The Pathway to Peace. Luke 2:22-40. 02/04/24

Rev. Dr. Rhonda Blevins

February 4, 2024

When the time came for their purification according to the law of Moses, they brought him up

to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord    (as it is written in the law of the Lord, “Every firstborn

male shall be designated as holy to the Lord”), and they offered a sacrifice according to what

is stated in the law of the Lord, “a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons.” Now there was a

man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon; this man was righteous and devout, looking

forward to the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit rested on him. It had been revealed to

him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Messiah.

Guided by the Spirit, Simeon came into the temple; and when the parents brought in the child

Jesus, to do for him what was customary under the law,    Simeon took him in his arms and

praised God, saying, “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.” And the

child’s father and mother were amazed at what was being said about him. Then

Simeon blessed them and said to his mother Mary, “This child is destined for the falling and

the rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be opposed so that the inner thoughts of

many will be revealed—and a sword will pierce your own soul too.” There was also a prophet,

Anna the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was of a great age, having lived with

her husband seven years after her marriage, then as a widow to the age of eighty-four. She

never left the temple but worshiped there with fasting and prayer night and day. At that

moment she came, and began to praise God and to speak about the child to all who were

looking for the redemption of Jerusalem. When they had finished everything required by the

law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth. The child grew and

became strong, filled with wisdom; and the favor of God was upon him.

______

On a wintry cold night in Holland in the year 1569, a man named Dirk Willems escaped

from his prison cell using knotted rags tied together. Willems had committed no crime

other than holding Mennonite beliefs in opposition to the ruling Catholic Church. With the

makeshift rope, Williams lowered himself to the ground below, which was no ground at all,

rather, an iced-over moat. As he ran across the ice to his freedom, a guard saw him and

began chasing him. Willems, who had lived on prison rations for some time, was light

enough to make it across. The guard, however, fell through. Willems saw the guard’s

immanent danger. He had a choice to make. He could keep running and likely find his

freedom. Or he could go back and help the guard, placing his fate, again, in his captor’s

hands. What would he choose?

It’s been one month since we installed the very first Peace Pole in the City of Clearwater,

right here on our church grounds. I am proud of this church for taking this stand, showing

all who come our way that we aim to be a beacon of God’s peace, despite how divided it

seems we are as a people in the broader culture. As the grand finale of our Peace Pole

dedication ceremony, we released seven doves, representing the seven continents of planet

earth. Our doves presumably flew home. The doves in our scripture lesson today weren’t so

lucky.

As required by Jewish law, 40 days after the birth of Jesus, Mary and Joseph took their

newborn baby boy to the Temple. The law I’m referring to is from Leviticus 12—it required

the sacrifice of a lamb after the birth of a baby. If the family could not afford a lamb, two

turtledoves or pigeons could be substituted for the purification of the mother and the

dedication of the firstborn son. Luke, the author of this story, wants us to know that Mary

and Joseph sacrificed birds instead of a lamb. With this knowledge, we are reminded that

Jesus was born into poverty. That’s hard for us to remember for those of us in the middle

class—we all like to create Jesus in our own image.

This text challenges other assumptions we have about who and what this infant child will

become. It hasn’t been that long since we heard the Christmas story, and the angels

proclaiming, “Peace on earth, good will to men.” We sang “sleep in heavenly peace.” In our

scripture lesson today, Jesus is still a baby. We read a strange blessing from the wise,

respected prophet Simeon: “This child is destined for the falling and the rising of many in

Israel, and to be a sign that will be opposed   so that the inner thoughts of many will be

revealed—and a sword will pierce your own soul too.”

Oh my.

I wonder how Mary felt at that prophecy. “A sword will pierce my own soul too. Ok. Been

good chatting with you, Simeon.”

What happened to peace on earth? What happened to silent night?

We want a straight path to peace, but the reality is, the way to peace is a crooked road.

Many bends, many turns. In the words of an American prophet named Martin Luther King,

“True peace is not merely the absence of tension: it is the presence of justice.” And these

words from the prophet Simeon as Jesus was presented at the temple begin to unpack what

kind of peace Jesus will offer to the world. The kind of peace that would prompt many to

fall, many to rise. Inner thoughts revealed. To me, this sounds like a great

reckoning—certainly upsetting the status quo—a recalibration of society’s settings. It

seems to me the peace Jesus would introduce to the world would feel more like a crucible

than a cradle.

