This is Epiphany Sunday.

Technically tomorrow is Epiphany. It is always on January 6th. It is the 12th day of Christmas. If you know the song, 12 days of Christmas, tomorrow is the 12th day. In the Eastern Christian church, tomorrow is Christmas.

When my seminary class did our cross-cultural to Turkey we got there on January 2nd. On January 6th, when we went to church, we watched their Christmas pageant with their children, because they were celebrating Christmas day.

Not so much in the U.S. But we like to still lift it up. Sometimes it is a Sunday where we talk about the Magi because the Magi did not get there at the same time that the shepherds were there. Things just didn’t work out quite that way. We just like to put it together in a neatly packaged story.

But, today I chose this reading from Luke because we are in the Gospel of Luke for our lectionary this year.

I love this reading about Simeon and Anna. I think it’s a lovely story. So, that’s the one that I thought I wanted to bring up today. And as I was doing my readings recently, a story came up for me about the Maasai people.

The Maasai people are nomadic people who live in southern Kenya and northern Tanzania. They are herders, and they have cattle, sheep, and goats, and they move based on feeding their livestock. Because they move around, they meet each other at different times. Other people that are part of their tribe. The greeting that they always do when they meet another person, another messiah is, “How are the children?”

I just want you to sit on that question for a minute. The answer that they’re hoping for is the children are well because the Messiah people understand that the children are the most vulnerable in their society and if the children are being cared for, then everyone is being cared for.

The Maasai tribe understands that even if you don’t have a child, the well-being of the children is your responsibility. Everyone takes responsibility for the well-being of the children.

I just wonder if that’s not something we should think about. As a congregation for 2025, I’m suggesting that we become the beloved community that would be concerned about the well-being of the children.

Think about our community. Think about our country. Could we answer that the children are well?

We don’t know why Simeon and Anna came up to this child when Mary and Joseph brought Jesus into the temple for his dedication. It was part of the law that the firstborn son was to be dedicated to God, to the Lord. So, they did this.

One of the first early ones is in the Bible, and there’s a good bit made about it was when Hannah dedicated Samuel. Hannah also was one who had prayed for a child, and then a child was given to her, and she dedicated Samuel to God. But here, Joseph and Mary come to the temple, they’re following the law.

Luke is reminding us that yes, they are Jewish. They are Jewish and in good order, right? They know the law. They are following the custom, the tradition. They’re bringing this child to be dedicated. It’s also for Mary’s purification. That’s part of it, too, so that she will be considered clean again.

But Simeon and Anna come up to this child and then Simeon sees something in this child. There is something different about this child that we know as Jesus. In their language, it would have been Yeshua, which means the Lord saves. His name means the Lord saves.

And then we have this part, “Now let your servants go in peace for my eyes have seen the salvation” – Luke 2:29.

It’s called the song of Simeon and I read it every at every funeral. It’s the commendation prayer. That’s the song of Simeon. The note de Midas is the Latin for it, meaning it is the dismissing. You are now dismissing that as Simeon’s. Call of liberation, his song of liberation. He no longer feels that he is under Roman at the Roman empire. His soul is at peace because he has met the Lord, the Lord’s salvation. He is just a member of the Lord or a slave to the Lord, not to the Roman empire any longer, and his soul can depart in peace.

It’s quite powerful. I hope the next time you attend a funeral here, which I hope is not anytime soon, you listen for that. Because I almost always do it. I don’t know how many other people do that prayer at funerals, but it’s a beautiful prayer about how God is making the world right. Even if that means that we have lost someone, we are at peace. It’s acknowledging that we are at peace as Simeon was at peace. Now that he has met this baby.

Anna agrees. Anna just supports what Simeon has said. Usually in Luke, he tends to favor the women. Luke tends to give women voices. And in this one, Simeon gets the voice. Simeon gets to say everything and Anna just goes along with it and supports it. But it’s a lovely story.

So, if we have been redeemed, if our salvation has come, if the light of the world has come, and now it is our job to carry that light into the world, what does that look like?

How do we carry the light into the world? Well, that’s where I thought Colossians 3:12-17 tied nicely to this. I boiled it down to just a few items.

So being the light of the world means clothing ourselves in compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. What if those were our top virtues? What if that is what we valued? Compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. That to me is being the light of the world.

It’s not easy, and we always fail. Sometimes we’re better than others. But we have the ability to remind ourselves that we also get forgiven. Because God does not expect perfection. God expects that we will try. That we will do it to the best of our ability.

So we are called to be the light. Remember, the light is what all of creation needs. If the sun went away the rest of us would wither. Everything needs light to grow and to be healthy. However, if we have too much light, we’re blinded, right? Too much light is blinding. We can’t see anything. So we have to be enough light without being overpowering.

But the light that we are to be is to be a light that attracts others to shine.

We want them to say, “I want to know what they know. I want to live like that. I want that peace. I want that love. I want to be that compassionate and kind. That patient.” I know that’s one of my challenges. I could always be more patient with myself and others.

So how will you be the light of the world in your place? We can’t affect the whole world, but you can affect the people around you.

How will you be the light of the world in 2025? And how are the children? Are they well?

May it be so. Amen.

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