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Translating the TraditionSermons from St. John of Shanghai Orthodox Church Author: Fr. Justin (Edward) Hewlett
Sermons and miscellaneous musings from St. John of Shanghai Orthodox Church in Vancouver, BC, Canada - mostly by Fr. Justin Hewlett. translatingthetradition.substack.com Language: en Genres: Christianity, Philosophy, Religion & Spirituality, Society & Culture Contact email: Get it Feed URL: Get it iTunes ID: Get it |
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Waiting
Monday, 2 February, 2026
We spend a lot of our lives waiting. And it can be really tough. We’re waiting for justice. We’re waiting for, I don’t know, an appointment at ICBC or something like that. We’re waiting for the fruition of some sort of hope. And what we see in the Gospel reading today is, well, a lot of waiting.It begins, of course, with Mary and Joseph. Mary has been waiting 40 days. She’s had a firstborn son under the Levitical law with its categories of clean and unclean. She was unclean for a time, with these categories understood as being connected to moments of, well, lack of bodily integrity, shall we say, but also also connected to the significance of some of those moments. And in this case, it’s a fairly significant moment. She’s just given birth to her firstborn son, and having given birth to a son, she now waits 40 days, which is the time of her purification.Interestingly, in the Levitical law, the period of purification after giving birth to a girl was 80 days, while we, as Orthodox Christians, retain the custom of giving the woman 40 days off from church when she has a baby, whether it be a boy or a girl. I suspect that’s because the Levitical law, with its categories of clean and unclean, has been superseded in Christ. We no longer worry about those categories, although occasionally they do show up in the prayers for those who, in some of the many other cultures that Orthodoxy engaged with, have an understanding of clean and unclean which the church does accommodate, according to the Apostle Paul’s instructions on following the dictates of one’s conscience. In Christ, we no longer call things clean or unclean, but we do tend—and this is part of where I’m going with this—we do tend in the church to reenact, in every context possible, that which the Church as a whole has gone through.And so, given that Mary waited 40 days and then came into the temple, when the days of her purification were complete, to present a sacrifice—to do what the law required: the redemption of the firstborn. They were obviously poor, that’s why the sacrifice was two turtle doves or two young pigeons. So, as Orthodox Christians, with women who have children, have had a baby, boy or girl, we give them 40 days off, not simply to relax and bond with the child, although that is the natural thing, but also to participate in this mystery that we are all participating in, which is our union with Christ: our union with Christ in all of the history of salvation that he enacted.So Mary’s been waiting 40 days, but of course she’s been waiting longer than this. She’s been waiting nine months, because that’s when she received the Annunciation. And of course, again, if you look at our church calendar and do the math, Annunciation, which is coming up on March 25th, falls nine months before Christmas. And so here she is. She’s coming into the temple. She’s waited nine months, and now she’s waited another 40 days, and is redeeming her firstborn child with Jesus’ adoptive father Joseph.And behold, there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon. This man was just and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel. And the Holy Spirit was upon him, and it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ. And so here’s a man who has had a revelation from God, Simeon. He was just, he’s devout, and God has told him that he’s not going to die until he sees the Messiah. That’s got to be a pretty amazing revelation, particularly because he’s not the only one waiting. We’ll get to that in a minute. But he’s been waiting now for the coming of the Messiah, and here Jesus comes into the temple, and he recognizes by the Spirit of God that this child Jesus is the Messiah, is the Promised One, is the one that God has promised to his people to deliver them.And so he comes up to Joseph of Mary, takes the baby, and he blesses God and says, “Lord, now let your servant depart in peace according to your word, for mine eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared for the face of all people, a light to enlighten the Gentiles and the glory of your people Israel.” It’s an interesting prayer, given that the main focus of the people of Israel on the coming of the Messiah was the last part, “the glory of your people Israel”; but he also says that this is “a light to enlighten the Gentiles” because of course this is what the world needs—the world needs something more than the paganism and the idolatry and the power politics and the horrors that it has endured up until this point. It needs something that will allow it to transcend its tribalism and allow it to move past the anger and the mutual assured self-destruction that has come to characterize it. And that’s precisely what the Messiah was, is. He’s not simply the glory of Israel. He is that, but he’s a light to enlighten the Gentiles, that is, the whole world.And then, of course, while Joseph and his