The enactment of religious rituals for children in the Jewish faith of Jesus' time is the background of this only biblical glimpse we have of Jesus' early infancy. This luminous text of hope from Luke's Gospel is pictorial in its rendering of Jesus presentation at the Temple. As a newborn, he is brought by his parents to be circumcised and officially named, following the custom of their faith.
Luke's description of Jesus' bris at the age of eight days leaves an indelible tableau in our mind's eye. Four adults are part of the scene, eager to see this child launched with due ceremony and love. We can almost see them posed on the front steps of the Temple! They are proud, happy and awed by this child. Along with Jesus' parents, there are two other adults of deep piety, Simeon and Anna, who respond to the occasion. These two devout and faithful people are recorded as praising God. God has granted them the opportunity to witness the arrival of an infant whom they understand to be the central change agent for the cosmos.
This story of a baby's first religious rituals prompts the memories of many adults whose own parents involved them at an early age in the practices of their faith. Luke paints a touching and very typical picture of just such an occasion. Today, even though obscured in the unknowingness of early infancy, how many adults still cherish the pictures and artifacts from their own infancy rituals? Caregivers of all sorts save a scrapbook of pictures, perhaps a special robe, a candle, a signed guestbook or maybe a picture of the banquet table of well-wishers. All of these are reminders which can still bear meaning for adults about the religious and personal commitments caregivers made for them as infants.
The child, Jesus, launched into the world, through the faithful hopes and practices of his parents and others, prompts the Gospel writer to conclude: "The child grew and became strong..."
Paradoxically this text, while focused on Jesus throughout, also records the responses of the adults around him to the child. In fact, this text poses a critical set of questions for adults who have anything to do with children, be they parents, members of religious communities or the general public.
Luke's words portray a picture of hope, innocence and adult concern for the infant Jesus. His words foster nostalgia and loving sentiments. This child, Jesus, has received a strong start in life. But in juxtaposing this text with some of today's facts and realities about children, the biblical passage slashes across our lives with one harsh notice: "Warning!"
WATCH "The Quest to End Child Trafficking":
This lectionary text marks the first day of the New Year. Nevertheless, the contemporary on-going violent abuse of children haunts its very reading. Whether one speaks of global venues or domestic ones, signifiers of this reality are heard everywhere in such phrases as "Penn State," "sex tourism" and "child trafficking." Recent analysis of the fashion in which all 50 states in America are enforcing existing laws to protect children yields a dismal picture of how adults are not protecting children.
Luke's words have at their center a child: surely a prompt to everyone to consider the treatment of children today. What does it mean to cherish and value children? Several years ago a proverbial phrase was popularized through a speech; "It takes a village to raise a child." How true in the best sense of that phrase. And yet, there is ready and ugly evidence that communities of varied sorts are devoted to the destruction of children, particularly through sexual trafficking. One witnesses this in the print and electronic media and in the reports about those who have been caught vandalizing the souls and bodies of children. Indeed, the incredible commodifying of children's lives and bodies can be seen on the streets and hidden rooms of both large urban centers and smaller towns throughout America.
This destruction of children through sexual trafficking stands in absolute contrast to the Lucan story of the nourishing and flourishing of children. Children's bodies instead of being blessed and protected are bought and sold by adults. These adults seek only to gain obscure and profit from them.
In the words and acts of the devout adults who bless Jesus, Luke offers an unsettling warning of his own about this child, Jesus. Simeon notes to Mary, his mother, that her child will cause "the rising and falling" of many. What will happen to her son will cause her own heart to be pierced as though by a sword. Furthermore, Anna's act of endurance involves fasting. Fasting does not signify feasting. To the contrary it signifies that there are things yet to be accomplished and fulfilled. Anna was also keenly aware of the need for the coming redemption. The child, Jesus, exemplified that for her.
Within this text of love and support for a child, we unmistakably hear the note of justice sounded clearly. Indeed the rising and falling of many has and will occur in terms of their treatment of children. Luke's words have set both the model of parental and adult love for children and they also challenge all adults to ask: "How are we caring for our children today?"
Editor's Note: ON Scripture is a series of Christian scripture commentaries produced in collaboration with Odyssey Networks. Each week pastors from around the country will approach the lectionary text of the week through the lens of current events, providing a religious voice that is both pastoral and prophetic.
