Anna and Simeon: Waiting with God

 Simeon and Anna, whose story is in the Gospel of Luke (chapter 2) give us insight into waiting for God’s plan to come to fulfillment. I would think that each of them had had many conversations with God, praying again and again for the fulfillment of the promise. As they got older, each prayer perhaps became more desperate. “Will I see your Messiah?” “Hey, God, I’m not getting any younger.”

There may be plans in your heart that you are sure God placed there. However, they don’t seem to be coming to fruition. When you try to move forward, there are closed doors. You keep looking around for the open door or open window. After all, there’s the saying that ‘when God closes a door, God opens a window.’ But that window doesn’t seem to be open, either.

This image captured from Facebook by “The Letterer” is a reminder that God is always present and always working.

As a society, we are not good at waiting. Instant gratification is the name of the game. We can download a new game to our phone and start playing in an instant. We can zap our dinner in the microwave and not wait for it to cook in the oven. We can travel across the country in just hours compared to our ancestors who needed weeks or even months to make the trek. Communication with friends and family is just a text away.

God’s timing is often much more deliberate. God works in our hearts and souls to prepare the soil for the next thing. God worked in Simeon and Anna as they waited and worshipped in the Temple two thousand years ago. Perhaps they learned patience. Perhaps they learned to trust in God’s timing. Perhaps they found their faith deepening despite the waiting for the fulfillment of God’s plan. Perhaps they came to an understanding that God’s way does not always look like we expect.

Imagine the surprise of the two elders when God’s promised Messiah showed up as the infant son of a poor family from Nazareth. Because of their time of waiting and preparing and being prepared, they were able to recognize in the Babe, God’s fulfillment.

God’s gift is always better than we can imagine. It’s like waiting for a stuffed dog for your birthday and getting a real puppy. Or expecting a bowl of ice cream and getting gelato. It’s waiting for decades for the One spoken of by the prophets and holding that Child in your arms as an infant full of God and full of possibility.

Then you break into song! “My eyes have seen the salvation you have prepared for all people!” proclaims Simeon. Holding the fulfillment of God’s promise, he recognizes that this is not just for the Hebrew nation, but for ALL.

God does not delay gratification, rather, God prepares us for the best that can be. In 2 Peter 3:9, we are reminded, The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. God loves each of us too much to give us second best. God waits until we are ready and prepared, then we receive the gift of God’s love.

It is not easy to wait when we think we have a great idea or ministry. Maybe you aren’t as ready as you think. Perhaps you need to learn something that will make your ministry even more effective. Perhaps waiting will help you grow in faith. God is in the waiting, too. So, as Proverbs 3:5-6 says, Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.

Next week we will finish our visit with Anna and Simeon.

Anna and Simeon: Waiting

 Today we start looking at the story of Anna and Simeon, who welcomed the Infant Christ in the Temple as inspiration for ways we might welcome Christ. Their story is in the Gospel of Luke. After the familiar Christmas story about shepherds and angels visiting the manger, we hear, “at the end of eight days, when he was circumcised, he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb. And when the time came for their purification according to the law of Moses, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord (as it is written in the law of the Lord, “Every male that opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord”) and to offer a sacrifice according to what is said in the law of the Lord, “a pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons.” (Luke 2:21-24) The purification rite would have been forty days after Jesus’ birth. Women were required to be ‘purified’ after childbirth and a first-born son was ‘redeemed’ by an offering.

In the next verse we meet Simeon who was righteous and devout, looking for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he should not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ. (Luke 2:25-26) When Mary and Joseph arrive, he took him up in his arms and blessed God and said, “Lord, now let your servant depart in peace, according to your word; for my eyes have seen your salvation which you have prepared for all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to Israel.” (Luke 2:27-29) This Song of Simeon is commonly said during Evening Prayer from the Episcopal Book of Common Prayer.