Over the past few years my husband has given me several pieces of jewelry made from

peace bronze. I have a tree of life necklace, a peace symbol necklace, and the seven

interlocking circles, representing the unity of all nations and all religions. According to

their website, peace bronze is an alloy created from disarmed and recycled American

nuclear weapon systems. The process begins with copper ore mined from Montana, refined

in Illinois, and formed into essential parts for the American nuclear arsenal. Since the

1980’s, more than half of the world’s nuclear warheads have been disarmed. This company

takes and recycles the copper and creates an alloy they call “peace bronze” out of which

some beautiful and meaningful jewelry is crafted.

The process is not easy. The jewelry I wear today as a symbol of peace has seen the end of a

miner’s ax. At one time it was destined to kill men, women, and children. At one time it

aimed to destroy homes, businesses, institutions, even churches. From there it knew the

heat of the refiner’s fire. The pounding of the jeweler’s mallet. It was a crooked road from a

cavern in Montana to a nuclear warhead in North Dakota to a refinery in California to a

jeweler’s shop in New Mexico to a preacher’s neck in Florida.

As we well know, Jesus wasn’t the final product on the world’s pathway to peace. He was

the refiner’s fire—he was the heat of revolution in the crucible of God’s unfolding plan. He

came to show us how to turn our swords into plowshares. He gave us the manual. But the

work is hard and the pay isn’t great. It’s far more lucrative to make war than peace—it’s far

more lucrative to build nuclear warheads than to fashion jewelry from peace bronze. We

know the way to peace. But so few are willing to walk in that way.

That two-month old baby that was presented at the temple by Mary and Joseph-- one day

he would grow up and demonstrate peace-making by walking into the temple and throwing

over the money-changers’ table. How is that peace-making you ask? If MLK was right (and I

think he was): “True peace is not merely the absence of tension: it is the presence of

justice,” sometimes the walk of peace requires a fight for justice. When Jesus threw over the

money-changers’ table, he was fighting against the temple’s participation in oppressing the

poor. Matthew 21:12-13:

Then Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who were selling and buying in the temple,

and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold doves. He

said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer’; but you are making it

a den of robbers.”

Did you catch what the “thieves” were selling? Doves. To poor people who couldn’t afford a

lamb. I wonder if deep in his subconscious, Jesus held the memory of Joseph and Mary,

buying doves they couldn’t afford to offer a sacrifice required not by God, but by man. I

wonder if throwing the tables over was the bravest act of peace ever performed by our

Lord. Many scholars think it was that action that led to his execution. Those in power feel

threatened by those who genuinely work for peace.

Back to Mr. Dirk Willems, standing on the bank of the moat, tasting freedom from his

imprisonment. He sees his captor facing certain death in the ice-cold water. What does he

do? He turns back, and rescues the prison guard. Now the choice in the story lies with the

guard. Will he take the escaped prisoner who saved his life back into custody, or will he

turn a blind eye and allow Mr. Willems to run free?

Every day we make choices of life and death. By our actions, both large and small, we either

turn over the tables of injustice or we turn a blind eye and allow the poor to be oppressed

and manipulated. By our actions, both large and small, we run for our own freedom, or we

risk sacrificing our freedom to help someone it would be easy to hate. At the end of our

lives, the choices we make will define us. Are we in it just for ourselves? If so, we’ll walk by

the money-changers table without saying a word. We’ll run for our own freedom and leave

a dying man to fend for himself. But if we have the greater good in mind, we’ll sacrifice our

personal, temporary peace for the greater good. We’ll allow ourselves to feel tension in the

pursuit of justice, which may be rightly called everlasting peace.

Back to the icy moat. Mr. Willems standing there with the prison guard whose life he just

saved. Did the guard let him go? Or did he arrest Dirk Willems and imprison him once

more? He arrested him, imprisoned him once more. Dirk Willems was then burned at the

stake.

You might not think that’s a happy ending. But guess whose name became known and

celebrated among Mennonites, and even among a crazy bunch of Christians on Clearwater

Beach today? Dirk Willems. The guard’s name is lost to history. But Mr. Willem’s name lives

on, showing us the pathway to peace sometimes takes us through the fire.

Jesus came to earth not to offer us endless warm and fuzzy feelings of temporary peace, but

hard road of everlasting peace, called justice. It’s challenging work. It might require us to

turn over a table or two. It certainly requires us to “ponder anew what the almighty can do”

through the only hands God has . . . ours. What will you do in the days ahead to join God in

the continuing fight for peace?

As I sometimes tell my son as he gets out of the car to go into school: “Make good choices!”