PREPARED BY

KEN GEHRELS

PASTOR

CALVIN CHRISTIAN REFORMED CHURCH

NEPEAN, ONTARIO

Do you ever have trouble meeting people? Don't know how to start up a conversation or how to approach people? Do you wish that people would come up to you rather than you having to approach them? Then let me share a sure-fire way to grant you your wish - have a baby.
Yes, I'm serious, have a baby.

Ever notice how people always seem to come to parents with a baby and start some conversation about the child? "Young lady, remember these years. They're the best moments of your life."
Right. They probably don't remember the colic and teething pains and diaper rash and waking up 3 times a night for what seems like eternity.

Anyway, if we were in the temple at Jerusalem on a certain day some 2000 years ago we may have seen a sight like that:
A young couple, obviously tired from too many night feedings, but proud as peacocks with their first baby - a son. And standing beside them is an elderly man holding the child and having a grin so big on his face that he almost burst.
As he cradles the babe he seems to be singing, while mother anxiously hovers close, afraid that this old fellow might drop her precious bundle of joy.
Right behind them is a senior-aged woman, also obviously delighted at the presence of this one month old infant.

If we were like most people of the day we probably wouldn't have recognized it, but this was no ordinary baby.
This was no ordinary moment.

Two parents presenting their first born to the Lord, dedicating him to serve God in some way. That was ordinary. This was done with all first-born, as a recognition that children came from the Lord and were entrusted to the parents by His Sovereign will.

A sacrifice of purification being presented on behalf of the mother. That was ordinary, too. Not so much because the mother was sinful. But as a symbol that the one who was born was not a pure, innocent, perfect little person. Already at birth it was a stained, subject-to-sin boy or girl, destined for the same sort of life that mother and father had lived, a life with imperfections and mistakes, a life filled with disobedience to God, with sin.

What wasn't ordinary was the child himself. Having read the entire Christmas story this morning we understand that the one being dedicated was truly God's child. God's holy son - come to become human, conceived as human by supernatural means in the womb of a virgin.

What wasn't ordinary was that this holy child had come without sin, and had come to take the full load of sin of the human race - your sin, my sin. He entered our human situation, identifying fully with us,
one with us.

As a human being he would one day take the load of guilt and punishment for the sin of you and me - our sin, payed for completely by him so that no further sacrifices would ever be needed.
Jesus - the one perfect sacrifice.

Simeon doesn't fully understand all this -- because he doesn't have the perspective that we're so privileged to enjoy, the 2020 vision of looking back and seeing the full story of Jesus' life, including his death and resurrection.

But he does have this powerful urge inside of him, almost like a clear voice speaking to him;
an unmistakable sense from God that this child is the one that he has been waiting for; even more important than all his own children and grandchildren.

Here was the person God had told Simeon he would see before he died - the "Consolation of Israel," - the one who would bring peace and wholeness to the people.

And as he sees this a song of relief comes to his elderly lips.

We can't see it in English, but the original wording - in the Greek language - paints us a picture of a slave under the absolute control of his master. The master places the slave on watch duty. "Keep a lookout" the slave is told. Which he does with intensity. And then - finally - after much effort and time, he sees what he's been looking for! Reports it to his master. And is released from his duty. He can go back to his quarters and rest.
"Sovereign Lord, as you have promised,
you now dismiss your servant in peace."

But then, having spoken words of joy, Simeon's big smile evaporates. For God gives him insight. Painful insight.

Along with the sweetness and joy of this moment - the joy of God stooping down and becoming human - comes a bitter pill.

It is the recognition that what Simeon sings about with joy will be resisted and rejected by many.

Yes, there will be those who will accept Jesus as God's son, who will bow before Him and worship Him as their Lord. It will raise them up to heaven, to eternal life, to forever joy.

But there will also be those who refuse to see this little gathering in the corner of the temple as anything more than a sentimental journey of the moment. They will refuse to understand it as the Almighty Eternal God breaking into human history. They will get angry when people insist it is so. Or sneer loudly and shake their heads at the supposed stupidity of believers. Or else they will laugh lightly and walk away.
And ultimately it will destroy them; cause their downfall.

The Bible says:
"See I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame." Now to you who believe, this stone is precious. But to those who do not believe, "the stone the builders rejected has become the capstone"
and
"A stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall."
[1 Peter 2.6-8]

It's talking about Jesus -
Accept that He is God's son come to earth to save you from sin and an eternity in hell; surrender your life to His control and domination, and the life building power of God will flow and work in your life. Your place in heaven is assured. The comforting, guiding, strengthening presence of the Holy Spirit will be with you throughout your life.
It will raise you up.

