My Eyes Have Seen the Glory
Luke 2:22-40

December 29, 2002

Music is a mysterious and powerful force of the soul and the emotions. A fact we know well at this church. The witnesses are legion how, in John Wesley’s words, we sing our theology.

Try to publish a new hymnal as several major North American mainline denominations did in the last decade and you discover the power and the venom of the sung word. The Methodists and Presbyterians in the U. S. both came out with new hymnals in 1990 and 1991, making the language inclusive and omitting a number of “old hymns.” The result was virtually a fire storm, which no social action issue in memory had engendered. The United Church of Christ in the U. S. and the United Church of Canada were also preparing new hymnals and they took counsel from the outcries, and perhaps better hymnals were produced by both in 1995 and 1996.

One type of hymn that has suffered is the hymn with so-called militaristic connotations. Along with inclusive language, militaristic allusions have been banned from church conference language.

A few years back at the closing of my congregation’s anniversary dinner, a denominational executive was driven quite noticeably into silent rage when the assembled members spontaneously began singing “Onward Christian Soldiers” as a sort of benediction. She did not sing.

“The Battle Hymn of the Republic” is not to be found in Voices United. Julia Ward Howe published the words to the hymn in the February 1862 issue of The Atlantic Monthly for the grand total of $5.00.

Her husband, a doctor, had been transferred to Washington, DC, at the beginning of the Civil War. As the troops were marching off to battle they were singing to the tune of a bouncy Southern Camp Meeting, the words of “John Brown’s Body.” An abolitionist opposed to slavery, John Brown led an ill-fated insurrection in Harper’s Ferry, West Virginia, and was hanged there in 1859. Many have pointed to that sad event as the moral prelude to the Civil War.

Mrs. Howe was also an avowed abolitionist and humanitarian social action leader, who often filled the pulpits of Unitarian Churches, which played a significant role in the abolitionist struggle.

Egged on by a ministerial friend to write some better words for the tune, Mrs. Howe, a published poet, began with the words of Simeon who has been waiting all his life to see face to face the Messiah. When the Spirit inspires him that this infant of unspectacular parents is the one, he calls out in joy the words of a slave being given his freedom. “Mine eyes have seen your salvation....”

Yes, it was adopted as a military marching song, Abraham Lincoln himself was teary-eyed upon hearing it. Like so many things, the song was put to uses that have tainted it with a certain colour and mood no longer that acceptable. It is, nevertheless, a stirring hymn - nothing wrong with being stirring - that urges its singers, “let us live to make men free” in the real presence of a God whose truth is marching on, never to be stopped. There have been other crusades that have borrowed this hymn and probably there will be others.

Simeon and Anna provide a confirmation of the Messiah-hood of Jesus, helpless infant though he still was. There was nothing Jesus was doing at the age of seven weeks, other than being cute, so they really couldn’t tell that way. It could only be the Holy Spirit, God in another person, who could tip them off. Happens more than you think.

Simeon has more to say than a bouncy hymn. He chooses to underline the first Suffering Servant Song of Isaiah 42:6 that this Servant-to-be will be “a light for revelation to the Gentiles.” This is not a parochial Messiah who saves only his own people. Christ is coming for all people, Gentile and Jew, slave and free, female and male.

“In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea, with a glory in his bosom that transfigures you and me, as he died to make men holy, let us live to make men free....”

Yet Simeon had more to say, for he understood that being this Messiah was not going to be gentle and easy - it would be a battle. “This child is destined for the rising and falling of many in Israel,” he told Mary, “and lots of people will oppose him, for what he does will turn people inside out so that all will see what they really think and what they are really made of.”

C. S. Lewis, one of J. R. R. Tolkien’s famous companions, pointed out that “Christianity, if false, is of no importance; and if true, of infinite importance. The one thing Christianity cannot be is moderately important.” I’m not sure whether it was Lewis or Simeon who was paraphrasing the other.

There are no quotes for Anna. She came at the moment Simeon was saying all of this. We don’t know if she said anything to Mary, but we know what she did - speaking about the child to all who looking for the redemption of Jerusalem. She was perhaps the first evangelist, despite the denominations who say women have no place in the pulpit.

What is worrisome about Simeon and Anna is that they have made their great discovery, pieced together the meaning of life, received the important message in their life - at the end of their lives. Simeon has been seemingly granted extra time for the project, and Anna appears to be on the same schedule. Is this the way God works?

Personally, even though I have not yet gotten the message, I was hoping it would happen with some time to spare, say around the age of 55. That way I can take this knowledge and revelation and do something with it for a few years - reconcile a few nations, bring about some world peace, write the novel that will become a classic, even preach a good sermon. Do we all have to wait until the end of our lives to figure out what it really means? That’s nice, but....

But, maybe you and I have already heard it, been in the presence of God and Christ, been inspired with the Right Stuff by the Holy Spirit. We just haven’t gotten it all figured out yet and put in its place. We’ve heard this Christmas story how many times. Some day soon it will make full sense, and what hymn will you sing then?

Preached by Robert Kitchen
Knox-Metropolitan United Church
Regina, Saskatchewan