May the words of my mouth, and the meditations of our hearts, be acceptable in your sight, Oh Lord. For you are our strength and our redeemer. Amen.

In the scripture readings, we hear of the shining faces of those who communicate with God. In fact, we are called to tear off the veil of Moses and to speak the truth boldly.

So how is God speaking to us now?

As a Lutheran pastor’s daughter, who only reluctantly takes on the role of Sunday School Teacher, I feel a great trepidation by standing behind the pulpit on the Sunday of the reading of the Transfiguration.
So I trust that the answer to this question, “How is God speaking to us now?” will be answered through the biographies that these students have chosen. Reverend Susan lent me a book, “Ten Amazing People and How They Changed the World.”

I paraphrase from the introduction, “Here in this book are ten human beings, like Desmond Tutu, Dorothy Day, Black Elk, Mahatma Gandhi, who lived in the past, yet remain with us today. What they believed, and even more important, what they did to uphold their beliefs, values, and principles keeps them still very much alive with us. These ten people from the past can help us all think of the future: what needs to be done if this world of ours is to become a better one for all who enter it as children.”
The Live at Five Sunday School program has begun in fits and starts, but with these students, we have begun an inquiry process that is a spiritual pilgrimage. We do not know where this profound undertaking will lead us, but we trust in God to guide our way.

As a community, we knew that we wanted to have the children be more active participants in our worship together. Consider this some of the early fruits of our intentions, and efforts.

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Albert Schweitzer was born in Europe, but spent much of his adult life in Africa. He was a successful musician and pastor, but chose to go to medical school even after having much success in life. Schweitzer decided that he wanted to show his belief in God by working with his hands, as Jesus did, and by caring for other people. He chose to go to Medical School when he heard about how desperately doctors were needed in Africa.

In Africa, he worked hard to cure people of tropical diseases like malaria and sleeping sickness. He built hospitals and kept writing about how to follow Jesus. When he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, he used the million-dollar prize to build a special colony for people with leprosy. His reverence for all living things is an inspiration for many today.

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Martin Luther King Junior first heard about Gandhi’s idea of peaceful protest when he was studying to become a Baptist minister in Pennsylvania. When he returned to Montgomery, Alabama, he put those ideas to work in nonviolent protests to end segregation between Blacks and Whites. He organized bus boycotts and brought the black churches together to work for justice and the end of racism in the South.
King is best remembered for his speech in Washington, DC, when he shared his dream of a time when all God’s children would live in freedom. Like Schweitzer, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his civil rights work. His dream of freedom is an inspiration for many today.
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“I’m for truth, no matter who tells it.
I’m for justice, no matter who it’s for or against.
I believe in recognizing every human being as a human being—neither white, black, brown, or red.”

Malcolm X started out life as a young criminal who was put in prison for armed robbery. But he turned his life around by converting to Islam and working for the empowerment of African Americans. He rejected his given name, Malcolm Little, and became Malcolm X to symbolize the legacy of his family that was lost through slavery.

For many years, he was the minister of a temple in New York City and worked to improve conditions in black communities throughout the United States. In 1964, Malcolm X went on a sacred pilgrimage to the holy city of Mecca. When he saw blacks and whites together offering prayers to Allah, the Arabic name of God, it gave him hope that all races could live in harmony. For choosing courage over fear throughout his life, he is an inspiration for many today.

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What veils have been stripped away for you today? That those who pray to Allah are praying to someone different? That powerful words don’t come from the young? Perhaps we all already knew Schweitzer’s insight, that Jesus comes to us as one unknown, and speaks to us from our own personal experience.

Just like the candles you brought in to bless last week, and the way their light can lead you in your path, we can also see this light through others, who can reveal the light of God’s countenance to us.

In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.

 
Albert Schweitzer was born in Europe, but spent much of his adult life in Africa. He was a successful musician and pastor, but chose to go to medical school even after having much success in life. Schweitzer decided that he wanted to show his belief in God by working with his hands, as Jesus did, and by caring for other people. He chose to go to Medical School when he heard about how desperately doctors were needed in Africa.
In Africa, he worked hard to cure people of tropical diseases like malaria and sleeping sickness. He built hospitals and kept writing about how to follow Jesus. When he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, he used the million-dollar prize to build a special colony for people with leprosy. His reverence for all living things is an inspiration for many today.
 