mother, and Jesus’ mother, were marveling at these things, another person comes up to them. Anna, a prophetess. She’s a widower. After she lived with her husband seven years, her husband died, and now for 84 years she’s been in the temple. So she’s been in the temple worshiping and praying God, although we might even consider that maybe she’s not even waiting. I mean, she is in a sense. In fact, I would suggest that she’s waiting in the sense that we are all called to wait. She is waiting on the Lord. Her entire life revolves around the temple of the living God. And she’s moved from the joy of marriage into the joy of being in the presence of God for 84 years. And she comes up as well. She’s a prophetess, and she gives thanks to the Lord and speaks of him to all those who are looking for redemption in Jerusalem.But of course, as I already alluded to, Anna and Simeon and even Mary herself are not waiting alone. All of the people of God, all of the children of Israel have been waiting for years, hundreds of years, for the promised Messiah, for the one that God has promised to them. And many, as the author of the epistle to the Hebrews said, many of the holy people passed away without seeing this come to fruition, because God had, again, according to Hebrews, God had provided that they would not be made perfect without us. Because this salvation that he is preparing in Christ is not simply for the Jewish people. It’s not simply for the people of a particular time or place. It is for all time, in every place.Because this is how God transforms waiting. See, the basic problem with most of our waiting is what we’re waiting for. We’re waiting in line to see the government agent. And we know that when we get there, then it’s basically just a stamp on a document. And it’s actually pretty darn meaningless. Maybe that document will help us to get somewhere or do something, but the actual process and the actual culmination of that waiting is pretty lame if you think about it. Or we’re waiting for something more significant. Maybe we’re waiting for the fruition of some hope that we’ve been working for, working towards. But even that hope, which may be meaningful to us, is meaningful only to us and or maybe to us and a few other people.Or we’re waiting for something larger, perhaps. We’re waiting for justice to be executed on the oppressors. We’re waiting for deliverance from oppression and evil and harm. In fact, the whole world is waiting for this. And the amazing thing is, that has already come. That deliverance has already come in the person of this little baby being brought into the temple of God, the Promised One, the Messiah, the one who transforms our approach to death. Because now Simeon can say, “Lord, now let your servant depart in peace.” Because he has seen the one who fulfills in himself, all that longing for God. The one who comes and is born in order to die, that he might reveal the way of life to all of us. The way of love to all of us.Because, as I say, the world is being torn apart by tribalism and warfare and strife and evil and power and oppression. And the sense that we have in our hearts is that we have to do something about this. Maybe I should protest. Maybe I should do this or that or the other thing. And the answer is, no, you don’t have to do anything except wait on the Lord. Now, this waiting is hard. Because when is God going to do something about this problem? When is God going to resolve this? And so it is that we have, throughout the Scriptures, and throughout our tradition, practice at waiting.We’re going to get 40 days worth of practice at waiting, as we wait for Pascha to come. 40 days plus, actually. We all should know exactly how long 40 days is, because we know that’s the length of Nativity fast. And the amazing thing is that as we wait for Pascha to come, as we wait for whatever feast it is that we’re fasting and praying and waiting on God to bring, it comes. Every year, it comes. And this is a promise going back all the way to the days of Noah when it rained for 40 days and 40 nights and the whole world was destroyed. And when Noah comes out of the ark, God says to him that springtime and harvest will not be disrupted evermore.And it’s no coincidence that Pascha comes with the spring. This is the renewal of life that God has begun in Christ, that God has begun in us, as we have laid aside our power politics, as we have laid aside our tribalism, as we have laid aside, following the example of Christ, the hatred that we have for our enemies, and instead have embraced the way of love. Because as we do this, we participate in the salvation of the world. We do everything that is in our power to participate in God’s long-term plan for the universe in which all of us, Jew and Gentile, slave, free, male, female, all of us are united in this one little baby brought into the temple. The salvation of the world, united in the love that he demonstrated for us, united in that self-sacrificial love even for our enemies as we pray for them. We are being brought by God into unity, the unity of being his holy temple, indwelt by the Spirit of God, motivated by the love of God, fulfilling our destiny as the children of God, to his glory: the glory of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.Scripture readings referenced:* Luke 2:22-40* Hebrews 11:39-40* Genesis 8:22 This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit translatingthetradition.substack.com
