When we wait, we usually aren’t happy about it. I remember when I was a kid growing up, waiting was the hardest thing – especially when I was stuck at church with my parents, and I was ready to go home and play video games or watch TV, and my parents were making small talk with the same person for what seemed like hours but was probably really only ten minutes. If my kids were paying attention they’d be nodding their heads right now – they know the feeling. But it seems there’s a lot of waiting that happens in our lives, right? And most waiting isn’t really all that exceptional. We wait for the traffic light to turn green (at least I hope), we wait for someone to come to the counter at the meat department at the grocery store, we wait for Spring Training to start – you get the idea.
But there are times where waiting truly seems to matter more, where when the waiting ends, you know you’ll be entering into a new reality, either good or bad. It’s the kind of waiting where we feel like we’re in limbo, where we are stuck in a holding pattern. Maybe it’s the waiting that happens when you’ve interviewed for a new job, and you’re expecting to hear back any day on whether or not you’ll be asked to accept an offer. Maybe it’s the waiting that happens when you’ve sent out an application to your preferred college, or you’re waiting on a scholarship decision. Or maybe it’s the waiting that happens when you’re waiting for a diagnosis, wondering whether the worst case scenario for yourself or a loved one is about to come to pass. These moments of pause – when you find yourself on the brink of something new – are what we call liminal moments. They are moments at the boundary between what was and what comes next. We all have those moments in life, and sometimes they seem like more than a moment – they seem like a lifetime in and of themselves. For Simeon, his liminal moment was literally years in the making. And yet, even in the uncertainty, he trusted.
Simeon trusted that something amazing would come to pass so long as he faithfully waited. Simeon trusted that what God had promised him would be revealed in God’s time, not in his preferred window. And that trust was rewarded. We are told that Simeon, guided by the Spirit, enters the temple as Jesus is being presented, and immediately knows that Jesus is what he had been waiting for. Jesus was the one who would change not only Simeon’s world, but the world of all who would encounter him. Simeon’s words have been immortalized throughout history – “Now, Lord, you let your servant depart in peace…” For Simeon, the joy and relief he is feeling at seeing Jesus – the salvation that God has prepared – in the flesh is palpable. God has fulfilled what was promised, and Simeon now knows that God’s promise is indeed true.
I wonder what it would be like for us to respond with such joy when we encounter God’s promises fulfilled day by day? Knowing that God is indeed with us, do we recognize the goodness of God – God’s providence and how God fulfills what God has promised us – every day? Do we recognize the mundane encounter as what it can be – God’s work in action? What I mean is when we do the work that God puts before us, do we recognize that we are acting in divine accord with God? Do we recognize that we are doing the work that God has blessed, and respond accordingly? What I mean by that is when we do the work of feeding the hungry – either through our work with the Kyrene Family Resource Center, i-Help, or so many other opportunities, that is a moment where God enters in. We encounter the divine – not just in our work but also in serving our neighbor. When we do the work of building homes for those who need a fresh start, such as through Habitat for Humanity, we are welcoming God to abide in our work and in the homes of those we are helping. And when we come to comfort the grieving in their darkest moments of despair – whether it is through loss or through diagnosis, we act as God’s holy presence entering in with love and hope for a situation that seems hopeless. While Simeon’s joy may not seem appropriate in such a moment, could we still echo his hope?
Family of God, today, I hope you will find joy in all the ways – both expected and unexpected – that we encounter God with us throughout our lives. For God sent Jesus to be the one that we encounter, and through baptism we know we can never be separated from him. Every day we are renewed in baptismal waters, and every day we are given new life in him. What would happen if we recognized this promise with the joy that it deserves? Through Christ’s holy meal we know that we again receive him. Could we experience Simeon’s joy in this moment? And could we – like Anna – tell everyone we encounter of the miracle of all these things? Because joy is contagious. Hope is contagious. Despite the problems in our world, and there are indeed many, we know hope through Jesus Christ, the one that we encounter every day through our neighbor. May we see every encounter as an opportunity to live out the hope and joy present this day, and may we indeed see the salvation revealed through the Son, Jesus Christ, who reveals himself to us still, and who has and continues to fulfill the promises of God given to all God’s children.