Lectionary: 524It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he should not see death before he had seen the Christ of the Lord.
Forty days after Christmas we return to the Yule Festival to reflect again upon the humanity of God. Always our stories of Jesus are full of irony. How is it that the Lord God of Heaven and Earth should appear as a baby? And borne of poor people! Their only wealth is their piety, which in our world is worth precisely nothing.
So here comes the Lord of Heaven and Earth , Creator of all the Stars, God of all Angels, holy of holies, and Lord of Lords (and so forth) carried as a suckling babe by this young woman and her fond husband. Can we have a drum roll, please? Or a fanfare? How about an earth tremor, which in that part of the world is not uncommon and could be easily arranged?
No, but two pious oldsters will sense something wonderful here and will get uncommonly excited about it.
The Presentation of the Lord celebrates the first entry of Jesus into Jerusalem and the Temple. We hear the fulfillment of Malachi’s prophecy:
And suddenly there will come to the temple the LORD whom you seek,It recalls the solemn dedication of Solomon’s Temple when, amid the clouds of incense, the Lord himself occupied the Holy of Holies in the form of a mystic cloud.
When the priests left the holy place, the cloud filled the house of the LORD so that the priests could no longer minister because of the cloud, since the glory of the LORD had filled the house of the LORD. (1 Kings 8:10-11)Simeon’s ecstatic song expresses the joy of all God’s faithful people. They have been waiting for this day for hundreds of years; generation after generation prayed for it. Mary’s prayer has brought it about but only the Beloved of God, the anawim who are the defenseless poor, can know him.
Typically, we see the greatest mysteries in the tiniest events. A small wafer of bread is the Lord God. A drop of wine is Jesus’ blood. Our faith teaches us,
To see a World in a Grain of SandWe should be suspicious of this world’s larger-than-life spectacles. Super Bowls, Oscar awards, the rise and fall of superpowers and super PACs do not inspire us half so much as the lighting of a candle in the darkness of winter.
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour.
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I love to write. This blog helps me to meditate on the Word of God, and I hope to make some contribution to our contemplations of God's Mighty Works.
Ordinarily, I write these reflections two or three weeks in advance of their publication. I do not intend to comment on current events.
I understand many people prefer gender-neutral references to "God." I don't disagree with them but find that language impersonal, unappealing and tasteless. When I refer to "God" I think of the One whom Jesus called "Abba" and "Father", and I would not attempt to improve on Jesus' language.
You're welcome to add a thought or raise a question.