Luke 2:25-36
Simeon and Anna
Advent 07
Patrick Preheim
We are not yet in the Holiday season. We are close, but last I checked we are
still in Advent. Advent is a time of waiting, and that must not be confused with
holidays. I know the holiday break has commenced for teachers and students. I
know that a fair number in the business community will take tomorrow off from
work meaning that their Christmas break has begun. I know the television
commercials and paper advertisements are encouraging us to begin indulgence now.
I know these things. I also know that for a good many of us gathered here today
it is still Advent-- a time of waiting. Salvation has not yet come. And it
grieves me to say that for many in our world and some in this congregation
salvation will not come on Christmas Day. The festivities happening all around
do, in fact, heighten the disjunction for those awaiting a change of fortune. I
offer words of comfort to those of us in such emotional vulnerability and those
who care for the hurting in this season: Jesus, restoration, renewal are
coming-- hang in there and continue to wait faithful. God IS coming. We do not
know the time or place or what God will look like, but God IS coming. Continue
to watch and listen carefully.
Anna and Simeon would have to be the patron saints of those who endure years of
waiting. Simeon and Anna typically appear in scripture lessons on or after the
Christmas season. The people organizing these texts present the story of Anna
and Simeon once the Messiah has arrived and the waiting is over. The truth of
Anna and Simeon’s story, however, is that they don’t really know when or if the
Messiah will come, or even what the Messiah will look like. In all likelihood
Anna and Simeon have been waiting many Hanukkah celebrations—year after year—for
God’s Messiah to come. Biblical commentators generally agree that Anna and
Simeon were both old. Verses 26 and 29 “probably imply that Simeon is clinging
to life only so that he could see the Messiah” (Tannehill, 70). Luke reports
that Anna is eighty-four, an old age in our society or 1st century society. I am
deeply taken with the faithful waiting of Simeon and Anna. Simeon has keyed
himself to God’s spirit and allows himself to be guided to the Temple at just
the right time. Each day Anna comes to the temple to wait. She fasts. She prays.
She waits faithfully. Anna and Simeon wait year after year for the coming of
God’s messiah who will put right that which is broken. This morning I want to
give us all hope by sharing stories of those who are waiting, and likely will
continue to wait even after Christmas has come and gone.
I think I am especially sensitive to those who will continue waiting this year
on account of my grandparents. There are two Preheims living in Freeman, South
Dakota who remind me of Anna, Simeon. Otto and Sieglinda Preheim are my
grandparents. Otto is 97 and Sieglinda is 93. They lived on the farmstead where
grandpa was born until about seven years ago. Grandpa had never lived anywhere
else but the house in which was born and later inherited from his parents. We
think Otto was waiting to die out on the farm, but seven years ago grandma
suffered several small strokes which made moving to town necessary. After these
strokes had limited grandma’s sight and speech we heard her wonder aloud why she
continues to live. Since then Grandma has suffered more strokes and she is
unable to talk. My wife and I visited Otto and Sieglinda before we moved our
things to Saskatoon this fall. Grandpa showed us pictures of his graduating
class from the local Mennonite high school and pictures of the East Freeman
band; in both cases he was one of only a few who are still alive. He has no one
to share memories from the past because all his contemporaries have died. Both
my grandparents have expressed a readiness to reunite with God, and yet they
live on. Advent is a season of waiting, but the whole of my grandparent’s
existence has become a time of waiting. Otto and Sieglinda have survived another
year, and still they are waiting to see our Lord. May be they will give witness
to the Christ’s appearance in some small way within their nursing home. May be
there is no specific assignment from God this year. I trust my grandparents will
follow the Spirit’s lead this Advent and in the New Year. Grandpa still reads
the bible and a devotional to grandma even though she doesn’t appear to hear.
Grandpa still goes to worship service even though he can’t hear well. Grandpa
still prays for his family. He is waiting faithfully.
