Let Us Sing of Falling and Rising Again
Reflections on Luke 2.22-40
RCL Christmas 1B
31 December 2023
Holy Trinity Anglican Cathedral
New Westminster BC
If you grew up singing in an Anglican church choir or attending celebrations of morning and evening prayer, then you have had heard one if not all of the Evangelist Luke’s great gifts to Christians – the Song of Zechariah, the Song of Mary and the Song of Simeon. Over nineteen centuries of Christian devotion, these songs have found a permanent place in our services of daily prayer, the eucharist in some traditions and, more recently, the funerals of the faithful. All three songs celebrate the world being turned upside down by God in the coming into time and history of the Word made flesh, Jesus, son of Mary, son of Joseph, son of God.
In our tradition the Song of Zechariah is the gospel canticle for morning prayer and the Song of Mary the gospel canticle for evening prayer. Simeon’s song is more often used at Compline, the night prayer that brings our day to an end in faith and trust in God’s care and compassion for us. It exists in many translations, but let me share with you the translation from today’s reading:
Master, you are now dismissing your servant in peace,
according to your word,
for my eyes have seen your salvation,
which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples,
a light for revelation to the gentiles
and for glory to your people Israel. [1]
In one continuous Greek sentence are packed some important messages for you and me today as we come to the end of the year and to the end of my time with you as Vicar.
‘Master, you are dismissing your servant in peace.’ When these words are heard in the context of today’s gospel, we are immediately led to think that Simeon is speaking of his approaching death. After all, he was promised that he would not die until he saw the Messiah. But let me offer you a different interpretation. Simeon is not speaking about his death but about the completion of his mission. Our word ‘dismiss’ comes from the Latin word meaning to be sent or to be commissioned. God entrusted Simeon with a mission of waiting for the coming of the Messiah and to be among the first to see that God’s promise was going to be fulfilled. Now that he has seen Jesus, Simeon has been dismissed honourably from his first mission, waiting for the Messiah, and now begins his next mission, sharing the good news that his waiting has not been in vain.
‘(For) my eyes have seen your salvation.’ Never forget that salvation means human beings fully alive and able to become who they truly are creatures made in God’s image and called to live in God’s likeness. Salvation is not about being rescued, unless we think of rescue as being saved from false expectations and delusions about what it means to be stewards of creation and living in harmony with God, with one another and with our own souls, minds and bodies. Like Simeon, you and I have seen God’s salvation in the lives of our families, our friends, ourselves. We know that the world as God wishes it to be is not beyond our reach if we ‘think globally and act locally’.
‘(A) light for revelation to the gentiles and for glory to your people Israel.’ We who follow the way of Jesus are light to our neighbours. Our light may not always shine as brightly or as clearly as we might wish, but our life and witness wherever the followers of the way of Christ gather can bring the promise of help, of hope and of home to those who are on the edges. Our commitment to the work God has entrusted to us here brings ‘glory’ to all people of faith, especially in a world where many doubt the value of faith.
Just after Simeon proclaims his song, he also speaks words that some have interpreted as being somewhat sinister: “Then Simeon blessed them and said to his mother Mary, ‘This child is destined for the falling and the rising of many in Israel and to be a sign that will be opposed so that the inner thoughts of many will be revealed—and a sword will pierce your own soul, too.’” [2] It is not so much sinister as truthful. We proclaim a gospel that speaks of the world as it is being turned upside down to become the world as God intends it to be. There are many in our world who will find this message a threat. To be fully truthful, the gospel is a message that unsettles me as I begin my retirement with a degree of confidence, comfort and security that many here in Canada do not share. What cost am I willing to pay so that no one is hungry, no one unsafely housed, no one at risk of violence or medical distress?
But I am struck by the phrase ‘the falling and the rising’. We are used to hearing ‘the rise and fall’. But here Simeon reverses this expected order. The message of the gospel does cause many to fall – we fall from our illusions about the world, we fall from our self-pride and self-centredness, we fall from our failure to see the dignity and humanity of others who differ from us. Our falling takes many forms. But our falling is the moment when the possibility of rising becomes real. Our failures, our disappointments, our frustrations are doors that open onto ‘a better homeland’. As one of our prayers of thanksgiving puts it, “We thank you . . . for those disappointments and failures that lead us to acknowledge our dependence on you alone.’ [3]
When I preached my first sermon here on Canada Day 2018, I quoted from a song from the late Canadian folk singer, Stan Rogers, his ballad ‘The Mary Ellen Carter’. If you don’t know the song, it’s a story of a group of men trying to raise the sunken ship that had been a part of their lives and had been abandoned by its owners. The final chorus echoes Simeon’s message about falling and rising.
Rise again, rise again –
though your heart it be broken
And life about to end
No matter what you’ve lost,
be it a home, a love, a friend.
Like the Mary Ellen Carter, rise again.
Friends, as God dismisses me from my mission among, I go in peace. I go in peace because I have seen God’s salvation alive and well here among us. I go in peace, because I know that we have been and will continue to be a light in this neighbourhood and Diocese and that our ministry here does honour to our forebears who begin this congregation almost one hundred and sixty-five years ago. I go in peace because none of our falls can compare to our risings. We shall rise because the work God has begun in this congregation is not yet finished. And we shall grow in wisdom and in favour with God and with our community.
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