December 23: My Eyes Have Seen Your Salvation
♫ Music:
Day 27 - Friday, December 23
Title: MY EYES HAVE SEEN YOUR SALVATION
Scripture: Luke 2:25-33
And behold, there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon, and 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. So he came by the Spirit into the temple. And when the parents brought in the Child Jesus, to do for Him according to the custom of the law, he took Him up in his arms and blessed God and said: “Lord, now You are letting Your servant depart in peace, According to Your word; For my eyes have seen Your salvation which You have prepared before the face of all peoples, a light to bring revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of Your people Israel.” And Joseph and His mother marveled at those things which were spoken of Him.
Poetry & Poet:
“Horses at Midnight without a Moon”
by Jack Gilbert
Our heart wanders lost in the dark woods.
Our dream wrestles in the castle of doubt.|
But there’s music in us. Hope is pushed down
but the angel flies up again taking us with her.
The summer mornings begin inch by inch
while we sleep, and walk with us later
as long-legged beauty through
the dirty streets. It is no surprise
that danger and suffering surround us.
What astonishes is the singing.
We know the horses are there in the dark
meadow because we can smell them,
can hear them breathing.
Our spirit persists like a man struggling
through the frozen valley
who suddenly smells flowers
and realizes the snow is melting
out of sight on top of the mountain,
knows that spring has begun.
THE SPIRIT PERSISTS
Simeon waited. Every day he looked expectantly for the promise. The Bible calls him devout, someone who “takes hold of things carefully.” Being devout, Simeon carefully took hold of the words the Spirit spoke, that he would not die until he saw the Lord’s Christ.
How do we wait for the promise? The promise that God hears our prayer even when the answer is delayed; the promise of his presence when it feels like he is far from us; the promise of his return when it seems like “everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation”?
We don’t know how Simeon waited, except that as one who took hold of things carefully, he would have taken hold of Scripture. There he saw examples of how others waited before him. He knew Abraham believed and questioned and obeyed while waiting for the promise. He knew that when Jacob feared Esau was coming to kill him, he waited by praying God’s word back to him, twice, “ But you have said…”
We know what waiting feels like. It feels like time has stretched out, slowed down or even stopped. But what would it sound like? If it was transposed as music it might sound like today’s piece by Ulrike Mayer-Spohn, its drawn out breaths measuring the wait for the arrival of the promise. The suspended tones are like metaphors for waiting and, as the problems mount and the promise delays, the struggle to hope.
Through the years of waiting, maybe Simeon also saw and didn’t see, believed and strove to believe, as Jack Gilbert expresses such struggle in his poem:
Our heart wanders lost in the dark woods.
Our dream wrestles in the castle of doubt.
But there’s music in us. Hope is pushed down
but the angel flies up again taking us with her.
Simeon read about Joseph who knew his dreams promised something of great significance, yet, “the word of the Lord tested him” through years of imprisonment in Egypt. And Simeon read that when the psalmist was surrounded by enemies he said, “I wait for the LORD, my whole being waits, and in his word I put my hope.”
Simeon waited, knowing how the word both tested and sustained those who put their hope in God’s promise.
Gilbert’s poem continues:
Our spirit persists like a man struggling
through the frozen valley
who suddenly smells flowers
and realizes the snow is melting
out of sight on top of the mountain,
knows that spring has begun.
Simeon’s spirit persisted. And when Mary and Joseph walked into the Temple with their Child in their arms, he was sure, without doubt, the new had begun.
Whatever Simeon’s waiting looked like, we see its result visualized in Robyn Sand Anderson’s painting, Arvo Pärt: Nunc Dimittis. Anderson’s painting was inspired by the choral work of Arvo Pärt, based on Luke 2:29-32 where Simeon prays for the Lord to let him depart in peace, nunc dimittis, as fulfillment of His promise that he would live until he saw the Messiah. The painting depicts a figure outlined in an abstract, vivid doorway. Is it Simeon represented in a vibrancy of fulfilled promise? Or is it the Spirit of Christ opening the door to glory for the waiting Simeon, and one day us, to depart now, in peace?
