The Beginning of a New Era

Luke 2:22-40

By

Rev. Litton Logan

The 180th meridian is an imaginary but important marker.  It is the International Date Line.  When a traveler crosses this imaginary line, they either add a day or subtract a day, depending on their direction.

Admiral Byrd, the famous explorer, spoke of his experience of flying to the South Pole along the 180^th meridian. Byrd said, "All the time we continued flying as closely as possible along the 180^th meridian.  Even without wind drift -- for which adequate correction can be made -- it is obvious that no navigator can fly exactly along a mathematical straight line.”  “Consequently,” Byrd said “We were constantly zigzagging from today into tomorrow, and back again into yesterday."

          For a few moments, I would like us to suspend such thoughts of yesterday, tomorrow, last year, or this year, and think about a grander time--the New Era of Christ.

          The week between Christmas and the New Year has always been a strange time for me.  Since Thanksgiving, we have been climbing an emotional slope of holiday preparations and events.  After Christmas, we put the house back in order, store the holiday decorations, shove the big turkey roaster back under a cabinet, say good buy to out-of-town family, exchange the over-sized or under-sized gifts, etc.  We drop a little emotionally and our activities are not quite routine yet, because we’ve got the New Year coming.

We maybe thinking about the old year, things left undone or unresolved, new possibilities, and new resolves in the coming year.  Some of us are gathering up our last year’s history for impending tax time.  Nevertheless, it is not time to stop thinking about Christmas.  It is not time to put away all that Christmas and the birth of the Christ child means to us and re-enter our less than spiritual, secular world.  Now it is time to make real all that Christmas meant.

This morning I would pose a question about Christmas and ask us to struggle with its possible answers.  The question is, “If Christianity is a major influence in the world, [1/5 of the world’s population] why hasn’t more of the world experienced the fullness of all that the Christ means?”  “Why hasn’t the world ushered in and lived out the “New Era” of God’s redeeming and life giving grace?” 

What Era, some may ask?  I am speaking of the New Era that old Simeon saw as he blessed the Christ child.

Here again Simeon’s words:

²⁹          “Master, now you are dismissing your servant in peace,

          according to your word;

³⁰          for my eyes have seen your salvation,

³¹          which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples,

³²          a light for revelation to the Gentiles

          and for glory to your people Israel.”

In our scriptures today, Mary and Joseph, in compliance with Hebrew law go to the Temple on the fortieth day after the birth of a male child for the ceremonially purification of the mother.

There was in attendance at the Temple at this time an old priest named Simeon, whose heart and thoughts were heavy with concern and longing for God’s redemption and restoration of God’s people.  He longed for the coming of an era when all human kind—gentile and Jew—would experience the peace, joy, and all pervasive goodness of God’s blessings and presence in the human condition.

At some point in his deepest moments of prayer and longing, God had revealed to Simeon that he would not die before he saw the Anointed One of God, the Savior of the world and the one who would usher in the New Era of God.

As Mary and Joseph stand there in the Temple, Simeon has been lead by the Holy Spirit to be there at the same moment.  In a moment of direct awareness, he knows that this infant in the arms of this poor young woman holds the hope for of all humankind for all time.  He sees in this child the answers to all the ultimate questions and anxieties of human existence.  He proclaims this without any knowledge of Mary’s special visitation.

He looked into the face of a forty day old infant and said, “This is he, the one of my faith and hope, the promise of God, the giver of revelation to the gentile and Jew.  The hope for all the nations.” 

Simeon had hung on to his hope until he saw the reality of God’s promise of salvation, and then he says, “Take me now Lord, I have seen the fullness of my faith in you.”

Little did Simeon know, little did Mary, know; little did Joseph know.  However, you and I know.  We have 2000 years of knowing the good, the bad, the ugly, and the hopeful of the Christian faith.

At times, the activities of the followers of Jesus have been shameful.  Great kings, emperors, and governments have embraced the Christian faith and have used it to justify some of the most horrible atrocities.  The powerful have forced people to be baptized and confess Jesus or die.  Powerful religious leaders have schemed and killed for the power of the church of Jesus Christ.  Powerful religious forces have said and done awful things to saint and sinner alike over vain theologies one must actually die to prove.  Common folk have used the message of Jesus for personal gain or glory or to avoid service to their fellow human being.

