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+ + + In Nomine Jesu + + +
Please join me in prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
Today is the Second Day of Christmas, the day that the popular English Christmas Carol associates with the gift of two turtle doves, which pair of turtle doves only coincidentally is mentioned in the Gospel Reading for today, also the First Sunday after Christmas. The events of the Gospel Reading themselves take place some forty days after Jesus’s birth, and certainly the whole account is significant, especially for Saints Simeon and Anna’s serving as two witnesses to the otherwise-ordinary Jesus’s being the long-awaited consolation of Israel and redemption of Jerusalem. As we consider today’s Gospel Reading this morning, however, we narrow our focus particularly to the Lord’s “letting” St. Simeon “depart”—or, perhaps better, the Lord’s “releasing” St. Simeon, perhaps to “depart”—in peace (confer NIV, NASB). Thus our theme this morning is “Departing in peace”.
As we heard in the Gospel Reading, the Holy Spirit was upon St. Simeon; the Holy Spirit had revealed to St. Simeon that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ; and St. Simeon came in the Spirit into the Temple and saw Jesus as the Lord’s salvation so that St. Simeon could depart in peace. To be sure, if we believe, we have the Holy Spirit upon us, but the Holy Spirit probably has not made such a special revelation to us, arguably at least in part because we have the revelation of the Gospel Reading, and so we do not need such a special revelation in order to know that, once we have seen the Lord’s salvation, we also can depart in peace.
Do we know, think, and feel that we can depart this life in peace? If we do not know, think and feel that we can depart this life in peace, why do we not know, think, and feel that we can depart this life in peace? Do we not want to be at peace with departing this life? Of what are we afraid that we are not at peace with departing this life? Are we not at peace with departing this life because we do not trust God to work out whatever situations we might leave behind—spouses, children, grandchildren—or do we not really value the life to come more than this life? Are we not at peace with departing this life because we do not trust God’s Word about what happens when we depart this life? Or, are we not at peace with departing this life because we really do not believe that by grace through faith in Jesus Christ we are at peace with God and so we fear God’s righteous wrath and the eternal damnation that our sins deserve?
Death here and now is certainly a consequence of our sinful nature and of all of our sin, which consequence, unless the Lord comes the final time to judge the living and the dead first, we certainly will experience, but we need not experience the torment of eternal damnation. For, God calls and so enables us to turn in sorrow from our sinful nature and all of our sin, to trust Him to forgive us, and to want to stop sinning. When we so repent and believe, then God forgives us our sinful nature and all of our sin—our sins related to departing in peace and whatever our sins might be. God forgives our sin for the sake of His Son, Jesus Christ, Who suffered and died on the cross in our place, bearing our punishment for us, so that we do not have to experience the torment of eternal damnation.
Clearly St. Simeon knew, thought, and felt that he could depart this life in peace, and he knew, thought, and felt that he could depart this life in peace because his eyes had seen the Lord’s salvation in the child Jesus. Think about that miracle! In what otherwise might have appeared to be a chance encounter in the Temple Courts, the Holy Spirit led St. Simeon to recognize an otherwise ordinary 40-day old baby as the consolation of Israel, the redemption of Jerusalem. One has to be careful about judging by what the eyes see alone! As the fulfillment of all the Old Testament prophecy about the consolation of Israel and the redemption of Jerusalem, this Baby was God in human flesh. All that Joseph and Mary did in accord with the law of the Lord certainly was part of Jesus’s own obedience for us, not to mention their sacrifices’ pointing forward to His greater sacrifice of Himself on the cross for them and for us. One has to be careful about judging by what the eyes see alone! Death is victory! He comforts us by redeeming us. He makes peace between us and God. He truly is the Lord’s salvation for the people of Israel and all of the other nations, Jews and Gentiles alike, though not all people receive His salvation with repentance and faith.
For many who do repent and believe, that salvation is first given in Holy Baptism, even to little children, whom God leads to repent and believe, just as He leads anyone else to repent and believe who does repent and believe. We return to that salvation in private confession for the sake of individual Holy Absolution, during which Absolution our pastor releases us from our sins, and from which Absolution our pastor directs us to go in peace. Similarly, after we take up the Body and Blood of Christ in the bread and wine of the Sacrament of the Altar, we are directed to depart in peace, and, at least during the festival-half of the Church Year, for the Post‑Communion Canticle we even sing St. Simeon’s words in the “Nunc Dimittis”. And, that canticle is also appointed to be spoken or sung as part of the funeral service in Lutheran Service Book (281). As with the 40-day old Jesus and as with the crucified Jesus, we must be careful about judging by what the eyes see alone with the Sacraments! Water, touch, and bread and wine appear to be nothing, but combined with God’s Word at His command they are so much more, and, when we receive them in faith, they are His means of giving us His salvation.
We also must be careful about judging by what the eyes see alone with our lives in this world, both before and after a Christian’s departure from this life. Everyone’s body ages and is diminished. A good funeral home probably can make a believer’s body and an unbeliever’s body both appear to be at peace, even while their souls are immediately having opposite experiences and, after the resurrection, their bodies will be likewise. Repentant believers have seen the Lord’s salvation and receive it in faith and so can depart this life in peace—we can know and think that to be true, even when we may feel otherwise. Yet, not only when we are what is now sometimes called “actively dying” but from the very moment we become Christians and thus possess our eternal inheritance in heaven we are looking forward to when we will be with the Lord: that view—that looking forward to when we will be with the Lord—should characterize our entire lives as Christians (Pieper, III:84‑85). To be sure, we do not try to hasten our departure or put the Lord to the test, but we also know from Holy Scripture that the righteous are taken away from calamity and enter peace (Isaiah 57:1-2), that the dead who die in the Lord are blessed (Revelation 14:13). Death is victory! God has fulfilled His promises to repentant believers and answered their prayers for Him to graciously take them from this valley of sorrow to Himself in heaven (Small Catechism III:20). For repentant believers, God’s wrath is replaced by grace.
Two turtle doves or not, on the Second Day of Christmas, the First Sunday after Christmas, or any other day, like the psalmist David, our Lord, St. Stephen, and others before us, we commend ourselves, our bodies and souls, and all things to the Lord (Psalm 31:5; Luke 23:46; confer Acts 7:59), and we depart in peace.
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +