Experiencing Joy in a Post-Christmas World

Experiencing Joy in a Post-Christmas World

Luke 2:22-35

Grace, mercy, and peace be unto you in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus the Christ. Amen.

For those of you who do not yet know me, I am Steve Garrabrant, and I am blessed to serve as vicar here at Gloria Dei as well as the Head of School at Lutheran South Academy.

Throughout the Advent season, we have been looking at experiencing joy as we approach the celebration of Christmas. So, now that Christmas has arrived, what’s next? How do we experience joy in a post-Christmas world?

How often have you experienced a time that you just didn’t want to end?

Perhaps a vacation, and you just didn’t want to return to reality…

Perhaps a movie, and you are sitting in the movie theater and you’re entrenched into the story and plot and acting, and you just didn’t want the movie to end…

Perhaps a get together with dear old friends that you haven’t seen in such a long time and even though it was a long time since seeing them it just seemed like yesterday as your reconnection seemed so natural, and you just didn’t want the reunion to end…

Or, maybe think back to time when you were a kid. Playing outside with your friends until the sun went down. Parents yelling for you to come home because dinner was ready, but you just wanted to keep on playing. You didn’t want the time to end…

Those times that you just didn’t want to end are examples of times that we have measured levels of joy in our life. We are in a state of mind of enjoyment…great or small…and when we are in that state of mind, we just don’t want it to end.

And just as you can think about those times that you just didn’t want to end, can you remember the experiences when you had great anticipation of something you just couldn’t wait to happen?

Anticipation of a vacation to a place you’ve always wanted to go…

Anticipation of reuniting with a loved one…

The first time your son or daughter who went away to college is about to return home…

Recently I just read about a study that people generally tend to have more excitement as measured by the release of dopamine levels in the brain over an anticipated event rather than the event itself. You see, when we have great anticipation about something, we get to experience joy even before the event happens.

So, Christmas has come. The anticipation complete. What’s next? How do we experience joy in a post-Christmas world?

I suggest our joy in a post-Christmas world is experienced in 3 ways. And, we can see these 3 ways manifested in the Gospel of Luke’s account of Simeon and Anna.

First, in a post-Christmas world, we experience joy in God’s promises.

Our text in Luke shows this in both accounts of Simeon and Anna. Simeon and Anna were promised that they would see the Messiah, and they had joy and praised God whey they saw Jesus being presented in the temple.

In fact, Simeon’s joyful response to meeting the Messiah gives us our Nunc Dimittis liturgy, which is named from the first 2 words in the Latin translation. As Simeon takes the very Messiah, Jesus, into his arms and blessed God, he joyfully says:

Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace,

According to your word;

For my eyes have seen your salvation

That you have prepared in the presence of all peoples,

A light for revelation to the Gentiles,

And for glory to your people Israel. (Luke 2:29-32)

Simeon’s Nunc Dimittis is a psalm-like adoration of praise to God for what He is doing for Simeon on the basis of what He did for the whole world…He sent His Son to bring salvation to all peoples—Gentiles and Jews. Simeon has the actual fulfillment of God’s promises in his arms. And as Simeon holds the baby Jesus and looks at the baby Jesus, Simeon’s eyes saw the thing God the Almighty Lord had done to save the world—God the Son came into this world to save both Gentiles and Jews.

Second, in a post-Christmas world, we experience joy in what God gives us in the here and now. We experience joy in God’s continued blessings and providential care.

While it is true that we live in a fallen world—a world depraved because of the decay of sin…a world where there is pain, suffering, disease, affliction, temptation, and physical death, God is still present…He still provides…He still blesses…and, His salvation has been prepared in the presence of all peoples.

Prior to our Advent sermon series on Joy, we had a sermon series about God’s blessings…about how we are blessed by God, and because we are continually blessed by God we became a blessing to others. Even though we live in a fallen world, God most assuredly continues to give us His blessings.

