Sermon by Reverend Dr. John W. Mann | December 31, 2023

Luke 2:22-40

I remember how startled I was the first time that someone called me sir. I was walking down the street when a panhandler said, “Can you spare some change sir?” I thought, “Wait, what?! Are you talking to me?”

How could that be, I wasn’t old enough for that. But then, I was in my forties by that time and to someone younger, I might look like a “sir.” When did that happen, but it happened. What I began to realize about the accumulation of years, is that the calendar said one thing, but in my mind I was still this young guy, or youngish, or well a guy in his forties with three kids and a mortgage.

The music I liked when it was new was now decades old. My daughter listened to a group called, “New Kids on the Block.” What could she possibly see in them? But that’s the point of new music for newer people; their parents aren’t supposed to be “with it.” If they try too hard, it’s an embarrassment. To their children in any event.

Along the way to becoming someone occasionally called “sir,” I learned how to tell stories. Not the sort of, “When I was your age, we didn’t have all these whatever” stories. But stories that stood on their own and stood the test of time. Stories that maybe held a bit of wisdom and insight into living. Stories that my children wanted to hear and that they brought their friends to the dinner table to hear. And now the same stories my grandchildren want me to tell over again, things that happened when I was their age.

Just when I thought I had this growing older thing figured out, a front desk receptionist recently called me “Dear.” Oh well.  

Sometimes you hear it said that a person needs to act his or her age. This usually refers to people who try to act younger than they are and not being successful at it. An older person can do younger person things, but as an older person. If an older person tries to do younger person things as a younger person, then it just doesn’t work. There’s a certain kind of desperation about it. We are fortunate in this life when we can attain both age and wisdom.   

The gospel story from Luke today is about two people who attained both. Simeon and Anna. They were  in the temple when Mary and Joseph took Jesus there to be circumcised. They each recognized the infant Jesus as God’s chosen one. What allowed them to have that insight? Where did it come from?

Simeon was described as righteous and devout. That’s a good thing to be at any age. But in addition to that he is described as looking forward to the consolation of Israel. Perhaps it was the combination of being a good man, a dedicated man, but also a forward-looking man that brought the Holy Spirit to Simeon’s life.

Anna was described as a prophet. A prophet is a person who speaks truth, whether it is recognized as truth or not. She too was a devout person. Like Simeon she recognized the presence of God in Jesus. What is it that enables a person to be wise? We’ve all known wise people in our lives. It’s like a gift they possess. How do they get their wisdom? When I first started going to church, among the pillars of the church there were two men in the church who were like the senior pillars of that congregation.

One guy was Doc Salstrom. He was a retired doctor. Doc had a way with words, and he was often asked to pray at church banquets. His opinion in church councils carried a lot of weight. If Doc was for a proposal, then it had a good chance of success. If he was against it, it had no chance.

When I was in college Doc Salstrom was invited to teach our class one Sunday. This was 1973. The one thing I remember about that class was Doc’s talking to us about the proper attire for church. Our youthful dress code was not acceptable. We should not wear blue jeans to church and all this long hair was just not acceptable.

As I recall, none of us were really upset about Doc’s opinions. We talked about what he said and recognized it as a fairly common generational difference. We weren’t going to change his mind and he wasn’t going to change ours. He was like someone the French writer Anias Nin described, “We don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are.”

What Doc Salstrom said about dress codes in church is common to every generation. It’s really not about actual dress codes. What he was really saying is this: things were better before. Now that things are not like they were back when, they are not as good as then. It would be safe to say that Doc was not a forward-looking person. New ideas, new ways of doing things, new ways of dressing, mostly because they were new and different, were just not acceptable. He could have been grateful that there were so many college students in the church that we needed our own Sunday School class.

The other pillar in the church was a guy named Harley Halgren. When I started going there Harley was well into his 70’s. I was ten years old and Harley greeted me at the door. He asked me my name and he remembered my name. That little act of remembering a visiting kid’s name was an act of foresight.

When I was in high school Harley would sometimes visit the youth group. He was a welcome guest. Obviously, things had changed a lot from when Harley was our age. But he had a way of telling us about how it was back then that was not a slam on how it was now. When he talked about change, he talked about the differences between the challenges we faced. He never said anything about how anyone was dressed or the way they wore their hair.

One summer a group of Native Americans were camping out in a park near the church as part of a protest. Harley suggested we go over there and talk to them. When someone asked him why he wanted to do that, he replied, “To see what’s on their mind.”

That same summer one of the kids asked Harley if he was ever tempted. A guy his age, a pillar of faith, what could be tempted about. He said, “I am tempted in my belief. Does God really exist or is it all just wishful thinking on our part? I know what I believe, but Lord help my unbelief.”

One of the questions raised by our text this week is how do we recognize God in the midst of our particulars? Perhaps like Anna and Simeon, in order to see God we simply must be on the lookout for God. Sometimes we see God in tried and true ways, sometimes through something new. For the way we operate in this church, wisdom is collective.

What I have come to see is that people of any age can be wise. For someone who seeks wisdom, experience broadens their understanding. For someone who chooses not to be wise, experience merely confirms their fears and prejudices and adds insulation to their comfort zones. The person who refuses wisdom sees all new things as bad, because it has never been done that way before and therefore will not succeed. The wise person recognizes that not every new thing is a good thing, but that all things must be tested against time honored tradition and experience.

Jaroslav Pelikan who was a professor of history at Yale University said, “Tradition is the living faith of dead people to which we must add our chapter while we have the gift of life. Traditionalism is the dead faith of living people who fear that if anything changes, the whole enterprise will crumble.”

When we read the life of Christ, we see that he encountered both kinds of people. Much like we do today. In that, because both kinds represent difference aspects of human nature, we are the same. There will always be people who say that we can’t do something because it has never been done before. Or that the old way, because it is the tradition, is the better way. It’s not just the nature of church of but of any organization that involves people.

What we need to discover is the living faith that God makes possible for us. The living faith that allows for creative and imaginative changes, that is willing to risk failure in the pursuit of success. We need to discover the living that is not shame based; that when something doesn’t work out, you chalk it up to experience and try something else, but you don’t cut people down to size because their honest effort didn’t produce the intended results. Which is to say, we need to discover the faith based on the concept of grace.

The process of discovery is why we come to church. If you already have all the answers, then God can’t tell you much. But if you are willing to figure out what the questions are, then God will give you insight. Amen.