I Am Now the Old Man

Waiting. We may as well acknowledge, most of us are waiting for something. Often, we do not know exactly what we are waiting for, but suspect it will be a game changer, a life changer, some sort of new beginning. Yet, some something inside of us hopes or even knows that when it arrives, we will know it is here. I suspect our hope is that Julian of Norwich (1342-ca 1416) is right when she says, “All shall be well, all shall be well, all manner of thing shall be well.”

Just ask Simeon [Luke 2:22-40]. We are told he was righteous, devout, and was waiting for the consolation of Israel. As in the time of the prophet Malachi, the priests in the Temple were becoming lax, lazy and indifferent to their duties. The people were negligent in their support of the temple. Social injustice was rampant, especially since the beginning of the Roman tyranny. And people doubted God’s love. Malachi promised the day would come when all would be purified like gold and restored to order [Malachi 3:1-4].

Simeon had felt the Spirit-Breath of God rest upon him. It was revealed that he would not die before the Lord God’s anointed would appear in Jerusalem. It was forty days after the birth of Jesus. It was time for the boy to be presented to God and redeemed. And it was time for the purification after childbirth for the boy’s mother. The boy’s parents could have sent in offerings, but chose to make the pilgrimage to Jerusalem and to the Temple. They could not afford the offering of a sheep, so they offered two birds, the offering of he poor of the land.

Simeon could see that this was a faithful couple, and that the child was the one for whom he had been waiting. We cannot imagine his joy! For this child represented new light for all the world, and relief for the people of Israel. Simeon would be released from his waiting and watching. His life and his mission is fulfilled. But imagine, some stranger, an old man waiting outside the Temple, and as you enter to offer the two birds, this same old man takes your newborn child in his arms and begins to sing. What is he doing?

The parents, however, are amazed at what was being said about their little boy. The old man blesses the parents, and then, turning to Mary says, "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." Before anyone could ponder these words comes an old woman, Anna, 84 years-old, most of those a widow, and also waiting in Jerusalem fasting and praying night and day. She, like the old man, begins to praise God and proclaims to all within the sound of her voice that this child would bring about the redemption of Jerusalem!

For all of us who wait for the world to be turned right-side-up again, we ought to be like the old man and old woman in Jerusalem that day whenever we see a young child. We need to see the potential for a better life, the tremendous potential that resides in each and every child.

When we lived in Connecticut, next door to the rectory and church was a barn converted into a house where Em Tramposch and his wife Jane lived. Em was a nurseryman. He propagated life. At one time he had acres of greenhouses behind the church. Now he had one greenhouse where every morning he sat at his bench, propagating ground covers – vinca, pachysandra and the like – one small cutting at a time while listening to Patsy Cline. I used to enjoy spending an hour or so every now and then talking to Em, admiring his patient work ethic, and absorbing his wisdom.

When we had moved from Maryland to Monroe, CT, we had boxes of perennials, especially day lilies another friend had raised, on the truck. The rectory was not ready, so the boxes sat on the truck in sub-freezing weather for a week or so. Em slowly thawed them out and saved all our frozen plants and nursed them all winter until we could plant them in the spring. That was 1989 and we still have some of those plants in our garden to this day.

Near the end of our time up there, Em had cancer, and was spending his final days lying in a hospital bed in their living room with Jane attending to him day and night. The day after Cerny was born we immediately took her over for Em to see. Like Simeon he reached up, took her in his arms and cradled her beside him for what seemed like a glorious eternity. He smiled. Her full name is Anna Cerny. It was the first time this episode in Luke ever made sense to me – life going out, life coming in. Hope fulfilled. All was well, all was well, all manner of thing was well in that moment Anna Cerny was cradled in Em’s arms, and in his smile. On the day Em died a bird flew into his daughter’s kitchen, looked at her for a few moments, and then flew out the door. She called Jane and found out that when the bird was in her kitchen was the moment her father had died. But that’s another story altogether. Or, is it?

Last May, I arrived at hospital to see our first grandchild, Matthew Moore Kudler, affectionately known as Mo. For a few moments I got to hold him in my arms. Is there anything at all like holding a newborn in your arms no matter whatever else is going on in Washington, D.C, around the world, or anywhere else in the vast expanse of interstellar space or on our fragile island home that spins around a star once every 365 days? Now at every opportunity I get, I hold that child in my arms, until one day I realize, I now am the old man. I am Simeon waiting to see the Lord’s salvation. I am the Anna who begins to praise and sing to anyone who will listen, “Here he is, here is a new child of God, give thanks and know that all shall be well, all shall be well, all manner of thing shall be well!” I am the old man! I now have a deeper knowledge of what put that smile on Em Tramposch’s face; what gave him the strength to reach out and take tiny Anna Cerny in his arms and cradle her, holding her tight beside him, knowing that something of his patient and waiting spirit, the same Spirit-Breath that had rested on him long ago, would rest upon her all the days of her life. Lifelong propagator of life, he could depart in peace.

Do we see, sisters and brothers? We are all Simeon and Anna. We are all Em Tramposch. They all help me to see, I am now the old man! This story in Luke that can seem strange and even bizarre means to tell us that God uses simple souls to do much good for all humankind. The Holy Spirit employs ordinary men and women, even infants, as His instruments to bear witness to Jesus, his ideals, his actions and his teachings. God’s Spirit-Breath reveals the presence of the Lord to us when we are receptive and eager to receive new life. In these stories we are meant to recognize the Spirit-Breath of God rests within each of us and within others. All others. Simeon, Anna and Em Tramposch know this and show us how to actively and faithfully wait.  For, “they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.” [Isaiah 40:31] Waiting. All of us are waiting for something.

February 2, The Feast of Old Folks! We all can be like Simeon, Anna, and Em Tramposch and proclaim to others that, “All shall be well, all shall be well, all manner of thing shall be well.”