To help illustrate this, earlier in this message, I asked you to think of time that you didn’t want to end, and in doing so, I asked you to consider a child growing up and playing with his friends until dark. Imagine they are playing football or basketball… They’re friends…laughing and enjoying spending time with each other…they’re playing a game so it gets competitive…tackles in football, fouls in basketball…scraped and skinned knees and elbows…a little bit of blood, a little bit of mud…laughing and joking…smiles and maybe even some hurt feelings and tears along the way…but overall, they are having a lot of fun just being together in friendship and fellowship.

You see, their time was not perfect when they were playing together. There was some pain, some skinned and scraped knees, someone had to lose…God forbid that they end in a tie! Their time together was blessed in spite of living in an imperfect world.

It happens everywhere, right? We have good days at work, and we have days that make us cringe and wish retirement was sooner than later. We have blessed times of family reunions, until a relative shoots off their mouth and offends someone.

We get to celebrate God’s blessings even though we have all these distractions of a fallen world around us.

The same goes for Mary and Joseph when Simeon blesses them as he holds the savior of the world in his arms. He speaks specifically to Mary because Joseph isn’t going to be around when this happens. We get the indication that Joseph dies long before Jesus’ public ministry. And so Simeon specifically tells Mary: Behold, this child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is opposed and a sword will pierce through your own soul also, so that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed. (Luke 2:34-35)

Simeon is speaking of Mary’s fearful experience beneath the cross of her son. We are simply told in John 19:25, but standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. We can only imagine the agony that Mary must have been going through as she looked up from the foot of the cross at her son—the Savior of the world taking on the weight of the sins of the world.

Mary’s joy and Mary’s pain…our here and now—blessings of joy in the midst of a fallen world…but that is not the end of our joy…

No…you see, we experience joy in God’s promises…we experience joy in God’s blessings…and we experience joy in an eternal anticipation!

You see, Advent is the anticipation of Jesus coming. The first Advent was the anticipation of Jesus coming into the world…Christmas…what God promised to Simeon and Anna—that they would see the very Savior of the world being presented at the temple.

The first Advent is over. Christmas came. Jesus was born. Jesus the Word became flesh and dwelt among us (John 1:14). We are now experiencing joy in a post-Christmas world and are living in anticipation of the second Advent—when Christ comes again!

And in the anticipation of the second Advent, we share in Simeon’s excitement of salvation of both Gentiles and Jews. We also share in Anna’s excitement of the coming Savior, and like her we are moved to share that news with everyone!

Anna waited such a long time. The Gospel of Luke tells us that Anna had been a widow for 84 years and that she was married for 7 years before her husband died. If she got married at say 15 years of age, she would have been 106 when she finally saw Jesus! And what was her response? And coming up at that very hour she began to give thanks to God and to speak of him to all who were waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem (Luke 2:38).

We get excited too! Our redemption secured. Our salvation secured. And soon, at His right time, He calls us home to be with Him in the place that He has prepared for us.

We’re like those little boys…playing with friends…having so much fun even with bumps and bruises and skinned knees…and we’re enjoying our time in the fresh air…and we’re not wanting the sun go down because we’re having so much fun…but our Father stands at the door and yells our name…not because He’s angry, but because it’s time to come home. It’s dinner time. The table has been set. The food prepared. It’s time to come home and be with him and the family. And we turn to our friends and sigh a bit because it’s time to go and so we hug and high 5…but then we turn to the house and to Dad who waits for us…and we run as fast as we can because we know that supper is going to taste so good! And as we’re running into the house, he bear hugs us. And we know everything is going to be ok.

Simeon held the baby Jesus and was overjoyed. Jesus, with love and joy for us, went to the cross with arms stretched wide to hold our sins. And because of that, we have a redeemed and restored relationship with our Heavenly Father that He can and will joyfully hold us in His arms.

My friends, we live in a post-Christmas world. Jesus has come. Born, lived, suffered, died, rose from the grave, and ascended into heaven. And He will come again to judge the living and dead and to take us home to be with our Heavenly Father…world without end. Amen.