Martin Luther King Junior first heard about Gandhi’s idea of peaceful protest when he was studying to become a Baptist minister in Pennsylvania. When he returned to Montgomery, Alabama, he put those ideas to work in nonviolent protests to end segregation between Blacks and Whites. He organized bus boycotts and brought the black churches together to work for justice and the end of racism in the South.
King is best remembered for his speech in Washington, DC, when he shared his dream of a time when all God’s children would live in freedom. Like Schweitzer, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his civil rights work. His dream of freedom is an inspiration for many today.
 
“I’m for truth, no matter who tells it.
I’m for justice, no matter who it’s for or against.
I believe in recognizing every human being as a human being—neither white, black, brown, or red.”

Malcolm X started out life as a young criminal who was put in prison for armed robbery. But he turned his life around by converting to Islam and working for the empowerment of African Americans. He rejected his given name, Malcolm Little, and became Malcolm X to symbolize the legacy of his family that was lost through slavery.

For many years, he was the minister of a temple in New York City and worked to improve conditions in black communities throughout the United States. In 1964, Malcolm X went on a sacred pilgrimage to the holy city of Mecca. When he saw blacks and whites together offering prayers to Allah, the Arabic name of God, it gave him hope that all races could live in harmony. For choosing courage over fear throughout his life, he is an inspiration for many today.

Simeon’s Song:
A Sermon Preached by the Rev. Susan Allison-Hatch

There he is, standing just inside the temple gates, his eyes scanning the approaching crowd.  What is he watching for? What is he waiting for?

There he is, standing where he has stood so many times before.  There he is, his gentle eyes searching the people coming towards him.

In the distance, he sees a man and a woman making their way towards the temple.  She’s carrying a baby; he’s carrying a cage with two pigeons.  

“Hmm,”  the old man says to himself, “Another child ready to be presented; another baby to be dedicated.”  

Reaching out, he takes the child into his wizened arms.  Holding him gently, the old man’s clouded eyes meet those little bright brown eyes.  He needn’t ask, “Is this the one who is to come.”  He knows the answer to that question.  This is the one.  

He takes a long, deep breath, closes his eyes and prays,
“Master, now you are dismissing your servant in peace, according to 
your word; for my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have 
prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the 
Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel.” (Luke 2:  29-32)

I like to think that wasn’t the first time—and maybe not the last time—old man Simeon prayed that prayer.  

I like to think that early on—long before cataracts clouded his eyes, long before whiskers sprouted on his face, maybe even before his voice went deep—Simeon was taking babies in his arms, looking into their eyes, and praying that prayer.

Maybe it was as a baby that Simeon first prayed that prayer.  Maybe not in those words but surely in the seeing and in the reaching out.  

I imagine Simeon a young boy sitting in the temple courtyard, listening to the rabbis, looking around, catching and holding another in his gaze and saying with all the confidence he can summon up, “This is the one.  This is the one who bears God’s image.  This is the one who is to come.”

Taking a look at a little baby, seeing hope, seeing salvation and saying, “Lord, you now have set your servant free to go in peace as you have promised” takes some chutzpah.  That kind of confidence, that kind of surety, that kind of faith is not born in a moment.  It comes from a lifetime of looking out expectantly at the world and at the moment.  

The author of the Letter to the Hebrews says, “Now Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”   Seeing things not as they appear but as they are deep inside.  Seeing the possibility, the potential, the promise in the person or the moment before you.  That’s a gift.  A gift of grace that grows over time. A gift we can give one another.

I imagine that all of us in this room tonight have people in our lives who have that gift—people who see the possibility within others; people who pave the way for others to grow into the possibilities, the gifts of their lives; people who see Christ’s light shining through the darkness.  

Tonight we are celebrating Dia de la Candelaria—the Feast of Candlemas.  Over a thousand years ago on this night people prayed as they carried their candles in procession, 

“Our bright shining candles are a sign of divine splendor of the one who comes to expel the dark shadows of evil and to make the whole universe radiant.”

