Considering Lines

Mary Rodgers & the Holy Spirit, January 1, 2006
Scripture: Luke 2: 22-38

	Text: "Master, now you are dismissing your servant in peace, according to your word; for my eyes have seen your salvation which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for the glory of your people Israel."

After eight days had passed, it was time to circumcise the child; and he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb. When the time came for the purification according to the law of Moses, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord, "Every firstborn male shall be designated as holy to the Lord," and they offered a sacrifice according to what was stated, a pair of turtle doves and two young pigeons. Now there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon, this man was righteous and devout, looking forward to the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit rested upon him. It had been revealed to him that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord's Messiah. Guided by the Spirit, Simeon came into the temple; and when the parents brought in their child Jesus, to do for him what was customary under the law, Simeon took him in his arms and praised God saying,

Master, now you are dismissing your servant in peace, according to your word; for my eyes have seen your salvation which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for the glory of your people Israel.

And the child's father and mother were amazed at what was being said about him. Then Simeon blessed them and said to his mother Mary, "This child is destined for the rising and falling of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be opposed so that the inner thoughts of many will be revealed-and a soul will pierce your own soul too. (Luke 2: 22-38)

I've been thinking about children lately. It all started two weeks ago when our children and youth offered the music for both services. I know you noticed it: their wonder, their joy, their enthusiasm. They bring a special spirit to our worship services. That same week I ran across a picture that was created by a child who was nine. It was very artistic. The sun in the middle of the page was fluorescent purple. There was a tree with an orange trunk, the leaves were turquoise blue peppered with brown. The grass was red and yellow with pink flowers and there was a very happy blue dog and a chartreuse cat. The picture was very beautiful but what intrigued me the most about it was that although all the objects were drawn in black, there wasn't a single color on the page that was bound within the lines of the object. All the color was slightly outside the lines. The picture made me smile but more importantly it made me wonder about myself. When was the last time I drew a purple fluorescent sun and colored outside the lines? It's been a while. Children naturally do this until someone tells them it's not ok. Parents give lines so that children can grow up to become integrated members of humankind. I'm sure this was the case back in biblical times too. I was reminded of several parental lines or "admonitions" that you may have missed seeing in your Bible:

"Moses, Momma said go around the puddle, not through it. Some day that puddle could be very very deep and then you'll really be all wet."

"Samson! You've got to get that hair cut. Someday you'll grow up and need a real job and nobody's gonna need a guy who looks like a hippie."

"David! Put that slingshot down and do something constructive for heaven's sake!"

"Peter, don't you dare go into the lake without your water wings. You're just not ready to swim by yourself!" (Admonitions from Kim Miller Designing Worship)

Lines, defining them that is, is a parental necessity. Do we need the lines? Absolutely. Biblically though, it is hard to find one instance when God asks someone to stay within the lines to get God's will accomplished. Biblically we find that God often colors outside the lines, repaints the lines, expands the lines. Consider these examples:

Mary's vision of bridal showers and a wedding: that's inside the lines. Carrying God's child: Coloring outside the lines.

Joseph quietly divorcing Mary because she is pregnant with someone else's child? Inside the lines. Joseph becoming the earthly parent of God. Repainting the lines.

A Messiah that would throw the Roman oppressors out of the Holy City of Jerusalem, give the Israelites back their national dignity: inside the lines. The Messiah being born into the world for all people: Expanding the lines.

In our passage today we meet a man named Simeon. He was devout and righteous. I suspect he was very good at staying in the lines. He loved God and followed the Torah (The Hebrew Bible). Simeon was waiting. Waiting for something big. Waiting for the Messiah. In fact, he was eagerly anticipating the day when the Messiah would arrive because he had been promised that he would see the Messiah before he died. His ancestors had been waiting hundreds and hundreds of years. But he knew was going meet the Messiah in his lifetime. So one day, nudged by the Spirit Simeon just happens to end up in the temple at the very same time as Mary and Joseph and the baby Jesus. And immediately he knows. (Remember, he was under the influence of the Holy Spirit). He sees the baby, sweeps him up in his arms and says:

"God you can release your servant, release me in peace as you promised. With my own eyes I've seen your salvation; it's now out in the open for everyone to see: A God-revealing light to the non-Jewish nations as well as glory for your people Israel."

