Dreams, hopes and their fulfillment (Luke 2: 22-40)

Welcome to the New Year. 2012 is less than twelve hours old, yet we’ve already begun making plans for it, haven’t we? We have special occasions marked down, anniversaries that must be both attended to and attended, places to go, people to see, and so on and so on ad infinitum. Our day planners are beginning to get filled in quite rapidly and we wonder sometimes how we’re going to successfully juggle everything at once.

We also have within those plans various dreams, things we’d like to see happen this year or perhaps, starts made on those things that mean they’re moving forward toward some future conclusion; these are also our hopes. We hope to see beyond ourselves and our present day situations, toward better days, and there is nothing wrong with that. These are the things on which we base many of our New Year’s resolutions, for it’s not so much dissatisfaction with the way things are now, as opposed to having this gut feeling that by pushing ourselves – and with a little help from our friends and God – we will see a brighter tomorrow.

Of course, there are those who don’t make any New Year’s resolutions anymore. It’s been my experience that some of those folks are ones who have grown somewhat jaded with life, who feel there’s nothing more they can do, say or see that makes any difference to the world as it is now. Things will happen and that’s that, so just get on with living. Actually, that’s not really “living” so much as “existing”, in my opinion. I feel sad for those folks, for they are displaying a distinct lack of spirituality in their lives. With a downbeat attitude, they have left precious little room for the Holy Spirit to suddenly appear and make all things new.

Dreams are a good thing, and hopes are vital to humanity’s strength and continual revitalization. Take a look at our Lukan Gospel passage for today: it opens with Mary and Joseph taking their baby Jesus at the age of eight days, to the temple to be ritually received into the Jewish faith and made holy in the eyes of the Lord, according to the Law of Moses. This was the norm; every devout Jewish family did this and we can assume there were others there to do the same thing.

And now into this ordinary, run-of-the-mill scene of faith, we are introduced to two characters: the righteous old man Simeon and the widowed prophetess Anna. Both had lived long lives and both had seen numerous hard times; Simeon had been waiting in vain for decades to see his nation, Israel, be justified against its enemies and regain its lost status, while Anna kept up a religious pilgrimage of continual fasting and prayer for years after the death of her husband. Simeon was one for whom daily temple visits were the norm; Anna never left the temple. Both had their hopes and dreams for a better tomorrow, all of which rested on their faith that the Messiah would soon come and make everything better.

You have to remember that both these people thought that the Messiah would come to Earth as a fully formed man; a tiny baby like Jesus was not on their proverbial radars. So what was it about the workings of the Holy Spirit that guided Simeon and Anna to a seemingly ordinary child of two country peasants? So they have a baby. What’s the big deal? Seen ‘em a hundred times before! So why did you bring me toward this young family, God?

If we were to think that way, then we would have missed out on seeing the Messiah for ourselves, had we been there. For you see, that kind of thinking portrays the same sort of jaded world-view I mentioned earlier, the kind found in some of the people who don’t make New Year’s resolutions for they don’t believe trying to do better will actually make a difference in the world. In other words, they’ve given up. I recall a movie from a few years ago: “As Good As It Gets”, starring Jack Nicholson. In it, he played a world-weary, obsessive compulsive hypochondriac who’s sick of the way his life is going. At one point, he’s leaving a psychiatrist’s office and passes by a bunch of other miserable-looking patients, all there hoping for mental relief. That’s when Jack looks at them and cruelly yells, “What if this is as good as it gets?”

His character had given up. He saw no hope for any sort of brighter future and no longer believed in the point of having dreams. In that movie, his was a tragic character, but the real tragedy is this: that there are people in the world who are actually like that. What causes a person to just give up on hope so readily, anyway? Do they really believe things simply can’t get any better? Do they feel like they’re somehow removed from the love of God? Or have they removed themselves because things in life aren’t going the way they want them to go? Is that it? Because if so, it’s a poor and selfish faith that chooses to no longer believe in the power of God to make the humanly impossible, possible.

That wasn’t the faith of Simeon or Anna, and it certainly wasn’t the faith of Mary and Joseph! All four of these people had very strong beliefs in the power of the Holy Spirit, and they knew that trusting it when it spoke to them was the right thing to do. They knew that that voice would be the voice of love and it would lead them in the paths of righteousness.

Simeon and Anna had seen enough in their long lifetimes that they could’ve grown world-weary and jaded, and no-one would’ve blamed them. But they didn’t; they remained strong in their faith. Their belief in the hopes of the Israelite nation and the people of God was so resolute, that when Simeon saw the baby Jesus, he saw not just another tiny child but instead, the promise of fulfillment of dreams. Simeon saw a baby that would grow up as one of God’s favoured children; Jesus would be an insider, not an outsider. Jesus would truly be with and for the people, every moment of His life! He would be the answer to all the hopes and dreams of a nation, brought about because of God’s revealed love to the world.

It was Simeon’s blessing of Jesus and His parents that made Anna come over. This woman had spent most of her entire life in the temple, waiting and praying. Her joy at seeing and recognizing the Messiah caused her to break her decades-long practice of holy solitude; she suddenly spoke openly to all those whom she met and whom she knew were similarly waiting for the Messiah, telling them not only about the Christ-child, but that their prayers had indeed been heard by God, and had at last been answered!

We in the 21st century have kinda grown used to the idea that our dreams are nice and good and all, but in all likelihood, we probably won’t see them come to pass any time soon. But what about when they do come true, when they are fulfilled? Simeon and Anna could’ve given up, but they didn’t – they lived in faith long enough to know that their hopes and dreams would become a reality within the next few decades. It was actually going to happen! God’s promise was unfolding right in front of their very eyes; is it any wonder they rejoiced with exceedingly great joy?!

It’s important for us not to give up, to keep believing. I’m reminded of those 33 Chilean miners who last year, were trapped underground for 69 days. They never gave up, not once. They had every right to give into despair and hopelessness, but by staying strong in their faith, they showed the world the power of dreams, and the joy that comes from their fulfillment. Our own hopes and dreams may not be quite so dramatic, but they’re no less personal and yes, they are all known by God. And God will answer them in God’s good time, because God loves us. As the rock band Van Halen once sang, ‘And in the end/ on dreams we will depend/ ’cause that’s what love is made of’. Yes, it is indeed the love of God which will bring humanity its greatest joy, beginning with the birth of a small child in a Bethlehem stable. As 2012 opens itself to us, let us never forget to keep our faith in the promise of Jesus, not just at Christmas, but throughout the year. Alleluia and amen.