A larger story

They  bring him to the temple to be presented to God and to get the baby's body marked with the sign of the covenant, that is to be circumcised. The Torah, which is part of the Jewish sacred texts, says that all first born belong to God and  are to be redeemed by offering a lamb or a pair of  turtle  doves or pigeons if the parents  could not afford a lamb. (Leviticus 12:1-8; Luke 2:22-24) The jewish couple were Joseph and Mary, parents to Jesus. We learn that they started a family not being able to afford a lamb for the ritual sacrifice. They were poor.

Poor parents bringing newborns to the crowded temple to be dedicated to God happened all the time, Yet, somehow a couple of seniors, who likely had hearing and seeing limitations, noticed a difference with  this couple. These two old folks had physical and likely support network limitations. They  couldn’t afford to be comfortably sitting at a seniors home being cared for and entertained. (Ok, Ok. Senior homes were not a thing back then.) These two seniors did not have a family looking after them in their old age, so they hung out in the temple all the time.  (Where do you hang out all the time?)

Luke tells us:”Now there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon, who was righteous and devout. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was on him.   It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord’s Messiah.  Moved by the Spirit, he went into the temple courts. When the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him what the custom of the Law required,   Simeon took him in his arms and praised God” (Luke 2: 25-28)   

What moved old Simeon was not his motorized scooter, but the Holy Spirit. (What moves you?)

Luke also tells us about Anna: “There was also a prophet, Anna, the daughter of Penuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was very old; she had lived with her husband seven years after her marriage,  and then was a widow until she was eighty-four.  She never left the temple but worshiped night and day, fasting and praying. Coming up to them at that very moment, she gave thanks to God and spoke about the child to all who were looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem.” (Luke 2:36-38)

I wonder what made Anna come to this particular jewish couple at that particular time? Maybe it was her intuition informed by her worship, fasting and praying. 

These two groups of people: a poor family with a newborn and a couple of seniors with a poor support system meet at a crowded place of worship.  The perfect timing and the meaning of their  encounter is  so deep that it will take a lifetime of learning and meditating. Anna’s tribe Asher was a northern ‘lost’ tribe who gets to see the Messiah. Penuel could be connected to Jacob’s Peniel,  and to seeing God face to face (Like Anna did)?  

Little did Mary and Joseph know that even though they could only afford a couple of birds for the sacrifice,  their own son was the most precious and perfect lamb the world could have ever afford.  Little did Simeon and Anna know that their senior frailty and grandkids-less lives would lead them to spend time in the temple and eventually get to hold the most precious new life gifted to humanity: Jesus. 

So, in the midst of all your lived cultural practices, of all the things you can't afford (Mary and Joseph could only afford pigeons) and all the loss and frailty (Anna's and Simeons) and the business of places (like the temple), there is a much larger story at play: the Messiah has been born! Someone bigger is coming to life.