Scripture text: Luke 2:22-40
It is widely regarded as the best of the Star Trek films:
#2, the Wrath of Khan. The valiant captain Kirk faces off against the
super-villain Khan across the depths of space in this action packed movie. But
one of the things that makes this film work so well is not simply that it is an
exciting story of good vs. evil. There is deeper element to it. It is the
story, in part, of how our valiant hero faces his own mortality.
The movie begins with Captain Kirk’s 50th birthday and
that sets the tone for the story. He’s getting older and maybe even starting to
lose his edge. That piece is brought into sharp relief when Kirk and his ship
are attacked on a routine training cruise by the vicious Khan. Ambushed. Taken
by surprise. The game of cat-and-mouse between the hero and the villain
eventually finds Kirk stranded inside the planetoid Regula. Trapped. “Buried
alive” in the words of his adversary.
His ship is under attack. His friends, his crew, and he
himself are under threat of destruction. And someone asks Kirk how he’s
feeling. “Old,” he says, “and worn out.”
Earlier this week, I attended an ELCA Ministry
Consultation on Appalachian Ministry. I served an Appalachian congregation for
11 years, so it seemed to the Synod Office that I was a good match to represent
LSS at this Consultation. I went in not knowing what to expect.
The consultation began with Bishop Ralph Dunkin, my
former bishop, giving his reflections on the recent chemical spill in WV. We
also heard from Rev. Jon Unger, a former colleague of mine from WV, who in
addition to being a Lutheran pastor is also the Majority Leader of the WV State
Senate. He talked about what the government has learned about the leak in the
weeks since it happened. The news is not good.
There is really no other way to put it. My home, my home
state, my home town, are under attack.
Then we moved on to how to address Appalachian ministry
and in particular the ELCA’s ministry arm in Appalachia, ELCMA. I have been a
part of ELCMA for nearly 15 years, longer than I have been a pastor. The story
is the same as it seems to be everywhere in the ELCA. We have no money. We have
no people. We cannot do things as we used to. Our congregations are in decline.
Our mission support is dwindling. We have to retreat. We have to withdraw. We
have to do less.
An organization of the church (and in many ways the whole
ELCA) is under threat. Friends, ministries, our work for the Gospel about which
I am passionate and dedicated is in danger of destruction. And, like Captain
Kirk, if you asked me right now how I’m feeling, I’d probably give the same
answer: “Old and worn out.”
So what does all this have to do with the festival of the
Presentation of Jesus? Quite a lot actually.
Luke’s story from his Gospel of that event in Jesus’ life
includes the introduction of two peripheral characters: Simeon and Anna.
Tradition has held (and Luke’s text confirms for one of them) that these are
people of great age. They have lived a long time, 84 years in the case of Anna.
If that is so, then Anna was probably there when Pompey
marched his Roman legions into Jerusalem. She saw the tyrant Rome take over her
land, install as puppet kings the dynasty of Herod, saw Herod the Great line
the roads of Judea with the crucified bodies of supposed rebels. Simeon may
have likewise witnessed these horrible events.
They have seen their home under attack. They have lived
their many years with their friends, their families, and themselves under
threat of destruction. After decades of this, it would be easy to imagine their
answer to the question “How do you feel?” “Old and worn out.”
But there is something else that binds us together,
characters both fiction and real. In the midst of our frustration, our
anxieties, and our worries about the people and the things that we love, there
is also faith.
Kirk believes in his people, in his crew and his friends.
His faith is not misplaced. At the end of the movie, Kirk’s best friend, the
alien Spock, sacrifices himself to get the ship’s warp engines working again so
they can escape from Khan’s final trap. He dies so the others may live.
Simeon and Anna believe in our God. They trust in his
promises and one day, they both come to the temple and a small baby is placed
into their hands, Yeshua, the son of Joseph and Mary. And both of them realize
who is this really is. He is the one they’ve been waiting for. And they know
too that this child will grow up, become a man, and then be killed upon a
cross. He will sacrifice himself to save the people from their sins. He will
die so others may live.
For me and for you, we too cling to the promises of that
same God that proved true for Simeon and Anna. We too have faced times and will
again see days when we will say we are “old and worn out.” Regardless of our actual
age and energy, we will be battered and beaten by the storms of life, the
things we hold dearest will be under threat of loss and death.
But into the midst of our darkness comes Jesus Christ,
Emmanuel, God is with us. Our darknesses may pale in comparison to past or
future generations, but there are real to us. But so too is the God who keeps
his promises, the God who keeps faith. The God who became incarnate of the
virgin and was made man in Jesus Christ. The God who loved this world enough to
come into it to die for it.
Faith is easy when life is easy. But faith is most
necessary when life is hard. Today we are gifted with the story of two people
whose lives show the truth of that, Anna and Simeon. Two people who in the
midst of horrific events knew that God would prove faithful. They were not
wrong. For us, when we face our own horrors, whatever form they take, God will
prove faithful also. His promises are not subject to the terrible whimsies of
life. They stand firm. They remain. He will not abandon us. Not now. Not ever.
Amen.
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