Luke 2:22-40 NIV - Jesus Presented in the Temple - When - Bible ...
Luke 2:22 "their purification" or "her purification"? A Test-Case for ...
this global village leaves many cracks in it, and leaves people staring at their screens chatting and caring about some person 10,000 miles away when theres domestic abuse and homelessness going on across the street, and if you could just take your eyes off your screen every once in awhile, maybe you could go meet your neighbor, play ball with the kid next door, or just share a smile and a simple hello instead of putting on your ear buds and ipod before stepping out the door.
Many people now suffer in America and around the world because of the culture of greed and self-interest that was sold to Americans in 1980 as being "patriotic and religious" by those who violated the intent of the Founding Fathers.
Now we should realize how and why so many Americans were fooled, and why so many still are.
Just read and listen to someone who dares to tell the truth, who does not merely decry about the corruption, greed and injustice. He says who and what is responsible for it, at http://www.soundclick.com/ttap
Deport their parents if they can't prove they're here legally.
Launched? LAUNCHED? What is he, a cruise liner? Rev. Dr Hedal ignores the child at the centre of the scene and what is being done to him.
Perhaps Luke's description is not enough. Mantegna's painting of the scene in the Uffizi (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/43/Andrea_Mantegna_-_The_Circumcision_-_WGA13957.jpg) captures more. The piteous look on the child's face as he turns helplessly towards his mother and away from the gimlet-eyed old man who is advancing on his genitals with a sharp knife. The kindly mother (St Anne? St Elizabeth?) who turns her son's face away from the impending horror.
There is a sermon about violence against children in this text, but Rev Dr Hedal has missed it.
Thanks for the post.
we define ourselves by the gadgets we buy and the expensive toys and cars and jewelry. now a days people wont even stop to help someone for fear that there is something more going on that we dont know about. NYC isnt the only city where people walk over dead people, or look the other way from a knife fight/robbery, or let other atrocities go on around us. this apathy is going on everywher because this supposed free-market society we built around ourselves doesnt promote helping others.
where in economics does it say, love thy neighbor as thyself? it doesnt. it says the opposite. compete with thy neighbor because resources are limited, so that you and yours can grow. well, theres the problem. we dont deserve a free market system. its killing us from the inside out.
This exclusive ideals that the Bible and God are the only ways to instruct a child, and that the Bible represents the objectively best option for proper upbringing are disparaging. Surely it is common sense to maintain proper behavior in front of children, by respecting different opinions, and moderating our vices. However, these common sense values are not solely nor exclusively limited to the Bible.
We gift computers, cars, phones, and iPads upon our youth because that is the way this world operates: through the invisible connections of the internet and technology. To ignore this is to ignore the fact that you just shared cultural insight through fluid media using this technology. It's the way we communicate.
Now, nothing in the Bible communicates the proper use of an iPad, a car, or a cell phone. What we can glean from that is that the Bible was not constructed as an eternal guidebook to the changes of society. The writings of the Bible reflect the times in which they were written, thousands of years ago for an ancient people, not a modern society.
However, we live in an age if improbable amounts of data and information, and our children are immersed in this from the get-go. Technology allows us to parse the data and to see the world in a multicultural and multifaceted lens that was never before available, and in ways that will be again obsolete in the coming years.
So our children may never hear the words of God, but they are hearing the words of Gandhi, Confucius, Dr. King, Marx, Gurus, priests and rabbis alike with this technology. The world is much bigger than the Bible, and our children are learning that at a surprising rate. Ideas are not as limited in their reach as they once were.
Go ahead and look for the sky god (I am not sure of God), but I think WE have been abandoned since the beginning. And no, the bible is only evidence of someone having written those words down, and redacted and redacted and redacted them.
BZ.
And most of the time there are in front of a tv or in thier room or doing thier own thing...
We forgot that about what the bible says about man and wife.... Our system of things in this earth is that we live in stead of getting married and that makes room for either party to leave at any time without thinking about what the bible says about man and wife must stick together .. They must have been yoke together and they shall be one flesh.. It all boils down to that person.. If the follow what the Bible teaches (Basic, Instruction,Believes ,Living ,Everlasting......
The ability to cherish and value children doesn't come from religion, it comes from parents. This article is a testament to emotional language and how it can be used to sway your judgement.