I Wish I Knew Anna’s Song

Luke 2:22-40

22When the time came for their purification according to the law of Moses, Mary and Joseph brought Jesus up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord 23(as it is written in the law of the Lord, “Every firstborn male shall be designated as holy to the Lord”), 24and they offered a sacrifice according to what is stated in the law of the Lord, “a pair of turtle-doves or two young pigeons.”

25Now there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon; this man was righteous and devout, looking forward to the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit rested on him. 26It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Messiah. 27Guided by the Spirit, Simeon came into the temple; and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him what was customary under the law, 28Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying,

29“Lord, now you are dismissing your servant in peace, according to your word; 30for my eyes have seen your salvation, 31which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, 32a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel.”

33And the child’s father and mother were amazed at what was being said about him.

34Then Simeon blessed them and said to his mother Mary, “This child is destined for the falling and the rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be opposed 35so that the inner thoughts of many will be revealed— and a sword will pierce your own soul too.”

36There was also a prophet, Anna the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was of a great age, having lived with her husband for seven years after her marriage, 37then as a widow to the age of eighty-four. She never left the temple but worshipped there with fasting and prayer night and day. 38At that moment she came, and began to praise God and to speak about the child to all who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem.

39 When the parents had finished everything required by the law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth.

The child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom; and the favor of God was upon him.”

I Wish Anna I Knew Anna’s Song

I wish I knew Anna’s song.

Saint John of the Denver’s gave it a go when he penned “Annie’s Song”…

You fill up my senses
like a night in the forest
like the mountains in springtime
like a walk in the rain…

But that’s not the same thing, mind you.  Annie’s song is a tribute to someone named Annie.  Anna’s song is the tribute of her heart that we hear in today’s Gospel lesson.

I wish I knew Anna’s song.

You know, when I was a college student, young and full of dreams at Valparaiso University they had a call out wanting people to be DJ’s for the campus radio station.  In that first year at Valpo I basically made it a habit to say “yes” to everything, and so I got in line at the activities fair to give it a go.  Chatting with the upperclassman behind the table signing people up he cheerfully asked, “So, what’s your show theme going to be?”

“Theme?” I said, puzzled.  “Can’t I just play music?”

“Sure,” he said, “but shows that have a theme get listeners and get prime spots in the line-up.”

“Oh…OK.  My show’s name will be ‘CD’s That I Own.’”

He stared at me, and then wrote it on the paper.  I got the much coveted Tuesday night slot from 11pm-1am.  Let’s just say that the phone was not ringing off the hook for requests and the line-up didn’t’ really change that much in those days, mostly because I didn’t have a vast CD collection.

But what I did have I knew very well.  I knew it by heart.  I could sing every lyric, A-side and B-side, and every other side there was.  And when it came to presentation well, here’s the thing Beloved: it’s easy to present something that you know by heart.

At Jesus’ Presentation, Simeon and Anna knew him by heart.  They sing his song. 

Simeon’s song is the Nunc Dimitus, a well-worn track that has been sung by the church for over a thousand years now.  It’s sung usually at the end of a church service or, as I have done sometimes, at the hospital bed at the end of life.

It’s poetically beautiful, actually, that the song sung to Jesus in his childhood is the song we sing at the end of things.  Perhaps that’s what happens when the song of the Alpha and the Omega is sung.

And Anna, too, sings praises to God in holding this young one.  In my mind’s eye I imagine all the elderly who cradled my babies in that first year, rocking while I preached, cooing while I distributed communion.  I took my firstborn on a visit with me just a few months after he was born to see the oldest member of our community, nearing her centennial. She couldn’t hear very well, and she could barely see, but when she spied the baby with her stunted vision she asked to touch him.  I guided her aged hand to his fresh skin and marveled at how similarly their touches felt: so soft and fragile.  The oldest person I knew meeting the youngest person I knew.

It was a sign of infinity in front of me.

I don’t know Anna’s song in full…I wish I did. 

You know, my ancestors the ancient Celts called this season that we’re in right now Imbolc.  In Gaelic it means, “In the belly” because we’re in the belly of winter and about to emerge into spring.

But right now, in this season of our lives, I wonder if it’s not more like we’re Jonah in the belly of a whale. A whale where we’re swallowed by mass shootings happen far too much, where we’re choked on the reality that black and brown bodies still aren’t safe on the streets, where books are banned over prejudice, where the church feels like it’s shrinking, where pastors are tired, recessions are looming, war continues in far flung places, and with all our vast technology we still can’t get potable drinking water in some of our cities.

And in the face of all this, in the belly of this winter, this whale, I ask you: what Gospel song will we sing to combat the shadows and speak truth to the encroaching powers of chaos?

I wonder, Beloved, if we don’t hear Anna’s song in the scriptures because we are all Anna in some ways.  We are all tasked with singing the song of this Jesus one presented to us in word and bread and wine and water.

You are Anna.  I am Anna.  Her song is our song.

Her song is,

“Lift every voice and sing, till Earth and Heaven ring…”

Her song is,

“Lift high the cross, the love of Christ proclaim…”

Her song is the Psalm Jesus uttered from the cross.  Her song is the cries of anger and desperation and pain on the streets of Memphis, of Minneapolis, of St. Louis, of the girls in Iran, of children in our schools, of the teenage Mary predicting that the world was about to turn.

Is about to turn.  About to turn, turn, turn, to every season turn, turn, turn…

Justice is not the Gospel, but the Gospel calls for justice, forgiveness, and a powerless love triumphing over loveless power.

We are all empowered to sing the Gospel song of powerless love triumphing over loveless power that we hear and know and have written on our heads, our tender hands, our hearts as this Jesus is presented to us over and over again in the face of the stranger, in the face in the mirror, in the face of those the world refuses to look in the face…

In Christ we are given the power, the opportunity, to sing the Gospel song for the world, and I guess my question today is: what’s the song you’ll sing, Beloved?  What’s the song the ELCA will sing?  What’s the song on our hearts, on our lips, at receiving the Christ God continually offers to us?

Whatever the answer to that may be, in these days as we move out of this pandemic we all, I hope, have a renewed appreciation for the wonder of singing.  And so may that song, whatever it may be, grow within us, become strong, wise, full of God’s favor and, like this young Jesus, may it be unleashed upon the world to turn hearts and minds to God’s liberating love.

Amen.