Homily - February 2, 2020
Feast of the Presentation of The Lord
Today’s feast
The Feast of the Presentation of the Lord
Hasn’t fallen on a Sunday in a long time
And the downside to that fact
Is that we rarely hear this story proclaimed at Sunday worship
So this is a happy day
I love this story
I love the details
And the characters
And the setting
I love how easy it is to visualize
And imagine yourself there
…just another pilgrim finding some peaceful prayer space
Luke is telling us that Jesus was born into a particular world
A Jewish world
A world wrapped up in a sacred covenant between God and Israel
The notion of “purification”
May sound strange to our ears
But it arises in a context
…and out of a community…sensitive…if not preoccupied with the notion of the HOLY
Still today this traditional Jewish ceremony marks a child’s birth
And when the people are gathered they pray:
As this child has been welcomed into the covenant, so may she grow into a life of Torah, marriage, and good works.”
This is a prayer HEAVY with hope and expectation
I so get this
When I set eyes upon my tiny new grandson…Luke
That was the overwhelming emotion
HOPE
Hope and expectation
For everything True and Beautiful and Good
To overflow into the life of this tiny child
Mary and Joseph
Simple, unworldly, village folks
Stretching to bring a pair of young pigeons in dutiful sacrifice
come to present Jesus in the Temple
They are full of hope
Simeon,
the righteous and devout Simeon
Finally sees his hope fulfilled
And he erupts with what is now known as the Canticle of Simeon
A prayer recited every evening in the Liturgy of the Hours
And then there is Anna
The Gospel of Luke loves to have the male and female side by side
She too witnesses this great hope
But unlike Simeon who can now retire from this world
She, after living in the Temple night and day
can’t stop spreading the marvelous news…at the advanced age of 84.
We just heard all this wonderful news proclaimed
…Just now when we read the Gospel
But that wasn’t all we heard
We heard the warnings of things to come as well
We didn’t miss the cracks
Because…This is NO EASY HOPE
It is not CHEAP
It is not SHALLOW
Just as Simeon declares the marvelous fulfillment of the promise
He turns to Mary and Joseph…With his addendum:
“Then Simeon blessed them and said to his mother Mary,
‘This child is destined for the falling and the rising of many in Israel,
and to be a sign that will be opposed so that the inner thoughts of many will be revealed—
(or laid bare like in some other translations)
and a sword will pierce your own soul too.’”
What is this falling and rising?
How are hidden thoughts laid bare?
I don’t think it is by war
Or by economic destruction
Or by natural disaster
Inner thoughts are revealed
They are laid bare
Through Becoming transparent
Becoming real
Becoming a person whose outside matches the inside
Becoming a community whose outside matches the inside
On Wednesday night I went to see the movie
A Hidden Life
And I have been haunted by it ever since
It interrupts my sleep
And catches me unawares with its challenge
It is a three-hour movie
But just to give you a brief intro
It is the story of Franz Jagerstatter
A simple, unworldly, Austrian farmer
With limited education
But of devout and intentional faith
It takes place in the aftermath of the Nazi takeover of Austria
Which happened almost overnight with little resistance.
Like nearly all his fellow Austrians
He is called up to join the Nazi army
He has already gone through the basic training
Which is where he became aware of the Evil at the heart of Hitler’s plan
…an evil, he notices, that has everyone around him
caught up and quick with their ‘yeses’
Franz can’t say yes
He can’t raise his right arm in salute…it won’t go
He can’t do it
All he has is his ‘No”
Everyone tempts him by saying
“What good will it do…
“You will only get killed…and then what
What of you wife and children
What of your aging mother???”
"Surely you know that it won’t make one iota of a difference in this war bloody???”
His love for his family is nowhere in doubt
…by his family anyway
And his wife in the end speaks her final words (gospel words) of love
“Whatever you do, I am with you always…”
And he is beheaded…guillotined along with other treasonous Austrians
This is all a matter of historical record
The movie was filmed in his village
Even in his same house
the same prison was used in the film
And even the same courtroom
But for me today
On this feast day
Where we contemplate Luke’s story of The Presentation of Jesus in the Temple
I am reminded of one short scene in the movie
It takes place in a small chapel
Franz comes upon an aging artist who is painting (or restoring) frescoes on the wall of the chapel…
And the old painter wonders aloud (to the best of my memory;)
“I paint these sweet lovely scenes of Christ…and perhaps they gather a few admirers…Christ has a lot of admirers…but I often wonder how many followers there really are? I wonder, am I an admirer or a follower? Most days I'm not so sure.”
In Luke’s scene of the Presentation
we hear and see the whole story…loud and clear…cracks and all
But the grace in this text is that
It isn’t enough
The cracks…the anticipation of opposition, and trial and suffering
Are not enough
Not enough to diminish the hope
the joy of recognizing a promise fulfilled
So
Where does all this leave me?
Where does it leave you?
Where does it leave us?
I feel fairly certain…though one never knows
That we won’t be faced with a choice
A choice between yes and no
as stark as Franz’s
a choice that led to literal martyrdom
But what are those choices that confront our lives
What are those choices that when you put them together
And balance them out
They will reveal our inner thoughts
And make us transparent
…as admirers or followers?
I believe
I believe
That those choices ...the ones that move toward becoming a follower
are the ones when there is something…even a little something…at stake
They are the choices that clearly lead to my becoming a person whose outside matches her inside
Does what I buy
Or what I sell
Or what I store
Or what I throw away
(and how I throw it away)
Does what I say
And how I say it
Does how I give and how I take
And how I weep
And what I weep over
Does how I show love
And how I challenge and correct
Does the way I act on all these
Lean me into becoming a follower?
or just a well-polished admirer?
This is what has been haunting me since Thursday night around 11pm.
There is grace in the text
And there is grace here among us
Because here is a safe place
A safe place to be haunted a little
And to wonder
And to be challenged
And to be formed and reformed over and over again
In the fine art of becoming a follower
Simeon and Anna…Mary and Joseph…And Blessed Franz Jagerstatter
Pray for Us
The humble…followers…of St. Stephens Church, New Harmony
