Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“Simeon took him in his arms and praised God.”
NL Daily Devotion for Sunday, December 29, 2024
by Vicar Wing Yin Li, Clergy Stuff
Main Idea: You too hold a treasure as great as Simeon and Anna once did, the treasure of a promise fulfilled. How can we keep from singing?
A friend once remarked to me that they find musicals too unrealistic. “People just start singing out of nowhere,” they complained. “When does that ever happen in real life?” My retort was that, if you read the Bible, it happens all the time! Scripture is filled with moments of spontaneous song, from Miriam’s hymn of praise following the passage through the Red Sea to Mary’s rejoicing in the promise that she would bear the savior of the world, there are moments where what God has done is so amazing that mere words will not do. There must be music and song.
While Luke does not say that Simeon and Anna sang, the church certainly thought they did. Simeon’s words became the basis for the text of the Canticle of Simeon, a fixture of evening worship and a traditional post-communion hymn, used to praise God as Anna did for what God has done. Like those who came before them, their songs were not rehearsed. They were spontaneous outbursts that came when God broke into their lives with the fulfilment of the promise of salvation. Moments so overwhelming with joy that song sprung forth.
I doubt either preacher or hearer will need to be persuaded about the power of music and song to bring words to a level of meaning they could not attain without it. What God is doing among us should be the cause for the sort of joy that begins in words but cannot be contained by them alone. As we heard on Christmas day, the incarnation of the Word is a promise of salvation, and what we see today is that this promise can’t be held by us merely as an idea or speech. It is the sort of joy that brings us from speech to song and dance, into a larger chorus that is rebirth into a new creation.
Where is the joy of Emmanuel—God with us—surging to break forth in your community? Where does it elicit joy in you? Helping your hearers connect this news to a place where it springs forth as joy is key to translating the Christmas news into a Christmas life, where our proclamation carries from speech to a life lived with joy for the world. Opening our ears to hear the song will help us find our harmony. How can we keep from singing?