Prayer:
Lord,
We can only wait by the work of the Spirit in us. Help us wait. May others see Your reality in us, as in your saints of old, as we wait believing, obeying, and sometimes questioning. May You be glorified as our spirits persist.
In Jesus’ name, amen.
Jayne English
Essayist
For more information about the artwork, music, and poetry selected for this day, we have provided resources under the “About” tab located next to the “Devotional” tab.
About the Artwork:
Nunc Dimittis
Robyn Sand Anderson
2016
Acrylic on board
22 x 30 in.
Robyn Sand Anderson’s painting Nunc Dimittis was inspired by the musical compositions of Arvo Part, an internationally acclaimed Estonian liturgical composer. Specifically, she explores two of Part’s works, “Magnificat” and “Nunc Dimittis.” By reading and studying the texts and then listening to each track on Part’s album “Sacred Songs of Life & Love,” Sand Anderson reimagined the audio soundscape into color, movement, and texture. Allowing the music to dictate her movements and color choices, she paints, listening for nuances of rhythm and tone as the lyrics deepen the experience and her understanding.
About the Artist:
Robyn Sand Anderson, a native of Decorah, Iowa, has a B.A. degree in fine art and art education from Luther College in Decorah, Iowa. For over thirty years she has been a professional artist specializing in transparent watercolor and acrylic, and she works as an illustrator using a variety of styles and media. After a diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis in 2008, her paintings changed. Her experience of suffering led her to acrylic abstract expressionism which, in her words, speaks more eloquently to the mystery of suffering and hope, those things that are hard to understand or explain, and to our relationship with God and each other. Most recently, Anderson has been interpreting choral, orchestral, and even eclectic folk music with color, movement, and texture in her art.
http://www.robynsandanderson.com/
https://www.robynsandanderson.com/about-the-artist
About the Music:
“Nunc Dimittis," also called the Song of Simeon, is one of the most moving of the canticles in Scripture. It combines the quiet, intimate confidence of a humble and faithful servant of God with a bold and comprehensive summary of God’s purposes for all the world and for all of history.
Nunc Dimittis is a brief hymn of praise and thanksgiving sung by the aged Simeon, who had been promised by the Holy Spirit that he would not die until he had seen the Messiah. Simeon was at the temple in Jerusalem when new parents Mary and Joseph came to present the infant Jesus for the rite of purification according to Jewish law and custom. Simeon recognized the baby as the promised Savior, took him in his arms, and raised his hymn of praise. Found in Luke 2:29–32, it is called the Nunc Dimittis for its first words in the Vulgate Bible: “Nunc dimittis servum tuum, Domine, secundum verbum tuum, in pace” (“Now, Master, you can let your servant go in peace, just as you promised”). Because of its implications of fulfillment, peace, and rest, the early church viewed it as appropriate for the ending of the day and therefore since the fourth century it has been used in such evening worship services as compline, vespers, and evensong.
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Nunc-Dimittis
Lyrics: (Sung in Latin)
Lucas 2:29–32, Biblia Sacra Vulgata
Nunc dimittis servum tuum,
Domine, secundum verbum tuum in pace
Quia viderunt oculi mei salutare tuum
Quod parasti ante faciem omnium populorum
Lumen ad revelationem gentium
et gloriam plebis tuae Israhel.
English Translation
Luke 2:29–32, King James Bible
Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace
According to thy word;
For mine eyes have seen thy salvation,
Which thou hast prepared before the face of all people;
To be a light to lighten the Gentiles
and to be the glory of thy people, Israel.