Our scripture from this morning has also sparked thoughts for me around the
topic singleness. Luke notes that Anna was a widow, age eighty-four and had only
lived with her husband seven years prior to his death. She had been a single
person in the faith community for at least fifty years, may be longer. I can
imagine the holy days were tough on her. In the early years she probably joined
her family of origin for the holidays, but after a number of years they too died
off. When everyone else gathered with their families for the Hanukkah or Purim
celebrations Anna went to the Temple. Based on my conversations with single
people my age or those who have lost spouses I am convinced that the festive
seasons are not easy. A number of years back The Mennonite devoted one of its
issues (Nov 23, 1993) to single adults in the church: young adults, divorcees,
and the widowed. I base some of my reflections from that article and my
experience with single adults. I am mindful of my single women friends in
Minneapolis. In generations past Em would have been snatched up by some young
Mennonite man. She graduated from a Mennonite High School in the east, attended
a Mennonite College in the mid-west, earned a master’s degree in music, is
thoughtful, fun, and still available at age thirty six. Younger single adults
face spoken and unspoken questions of dating, sexuality, or attitude when they
return home year after year un-partnered. Christmas is not always easy for my
friends. Divorced single adults sometimes face judgement from family or conflict
negotiating the visitation schedule of children. My brother testifies that the
most bitter conflicts around his step children occur at Christmas time. Children
become the playing field where estranged parents continue their disagreements:
competition for the biggest gift, competition for time on Christmas day,
competition for a trip to see extended family. Christmas is not always easy for
divorced single adults or their children. Older singles deal with the memories
of Christmas’ past with a marriage partner. When a person has celebrated
Christmas with a cherished marriage partner for forty years it leaves a gap when
that person dies. It is not easy to go back to being alone when a person has
experienced joy in marriage. Some of those interviewed in the Mennonite article
are content being single; others still await an opportunity to share intimately
with another. For those who are waiting, the wait can be lonely and painful. Em
has become more accepting of her singleness. She no longer uses the computer
dating services. She has created a network of friends (married and unmarried)
who will join her in doing fun things. She is not pining away. Patty, I, and
others accept her as one of our siblings and we have done much together. We have
spent holidays together. She still comes to church and accompanies hymns once a
month. I think she is waiting faithfully.
Another aspect of the Anna and Simeon story that captures my attention is the
absence of children outside the Christ child. According to Luke’s gospel Anna
spent her days and nights at the temple. Why not with her children? I do not
think it would stretch the text too much to suggest that Anna had no children.
While this may have not been a big issue for Anna, it is a big issue for many
North Americans who wish for parenthood. Mary Stimming wrote a powerful article
about being childless in December in The Christian Century (Dec 6, 2000, pp
1273-1275). I quote at length from her article.
Here we are in the midst of December—surrounded by Santa, elves and frenzied
children. Due to the intense focus on children at this time of year, the season
is often a very painful one for people who are experiencing infertility or who
have suffered a miscarriage. I recall that when my husband and I were struggling
to start a family, I once threatened to create a bonfire if I received one more
“here are my perfect children” photo…For people experiencing reproductive loss,
life can feel like an endless Advent--- waiting for the next test result,
waiting for the next cycle, waiting for the next attempt, waiting for the
pregnancy result, waiting to pass milestones in a precarious pregnancy, waiting
to know what the future holds… Ultimately, Advent is fulfilled not by a child
but through the healing of brokenness and the restoration of hope—and these
gifts are available regardless of whether we become parents or not. Of course,
there are obstacles to our reception of such a gift. For me, there was the
ever-pleasant trio of envy of others, a sense of failure about myself, and fear
about the future…Envy not of the trendy clothes or the clever housewares, but of
the pregnant women and the mothers pushing strollers. I recall feeling anger at
pregnant women “flaunting” their pregnancies, envy of their shopping expeditions
for maternity clothes and nursery items, and indignation at those pregnant women
who seemed less “deserving” of pregnancy than I…The repeated negative pregnancy
tests deepened my conviction that I was a failure…Faith helps us to accept the
often painful limits of our lives. It confirms our sense that not all is under
our will and that we are not the center of reality. Further, faith empowers us
to hope that new life can emerge from death…Martin Luther wrote a treatise on
the hiddenness of God’s revelation at Christmas. He comments on how God’s
revelation in Christ comes in a manner and form the world did not expect. The
personal ad we would script for a Saviour would seek someone powerful and
wealthy, with lots of important friends. Instead, Jesus comes to us weak, poor
and persecuted. God is hidden in the moment of revelation. The challenge to
those experiencing reproductive loss during the Christmas season, or any other
season, is to become aware of the presence of God hidden in our midst. Blood,
disappointment and death are not how we would describe our ideal meeting place
with God. But it is in those realities that God may be waiting. Our Advent is
not endless. In our waiting, God is waiting to be present to us.
It strikes me that both Anna and Simeon are members of their community who are
on the margins. They no longer produce things, they are single, they are
childless. Perhaps it is their vulnerability that enable them to see the Christ
when so many others saw just a baby. They understand vulnerability. They know
that a helpless child who dies helplessly on a cross can bring restoration. May
be it is the aged, the lonely, the barren who are best equipped to recognize the
coming of Christ. So long as they are waiting faithful. So long as WE are
waiting faithfully. Who are Anna and Simeon? Potentially everyone. They are
those among us who take vulnerability and grief and bring it to the temple in
prayer and fasting; those among us who listen for God’s spirit to lead us to the
temple at just the right moment. God give us courage to embrace our
vulnerabilities. God give us the strength to wait faithfully for the Messiah in
this Christmas season and New Year. Amen.