[AI translation] It might be worth pondering why people are usually so strangely restless at this time of year, in the last hours of the year. Why it is that on this day even people who are not used to coming to church during the year come to church. And why do people try to compensate for this inner restlessness with all kinds of external cheerfulness'? At such times, in the last hours of a seemingly endless year, we all feel that we have turned over another page in the book of life, and who knows how many pages are left? But with each turn of the page, we get closer to the last page. When we will get there, none of us knows, but that we are inexorably approaching it, none of us can doubt. It is then that our hearts leap at the thought that we are forced to go down a road in which we can only go forward, not back. And those who are at the very end of the road see that there is the dark gateway from which all men instinctively shrink back, preferring not even to think about it. But on this, the last night of the year, we must think of it. The words of the psalmist about life in his last moments almost give us a sense of it: "it vanishes quickly, as if it were flying."It's interesting, in the first two or three decades of our lives, time passes so slowly that it almost crawls. Sometimes we even hurry. We'd really like to be past the first decades. Later, halfway through the journey of a human life, time suddenly seems to turn around and from then on it gallops, rushes, like a heavy cart on a slope. And in the rush, here and there, something is missed. Our sure gait, our clear sight, our hearing, our health, our youth. Those who are now fifty or sixty years old usually hope: I have another 15-20 years. But do I really? Who can say? I have said it before, but let me say it again: it is not the old or the sick who die, but the one who is next in line! And none of us knows who is next. Only the living God!
Forgive me, my brothers and sisters, if in the last hours of this year, I call your attention not only to the ticking of the clock, but also to the passing of time. This humility is necessary, because in the Middle Ages people were perhaps more humble because they had an hourglass, they were forced to see the grains of sand rolling under every moment. We have a different clock. The hands on this one go round in a circle and deceive us a little. They tell the time as if it were always starting again and never ending. Perhaps not just for our comfort, but out of fear, we have invented a clock that doesn't need to be wound up, that runs at the movement of the hand - until it moves, the hand swings, it runs, and then it stops, and the heart with it.
If I could draw, I would draw an hourglass for these words. The last grains of sand would roll off the top glass and I would write on it: "Memento mori" - remember death! Especially your own death. Remember. Because it is not at all indifferent, Brothers and Sisters, how we will die one day! That is why the death of the old Simeon I just read about is so important for us. The thought of dying is no longer a dark foreboding for him, but he already knows with certainty that the hand that closes the book of his life is raised. Yet how calmly, how serenely he faces even death! He does not try to forget this thought, to suppress it in himself, he does not want to overwhelm it, there is no fear in him, in fact, he is almost happy to go, like a guard dismissed from his night shift in the morning, who can finally go home.
I wonder what the secret of this peaceful, almost happy to die knowledge is? In any case, it is that before this old man saw death, he saw Jesus and took him into his heart. He took to his heart the wonderful One in whom was embodied the divine victory over sin and death. Do you think that this old Simeon would not have been the same man as anyone else? Would he not have felt the burden of his own sins on his soul just as any other man would have felt when he thought of death? He most certainly did. But this man looked first to the divine Saviour, and only then to the eternity of the grave. He looked first to the divine child, and then to the eternal Judge. He looked at death and life, all its problems, through this wonderful Child. And behold, death and judgment lose their terror for him. Between Simeon and death there is this Child as a shield. In this child he embraces the saving grace of God, and that is why he can praise God so joyfully even at the edge of his own grave: "Lord, send away your servant in peace, for my eyes have seen your salvation!" To die thus is the greatest art that a man can learn in this world. And Brothers and Sisters, he who dies thus, dies happy. Is there then such peace, such serenity, such certainty in the face of death? There is!
Let me read a small excerpt from a letter written by a middle-aged sister believer: 'A great change has happened in my life. I am ill, the outcome of my trouble is, by human reckoning, death. I think it is unnecessary to mention the name of the illness, you already know. But the good thing is that I feel completely under the protection of Jesus, I can't rebel, I can't ask why. That is the greatest gift. The journey of our lives sometimes turns into a dark valley, but beyond it, there is always light. I trust in the Lord. If I get a reprieve, I'm grateful, but if not, I'm ready for it. I could not have imagined that Jesus could be such a real protection for a sinner like me. That is truly grace." I learned afterwards that by the time this letter arrived, the writer had also gone home to heaven to Jesus.
Yes brothers and sisters, whoever has seen Jesus can face death with peace. This is the assurance that only Jesus can truly give a person. Do you know how much those who do not believe - the world - envy us this certainty, this peace of mind? Because death is really the great question mark at the end of our lives, the great riddle that has no answer without Jesus, or at least no authentic, reassuring answer. Without Jesus, it is an insoluble problem. It keeps all non-believers in uncertainty in the depths of their souls. Just try to listen for once! That's why they want to drown it out on New Year's Eve, with artificially evoked cheerfulness, when the passing of time itself almost amplifies this restlessness in the heart.
