Luke 2. 22-40 Dedicating ourselves for 2013

Giotto - presentation of Christ

This is a good story to look at on the first Sunday of a new year – because of one word that is used in the first verse (v. 22).  “To present him to the Lord.”  The word means dedicate, devote, consecrate.  It means to make something available for someone. When the Romans needed to get  Paul safely from Jerusalem to Caesarea  the officer in charge was told to provide (same word) mounts for him: to make them available.   It is a military word.  When Jesus was arrested, and Peter drew his sword and cut off someone’s ear,. Jesus said if he asked, his Father would send more than twelve legions of angels...(Matt 26. 53) It's the same word. Father would put those angels at Jesus' disposal.  At its root, the word literally means “to place alongside”. 

Luke (who was not Jewish so can be excused for not knowing all the details of Old Testament) tells us about three things that it looks like Mary and Joseph chose to do at the same time. 

(i) 40 days after the birth of a baby boy, an offering had to be made for cleansing after the ritual impurity associated with birth. (Lev 12. 6)
(ii) The first born child belonged to God (Ex 13. 13) and had to be redeemed – bought back from God.  This dated back to the death of the firstborn in Egypt just before Moses led the people out across the Red Sea.
(iii) Offering Jesus “back to God” for his service like Hannah offered Samuel  (1 Sam 1. 24)

At the beginning of the year, when we all make new year's resolutions, it is a good time to renew our commitment to Jesus and to one another. It is a moment of dedication; a point when we can devote ourselves to Jesus, consecrate our lives for this year.  And that actually means making ourselves available, it means setting ourselves alongside each other and alongside the stuff that God is calling us to.   And God is calling us to purity. He is calling us to freedom, to live in life instead of death; and to live in surrender.

So I want to look at the people involved in this dedication service, and to hear what God wants to say to us through their experience.

(1) There were two – maybe slightly bewildered – young people, Mary and Joseph. There are challenges to face.  There is a job to do.  There is a new life to nurture; there is a kingdom coming and their parenting is to be part of it.  “Here I am, wholly available”.

Now Mary and Joseph had already been through a lot. Parenthood is a big enough challenge at the best of times. But add in angel visitations, unplanned and miraculous pregnancy, being part of a supernatural event... being misunderstood and criticised, and to crown it all the birth happening away from home.  I would not be surprised if this young couple's  heads were spinning a bit. This dedication took place 40 days after the baby was born.  In that time they had either found some sort of lodgings in Bethlehem or travelled back to Nazareth.  They had the usual sleepless nights. They had shepherds come to visit.  They had the responsibility for bringing up this special child. 

Also, they were trying to do what was right. They knew – and respected – the Old Testament laws about purification and about every firstborn child belonging to God. 

And then, they we desperately poor.  The law required a lamb as a burnt offering and a pigeon as a sin offering: but Mary and Joseph brought two pigeons: that was what you were allowed to bring if it was all you could afford.

Maybe they are like a lot of our younger, family people.  Busy lives. Been through a lot. Struggling to come to terms with what God is doing.  Encountering this supernatural life and unsure how to engage with it. Trying to do what’s right. Struggling with financial challenges. Wondering what lies ahead....

And you stand today, on the first Sunday of 2013, at a moment of dedication, of consecration. A moment when you can say to God “Here I am, wholly available”.  I want to invite you do a moment of dedication to god.  To being clean for him; to being whole and free for him. To serving him.. But I'm not calling you first and foremost to a programme or a “new Year resolution.” I'm calling you to belonging. The cleansing, freedom, healing or service that God wants of you will flow from that.

Simeon theRighteous by
 Alexey Yegorov.
Public Domain

(2)  There were two – relieved and grateful –  old people, Simeon and Anna.  They weren't  as far as we know, related.  They possibly didn't know each other that well. Simeon was “waiting for the consolation of Israel.”  That phrase means the coming of Messiah.  Simeon, then, was desperate for God's Kingdom.   And he had received this promise from God,  that he would see Christ with his own eyes. Anna had been a widow for decades. She had married as a young girl, but after seven years of marriage she had been widowed. And she lived as a widow until she was 84... or maybe for 84 years, which would make her well over 100! She more or less lived in the temple.  Every day she was there, praying, fasting, waiting God to act.

These older saints had their spiritual, supernatural experiences, too. Luke tells us simply that the Holy Spirit was upon Simeon.  Anna was a prophetess. The lived in this divinely inspired atmosphere of expectancy, waiting for the coming of the King.  God had clearly spoken to Simeon.

They, these older saints, had been through pain, too.  Anna, certainly, had known the sadness, loss and anxiety of widowhood at an early age and a sense of loneliness through the years.  There is definitely a tinge of weariness about Simeon's little hymn: “Now you can let me depart in peace”.  

So they had experience. They had the Spirit, his gifts and insight.  They had knowledge and history behind them.  It might have been tempting for them to think that they had everything behind them and nothing in front of them.  But there they are at this moment of dedication, of consecration.  They have something to bring: prophecy, affirmation, warning, encouragement.

Maybe some of our older people feel a bit like that. We've been faithful. We're waiting for God to bless his people. Maybe we know we have our limitations: we can't get out as much as we used to. And how we long for revival.  And at this moment of consecration, you can be there.  You are part of it.  You are still called to be clean, to enter your freedom, to be available. You can pray, prophesy, bless and encourage.   You too can say “Here I am , wholly available.” 

(3) There was the baby!  Jesus.  It was he who was being dedicated to the Lord, in ceremonies that dated back to the time of Moses.  Mary and Joseph took Jesus and offered the purification sacrifices, like every other young mum had to be purified after giving birth.  And they had to “redeem” him with 5 shekels of silver, like every firstborn child. This baby, God's Son, was fully human.  And Jesus was dedicated to God, made available to God, set in God's presence for him to use.   That's what Mary and Joseph were doing. 

But what was different, is that his Heavenly Father had already dedicated him, presented him to us, made him available to us, set him alongside us... in his coming to earth.  And what is perhaps even more amazing is that in his earthly life and ministry, Jesus affirmed and lived out these dedications that were made over him....   When he was twelve, and got so absorbed in the teaching at the temple that he didn’t join his parents and the others travelling home to Nazareth, he repeated that dedication: “I must be about my father’s business" (Lk 2. 49)  When he was baptised, he re-affirmed that dedication, to do his father's will and stand alongside us .  When Peter told him off for talking about dying on a cross, Jesus said “Get behind me Satan”.  (Mk 8. 33) He was restating that commitment to serve his Father and save his world.  In the Garden of Gethsemane, he prayed “not my will but yours be done.”  (Lk 22.42) Always making himself available – on the cross. And after the resurrection, still giving of himself: he breathed on his disciples and said “receive the Holy Spirit.”  (jn 20. 22) Jesus dedication was to his Father's will, and to us.

We are called today to consecrate, to devote, ourselves to living for God – to present (same word) our bodies as living sacrifice to him (Rom 12. 1).  To consecrate ourselves to holiness.  To commit ourselves to discovering and living in the truth, to doing what we need to do to get free and healed. To be available to God and to place ourselves alongside those he wants us to serve.  And we do so because – on the Cross –  he has given and – by his Spirit –  he does give himself to us.

© Gilmour Lilly January 2012