Scripture Readings, December 30, 2024

1 John 2:12-17, Psalm 96:7-10, Luke 2:36-40

Today’s Gospel continues the story of Mary and Joseph bringing Jesus to the Temple to be consecrated to the Lord. Simeon, an upright and devout man, has just recognized Jesus as the promised savior. Now Anna, a prophetess, arrives and talks about Jesus to those waiting for redemption. Both are devout Jews, both, a man and a woman, were able to recognize Jesus as the redeemer. Then Mary, Joseph and Jesus go back to Nazareth where Jesus grows up.

I’m glad Luke sees these two believers as important to telling the story of Jesus. I also like that the family goes back home where Jesus “grew and became strong,” a person that God “favors.” This has an everyday feel to it. I think that’s important for us because too often religion and the belief in God are assigned to the professionals. Priests, nuns, preachers and monks are supposed to be religious. The rest of us operate in the real world and drop-in on religious events like sacraments, Mass or prayer services. It’s as if we have to take time out for religious or spiritual activities. That’s not a helpful way to see faith or things we label spiritual because it suggests the spiritual and spiritual things are separate from regular stuff.

The problem with separating the spiritual from the everyday is that we can begin to identify the spiritual as holy and the everyday stuff as something less. All this other stuff then looks like it is keeping us from being holy because we’re all tied up with kids, work, vacations, spouses and well, life. If, however, you are Christian and believe in the Incarnation, that faith tells us all this stuff is what’s holy and blessed and part of being spiritual. It’s not separate at all.

So we have to begin to rewire our thinking to understand that belief in God and religion is a language for talking about our life values and how what we do means something. I know for many people spirituality has gotten so institutionalized, so dependent on a special language that we don’t recognize ourselves or God in it anymore. I actually think the best thing to do is to talk to other people about that problem. If we talk to others, regular other believers, about what they believe and why, it helps sort out what makes sense for us. We have good evidence that this works from today’s first reading. John is praising different groups of regular Christians, people he labels as children, fathers and young men, because they “know the Father” and “are strong” noting, “the word remains in you.” This letter from John is dealing with the problem that some people had left the community and those who remained were worried that something had gone wrong. He is reassuring them that they can know what is right and act accordingly.

So can we. All of us, just as Simeon and Anna, can recognize God in our lives. The whole point of Jesus being born is to say that God is here with us every day right with the kids, work, vacations, spouses and everything else. We just have to look for God’s presence in everyday situations, perhaps talk with a few others about how they see it and accept that we too can know “him who is from the beginning.”