If you have ever experienced a promise being fulfilled then know some of the joy Simeon experienced that day. But I wonder if Simeon knew the magnitude of what he said that day. I wonder if his Jewish family and friends thought he had gone a little nuts because in what Simeon said there was one line that did not fit. And any Jewish person would have known it didn't fit. Here's the line: The Messiah will be a God-revealing light to the non-Jewish nations as well as to the Hebrew people.

A Messiah for ALL people. That was way way way outside the lines. It was radical because there were hundreds of years of traditional expectation of who the Messiah would be and the things he would do.

• He would be a Jewish Messiah for Jewish people.
• He would bring about the political and spiritual redemption of the Jewish people.
• He would establish a government in Israel that would be the center of the all government for Jews and Gentiles (any one not Jewish).
• God's temple would be rebuilt and worship would be re-established.

So to expand the Jewish Messiah to all people... Well you can understand how hard it would be get over hundreds of years of traditional thinking and practices.

But that's God for you. Expanding the lines. Not abolishing the lines, but expanding the lines. Repainting the lines. Coloring outside the lines. As chief line expander Jesus took part in God's process by calling people to rethink faith and the Bible and hope and love and everything else, and by inviting all people into the endless process of working out how to live as God created us to live. 2000 years later, God is still calling us to rethink faith and the Bible, and hope and love and everything else for this time and this place.

There are endless examples of the process, here is one. Around 500 years ago, a man named Martin Luther raise a whole series of questions about the lines the church was presenting to the world. He insisted that God's grace could not be purchased with money or good deeds. He wanted everyone to have their own copy of the Bible in a language they could read. He argued that everyone had a divine calling from God, not just the priests who had jobs in the church. These concepts are not new to us but they were revolutionary for the world at the time. They were earth-shattering ideas for his listeners. And they heard him. And something big, something historic happened. Things changed. Thousands of people connected with God in ways they hadn't before. But that wasn't the end of it. Luther was taking his place in a long line of people who never stopped the process of rethinking and repainting, expanding the lines of faith and faith practices. Shedding unnecessary layers and at the same time rediscovering essentials that had been lost. (Retelling of Reformation Story is by Rob Bell Velvet Jesus)

When Simeon declared that the Messiah was for all people not just the Jewish people God was expanding the lines. When God became human, one of us, walking a lifetime in our shoes. God was expanding the lines. Luther and the reformation: expanding the lines. There's a word for all this rethinking, repainting, and expanding. Luther and his contemporaries used a very specific word for the endless, absolutely necessary process of change and growth. They used the word reforming. Not reformed but reforming. The difference is crucial. They were very wise. They knew that the things that they said and did, wrote and decided would need to be revisited, rethought, reworked for this time and this place because they understood that times change. God doesn't change but times do. (Rob Bell, Velvet Jesus)

We learn and grow, and the world around us shifts. As one person put it: As times change the Christian faith is alive only when it is listening, innovating, letting go of whatever has gotten in the way of Jesus and embracing whatever will help us be more and more the people God wants us to be.

Reformed and always reforming. There are some who think that the mainline church is going through a reformation equivalent to the one so long ago. I don't know if that's true but I know that times are changing at a much faster rate than they did in Luther's time. And because of that we are having to re-think and seek God's guidance as to how to be the church in a culture that is no longer Christian or even Protestant. We are having to pray and think about how we share the gospel in a culture of people who are interested in spirituality but not necessarily in Christianity. It is a big change for us. Reformed, always reforming. There is nothing wrong with our current lines. For many people the lines are just fine the way they are. Most of us are here in this particular church because we are comfortable with the lines. But true to our reforming heritage we are beginning to realize that there are people out there for which the lines don't work. As one person put it: The lines (Sic) provided meaning for their parents or they provided meaning when they were growing up, but the lines are no longer relevant for them, the lines don't have anything to say to the world they live in today. It's not that there isn't any truth in the lines or that the people before them, before us were misguided or missed the point. It's just that every generation has to ask the difficult questions of what it means to be a Christian here and now, in this time and this place.

Reformed and always reforming.

So our challenge for this new year is to consider the lines. Consider our faith. Consider. God. Consider God, Consider our faith, consider our lines!

Amen

© Copyright, 2006, Rev. Mary Rodgers
All Rights Reserved.
Providence Presbyterian Church
Fairfax, Virginia