Anna and old age [Christmas 1; St. Luke 2:33-40]

LISTEN TO THE AUDIO HERE.

Who speaks to you today saying:

“And his father and his mother marveled at what was said about him.”

On this, the 7^th day of Christ’s Mass, Jesus has been brought to the Temple to be circumcised, to be brought into the covenant and promise of God, made to His people, that He would save them from their sins. Joseph and Mary are marveling at this covenant in the words of Simeon’s song he just sang to them which we sing every Sunday: the Nunc Dimittis.

The canticle Simeon sings upon seeing the Christ-child, we sing after seeing Him on the altar and communing with Him in the flesh.  Thus Anna also comes up to see Jesus, because she too hears the words of the Promise fulfilled in front of her face.  Yet, she quickly fades into the background from whence she came and that’s ok, because her true identity is caught up in eternity, in Jesus.

She is to be weak, so God can be strong.  She is to be barren, having a lifeless womb that is unable to bear fruit in old age, so God can be fruitful in abundance, not only giving her the Christ-child she really is asking for, but making Him born in the flesh, in her time. 

Anna’s identity is wrapped in and around what Jesus has come to do.  For while Anna was a prophetess, apparently blazing the path for future feminists’ roles in the Church, she dies, leaving an empty space.  Because, after she dies, no one notices, just as no one noticed her working in the Temple all those years. 

Anna, having lost husband and any children to speak of, lives her life in the Church, in this case the Temple, in obscurity.  In other words, she loses herself, quite literally, in the work of the Lord.  Caught up in His service to her, she is able to find some sense of healing and patience, until the Lord comes again to take her, which does not happen until she is old.

In our sins, which are many, we are barren.  We struggle all our lives to make a name for ourselves or at least leave a legacy which creates such busy-ness, you would think that we are full of life.  You would think that there is lots going on here on earth.  We attend schooling, we work, we chase dreams, we create families, and we even love.  How can God say that we are barren?

All of these things are wonderful things and we should approach them and use them to their fullest extent, as God would want us to.  But what happens when we do?  Schooling fails us.  Teachers and curriculum are not always the best and the students fail to listen.

Our jobs don’t last forever. Dreams are like wisps of wind, families are not always stable, and love is just a passing flame for over half the country and we are left alone, just like Anna.

Repent! The blessing we receive is the blessing St. Mary receives, “Behold, this child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is opposed (and a sword will pierce through your own soul also), so that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed.” 

What kind of blessing is that? The blessing is the same one we receive in having to wait an entire lifetime for Jesus. Meaning, a blessing of old age. This is the thought that is expressed by Simeon and Anna. They have been waiting, when will the glory of the Lord appear in His Temple? These two see this fulfillment, where billions before them did not.

As God promised and as Simeon declared, Anna is alive to see the birth of Jesus.  She is alive, by the grace of God, and sees her true Bridegroom coming for her in the flesh.  She sees Him take our form, placing Himself under the law for us.  He is given an earthly name and He is given the earthly sign of the Covenant between God and man: circumcision, all this to show Anna and all of us how much of a God of love He truly is.

For, we see on the cross how Jesus is the child appointed for the falling and rising of many.  First He falls in His death and burial, then He rises in His resurrection.  Then we Christians follow His pattern: dying to sin and rising to new life every day in confession and absolution.  He suffered on the cross, we suffer in water, word, bread, and wine and are forgiven.  And where forgiveness is, there is life, and salvation.

It is on the cross that Jesus accomplishes all this for us.  If it is His will, we will pass our short time on earth healthy, wealthy, and wise.  More often than not, we bear the cross in this valley of sorrow and so we learn to trust in God’s ways and God’s time.  Anna suffered many years without child and spouse, yet she still entrusted those days and burdens to her Lord.  She had nothing in life, yet she still found everything in the comfort and joy her heavenly Father gave her in Christ.

This same promise of blessing we find in the Church today.  Jesus promises that through the cross; though we lose all our earthly possessions; though our life is long and filled out or cut short, He brings His heavenly treasures down to earth where we may find them easily.  Though we lose family, we are gifted with an hundred fold in the Church.

In this way, the Church becomes the place we turn to when all else is collapsing around us.  You can have the worst day possible and yet hear the words, “given and shed for the forgiveness of sins” and give thanks to God.  You can lose loved ones and yet hear the words, “And everyone who has lost houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands, for my name’s sake, will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life”, and know that this blessing is truly yours.

It is comforting to know that when all earthly comforts fail and flee, you can still say the Lord’s Prayer and know that He hears you. It is comforting to know that your baptism will not wash off, no matter how hard sin and death scour it. It is a true comfort to hear and believe that the Christ-child is born for you and is cradled in your hands and mouth in the Lord’s Supper. Any time spent in Church is well spent, always.

It is not a surprise then that we find Anna in the Temple.  It is not a surprise that we find our selves in the Church and it is certainly no surprise to find Jesus here.  Anna flees to the rock of her salvation and He doesn’t disappoint.  He comforts her with His Psalms, His Prophets, and His Promise of salvation.  She repeats them back to Him, as if to remind Him not to forget her and, knowing that He doesn’t, He helps her and keeps her in the one true Faith.

To us waiting for the redemption of man, even to our own old age and the old age of St. Luke, it doesn’t matter how long Jesus takes.  Because for us, He takes a body just like ours and chooses to dwell and commune with us in our bodies, in the Divine Service.

This is what the Introit and Old Testament readings are talking about.  The Lord reigns from a tree and is clothed in the majestic raiment of Body and Blood. The Root of Jesse is the Son of God that suffers and dies in order that He adopt you as sons for the Kingdom.

So, we imitate Anna. She went to and stayed in the place most familiar to her.  Not her own home that was barren, but God’s house which is full of promise and where God has taken her into His very Body, making her a part of His family.  As His little child, she is made to rest and is comforted by the fact that her Lord has come to serve her salvation on a silver platter, no matter how long or short her life is.

God establishes a house not made by human hands, but from eternity, in His Son.  The true temple that Anna longed to dwell in and serve at is the Body of Jesus, as we hear Him say to the Pharisees, “Destroy this Temple and I will rebuild it in three days”.  This is why the Body and Blood of Christ is so important. 

This is why it is such a big deal to see Jesus born in the flesh, as a child, and why Simeon and Anna are prominent on the first Sunday after Christmas. The Temple is now the Body of a man. Salvation is found in the pierced hands and side of the Body of God.

This Body is God’s Temple.  This child brings about Redemption in His body and hands it out to His Body, the Church. Christmass is and remains at the Lord’s Altar. Everything else is tinsel and trimmings, at best.