"Rituals for Beginning Again" January 4, 2015

Isaiah 60 Luke 2:21-34 Rituals are important to us. Rituals help to ground us, providing context and meaning, surrounding us with a witnesses who have been here before. There are rituals of Christmas and of New Year's, of Engagements and Weddings and Funerals. One that I think very important is continuing to do what that person did, baking their favorite cookies, making their favorite recipes, every Christmas Eve I can hear my father's voice in the reading of the Story. All of us, as we have been part of families giving birth to children have felt the rhythm of rituals. Rituals of Expectation. Rituals of Sharing Good News. Rituals of Naming. Rituals of Consolation and Redemption. There is the ritual of the woman telling her partner. As much as bridegrooms plan for how they will get engaged, I think women plan for how to share this news. Then there is the shared secret, that expectant glow of waiting with something only the two of you know. Then the excited ritual of telling grandparents, aunts and uncles. The nesting. The ultra-sounds and checkups. The waiting and preparing. The birth. The announcements. The Baptism, when we claim this child as part of the body of Christ. The gown passed on from generation to generation. Confirmation and for leaders Ordination. In all the years I have read this story from Luke, I made the mistake of lumping all the stories of Jesus' infancy together, which for Matthew and Luke and for Judaism were uniquely distinct rituals. Mary gave birth to her firstborn. Eight days later he was circumcised, at which point he was given a name. 31 days after the birth, because he was a firstborn son, Joseph would have sacrificed a first born calf or lamb. 40 days after giving birth, Mary and Joseph would go to the Temple at Jerusalem to make an offering of two turtledoves and two pigeons, at which time Simeon and Anna each became prophets. The Wisemen come from far corners of the earth, Herod in fear of a newborn king has the infants in Bethlehem killed, and in fear of Herod the family flee to Egypt, so that like Moses he would come up from Egypt. I fear that in our culture today, we have lost the importance of rituals. We each look for new experiences, to be the first to create something different than the world has ever known. As such we have great expectation throughout Advent for the coming of Christmas. We light each of the candles. We decorate the tree. Packages begin to appear. Relatives come. We sing Silent Night, and afterward in a post-partum depression, we look round at the wadded wrapping paper, the needles from the tree upon the floor, our debts and waistlines, and we question “Is this all there is?” and we hurriedly pack everything away as we get ready for the next. Doing so, there is no time for reflection, for meaning, for consolation and redemption. The wonder and the power of Isaiah comes in that for 59 chapters the prophet has described their dark ages, the darkness on the face of the earth. How one nation has destroyed another. How people have forgotten what they stood for, lived for and died for, as leaders and rulers quested after power, rose and were destroyed. The Nation of Israel had been beaten by the Babylonians, carried off in bondage as slaves, their Religious Temple and Capital City of Jerusalem laid waste. After decades of oppression and exile, the refugees were allowed to come Home, returned to the Promised Land, the city of David described to them by their parents and grandparents, ...but arriving, found it in rubble. At which point, Isaiah here prophesies that the Lord will console them, there will be redemption for the nation of Israel. The faith story is no longer about capturing another Tribe's Land of Milk and Honey, of establishing a King and Monarchy, but instead through the prophets what God is doing and will do, the glory and light that will shine upon them and through them to all the world. Redemption has no meaning to a people who have never lived in darkness. Consolation becomes a trophy for having participated and not won. If you watched the Rosebowl game, I was proud of the Quarterback and the Coach, in stark contrast to their team who after 29 straight victories, over two years of winning left the field as if in disgrace. The QB and the Coach remained to congratulate the victors. Instead of this being a time of expectation that after which we ask is all there is, there are rituals established to provide meaning and redemption and consolation. Matthew and Luke, the only books of the Bible which describe the birth of the Savior, name for us that after Christmas, after the Shepherds and the Angels on the 8th Day, the beginning of a new week the baby was circumcised following the Law of Abraham. In Judaism, a baby is simply referred to as “The Child” until they are circumcised and presented at the Temple, where they are given their name. At the end of the first month, in a Patriarchal society, the father recognizing this will be the head of the family makes a sacrifice. Following the Ritual of Abraham's sacrifice of Isaac, instead offering a Ram, the father was to reflect upon their faith in God and their role now no longer as an individual or a couple but as a parent. And after 40 days, that Biblical number of completion, redemption from the flood, redemption in the wilderness, after 40, Mary having given birth to her first born was to go to the Temple to make a sacrifice after which she could go out in public. In a Patriarchal society if the baby were a girl, it would be after 80 days! I have never been completely certain what that represents. And at the Temple there is Simeon and Anna, two individuals who are only named here. David Steere was a famous Presbyterian preacher and a mentor for me in Michigan growing up. David conjectured that actually Simeon went to Temple every day, and every child that was brought forward, he took in his arms like the Baboon taking up Simba in the Lion King. David always made Simeon seem so foolish that day after day, he came to the Temple, hoping and praying for the redemption of Israel, that every child would be could be the Messiah. Yet, having carried around this Sanctuary every child for the last 18 years, I have come to understand that this is not only about baptizing, or claiming, but that every child provides us a glimpse of God among us, one who is simply content to be alive. There is a pointed twist that I think we need to emphasize here. Not to the parents that “this child will pierce your heart also” but to those being ordained and installed, that being in leadership in the church is not simply about balancing budgets and making decisions, or even about responsibilities of faith. But that we live in a time of change, a time where the church is struggling with what is darkness and what is light, and making decisions as moral decisions, rituals of faith that cut our own hearts remembering the words of Jeremiah that there will come a time when the name of the Lord shall be written in each believer's heart. Which leads us to the tradition of the Kings, which in the church we have made into an afterthought, visitors for 12th Night. In trying to create rituals we have ascribed to these names Balthasar, Melchior and Caspar, representing Europe, Asia and Africa, Youth, Mid-Life and Age. Actually, we have no idea how many there were, only that there were three gifts recorded, the same gifts as recorded here in Isaiah 60. But rather than creating rituals for what this could be, we need only hear the story and understand the motivation of people. People searching for faith from the far corners of the world come to Jerusalem looking for a Savior the King of Kings. Herod was a puppet king of Rome, so jealous for power he had all his own family killed. Herod hears of this new King and filled with fear he calls his Cabinet together. His advisors could have considered things politically or economically, instead they looked to the First Testament Prophets. Here they could have picked up Isaiah 60, which would have named kings coming to Jerusalem on Camels with Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh. And identified that eventually the Messiah would have to come to Jerusalem as the seat of power. Instead, they chose the prophet Micah who had named Bethlehem as the birthplace of David to be the birthplace of the Savior. So the Wisemen went 9 miles south to this little Village, instead of Jerusalem. With rituals, it is always important what tradition you choose to follow which memories to preserve, rather than making it up as you go. Part of the wonder and beauty of Rituals is realizing we are not alone, others have gone before us and we are experiencing Rituals of Beginning Again.