Rejecting Him will trip you up, will lead God to reject you. He'll leave you to fend for yourself in this life and to spend eternity without Him.

Jesus is THE rock solid figure in a world history that is turbulent, up and down and awfully uncertain.
And, like with all rocks, you can either use them to build a solid foundation, or you can be tripped up by them and be dashed to the ground.

There will be people on both sides, says Simeon.

For Simeon and Anna, and for those who recognized in the middle of all the ordinary and predictable festivities of the past Christmas season, for ALL who recognized Jesus for what he really is, his coming will be like a divine unshakable foundation for their lives.
"The one who trusts in Him will never be put to shame."
Never - now or in eternity.

But for the others, the ones rejecting Jesus, the prospect is hellish.....

And Simeon gets this sense of foreboding. I'm sure he's not exactly aware of what it's all about. He just gets this prophetic sense that somewhere along the way there will be terrible pain in Mary's heart because of people rejecting her son.
That it will be people arresting him, torturing him, and hanging him on a cross to die - that isn't yet visible. Time will reveal that moment, when Mary stands weeping under the cross.
A moment of great pain, but a necessary moment, for it will be the moment when the sin of humanity is paid for, guilt erased, and the road to heaven reopened for those who believe in Him.

Christmas is a terrific time of year. A time of much joy, laughter, warmth and good cheer. But my friends, make no mistake. It is also a terribly serious, important time. A life-changing time.
Christmas divides the human race. Splits people into two camps, slicing like a sword - those who are for Jesus, His followers and servants;
- those who reject Him.
It's one or the other. There's no middle ground; no third option.

As Simeon speaks I can imagine him looking around the temple at all the people milling around, busy with their various activities. He has been here often and knows many of these folks. And he wonders, "what will their reaction to this Jesus be? Will he be accepted or rejected?" And he gets a tear in his eye thinking about the many who will reject him.

What about the people we know and meet?

What about us?

Mary, Joseph, Simeon, Anna...... and Jesus. Together in a little corner of the temple. Four people huddled around a baby. A very ordinary looking scene.

And yet it is a scene that ought to burn in our minds this Christmas Day. For it symbolizes the call of the Bible to us, to join the huddle around this baby, and make Him the centre of our lives.

This call comes to all people - whether a teenager or young mother as Mary was, or a strapping middle-aged tradesman as Joseph was, or a retired gentleman who has been careful in leading a clean and proper life for all his years as Simeon was, or a pious and frail widow as Anna was.

- for ALL people, all across the spectrum of human possibility, the one who laid there in the Temple as a tiny, helpless baby has to be the one around whom we huddle; the one who assumes the place of first importance in our lives.

You know, babies seem to have a way of forcing people to make choices. Many couples today have to make a choice between keeping their fast paced careers, or scaling back in order to have children. Once you have the child the choice has to be made - go back to work, or stay home full time. Throughout life having and raising children demands that parents make certain choices. That's just the way it is.

The coming of the child in Bethlehem's manger forces a huge choice on every one of us. He forced a choice from all who came into contact with Him.
Mary was given the message by the angel and chose to submit willingly as God's servant, becoming the mother of the child.
The shepherds heard the angel's message and willingly chose to go to Bethlehem and worship the child.
Simeon heard and chose to obey the inner voice and command of God to keep an eye out in the temple for the coming Saviour.

Today you and I hear the message of Christmas.
And a choice lays before us.
Perhaps you're hearing the basic message of Christmas for the first time - the call for you to submit your life to Jesus as the Son of God, the only One who can give you eternal life.
Will you choose to do that?

Perhaps you've heard it again and again. Will you chose to continue to follow this child of Christmas, and devote the coming year to His service - making and keeping Him as the central figure in your existence?

We live as consumers in a choice-filled society.
So many options. So many choices. Sometimes too many! And it almost always seems to feel like whatever we chose is fine. Whatever we happen to want or feel attracted to at the moment.
The customer is king, after all - right?

This choice is different.
It is the King confronting you - the King of heaven and earth.
Will you choose to willingly submit?

Oh yes - in one way making this choice will narrow your options for the future. You will be called to certain inevitable subsequent actions. No avoiding that.
But they will be actions that will build your future - a future that will end up in eternal rest and joy in the beauty and presence of heavenly glory with God.

Join Simeon in bowing before the baby.
Greet this Christmas morning with the joy of acknowledging God come to earth.
Welcome the Saviour.
Your Saviour.