About the Composer:
Sungji Hong (b. 1973) is a South Korean composer. Hong's compositions include works for solo instruments, orchestra, chorus, ballet, and electroacoustic media, with special interest on timbre and predetermined pitch structures. In 2022 she was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship and a Charles Ives Fellowship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Hong has received commissions from the Fromm Music Foundation, the National Flute Association, Texas Flute Society, the MATA Festival, iSing Silicon Valley, the Tongyeoung International Music Festival, Kumho Asiana Cultural Foundation, and the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, among many others. Her Missa Lumen de Lumine on the ECM New Series (ECM 1929), performed by the vocal ensemble Trio Mediaeval, received critical acclaim and reached the top ten on the Billboard Classical Chart and iTunes classics. Over the last decade, Sungji's music has been performed by leading players and ensembles in over forty-six countries and 213 cities. Her music has been widely broadcast in more than seventeen countries and has been recorded and released on the Soundbrush, Elektramusic, Atoll, Dutton label, and by ECM Records.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sungji_Hong
https://www.sungjihong.com/biography
About the Performers:
Ulrike Mayer-Spohn (recorder) and Javier Hagen (voice)
While still attending school, Ulrike Mayer-Spohn (b. 1980) completed her studies for playing organ and choral conducting in Stuttgart and, as a junior student, she studied the recorder at the Karlsruhe Music Academy under Ulrike Mauerhofer. Ulrike Mayer-Spohn works together with composers such as Beat Gysin, Boris Yoffe, Gabriel Pareyon, Andreas Zurbriggen, and Paul Newland. Together with the Swiss composer and singer Javier Hagen, in 2007 Ulrike Mayer-Spohn formed the duo UMS 'n JIP, which is dedicated to new musical settings for recorder, voice, and electronics. She works regularly as a recorder player, violinist, or fiddle player in specialized ensembles for early music groups as Amsterdam Barok Compagnie, Freitagsakademie, Collegium Musicum Stuttgart, La Chapelle Ancienne, Musica Poetica, Muscadin, and La Morra.
https://musinfo.ch/en/personen/komponisten/?pers_id=1460&abc=M
http://umsnjip.ch/
Javier Hagen (b.1971) is a Swiss Spanish opera singer, vocal performer, and composer specializing in contemporary music. Hagen grew up in Germany, Spain, and Switzerland, where he studied classical singing and composition. Together with Ulrike Mayer-Spohn, he formed the UMS 'n JIP duo. He has worked with composers such as Beat Furrer, Aribert Reimann, Mauricio Kagel, Peter Eötvös, and Guo Wenjing, and premiered more than three hundred works. He is a guest lecturer at music universities such as Kunitachi College of Music Tokyo, Columbia University, New York University, Arizona State University, University of North Texas, ITÜ MIAM Istanbul, Moscow Conservatory, Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, Goldsmiths, University of London, and CREAMA Seoul. Hagen is also director of the Forum Wallis New Music Festival and has been president of the Swiss Society for New Music SGNM (Switzerland) since 2014.
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Javier_Hagen
http://umsnjip.ch/
About the Poetry & Poet:
Jack Gilbert (1925–2012) was an American poet. Gilbert was acquainted with poets Jack Spicer and Allen Ginsberg, both prominent figures of the Beat Movement, but he is not considered a Beat poet—he described himself as a "serious romantic." Over his five-decades-long career, he published five full collections of poetry. He graduated with a B.A. from University of Pittsburgh and received his M.A. from San Francisco State University in 1963. His work has been distinguished by simple lyricism and straightforward clarity of tone, as well as a resonating control over his emotions. His first book of poetry, Views of Jeopardy (1962), won the Yale Younger Poets Prize and was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. His books of poetry were few and far between; however he continuously maintained his writing and contributed to publications including The American Poetry Review, Genesis West, The Quarterly, Poetry, Ironwood, The Kenyon Review, and The New Yorker. Gilbert was the 1999–2000 Grace Hazard Conkling writer-in-residence at Smith College. Much of Gilbert's work is about his relationships with women.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Gilbert
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/jack-gilbert
About the Devotion Author:
Jayne English