Salem Baptist Church

Introduction: Luke and the art of 'tilt-shifting'

So I'd like to show you a photograph:

I wonder if you know what this is a photo of?

On first glance it looks a bit like a picture of a model train ... or if you are into trains, you might think this train looks an awful lot like the Snowdon Mountain Railway ... and there's a good reason for that ... because this actually is a photo of the Snowdon Moutain Railway ... its just that it has been subjected to a photographic technique known as tilt-shifting to make it look like its subject is miniature ...

Here's the original - http://www.flickr.com/photos/richardleonard/51333317/in/set-1744017/

I have no real understanding of tilt-shifting or 'miniature-faking' as it is sometimes called ... but I like the results ...

here's some other images:

http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/11/16/beautiful-examples-of-tilt-sh...

Now there is a reason that I want to introduce this idea of tilt-shifting or miniature-faking ... which is that I think in some of the opening scenes of Luke's Gospel ... Luke engages in a kind of literary 'tilt-shifing' ... let me try to explain ...

If you're visiting us this morning, or if you've been away, or if you've simply forgotten ... let me explain that during Advent this year ... or at least for the first three Sunday's in Advent ... we've been spending time looking at the three big 'canticles' in Luke's Gospel ...

1) Mary's Song in Luke Chapter 1, usually called the Magnificat,

2) Zachariah's prophecy following the birth of John the Baptist, usually called the Benedictus,

3) ... then finally Simeon's Song in Luke chapter 2 that was read to us a few moments ago ... usually known as the Nunc Dimittis ...

Now the strange Latin names of these three songs or 'canticles' comes from a time when the Bible was predominately circulated and read in Latin and the Latin names of the Canticles simply comes from the first word of each song in Latin ...

So, so far, we've looked at Mary, at Zachariah, and we'll look at Simeon this morning ... and my suggestion this week is that in each of these scenes Luke is tilt-shifing ...

Tilt-shifting Mary

So, on first glance Mary's song is about her ... and the fact that God has chosen her, a humble servant, to be the bearer of the Messiah ... but actually ... I think this is a fake-miniature ...

The Magnificat is actually about the revolutionary nature of the Gospel ... that God has not only worked in Mary's life ... but is at work in the lives of the humble, the downtrodden, the hungry ... indeed the entire nation of His servant Israel ...

This isn't just about one pregnant teenager, but about the nation and Luke has used this very personal and intimate story of the surprising pregancies of both Mary and Elizabeth ... to bring into focus the revolutionary nature of the God-ordained liberation that Israel longs for ... a liberation seen in Jesus and yet still longer for by Jesus followers ... as we look forward to that time when Jesus will return and reign in Glory.

So on first glance the Magnificat seems to be about a humble teenage girl pregnant outside of marriage ... but this is a tilt-shift perspective ... another perspective draws in not only Mary, but the whole of God's people.

Tilt-shifting Zachariah

So what of Zachariah and the Benedictus?

Well at first glance Zachariah's prophecy in the Benedictus is about a man who had longed for a child, praising God for the birth of his son ... but I don't think you need to look at that hard to see that this is a fake-miniature perspective ... the wider perspective takes in the wider story of the longing of God's people for deliverance ... and that now God is acting in the Histroy of His people to bring liberation ...

The stream of History

So we have seen that the first two Canticles ... both these first two canticles ... and I think we'll see this to be true for Simeon's Nunc Dimittis as well ... draw heavily from the Old Testament ... from its imagery, prophesy and wording ...

They show that the New Testament, the his-story of Jesus stands firmly in the stream that has flowed down through history from Creation, through the Fall, to the promises made to Abraham, to David, through Exile and silence ... and now the story of God's relationship with His people carries on, in, and through the birth of Jesus

BUT

And we thought a little about this last week ... John Piper has helpfully pointed out that in Christmas ... in the birth of Jesus ... we are not simply encountering another bend in the stream of history ... rather we are tasting for the first time, the salt water of the sea that has backed up in the river channel ... the first taste of sea salt in the river water that tells us that even though the river flows on everything is about to change!

So are you with me ... Luke is a master at his craft of presenting massive historical events with huge political and religious eternal consequences in such a way that we are drawn into the story by presenting these huge events through the stories of very ordinary people ... and actually by doing that Luke draws us into the Christmas story and in fact into the Gospel story itsefl ...