We don’t get the rest of the story if we just stop at his song of praise. Simeon continues to prophecy and tells Mary, “Behold, this child is set for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is spoken against (and a sword will pierce through your own soul also), that thoughts out of many hearts may be revealed.” (Luke 2:34-35) Imagine for a moment the turmoil of thoughts that must have gone through Mary’s mind as she hears Simeon’s words.

The day of surprises isn’t over yet. The 84-year-old prophetess, Anna, daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher came up to the pair. Apparently, she lived in the Temple grounds worshiping with fasting and prayer night and day. And coming up at that very hour she gave thanks to God and spoke of him to all who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem. (Luke 2:36-38)

Rembrandt’s painting of the scene (ca 1627) shows Anna giving praise while Simeon counsels Mary and Joseph.

Unlike Simeon, we do not have Anna’s words recorded, only that she gave thanks and spoke of the redemption of Jerusalem. This affirmation of her son’s role in life must have been another one of those things that Mary “pondered in her heart.”

Simeon and Anna were waiting and prepared for the coming of Messiah, the Christ of God. They had been waiting years and years. Perhaps there were times when they thought God had forgotten their faithfulness. I’m sure we’ve all had times when we prayed for something and prayed and prayed, but nothing seemed to be happening. God didn’t seem to be listening.

Waiting for ‘God’s timing’ can be difficult. We can get inspiration from Simeon and Anna who waited their lives for God’s revelation. When it came, that revelation was in the form of a helpless infant. Were they surprised by that, or did they understand that God acts in ways we don’t expect?

Has there been a time when you have been surprised by how God responded to a prayer?  

Sit with the image and imagine yourself in the scene. What if you were a bystander? What if you were one of the participants? Feel the emotions of Anna and Simeon as they welcome the One they had been waiting and hoping for.

As an aside: In the Gospel of Luke, the family returns to Nazareth where Jesus grows up. It is in the Gospel of Matthew that we hear of the visit of the Magi and the escape to Egypt.

Naomi and Ruth: Reaction or Prayer

 Last week we considered the idea that every person makes choices based on the information they have and the truths they believe. This information or truth may be false in the view of many people. It is, however, what the person believes. Of course, not everything we believe is true, either, to someone else… Something to pause and think about perhaps.

Because our truths are different from each other, we find ourselves in conflict with one another. We no longer take time to listen to each other. Too often, we simply react to a statement or to news or to an action. How, in this tumultuous and divisive time, might we meet with grace those whose ideology differs from ours? How can we accept and love one another as we are commanded by our Lord? How can we even face the daily news with its toll of death and destruction?

Listening instead of reacting is a start. It is not easy to stop and listen, though. We often need help to pause, help to listen, help to seek understanding and common ground. That’s where God is present. And we connect to God in prayer.

Looking at the story of Ruth and Naomi, we don’t hear that they prayed. In fact, there isn’t any overt mention of God in the entire book. However, we sense God working in and through the choices of the women. God honors the decision to go to Moab by giving the family a home and a community, including wives for the sons. God is with Ruth and Naomi as they return to Bethlehem. Despite Naomi’s assertion that the Almighty has made my life very bitter (Ruth 1:20), God provides a protector and husband for Ruth. The faithful choices made by the women lead to blessings. The women of Bethlehem note this and say, “Praise be to the Lord, who this day has not left you without a guardian-redeemer. May he become famous throughout Israel!” (Ruth 4:14)

It is easy to look back, after the fact, and see blessing. When you are in the middle of a troubling time in your personal life, or are concerned about external events, it is harder to see blessings. We can always, as the song says, “Take it to the Lord in prayer.” The hymn What a Friend we have in Jesus, by Joseph Scriven (1885) reminds us that it’s a “privilege to carry everything to God in prayer”! Scriven reminds us that we forfeit peace and needlessly bear pain because we forget to give our concerns to God. Even when there are “trials and temptations…[and] trouble anywhere” or when we are “weak and heavy-laden, cumbered with a load of care” we can “take it to the Lord in prayer.” The hymn ends with the promise from our “Blessed Savior, Thou hast promised Thou wilt all our burdens bear.” You can hear the hymn sung by Alan Jackson here.  

