When Revelation Finds Its Voice

“Courage is the strength of the heart grown through wonder and sorrow held together.” When hope finally arrives, are we ready to speak, or only to watch?

Presentation and Fulfillment

Luke 2:22-24

22. When the days of their purification according to the law of Moses were fulfilled, they brought him up to Jerusalem, to present him to the Lord

23. (as it is written in the law of the Lord, “Every male who opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord”),

24. and to offer a sacrifice according to that which is said in the law of the Lord, “A pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons.”

Only eight days ago, Mary gave birth to the child she cradles in her arms. Together with her husband, Joseph, they make their way through the strange city of Jerusalem to head to the temple. Today is the day prescribed by the law for Mary to be purified and the child to be presented before the Lord.

The streets are filled with strangers as the young couple and their child make their way through the city. Before they enter the temple, Mary enters the mikveh, a ritualized bath that washes her clean of ritual impurity so she can enter the temple. They perform their duty, their religious obligations.

As Mary enters the temple carrying the child in her arms, her thoughts linger on the mikveh as she ponders it in her heart. The words of the angel echo in her ears when he called her full of grace. They rang in her ears then too, as she stepped into the cool water.

Hail Mary, full of grace, HaShem is with you.

She smiled in that moment, realizing that she was stepping into HaMakom, the place where God is. God is within all things, and all things are within God. As she stepped into the water, she reconnected with the original grace that was always within her. It had not been taken away, nor had it been tarnished. These waters were a reminder of that indwelling grace and the original blessing of all creation. In those waters, she felt life, and she pondered all of these things in her heart.

Simeon and the Long Work of Waiting

Luke 2:25-28

25. Behold, there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon. This man was righteous and devout, looking for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was on him.

26. It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he should not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ.

27. He came in the Spirit into the temple. When the parents brought in the child, Jesus, that they might do concerning him according to the custom of the law,

28. then he received him into his arms, and blessed God, and said,

In the temple itself, an old man named Simeon waits. When he was younger, he was told that he would not die until he saw the face of the Messiah. He is old now and wanders the outer court of the temple, watching for families bringing their newborn children in, hoping he will see what he has waited so long for.

Anna is also in the temple, her heart full of expectant waiting, knowing that someday soon something amazing will happen and she needs to be here to see it.

Through the gates into the temple, a young family enters. From different places amongst the crowd, Simeon and Anna see them, and their hearts weep. Deep down, they know this is the moment they have been waiting for. In this moment, the yearnings of their hearts break open into an electric expectancy. The air crackles with life and possibility.

The sight of the Holy Family awakens so much joy and sorrow in Simeon’s heart. As he makes his way through the crowd, he thinks about all those years he spent waiting for this moment. Here it is, right before him, the face he had longed to see. He greets the family with kindness and joy and asks if he can hold the blessed child.

In that moment with that sweet baby in his arms, his mind opens and he sees the truth he had known all along. The same life is in him that is in this child. But this child’s life will be different from his. His life was one of preparation, and this child’s life will be one of action.

Joy arises first within him as he smiles at the sweet child’s face. Then sorrow overshadows him, as he thinks of what will happen as this sweet baby grows up and faces the power of Herod and Rome. In this moment, he understands everything. He is holding the child that holds him.

From the strength of this mutual indwelling, he knows that justice will enter the world with this child’s actions and be fortified by those who believe, act, and follow the way.

The Blessing That Tells the Truth

Luke 2:29-35

29. “Now you are releasing your servant, Master, according to your word, in peace;

30. for my eyes have seen your salvation,

31. which you have prepared before the face of all peoples;

32. a light for revelation to the nations, and the glory of your people Israel.”

33. Joseph and his mother were marveling at the things which were spoken concerning him,

34. and Simeon blessed them, and said to Mary, his mother, “Behold, this child is set for the falling and the rising of many in Israel, and for a sign which is spoken against.

35. Yes, a sword will pierce through your own soul, that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.”

Then Simeon proclaims his blessing over the child. This child will be great and will do many wondrous things. He looks at the sweet face of Mary and says that a sword will pierce her heart.

He knows the trials and tribulations that will befall this child, the same trials and tribulations that face anyone who brings light and life into this world. Many are persecuted for righteousness’ sake because the world does not want to abandon its greed, its fear, and its lust for power.

He knows her love for the child and for her people and knows that in the days to come, that love will be a two-edged sword. It will cut a way forward for her and her family, but it will also pierce her own heart. She must be ready and open, so that when those troubles come, she will not freeze, but know when to stand up and when to flee.

Anna and the Courage to Speak Publicly

Luke 2:36-38

36. There was one Anna, a prophetess, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher (she was of a great age, having lived with a husband seven years from her virginity,

37. and she had been a widow for about eighty-four years), who didn’t depart from the temple, worshiping with fastings and petitions night and day.

38. Coming up at that very hour, she gave thanks to the Lord, and spoke of him to all those who were looking for redemption in Jerusalem.

As Simeon speaks to Mary, Anna speaks to the child, to Mary, to Joseph, and to all who are seeking redemption. They are living in dark times. Rome has conquered their land, and a client king rules them with greed, fear, and lust for power in his heart.

They seek rescue, relief, someone, something, anything to come and take them away, to take away their oppressors and to help them find the peace that passes all understanding.

She speaks to the expectations present not just within her or the Holy Family, but in the crowd. She speaks to the hearts of everyone who can hear her voice. That deliverance has come.

Words That Awaken, Work Yet Unfinished

The eternal Word is incarnate in the Child. Original blessing and original grace tangibly walk amongst them. Simeon has seen it and foreseen the travails to come. Anna has spoken it and declared it in the moment.