But that radiance depends more than a little on you and me.  We, you and I, are Simeons to the world in which we live.  Scanning the crowd before us, we reach out to the smallest, the most vulnerable, the poorest, the least.  We take them in our arms, we cradle them, and we say to them with all the confidence we can summon up, “You are the one.  You bear God’s image.  You are the saviors of the world.”  Then we do what we can to help them and us live into the future God has prepared for us since the beginning of time.

We're sorry, the full text for this sermon is not available at this time.

I have always wondered what kind of relationship Jesus and his cousin John had. John was the first person to ever recognize Jesus when he lept for joy when Mary came to visit his mother Elizabeth. Were they cousins who played games and visited each other? Did John ever come to Nazareth to visit with Jesus and his parents? Did they spend summer vacations with each other? Did they ever get into trouble with their mothers for doing dumb and dangerous things? My answer and my hope is yes, because after all, they were kids. 

Could you imagine if they were the same as kids as they were as adults? No one would want to play games with Jesus because he was so perfect…he hit a home run every time. And no one would trade lunches with John because all he ever had was honey and grasshoppers. Yuck! 

But eventually, they grew up. Jesus, the carpenter, and John, the voice of one crying in the wilderness, “Prepare the way for the Lord. Repent!” John the preacher, who was baptizing people in the Jordan River. And he lets everyone know he is not the Messiah. “I baptize you with water, but the one coming after me will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.” 

Then came that fateful day. The story of John’s preaching and Jesus’ baptism is the first story to appear in all four gospels because Jesus’ ministry begins here. Most people ask, why would Jesus even need to be baptized? Even John said, 
“I need to be baptized by you and yet you are coming to me?”

I love this explanation from a sermon by Saint Maximus of Turin entitled,
The mystery of the Lord’s baptism:

The Gospel tells us that the Lord went to the Jordan River to be baptized and that he wished to consecrate himself in the river by signs from heaven. Reason demands that this feast of the Lord’s baptism, should follow soon after the Lord’s birthday, during the same season, even though many years intervened between the two events.

At Christmas he was born a man; today he is reborn sacramentally. Then he was born from the Virgin; today he is born in mystery. When he was born a man, his mother Mary held him close to her heart; when he is born in mystery, God the Father embraces him with his voice when he says: This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased: listen to him. 

The mother caresses the tender baby on her lap; the Father serves his Son by his loving testimony. The mother holds the child for the Magi to adore; the Father reveals that his Son is to be worshiped by all the nations. That is why the Lord Jesus went to the river for baptism: that is why he wanted his holy body to be washed with Jordan’s water.

There is another first in this story. This is the first time scripturally that the Trinity is mentioned, Jesus being baptized, the Father’s voice is heard and the Holy Spirit descends in the form of a dove.

As His baptism was the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, our baptism is the beginning of our ministry. No, we’re not all ordained to the ministry as our priests and deacons are, we are called to live a life of ministry, in whatever way the Lord leads us. 

I’ve mentioned before that I lost my firstborn son back in April 24, 1987. He only lived for nine minutes but the one thing I did before he died was to hold him in my arms and baptize him. It wasn’t like he was not going straight back to heaven, but I wanted him to know, that Larry Guadalupe Gallegos is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. So I always remember April 24, 1987 as his birthday, the day he died and his baptism day. Here’s my Baptismal Certificate. My birthday is March 21, 1958 and I was baptized at San Jose Church on South Broadway on April 6, 1958 which is my baptism day. I usually treat myself to a favorite meal and sometimes even take the day off to celebrate they day my ministry started.
Baptism is a gift from God to His children. Now whether the choice is made by parents of a child or by a person old enough to make the choice to be baptized on their own, it is a choice that is available to all the children of God and with it, we accept that God is our Father. God has no grandchildren…only children, so we must be cleansed in the water the way our brother Jesus chose to do.   

So I ask all of you, if you don’t know it already, to find out and mark the day of your baptism on your calendar, and celebrate it because each of us is beloved, God is well pleased with us too!