On the other hand, the powerful truth of the Holy God of Creation that permeates Jesus teachings and life has lifted the human mind, spirit, and actions to the very height of the Holy Itself.

The birth of the infant Jesus became a pivotal point in global history.  All that we call real is influenced by this child, whom we call the Messiah.  No matter who you are or where you are on this planet and now maybe even among the planets, this child’s birth and life will in some way or the other affect you if nothing more than your calendar.  Primarily his effects are felt in the ideals, the ethics, and concepts of human compassion, mercy, justice, and morality in human relationships. 

We have founded governments, built nations, and beautiful edifices all in his name, when in truth he taught that the sum total of all that is holy in this world and in this life is to be found in our relationships to God and to one another through the power of love.  Jesus taught that in the power of love there could and would come the New Era—the Kingdom of God on earth.

The era of peace, justice, prosperity, goodness, safety, wholeness, and health that humankind has long for from day one of our existence will never come through the force of governments, technologies, religions, or human reason.  We can’t make it better even if we have another 4.3 billion years.  It is only through the power of the Holy Spirit that teaches us, empowers us, and secures us in the ways of love that we have any hope at all. 

Pretty naïve huh?  Such statements sound like the sort of thing a child, a dreamer, or some backward, unsophisticated, religious air-head would come up with doesn’t it?

I am the first to admit that we have made some significant strides toward the ends that Christ has taught.  We are at least beginning to think and to act in terms of global and stellar ethics and morality.  Many western nations are trying to act in the interest of the powerless and helpless.  We have a world organization that tries to resolve divergent and competing interest in non-violent ways, all be it a corrupt and ineffectual organization.  Some religious communities are attempting to resolve theological and religious differences without blood shed and character assassinations as they have during much of Christian history.

In my cynicism, I would say that we are doing these things out of self-interest.  We are finally learning the lessons of fouling our own nests; forcing our will and ways on others, and the horrible repercussions of war.  So, we are now beginning to act benevolently and charitably toward others out of our own sense of self-interest.  That’s my cynicism speaking. 

Be that as it may, maybe, just maybe God will use our weaknesses, our fears, our failures, and misgivings to teach us and to lure us along the pathway of the Divine Will.

Well, so much for the last couple of thousand years. We’ve made some progress along the lines that Jesus taught, for whatever reasons, but what about the next two thousand years and beyond.  What happens if we discover life on another planet?  Will we repeat the actions of Christian, manifest destiny under the new banner of our cosmological manifest destiny?  Will we take what we want, what we need, and justify it with terms like subhuman, infidel, heretic, alien, conversion, civilization.  Or will we allow the Holy Spirit to remind us of the words of Simeon?

^29-31“Lord,” now I can die content!  For I have seen him as you promised me I would. I have seen the Savior you have given to the [universe]. ³²He is the Light that will shine upon all [worlds], and he will be the glory of your Christ people!”

Sorry, I took a little license with Simeon’s words.

          Why hasn’t the Kingdom of God come on earth?  Why hasn’t the New Era of the Christ taken hold?  This is the easiest of all the so called theological questions to answer:  Jesus’ followers don’t really believe him and will not live by faith in his words.  Jesus’ followers refused to take his teachings and make them an integral part of every aspect of their lives, every deliberation, every decision, and every choice.  We are still living by the same human hubris that condemns us in the opening chapters of Genesis.

O, well we’ve got tomorrow.  Sun’s going to come up tomorrow, life is going to go on, bills to be paid, meals to fix, routine stuff, just another day.  Or is it?  Isn’t tomorrow the beginning of another day in the New Era of the Christ, wherein each one of can resolve to let the law of God and the will of the Christ live in us unrestricted?  Couldn’t tomorrow be a day where peace, justice ,and mercy roll down like living water and nurture all life on this planet?  A planet free of war and hatred.  A planet where each human has at least the necessities of life.  A place where animals and creation can pursue their natural courses of life uncontaminated. A universe that need not fear us.

O, such is the babblings of an unsophisticated, naïve religious air-head, isn’t it?  The Beginning of a New Era, phooey!  Let’s stop our childish Christmas dreaming, get on with life in the real world.

O, My God, No!  Please God, like Simeon let us hang in there as the people of Christ. Let us not become dishearten, cynical, and defeatist. Let us live by faith in your words and presence in Jesus our Messiah.