higher way of living; we are called to reach out to our brothers and sisters with love and compassion. We are called to not only share our physical possessions with those who are in need, but we are also called to share the true depth of our faith with those we meet … our faith in God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit.
Paul wrote to the faithful Galatians, “So you are no longer slaves but a child, and if a child then also an heir, through God.”[2] We no longer have to live as slaves. We have the freedom to choose. We can choose to follow the selfish world’s dictates, or we can choose to follow the will of God - the teachings of Jesus.
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