Something New!
Rembrandt, Simeon In The Temple, 1669
Advent is rooted in a long history of waiting. None of us likes to wait very long, some of us less than others. As God’s people, though, we need to be prepared to wait. Even as we go through difficult personal traumas, or as we witness each day such horrific global eruptions, we must wait. Maybe that’s what Advent is teaching us, once again, as we wait for the baby Jesus to come and make all things right. That’s the Advent way.
But let us remember the key for Christians is that our waiting is only part of a larger story. The bigger story, as told by Isaiah many centuries ago, is that God is “about to do something new.” We wait with confidence. We are assured the big change is coming, maybe peace will last, maybe love will bind us together, maybe healing will make us whole, perhaps new opportunities will crop up in unexpected ways. We watch daily for new signs that something new is coming.
But here’s the deal: This baby Jesus changed everything! As we sing the songs and read the stories again, we must notice that everything revolves around this baby. We lift our voices in wonder and amazement: “The kingdom of this world / Is become the kingdom of our Lord.” Doesn’t this make our world completely new? Don’t we sing about this wonder because now we live in this new kingdom, on earth as it is in heaven?
Thomas Hardy, in his marvelous poem “The Oxen,” written in 1915, reminds us that we can still live in the wonder we used to know as children.
Christmas Eve, and twelve of the clock.
“Now they are all on their knees,”
An elder said as we sat in a flock
By the embers in hearthside ease.
We pictured the meek mild creatures where
They dwelt in their strawy pen,
Nor did it occur to one of us there
To doubt they were kneeling then.
So fair a fancy few would weave
In these years! Yet, I feel,
If someone said on Christmas Eve,
“Come; see the oxen kneel,
In the lonely barton by yonder coomb
Our childhood used to know,”
I should go with him in the gloom,
Hoping it might be so.
Don’t let the oh-so-modern skepticism rob us of our childlike wonder. Let us kneel with the oxen “in the lonely barton by yonder coomb / our childhood used to know.”
I’ve made a habit of reading the story of Simeon this time of year. You may also know of Rembrandt’s great painting Simeon In The Temple, painted the year of Rembrandt’s death in 1669. You will remember Simeon has been waiting, all of his life, for this moment to hold the baby promised so long ago. That’s the focus of the story.
And then the baby is placed in the hands of Simeon. As Rembrandt sees the story, Simeon is radiant with joy, his face aglow. His hope is now embodied. The wait is over. Something new has happened.
25 There was at that time in Jerusalem a man called Simeon. This man was upright and devout, one who watched and waited for the restoration of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. 26 It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death until he had seen the Lord’s Messiah. 27 Guided by the Spirit he came into the temple; and when the parents brought in the child Jesus . . . 28 he took him in his arms, praised God, and said:
29 ‘Now, Lord, you are releasing your servant in peace,
according to your promise.
30 For I have seen with my own eyes
the deliverance 31 you have made ready in full view of all nations:
32 a light that will bring revelation to the Gentiles
and glory to your people Israel.’33 The child’s father and mother were full of wonder at what was being said. . . .
I find myself struck with wonder too, once again. I step back, with Mary, to ponder all these things over and over. May we say this Christmas, up against all the skepticism, in the face of all the gloom, Lord, you have released us from all the waiting. This new thing you promised is here. He has arrived. Let us sing with the angels and bow with oxen. God has done something new indeed.