Anyway ... that's all as way of introduction ... our task this morning is to consider Simeon's Nunc Dimittis so let us turn our attention specifically to SImeon and his Canticle ... but before we do let's pray.

Tilt-shifting Simeon

So Luke Chapter 2 v22 ...

we're on the other side of the Nativity ... and we're told that Jesus is to be presented at the temple ... interesting to notice that the offering of a pair of doves is made when the family can't afford a lamb ... Jesus was born into poverty!

Then Luke introduces us to Simeon ... and although righteous and devout and the Spirit was upon him ... Simeon appears to be ordinary ... normal ... not rich or poweful, not a priest or prince ... just an ordinary man looking forward to ... longing for the day when God's people will be liberated from oppression ....

And through the Spirit, God has told Simeon that he will see the Christ, the Messiah ... the on who will liberate God's people. Now we are not told exactly how the Spirit communicated this message but the message has been received ... we're also not told how the Spirit prompted Simeon to go to the temple courts ... but he did ... God is sovereign over His creation ...

And so, prompted by the Spirit ... Simeon encounters the Holy family and takes the baby Jesus into his arms declaring ...

Nunc Dimittis ...

... now dismiss your servant ...

I think that the NIV is perhaps a little unhelpful here in not reflecting the traditional order of phrasing by putting the 'as you have promised bit first' ... but anyway ... the idea is that Simeon can now die ... the promise has been fulfilled ... for he has indeed seen the Lord's Christ before death ... as promised ...

So his eyes have seen salvation ... the salvation ... the liberation ... of Israel ... the glory of God's people Israel ...

But also ... and this is huge ... and I think the key for opening up what's going on here ... this salvation ... this liberation ... that God's people Israel have been longing for, for centuries, has been prepared in the sight of ALL PEOPLE ,,, and is therefore a LIGHT FOR REVALATION TO THE GENTILES ..; therefore, therefore ... God's servant can now be dismissed in peace ...

This is all about the promise to Simeon right? Simeon, the righteous and devout ... God's servant ... the one who had the Holy Spirit upon him ...

OR

is that actually a fake-miniature?

Has Luke tilt-shifted a bigger story into the smaller story of Simeon?

What am I on about?

Who is God's Servant?

If Mary's song is not so much about Mary, as it is about God's mercy to HIS SERVANT the nation of Israel ... and if Zachariah's song is not so much about the deliverance of a longed for son, as it is about the salvation of God's people in the house of His servant David ... would it be that Simeon's song about the dismissal of God's servant ... is not so much about Simeon as it is about God's Servant Israel?

Here's the Nunc Dimittis in the ESV:

'Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace, according to your word; for my eyes have seen your salvation that you have prepared in the prescence of all peoples, a light for revalation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your people Israel.'

A representative Christian person

As a minister of this Church I get to go to meetings ... I go to lots of meetings ... some with individuals ... some with other ministers ... some with other groups ... some involve coffee, some involve food, some meetings are fun ... some ... m'eh ... not so much ...

And some are just plain confusing ... in what way? ... well I find some meetings are a bit confusing when I'm not sure if I'm there as Andy ... just me ... or if I'm there as 'the Reverend Andy Grice, Minister at Salem Baptist Church, Cheltenham' ... you see part of the job of a minister is to act as a 'representative Christian person' ... or at least that's the title some of the books use ... 'representative Christian person' ... so there are times when I'm not just me ... I'm a representative of Salem ... or actually even more than that ... to some extent I am Salem ... these are usually the times when I'm never sure what to wear :-)

And so I just wonder if here ... Simeon is not so much God's-servant-Simeon as he is a 'representative of God's-servant-Israel' person ... or is some way Simeon ... in the text is Israel ...

and so because Simeon has seen the promised Christ ... he can be dismissed in peace ... but ... and I think this is the key to understanding this passage for us today so can God's servant Israel.

The end for which God created the world

But this then begs the question ... dismissed from what?

What is Israel's vocation ... what is Israel for? And to understand that I think we have to return to ... what if for me the most fundamental question ... and how you answer it ... in my thinking anyway ... shapes your approach to everything else ... and that is ... 'what is the purpose of creation?'

