The Song Of God

Luke 2: 22-40

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 firstborn male shall be designated as holy to the Lord’), and they offered a sacrifice according to what is stated in the law of the Lord, ‘a pair of turtle-doves or 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 on him. It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit 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 the 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 glory to 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 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—and a sword will pierce your own soul too.’

 There was also a prophet, Anna the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was of a great age, having lived with her husband for seven years after her marriage, then as a widow to the age of eighty-four. She never left the temple but worshipped there with fasting and prayer night and day. At that moment she came, and began to praise God and to speak about the child to all who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem.

When they had finished everything required by the law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth. The child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom; and the favour of God was upon him.

In this reading, God in his incarnation entered his own earthly temple for the very first time.  I love this scripture because the humility of God is portrayed so profoundly. It was his temple where he was honored, worshiped and magnified. Yet, in his humble humanity, he entered in complete helplessness, totally dependent on Mary and Joseph to bring him there and present him in the manner that every first-born male child was presented. He came in a way that was not special or obvious. His entrance was neither a strident bid for recognition nor a noisy demand for homage but two people who were deeply sensitive to the nuances of God immediately recognized that God had entered his own temple.

If Simeon and Anna had been relying totally on scripture to give them clues as to what God would look like when he came, they would have completely missed him. The psalm for this Sunday spoke of a strong and mighty King of glory and the first reading from Malachi implied that the arrival of the Messiah would be so awesome that no one would be able to stand in his presence. An ordinary baby brought to the temple by a poor carpenter and his wife would have been the last thing Simeon and Anna would have been watching for if all they had paid attention to was Logos or the inspired Word of God. However, Simeon and Anna had something else that was and is absolutely essential; they had relationships with God. They were connected to the Ruach HaKodesh or the Spirit of God who opens our eyes to see what we cannot see on our own, who shows us the reality of God which is above, beyond and around the corner from what we think we can see.

This is critical. If you think you know what everything should look like then you are most likely closed to Ruach HaKodesh and you will miss God when he manifests himself in his temple – the temple that is you. “Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?”  (1 Corinthians 3:16)

The priests, scribes and Pharisees thought they knew what God would look like when he came. They knew all the Law. They knew scripture inside out; they had it memorized and could recite it. They literally wore the Word of God on their foreheads and arms (phylacteries or tefillins). They had mastered it all but they completely missed God because although they knew the letter of the Law and the written Word, they had forgotten the Spirit of it. They had lost the Song of God.

The Spirit of the Word, the Song of God, is easy to miss because the Spirit is not the black and white keys of the instrument; the Spirit is the resonant tone - the music. If you simply looked at a piano, just saw the keys and then declared that because you had looked at the piano keys you had experienced the wonder of music, well, that would just be sad. Even if you knew that the keys themselves weren’t the music, there is no possibility that you could imagine and perceive what music sounds like simply from gazing at the keys. As important as those keys are, even memorizing the name of each key would not fill you with the sound of music.  

Anna and Simeon had learned to see and listen beyond the keys – beyond their head knowledge – and when the fullness of time came, they witnessed God humbly entering the temple and they heard the amazing Song of God. They didn’t even stop to say, “This can’t be, because scripture says…” They knew the resonant tone of God so well that they recognized him immediately even though there was nothing about him that fit common interpretations and expectations.

From his conception to his death, there was nothing about the Messiah that obviously fit the common interpretation of the Word and the Law. Only those who were open to a symphonic song that they had never heard before were able to hear the Song of God.

It is the same today.

We know so little yet we often become rigid in our expectations. We see the keys, think we know the song and only look for what we think God should look like and what he should sound like. God continually enters our temples unrecognized and unheard. We look for majesty and he comes poor. We look for power and he comes weak. We look for perfection and he comes handicapped and challenged. We look for ancient and he comes new and then when we look for new he comes ancient. We listen for familiar and recognizable music when we’ve never heard the totality of God’s Song. We seek to be right and sure and we cling desperately to our own crumbling dead certainties.    

Only two people were able to recognize that God had entered his temple.

Just two.