Ruth and Naomi probably didn’t see the hand of God while struggling to survive on the journey to Bethlehem or when seeking food in the edges of the fields, but God was every present. We often have trouble identifying God in our own troubles. We can trust however that God IS there and loving us through anything. Also, though it can be more difficult to identify, God is loving and working through the lives of those we don’t agree with.

Maybe this prayer by Rabbi Irwin Keller from 2016 can be of help when watching troubling news stories. Remembering that our soul, that each soul, is “pure and vulnerable” may open us to seeking healing for the “wounds of the world.”

Next week, we’ll look at the story of Anna and Simeon, who welcomed the Infant Christ in the Temple as inspiration for ways we might welcome Christ.

Naomi and Ruth: Decisions

In August, we began to look at the story of Ruth and Naomi from the Book of Ruth in the Hebrew Scriptures. We noticed how each decision and action had a ripple effect on the people and communities they were in. It is the same with us. Last week, we thought about the choices men and women made to confront workplace safety and inequity, and the results of those decisions. 

Ruth and Naomi made many seemingly small decisions which changed the dynamic of their family and the community they were in. The decision to leave Bethlehem caused sorrow to their friends and other family members who remained. Deciding to cast their lot with the people of Moab by marriage was a big ripple that resonated among the local community. Death always causes many changes. The loss of her husband and both sons made Naomi rethink her life and decide to return to the familiarity of Bethlehem. The different decisions by Orpah and Ruth made differing impacts on their family and friends. Arriving in Bethlehem as destitute widows brings dramatic changes to the people in the town and to Ruth and Naomi. Ruth’s obedience to Naomi and Boaz’ response to her courage and faithfulness made a huge difference in the dynamic of the town. Their descendants continued to impact the history of Israel and the world generation after generation.

Every day we make choices that we don’t think make much difference to anyone but ourselves. We may decide to go to the grocery store or to the farmer’s market. One choice helps local growers, the other helps big business. We respond in haste to a Facebook post we disagree with or we scroll past without responding or perhaps take time to respond thoughtfully.  

The decision we make is neither right nor wrong. It is how we respond to the information we have. With slightly different information, we might make a different decision. Ruth and Naomi made the best decisions they could within the framework of their lives. God honored the choices. God honors our choices, too. We are given free will by our loving God, so God doesn’t force us to do this or that. If we make what seems, in hindsight, to be a poor decision, God still honors our action—even if we may have to live with the results.

In the news every night we see the results of decisions individuals and leaders make. Some are choices that lead to death and destruction. Others are actions that provide hope and joy. Each person or group makes their decision using the information they have and believe is true. Our perspective is often very different from the person who decides to start a fire or someone who has an idea to walk across the country to raise money and awareness for some cause. Neither may be something we would do. Yet, these are the choices made by those individuals and they result in consequences.

Might it make a difference to how you view the news if you remembered that each story is activated by someone’s decision, which is based on their information? We might not understand a mass shooter any better, but we might pause to consider that he was motivated by the truths he believed. 

Every decision we make has results. May we ask God to help us make helpful choices that will benefit those we are in contact with.

Labor Day Decisions

 A little pause from our visit to Naomi and Ruth and their decisions to remember Labor Day, and why we have a day off from work. Mostly, now, the day is simply an occasion to get together for end-of-summer picnics or to go camping “one last time this year”. The roots run much deeper and are important to remember. The roots of the holiday are set amid the choices made by business leaders at the end of the 19^th century, by laborers and other workers. The decisions each side made at this pivotal moment, changed the appearance of working conditions in factories, mines, and elsewhere and gave the normal working man rights they did not previously have.