And the most helpful answer to this question  that I have found is in Jonathan Edward's essay The End for Which God Created the World ... In which it is argued that God created the world ... not to make up for something that was lacking in Himself .. God as the community of the Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit is complete within Hiimself ... and so God creates to share the love and the grace and the glory that is within Himself ... and so human beings were invited to partake in the divine and worship Him ... but we choose not to ... choose instead to try to be like God and worship self rather than HIm ... and so we turn our backs on Him ... But God's nature is to spread and share His grace so He pursues His creatures ... and chooses in Abram a man who will become the family who will become the nation through whom all other nations will be blessed ...

And so God's people were chosen to display God ...

... His way of being and living ... to the Nations ... this was their vocation ...

... to display God's Glory ...

... and throughout the Old Testament we read about the place of the Nations in God's purposes for His creation and the role of Israel in communicating God to others ...

But here in Luke 2  in the Nunc Dimittis we learn that God's servant can be dismissed in peace ... for now there is one who will display God to His creation ... for He is God

... God made Flesh and come to live amongst us ...

... and here is salvation in the presence of all peoples ...

... here is the light for revelation to Gentiles ...

... here is the Glory of God ...

... grace and truth in the person of Jesus who is the Christ ...

... therefore God's servant may depart in peace ...

But ... and here is the crunch ... God now calls His Servant the Church ... to display His Glory ...

... His Grace ...

... His Truth ...

... His Gospel ...

to those who don't know it ... and when we do ... then we may be dismissed in peace and receive those longed for words ... well done good and faithful servant ....

Which made me think about a story I once heard Tim Keller use about John Coltrane ...

John Coltrane was arguably one of the most significant saxophonists in jazz history ... he was a deeply spiritual man and as his career progressed his music took on a spiritual dimension ... and in the liner notes of possibly Coltran's most famous piece he says Love Supreme he wrote this:

'[d]uring the year 1957, I experienced, by the Grae of God, a spiritual awakening which was to lead me to a richer, fuller, more productive life. At that time, in gratitude, I humbly asked to be given the means and priviledge to make others happy through music.'

And ... so the story goes ... after one particular performance of a Love Supreme ... John Coltrane steps off the stage and is heard to whisper .. Nunc Dimittis ... now dismiss your servant in peace ... John Coltrane is essentially saying that he has done what he was meant to do ... has glorified God in and through it ... and do his job is done ...

I think we hear something similar in the Eric Liddel phrase .. or at least as its presented in the film Chariots of Fire ... when I run I feel His pleasure ... which is worht comparing with the Harold Abrams line ... that he runs and when he runs he has 10 seconds to justify his existence ...

Friends do you know what you are meant to do ... do you know your vocation? I don't know how you read the Bible ... but to me ... Israel loses her way ... her vocation to display God and His Glory to the Nations ...

and in the New Testament ... the baton of displaying God and His glory passes to us the church ... ordinary men and women ... like me and like you ... together as Salem ... apart as Disciples in the world we are called to display His glory and grace ...

Coltrane did that through music ... Liddell through running ...

Each finding God's peace in their vocation ... for it was done not for personal reputation's benefit ... but for His Glory ...

So what of us? ... what of you?

Can you be dismissed in peace having seen salvation in Jesus?

Or are you still tryin to 'prove' yourself worthy?

To justify your existence with activity ...

The Christmas story ... the message of Christmas is:

that God has come ...

In the muddle and the mess ... in the reality of sin and suffering ... and struggle and strife ... God Himself comes ...

And he comes to call us once more to take part in that which we were created for ...

... the glory of the divine ...

... to declare and spread and display His Glory and His Grace ...

... in all things ...

... in our work and in our play ...

... in our eating and in our drinking ....

Brother, Sister, have you found satisfaction in your work? To point to Him in all you do ... not to self ... but to Him ...

Have you ... as the Psalmist puts it:

Ceased striving and let God be God?

... for when we do ... when we lean into and upon the Shalom peace made available through the Christ of Christmas it is then that even in the ordinary ...

Especially in the ordinary for God's power is made perfect in weakness ... it is then that I believe we can sit still ...

... end each day ...

... even end our lives ... saying with ... all peace and security ...

... Nunc Dimittis ...

Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace, according to your word; for my eyes have seen your salvation that you have prepared in the presencer of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your people Israel.

Shall we pary?