Christ
Lutheran Church on Capitol Hill, St Paul, MN
February 7, 2021 (recorded on January 30, 2021)
Malachi
3:1-4 and Luke 2:22-40 (texts for the Presentation of Our Lord)
Baptism
of Malachi Lawrence Haddorff
In the name of Jesus. Amen.
At 11:56 a.m. on Monday, December 21st when the earth’s atmosphere hit his brand-spanking-new lungs, a tiny little baby uttered his own unique OMG”—oh my goodness, I’m alive, I’m here, watch out world—I’ve arrived!
What the adults in the birthing room actually heard were none of those words. What they heard was actually a cry, a wail they’d been anticipating, an exclamation that brought relief and a few tears to the eyes of the medical team and a mom and a dad.
No articulate words—but communication, nonetheless. And since December 21st this wee one has continued communicating in clear, unmistakable fashion….conveying messages like: “I’m hungry!” “I need to sleep” or “I need my diaper changed!”
He has yet to utter his first word, but he’s been communicating every day….and that’s a good sign that he’s already living up to his name: Malachi, which is Hebrew for “my messenger.”
The shadowy biblical figure Malachi was indeed a messenger, God’s messenger….in fact, the last voice to speak in our Old Testament…and when this little-known messenger was done prophesying, there began a 400+ year period of prophetic silence….
Our gospel lesson for today narrates an even earlier episode in the breaking of that four-century-long silence, as a mother and father brought their infant son to the Temple in Jerusalem, to purify the mother after childbirth and to present their first-born son to God.
But they were interrupted, more than once, by other worshipers in the temple….strangers who spotted them and immediately broke the silence of that Holy Place to give voice to what God was now up to in this baby boy.
Like those old Busby Berkley Hollywood movies of the 1930s, in which actors and actresses suddenly burst forth into song and dance….here in Jerusalem’s Temple, bystanders step out of the shadows and break the silence of that Holy Place.
First there was a man by the name of Simeon, who had hung on for years, living on the edge of his seat, eyes peeled every moment—watching every day for the long-anticipated arrival of the Messiah.
Simeon makes a Spirit-led beeline to the Holy Family in the Holy Place….and—amazingly--the parents just hand over their infant son, entrust him to Simeon’s old arms so that he can break the silence and sing his swan song…a song that—millennia later, we Christ-followers still sing, most often after meeting and receiving our Lord in His Supper: “Lord, now let your servant go in peace, because I’ve seen all there is to see—I’ve beheld the Light that will never be quenched, a Beacon to the outsiders and the glory of the insiders, Israel’s stubbornly persevering faithful ones.”
No sooner does Simeon finish his song, than ancient Anna gets into the act.
Having attained an incredibly old age, having lived twice as long as women lived back in the 1st century A.D.….old, wrinkled Anna—the original “Church Lady”!--who basically lived in the Temple…. Anna chimes in and prophesies—foretells and “forth-tells” to anyone who’ll listen as she trots around the Holy Place, breaking the silence with her exuberant, overflowing praise for baby Jesus who would redeem, liberate God’s people.
Imagine all that….four hundred years of silence….broken by a man finally ready for his own funeral, and by a frail old lady, who had doggedly held God to God’s promises…..now uttering her ”gloria hallelujah” all around the temple precincts.
It is not lost on us this morning, that most folks who are worshiping together via Zoom aren’t present here physically in this house of worship.
This beloved, historic holy place—like thousands of church buildings across our world—has been silenced by the coronavirus pandemic….a plague—ironically!—that is spread by the movement of air—especially whenever folks are speaking, shouting, singing….or even prophesying!
We ardently wish for this seemingly endless, enforced silence to be broken…and we’re longing to be healed from all the other plagues this viral pandemic has either caused or exposed: plagues of racial strife, economic injustice, civil unrest, and the despoiling of the atmosphere that surrounds planet earth—which, Pope Francis reminds us, is our common home!
All of which is to say: we long for a breaking of the silence about everything that’s threatening us…especially that ancient unholy trinity: sin, death and the power of the devil. We pine for God in Jesus Christ to disrupt our wretched condition of being curved-in-upon-ourselves, we long for God in Jesus Christ to uncurl us and to open us up again to trust God completely, love our neighbors gracefully and care for this good earth unreservedly.
Taking our cues from Simeon’s sober warnings to mother Mary, we also acknowledge that our Lord Jesus will not make all this happen with the wave of a magic wand, but with his self-emptying life…his passionate self-sacrifice on a Roman cross…his bold assault on the gloomy house of death…his relentless defanging of the Devil,…and his rising from the grave to open up—for all his precious people--a bright, new future without end.
This whole drama of rescue that Simeon sang about and that old Anna foretold….this story of salvation will be played out again this morning… right before our eyes, in just a few moments, as we break the silence of this pandemic to baptize a little squirt named Malachi, God’s messenger.
My dear friends: today as we utter the promises of God and pour out the water in the Triune Name and light a candle, let us all remember our own baptisms into Christ….and let us remind our little ones and everyone else that they, too, are signs and instruments of God’s in-breaking strong but gentle rule over all things….and that even if we aren’t all named Malachi, we are nonetheless messengers of Christ, heralds of peace, and workers in the kingdom of God.
In the name of Jesus. Amen.
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