Labor Day originated in the midst of a time of upheaval and turmoil in America. A lot of change was happening in the workforce because of the Industrial Revolution and the movement of workers from farms to factories. We may not remember that we learned in school how the late 1800s was a time of oppression for these workers. The average workday was 12 hours and most worked seven days a week to earn enough. Children as young as 5 worked alongside the adults to help bring home enough to sustain their family. Not only that, conditions were unsafe. Factories and mines were especially unsafe and offered little in the way of fresh air, restrooms, or breaks. In some cases, workers were locked into the workrooms for their shift.

In response to conditions, labor unions formed and gradually became more vocal and powerful. The leadership organized strikes to protest conditions and pay. There were riots in many places. Often people were killed on all sides. Police, striking workers, the replacement workers brought in by management to keep the factories and mines going all fell victim.

On September 5, 1882, 10,000 workers marched from City Hall to Union Square in NYC to protest conditions (see picture). Slowly the idea of a “workingmen’s holiday” gained momentum in many states. It wasn’t until the employees of the Pullman Car company went on strike on May 11, 1894, that it became truly a national issue. By June 26, a boycott of all Pullman cars caused railroad traffic to come to a standstill. This was catastrophic because people and goods moved nearly entirely on the railroads. The federal government sent troops to Chicago, which led to riots and deaths. Congress then passed an act making Labor Day an official holiday and President Grover Cleveland signed it on June 28, 1894.

The choices and actions of the unions and the decisions by the striking workers who were willing to risk their lives to protest conditions ultimately led to legislation mandating shorter work days as well as improved working conditions. It is still a work in progress as, too often, the business bottom line and not the workers get the priority. Recently, Air Canada flight attendants went on strike for better wages causing massive airline disruptions. They, like many workers before, made the decision to stand up for their rights.

If your working conditions are good, give thanks for the decisions and choices of the brave men and women who marched and spoke up and challenged those in power. However, there are also still groups of workers who are ignored and mistreated because of their poverty, education, ethnicity, or immigration status. What choices will we make to stand with and for these groups?

Naomi and Ruth: Ripples

 For the next couple weeks, we’ll look at the story of Naomi and Ruth as found in the Book of Ruth in the Hebrew Scriptures. In this tale, we’ll see how supporting one another encourages the entire community, like ripples from a pebble in the water.

The story begins with Naomi and her husband Elimelek moving to Moab with their two sons during a famine time in Bethlehem. They settle in Moab which starts one set of ripples as the foreigners from Bethlehem learn to interact and live with the Moabite community. The boys grow up and marry Moabite girls: Ruth and Orpah. This is a new ripple in the pond caused by the integration of the foreigners more deeply into the community. Then tragedy strikes as Elimelek and his sons all die. This leaves the three women vulnerable as widows with no man to care for them. For Naomi and her daughters-in-law this is like a stone into the pond with huge ripples of consequences.

Naomi decides on the drastic step of returning to Bethlehem, telling her daughters-in-law to remain and find new husbands in Moab. Her decision resonates with multiple ripples. There is the goodbye and return to her family by Orpah. And there is the massive ripple when Ruth famously responds, “Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if even death separates you and me.” (Ruth 1:16-17) Ruth is willing to leave all she knows to remain in relationship with Naomi. This choice ripples across the ages.

The pair sets out on a long trek of somewhere between 60 and 100 miles. They must cross the Jordan River and traverse desert and hills. It is possible, even probable, that they would have joined a caravan heading in the right direction. It would be rare and very unsafe for two women to travel alone, but the Bible doesn’t say. We are simply told, the two women went on until they came to Bethlehem. When they arrived in Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred because of them, and the women exclaimed, “Can this be Naomi?” “Don’t call me Naomi, she told them. “Call me Mara, because the Almighty has made my life very bitter…” [arrived] in Bethlehem as the barley harvest was beginning. (Ruth 1:19-20, 22) The return of Naomi with her Moabite daughter-in-law made ripples among the tight-knit community of Bethlehem.

