Being courageous, expectant and whole-hearted in 2023

A few days after Christmas, I was reading the story of Simeon meeting the baby Jesus in the Temple courts (Lk 2.25-35), and I was struck by how he demonstrates the very things God is calling us to be at St James' by the Park:

1. He is whole-hearted. Introduced as “righteous and devout”, he is so satisfied by seeing Jesus that he feels his life’s work is done (“you may now dismiss your servant in peace”). He doesn’t say “It’s great that I’ve seen Jesus, but I’d like to see my own grandchildren be born as well.” He is all in for serving God and seeking God’s purposes.
2. He is expectant. “It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he’d seen the Messiah” – and he was clearly hanging on this promise, day by day. How many years had he waited patiently? Decades? But he hadn’t lost his expectancy. He knew that when God promises, God delivers. Not only that, but he’s full of expectation for what this Messiah will do – even though this Messiah can’t even sit up yet. He’s expectant that this baby is God’s salvation, “a light for revelation to the Gentiles and the glory of your people Israel.”
3. He is courageous. It took courage to follow the prompting of the Holy Spirit to go into the Temple courts on that particular day at that particular time. He could have just dismissed it as “What a silly idea – that was just my overactive imagination.” It took courage to pronounce such exalted words over a baby: imagine holding any other baby in your arms and saying they’re going to change the world! And it took even greater courage to say to these exhausted new parents, “This child is destined to … be a sign that will be spoken against … and a sword will pierce your own soul too.” Which new parent wants to hear that about their precious baby?!

 
Seeing those three characteristics in Simeon made me reflect back on some of the other Christmas characters, too. How about Mary?

1. She is whole-hearted. The Angel Gabriel says she’s “highly favoured”. Mary responds to the unbelievably difficult assignment she’s given by saying “I am the Lord’s servant.” In fact, she’s not just whole-hearted: she gives her whole fragile teenage body to serving God. What a woman!
2. She is expectant. Literally an expectant mum. But more than that, expectant against all the odds that God will do the strangest, most improbable thing: make her pregnant whilst she’s still a virgin. “May your word to me be fulfilled,” she says. If that’s not expectant faith, I don’t know what is!
3. She is courageous. She knew she’d face incredible shame for being pregnant in such a conservative society. She knew people would ridicule her story (“It wasn’t Joseph or anyone else. It was God”). She didn’t know whether Joseph would stick with her – or whether she’d land up as a single mum. It took incredible courage to accept each of those challenges – and many more.

 
How about Joseph?

1. He was whole-hearted, described as “a righteous man”. He was prepared to follow God’s word not just in theory but in practice. Even if it meant taking his pregnant fiancée home as his wife, and even if it meant fleeing to Egypt for several years once Jesus had been born.
2. He was expectant. He didn’t doubt that God could make a virgin pregnant, or that the baby would be a saviour. He knew that God had promised those things hundreds of years previously, and that now was the time of fulfilment.
3. He was courageous – after all, it wasn’t the easiest thing to trust that the weird words he’d heard in his dreams were genuine words from God, rather than the result of eating too much cheese. He laid aside whatever qualms and doubts he had, and was courageously obedient.

 
So, as we step into 2023, the characters of Christmas have much to teach us at St James' by the Park. Let’s be courageous as we follow Jesus, knowing it will involve stepping out in faith, enduring scorn and shame. Let’s be whole-hearted for God, serving him with our whole lives as well as our lips, even if it means major changes to our own well-laid plans! Let’s be expectant that God will act in his good time, that God will keep his promises, that God will be faithful to us whatever we face.
 
Just imagine what God might do amongst us and through us this year if we all do those things!
 
Happy new year!