In the Name of God:  Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  Amen.

What do we need?  Hmmm?  Really . . . what is it that we NEED?

At some point when I’m mulling over some Gospel passage, working on a sermon, I often ask myself a question: “So what?”  What’s the point of the text?  What do I think WE’RE being told . . . you and me?  What’s the big deal about this particular story?

Today, as we consider the Gospel story of Jesus being presented in the Temple, I want us to consider a slightly different question:  What do we NEED?  What is the text reminding us of . . . reminding us that we need?  Well, there may be several answers to this question . . . but one in particular is jumping out at me today.

Peace.  We need peace.  The shalom of God.

Did any of you see a movie that came out a few years ago with Sandra Bullock called “Miss Congeniality”?  It’s a pretty silly movie, but I enjoyed it a lot.  It’s a spoof of beauty pageants.  In this movie a female FBI agent goes undercover, posing as a beauty contestant in a national competition like the Miss America contest.  Her task is to uncover a plot to bomb the contest.  But to do this, she has to be a believable beauty contestant and she’s always been something of a “tom-boy” . . . one of the guys.  A lot of the jokes in the movie revolve around her transformation.  Pretty silly, right? 

Well, one of the things she has to learn is how to answer the inane questions beauty contestants are asked, and she very quickly learns that answering any question truthfully with a well thought out answer doesn’t work.  What does work is to answer almost any question with this phrase:  “World peace.”  What do you hope for in the future?  World peace.  What’s your most secret desire?  World peace.  What did you want to be when you were a little girl?  Someone who worked for . . . world peace.

Yes, world peace would be wonderful . . . it IS a tremendous thing to work for, to pray for . . . but in the movie, the more Miss Congeniality asks for world peace the more absurd it becomes . . . because in our hearts we know that world peace is not something that we humans will ever be able to achieve on our own.  Not REAL peace.

You know there WAS a kind of world peace when Jesus lived.  Today we call it the Pax Romana . . . the peace of Rome.  It lasted from about 27 BC to about 180 AD . . . about 200 years.  The Roman empire spread over most of the known world, and the states within the empire knew relative peace.  Commerce thrived, unhampered by pirates or marauding enemy armies.  Oh, there were rebellions within the empire from time to time, but they were squashed pretty quickly.  Life was pretty good . . . as long as you could adapt to the Roman way of doing things.  I suppose we COULD achieve world peace today . . . at least for a while . . . if we could just manage to take over the whole world and get everyone to do things our way.  Not very likely, is it?  The world is too big, too complex, and we humans seem driven to create conflict and wage war.  The Roman Empire did, after all, fall apart eventually.  And, even if we COULD control the world and impose a kind of Pax Americana, it wouldn’t be REAL peace, would it?  Not the peace that Simeon knew.

This morning we heard about Simeon who was moved by the Spirit – prompted by the Spirit – to go to the Temple . . . to go as he had so many times before.  And, like so many times before, he saw a young family fulfilling their religious duty.  But, guided by the Spirit, Simeon saw – in the midst of prayers and actions he’d seen hundreds, maybe thousands of time before – he saw something new . . . something he’d been praying and hoping to see for a great many years.  He saw the Christ, the anointed one of God.

Simeon speaks, and we remember his words to this day . . . they’re part of our service of Evening Prayer: 

Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace,

according to thy word;

For mine eyes have seen thy salvation,

            which thou hast prepared before the face of all people.

To be a light to lighten the Gentiles,

            and to be the glory of thy people Israel.

Simeon has been granted peace.  Oh yes, he knows that many will fall because of Jesus, that Jesus himself will be rejected . . . Simeon tells Mary that a sword will pierce even her own heart . . . and yet he knows peace.  He knows an inner peace because he KNOWS that God’s promises are real . . . that they WILL be fulfilled . . . . that in Christ Jesus they ARE fulfilled . . . and so Simeon knows peace.

Perhaps the world is torn apart continually because WE are torn apart.  In our own lives we’ve all experienced suffering and pain.  We all know this, although we may spend a lot of energy pretending that we don’t.  Most of us prosperous Americans have bought into the illusion that life is ‘’normal” when everything is going well . . . when we have a good and satisfying job, a nice place to live, good friends, a happy marriage, good health . . . but I’m not so certain that such perfection is “normal” at all.  Life is too complex.  Too many things go wrong.  What’s that rather cryptic saying, “Life happens”?  And even when everything IS going well in our lives, we may then become aware of a kind of dis-ease within ourselves . . . a restlessness . . . dissatisfaction . . . a yearning for something else, something more . . . .  What we DON’T know is PEACE.

And yet, this is the gift that Christ brings us.  Peace.  When the angels announce the birth of Jesus to the shepherds, they also announce the arrival of peace:  “And on earth, peace to all of good will.”  Simeon, seeing the infant Jesus, knows peace:  “Lord, you may now let your servant go in peace.”  And when Jesus first appears to his disciples after the resurrection, how does he greet them?  “Peace be with you!”  Peace.

The peace that Simeon knows . . . that we can know . . . is not the peace of a world without conflict . . . it’s not the peace of a life without suffering and pain . . . the peace that Simeon knows is the peace of God . . . the peace of KNOWING that God’s promises are real and true, of knowing that in Christ Jesus we are granted salvation, of knowing that in God all will be well.  This is the peace that makes our suffering and pain bearable.  This is the peace that CAN end conflict and violence and war . . . because it’s NOT a peace that imposed upon us from the outside, like the Pax Romana . . . it’s the peace that resides within us, in our hearts and souls.

Looking in the eyes of the baby Jesus, Simeon knew the peace of God.  In a few moments, we will wish each other this same peace.  And, when we come to the altar rail, we can taste the peace of God in the bread and the wine, in the body and blood of Jesus Christ.  May the Spirit of God lead you, as Simeon was led, that you may know the peace of Christ.  May you come to believe and KNOW that God’s promises are real . . . that in Christ Jesus all of God’s promises ARE fulfilled.  And may you carry this peace in your hearts forever more.

Amen.

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