The timing of getting to Bethlehem at the time of the harvest was fortuitous because the Law of Moses allowed widows and other destitute people to gather the grain from the edges of the field. Ruth offers to do this for herself and Naomi. She luckily entered a field and began to glean behind the harvesters….in a field belonging to Boaz, who was from the clan of Elimelek. (Ruth 2:3)

Boaz is impressed by Ruth’s support of her mother-in-law and tells her to stay with his workers throughout the barley harvest and into the next harvest as well. Naomi sees the opportunity in this and suggests a risky ploy to Ruth. She says, “Tonight [Boaz] will be winnowing barley on the threshing floor… note the place where he is lying. Then go and uncover his feet and lie down. He will tell you what to do.” (Ruth 3:2-4)

Ruth’s decision to glean and then to follow Naomi’s advice are intersecting ripples in the story. Her action results in Boaz meets with the elders, and another relative, at the city gate. As was the custom, he offers the other man a chance to buy land and wed Ruth. When he declines, Boaz announced to the elders and all the people, “Today you are witnesses that I have bought from Naomi all the property of Elimelek, Kilion and Mahlon. I have also acquired Ruth the Moabite, Mahlon’s widow, as my wife, in order to maintain the name of the dead with his property, so that his name will not disappear from among his family or from his hometown.” (Ruth 4:9-10)

Boaz marries the foreign woman leaving ripples of change in the wake. Ruth has a son. The Book of Ruth ends with the statement they named him Obed. He was the father of Jesse, the father of David. (Ruth 4:17) The great King David of Israel is descended from the son of a foreign woman (Rahab) and the immigrant Moabite, Ruth. Because of her faithfulness, Ruth was welcomed into the community. Naomi supported Ruth just as Ruth supported Naomi. Together their courage and faithfulness led to the strengthening of the nation of Israel two generations later. Ruth’s insistence on going with Naomi dropped a pebble into the water. That pebble continued to eddy outward until it reached a stable in Bethlehem 1000+ years later.

Every choice we make and action we do has a ripple effect. These intersect with the actions and choices of others. Some actions cause large ripples or even waves and they join with other ripples. Some are barely noticeable. We never know where the ripples from our actions may lead.

Think about how your actions cause ripples that meet and cancel or build on other ripples around you. We’ll look more deeply at that next week.

Leah, Rachel, Jacob: Learning a new way

 For the past couple weeks, we’ve been looking at the family dynamics in the lives of Jacob, Rachel and Leah from the Hebrew Scriptures. Leah and Rachel had a competition over the number of children and the status that provided in the tribal culture. Their antagonism trickled down to their sons. This caused the sons of Leah to hate their half-brother, Joseph.

As the proud, and seemingly oblivious, father, Jacob doesn’t help the situation. Jacob loved Joseph more than all his other sons, because he had been born to him when he was old. He made a long robe with full sleeves for him. When his brothers saw that their father loved Joseph more than he loved them, they hated their brother so much that they would not speak to him in a friendly manner. (Genesis 37:3-4)

The sons of Rachel band together to throw Joseph into a pit to die, then decide to sell him into slavery. “What will we gain by killing our brother and covering up the murder? Let's sell him to these Ishmaelites. Then we won't have to hurt him; after all, he is our brother, our own flesh and blood.” His brothers agreed, and when some Midianite traders came by, the brothers pulled Joseph out of the well and sold him for twenty pieces of silver to the Ishmaelites, who took him to Egypt. (Genesis 37:26-28)

As we look at our own tendencies to dislike or even hate someone (or some culture) because they are different, how might living as Christ taught change our response?

Jesus says, You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect. (Matthew 5:43-48)

Jesus expands the meaning of neighbor in the Parable of the Good Samaritan, where it is the unexpected (hated) Samaritan who helps the wounded man. Jesus, on the cross, cries out Father, forgive them. Jesus calls us to go beyond the personal and cultural norms to build relationships and bridges instead of burning them.

What can I do in my life today and this week to create a healing opportunity in my family or in another relationship? Maybe all I can do is start to pray for someone I dislike or fear. Maybe, like this cat and dog, I can find a common ground of agreement.