What an unheard-of promise Simeon received, that he would not see death until he saw the Lord Christ. It is indeed a fearful thing to see death first and then Jesus. Without Jesus, death is horrible, because it puts me in the presence of God, it brings me before the judgment seat of God, and what will happen there if I never saw Jesus first? To live without Jesus is somehow possible, but to die: terrible without him! "My eyes have seen your salvation!" is how Simeon goes out. How much more can our eyes see now than Simeon's once did. For he saw only the child Jesus, but we could see the death of Calvary, the resurrection of the Passover, and hear his words, "I am the resurrection and the life, if anyone believes in me, even if he dies, he will live!" I can only cry out to all of you who are here, including myself, that I wish you would not see death until you see Jesus! Because anyone who has seen Jesus with his heart, with his soul, with his faith, can die in peace, because he knows that even if he dies, he will live.
Whoever can die in this way, without such fear, without such trembling, can truly live without fear and trembling. Whoever has seen Jesus as Simeon saw him - that is, whoever has seen in Jesus of Nazareth the Christ, the Son of God, the salvation prepared by God - has tasted eternity. For him, time no longer passes but passes. For if time is passing, it means that with every day, with every hour, with every year that has passed, it is getting shorter, there is less and less of it left, and one day it will pass away altogether. But if it passes, it means that it grows: every day it is closer to fulfillment. It fills up, that is to say, it becomes full, like a glass fills up, a vessel fills up, and then one day it is full. It will be full, life will be full in it. The passing of time takes life further and further away. The passing of time brings life, eternal life, closer and closer. The one who passes time usually looks backwards into the past. The one for whom time is passing looks forward, even through death, to the future, to eternity. The passing of time ages, the passing of time matures. The passing of time makes one restless and sad. But the passing of time is reconciling and comforting. For those for whom time passes, the grey hair is no longer a sign of the passing of beautiful youth, but of the glory of eternity to come. In passing time, death is a gate-closer, so panic is understandable. In passing time, death is a doorway, so calmness is understandable. In the passing time, death is the end of our life, and in the passing time, death is only the end of transience and the fulfilment of eternal life.
I would very much like you to engrave on your hearts today these two words: "passing" or "passing away". For you, brother, does time pass or does it pass? Has it gone again, has another year passed from your life, or has another year filled your life? Where are you going? Where are you going? More and more out of life, or more and more into life? Is real life behind you or is it ahead of you? And it is not a matter of perspective at all, but of faith, because whether time passes or passes for someone depends solely on whether they can say in reference to Jesus with Simeon, "My eyes have seen your salvation."
And one more thing. That faith which is good to die in, is good to live in. He who can die in peace can truly live. For the greatest problem, death, is already taken care of, solved, and solved in a reassuring way, by the death and resurrection of Jesus. So he can throw all his energy into fulfilling all the tasks of this world and not fear that he will miss out on what this life on earth has to offer. For Life is still before him, the greatest good is yet to come. He can therefore live with all his might to help others, for God has already helped him. He can live with all his strength to provide for the good of others, for his highest good has already been provided for by Someone else.
Brothers and sisters! Only he who takes salvation after death seriously can take salvation after death seriously. For look, if everything passes away with death, then those who live for today are right: let us eat, drink and be merry, for we are going to die anyway! But, if death is the fullness of life, then it is worth doing good, worth loving, worth serving, for then there is meaning in eternity, meaning in every good deed, every righteous word, every endurance and suffering. It is so interesting that the Apostle Paul, when he writes about the resurrection after death in 1 Corinthians 15, ends a long discourse with, "Thanks be to God, who gives us the triumph of His triumph through Jesus Christ our Lord." He concludes all this in the last verse, "Therefore, brethren in love, stand firm, steadfastly zealous for the work of the Lord, always knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord." So he begins. Why? Why is there victory over death? Because death is not the end of life, but only the end of transience! Yes, brothers and sisters, the faith that is good to die in is also good to live in. What faith you want to die in, live in!
Finally, we read of Simeon that when he went to the temple "with the prompting of the Spirit", he met the baby Jesus, whom his parents had just brought into the temple, according to the custom of the law. You, now, whether you came to the temple out of anxiety, or out of fear, or out of habit, or by chance, or with very serious intentions, believe that you also came here by the prompting of the Spirit, and the Spirit - the Holy Spirit - always leads you well, because he always leads you to meet Jesus. Jesus is here in this church! Jesus is here in the Word about Him. He is here in the communion tickets representing His broken body and shed blood and in the community of the whole church. And just as Simeon did with the baby Jesus, you can do the same with the Lord Jesus: you can embrace him with the arms of your faith, hold him close to you, take him into your heart. Now! And then you can move from the old year into the new, reconciled and at peace. And when everything and everyone has left you, this Jesus, whom you now embrace, whom you now hold in your heart, will walk with you through the darkness of death into eternity. If you see and receive Jesus now with the faith that Simeon did, you too can have peace now, you too can live and one day die in the peace of God.
Amen
Date: afternoon of 31 December 1967