Look past the future

Some time in the last couple of years it dawned on me that I have more past than future. I’m not sure when I crossed that line or when I realized it. But when it happened it was an unsettling revelation.

Since then I have caught myself thinking more in terms of what I did at a certain time than in terms of where I am headed or what I am working toward. I realized when I indulged that I became stagnant and nostalgic. That is not productive for the kingdom. Sentimental, nostalgic thinking may give us warm fuzzies but it does not move the kingdom forward. In the kingdom when you have more past than future you need to discipline yourself to look past your future.

I have served churches where the majority of the congregants were in this part of life. They had much more past than future and viewed everything in terms of that past. They usually revered a specific period of time and tried to recreate the feelings and nostalgia of that time. Good people, to be sure. But they just couldn’t get past the past. Their past. They couldn’t conceive of a future of which they would not be present to complete. So they preserved the past. And they were dying because they weren’t doing kingdom work.

I am not saying that the past is all bad. Our experience is valid and it informs our wisdom and helps explain who we are. The distant past, the tradition of the church that extends beyond our lifetime, is authoritative because its wisdom is transcendent. The past should be a foundation, not a ball and chain. That is a difficult discipline, especially when you have more past than future and you need to look past your future.

Today we meet two people, nearing the end of their lives, who knew how to look past their future. They were prayerfully and patiently awaiting the promise of God that would be fully realized beyond their natural lives.

Young Joseph and Mary brought their 40-day-old infant to the temple to be presented to the Lord. This was pursuant to the requirements of Exodus 13 and Leviticus 12. Mary would be purified from the defilement of childbirth by offering two doves as sacrifices.

As they arrived they caught the attention of elderly Simeon, who had spent years in and around the temple fasting and praying for the promise of the Messiah. The Holy Spirit led him to the court of the Gentiles where the young couple and child were. He spoke prophetic verse from passages in Isaiah and the Psalms. His utterance is now called the Nunc dimittus and is used in night prayers in many churches. Here is the version I use from The Book of Common Prayer:

Lord, you now have set your servant free *
   to go in peace as you have promised;
For these eyes of mine have seen the Savior, *
   whom you have prepared for all the world to see:
A Light to enlighten the nations, *
   and the glory of your people Israel.

Simeon also told the amazed young couple that their child would be the cause of much conflict as people had to deal with his claims and act on them. He would expose their inner thoughts. And he warned they they would suffer grief because of it.

As this was going on Anna walked up. She was in her eighties, and had been a regular at the temple for years, fasting and praying, and waiting for Messiah. To everyone interested she proclaimed the infant would be the redemption of Israel.

Instead of living in his past, Simeon was living for the realization of Messiah and was rewarded by recognizing him in the child. And Anna was able to look well beyond her expected years to see God’s reconciliation in the infant Jesus. Though they had much more past than future they were able to look past their future to see God’s future. They saw the kingdom.

I think God wants his people to have a discipline for looking past the future. The Bible describes patriarchs who were multi-generational, building for generations to come. Abraham, it is said, walked the length and breadth of the land he inherited looking for the city whose founder and maker is God. He never found it, but left a heritage for generations to come to occupy and enjoy the land. David assembled the materials and readied plans to build a temple, but because of bloodied hands never got to actually build the temple he so wanted to build. He left that for his son Solomon.

And so it is with the kingdom. We work with an eye to the future, anticipating the day when Jesus will complete and perfect the work we begin now, building on the work of generations past and adding foundations for generations yet to come.

This does not allow for much sentimental nostalgia. We celebrate our past and keep building, anticipating hoping. We look past the future.

Luke 2:22-40 (1 Christmas B)