Words have power. Spoken words, the very living words that flow with breath into the world, have power and might behind them. Words alone can shake the heart and awaken wonder.

But words alone cannot manifest the great change in the world that is needed.

All of the hope and expectations released in this moment, the long-awaited redemption of the people, have yet to fully come. Expectation prepared them for this moment. But now, it is here, and the future is unresolved, unfinished.

The world still waits for action to be taken, not just the actions of this child, but for the people to rise up and claim their place. The thrones of kings have not been toppled, and the people are not taken care of yet.

To know the good is not to do the good. To know the good is to understand what you have to do to prepare for it and to take action through it, toward it. Anna and Simeon speak a new hope into the world, and that hope must be grasped and followed and used as fuel to get us to a better world.

Expectant Waiting and the Via Creativa

Simeon and Anna waited in hope for the day that they knew would come, and in that time, they honed their skills so that they would be ready and prepared for it, so that they could speak that hope aloud for others to hear.

The power of expectant waiting is not in the action itself. The action is quite simple. We sit and we wait in hope. It is the component parts that make it difficult and that teach us the discipline we need to have in life.

In order to sit, we have to be calm, at peace, not in a state beyond conflict, but in a spacious open heartscape that allows us to rest and recuperate. Hope is not just a dream for the future. It is an animating force that awakens us to our real possibilities.

Each of us is going to have a slightly different hope. Some will want to be writers, others restaurateurs, some parents raising a family. That hope, nurtured in this expectant waiting, as we sit in the very presence of that original grace and blessing that flow through the cosmos, recognizing that the one life is in all things and through all things, takes on life and helps us find a way to move forward toward it.

In these times of expectant waiting, we are formed not into our ideal selves, but into better and better versions of ourselves, as we listen for the still, small voice to guide us, to teach us, and to help us move forward. To live is to grow and evolve and change, and it is in these times of expectant waiting that we give ourselves the time and space to grow.

Mystic, Artist, Prophet

Each of us is called to be a mystic, an artist, and a prophet. In expectant waiting, we learn how to perform all three roles.

The mystic receives, taking in the joys, wonders, and delights of the world while also recognizing the suffering that is there. The artist translates that into ideas and images we can understand and finds new ways to express it in our lives and in the world. The prophet speaks and brings those new words and images into the world so that they can heal us and others.

This alchemy, this self-change, this cycle of becoming is the one that we are called to in life and the one that we see in this story. Anna and Simeon lived their lives as mystics, receiving wisdom and understanding, and internally as artists, recreating that world and that speech so that they would have words when they were needed and necessary. When the time came, they spoke as prophets to this young family the words they needed in the moment.

In all things, they lived in right relationship: the mystic receiving, the artist translating, and the prophet speaking. This is the wisdom we need to develop in our own lives.

The Courage to Speak

We see in Anna and Simeon the courage to speak as prophets. This courage is not an innate feature within them. It is not a virtue they hone within. Courage is the strength of the heart grown and developed through delight in the wonder and awe of the universe.

It is the spaciousness we keep open within us that allows us to behold the diversity of life and to make way for suffering and pain. Courage is the power of the Via Creativa that rises up within us and gives us words to act.

When we know that we act in this world as the mother of God and as God’s child, that we co-create the cosmos together with the Living Word, all delight and sorrow meld within us into this creative compassion to speak into the world, knowing that we are inextricably part of it.

The courage of the prophets is the one that knows the wonder and joys of life and wishes to sustain and protect them. It is the wisdom of the one who has seen suffering and sorrow and wishes to prevent and heal it. These twin desires to preserve and heal are the engines that give courage strength. Through the creativity we find within us, that strength takes form and comes out as the prophet.

The Sacred Now

Throughout Advent, we have been a people who are waiting. In our prayers, we sit and we wait. In that expectant waiting, we open ourselves to hope, to compassion, and to all the things that will guide us forward and fill us with newness of life.

At Christmas, we celebrated the arrival of the Word, the Light, the Logos into the world. We have seen its activity in the world and in us, and we know that it continues to move through discourse and right relationship, through speech and art and dance, in celebration and justice-making, and even in that expectant waiting that makes space for it to arrive.

We are a people who stand between speech and action. We hold our unresolved hopes near and dear to our hearts, knowing that they are the fuel that drives us forward. Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the essence of things not seen because they have yet to happen. Faith is the driver that pushes us forward, not something we cling to because we are told to.

We seek wonder and awe and savor and delight in them wherever we find them. We make space to receive difference, to acknowledge suffering, and to grieve. We are the parents of God and the children of God, and God is as much our child as our mother.

We dance forward in life to make justice and to celebrate the world to come as we bring it into being. All of this is possible through expectant waiting, where we sit or walk or stand, and in the peace of the moment and the peace of our hearts make room for the Word to be spoken, for the Light to shine, for grief to work its magic in us, so that we have the power, creativity, and compassion to move forward.

It is important to remember that we only ever live in the sacred now. Old things have passed away and drifted beyond us. New things have not yet formed and run off before us.

When we give space for that holy moment to be present within us and wait expectantly within it, the world opens. Through mindfulness we see grace, wonder, and blessing, the suffering that needs healing, the creative powers available to us, and the justice we can make.

Do not carry the past. It is what has brought you to this moment. Do not fret over the future, for it is not yet known, as it has not formed yet.

Now is the only eternity we will know in this life. Embrace it. Embrace the creativity within you, so that in all your actions you may be a font of compassion, with the courage to be you in a world that needs you.