As these Twelve Days of Christmas continue, I appreciate the following reflection from the poet Lucy Shaw, which also provides a very different perspective for New Year’s Day:
“In the story of the life of Jesus, the first day of January is marked as the feast of his circumcision. All good Jewish boys were ritually circumcised in the first ten days of their lives. So Joseph and Mary carried the eight-day-old baby to the temple and made the required offerings, ‘according to that which is said in the law of the Lord, a pair of turtle-doves or two young pigeons.’ … As far as we know there were only three witnesses: the high priest, a very old man named Simeon, and an equally old woman named Anna. Simeon believed that he would not die until he had seen the promised Messiah, and when the baby was put in his arms, he said words which for centuries have been part of evening prayer:
‘Lord, now let your servant depart in peace
as you have promised,
For with my own eyes I have seen the Saviour
which you prepared in the sight of all people
To be a light to give light to the Gentiles,
and to be the glory of your people, Israel.’
“An old man and an old woman were the first to acknowledge that this baby was the one they had spent their lives hoping for, the Saviour that all Jews hoped for….
“Like every newborn, he has come from very far.
His eyes are blinded by the brilliance of the star.
So glorious is he, he goes to this immoderate length
To show his love for us, discarding power and strength.
Girded for war, humility his mighty dress,
He moves into the battle wholly weaponless.
“We don't know much about Jesus' early life. It's likely his father taught him carpentry, and this would have developed his muscles and helped to make him a strong man. His mother must have marvelled at him, wondered about the angel who came to her to announce his birth, and the birth itself, with the shepherds coming to bring their humble gifts, and the kings their magnificent ones.”
This upcoming second Sunday and twelfth day of Christmas, let’s join shepherds and kings and bring the gifts of our lives, and acknowledge with Simeon and Anna that this same Jesus is the one we also have spent our lives hoping for.
Your Pastor in Christ,
