THE BEGINNING ENDS by Larry Patten

I stood in the line just inside the post office entrance. The guy behind me joked, “Guess we’re getting close to Christmas.”

But, I think, not yet close enough to the mail clerk’s window where I can finally mail my package. The post office’s interior was jammed with PPPSers like me: Pathetic Procrastinating Present Senders. Outside on the covered sidewalk more customers gathered. PPPSers unite! Though I harbored Scrooge-like thoughts about waiting, I light-heartedly replied, “Yes, Christmas must be a month away or so!”

Ha. Ha. Funny me.

The woman just ahead, also clutching a package, paused. I imagined the gears of her weary mind clicking and clacking. Softly, she muttered, “Oh no, it’s next week . . . only days away.”

In front of her a skinny young Asian-American fellow, a singular envelope in his hand, looked directly at me, grinned, and said, “Christmas is close . . . right Santa?” He could be heard indoors and outdoors. His smile widened as he added, “I mean, you do look like Santa!”

Me? Look like Santa?

Okay, I had a package in hand.

And a beard. Slightly unkempt hair. And all the hair, chin and to the north, is gray. Okay, fine, maybe it’s even leaning toward a Santa-tized white. But I don’t have (according to Clement Clark Moore of “The Night Before Christmas” fame) a “little round belly.” I’m not “chubby and plump.” No, I think I’m more thick-waisted. Or sturdy around the middle. Yeah, I like sturdy.

How dare that skinny dude call me Santa! But I laughed with him (and didn’t at all look like “a bowlful of jelly” when I did).

Ah, Christmas, with all the characters crowding inside and outside our memories and experiences.

Though the Gospel of Luke’s “Christmas” beginnings provide several memorable characters—from Mary’s cousin Elizabeth to the shepherds on the hillside—we don’t spend much time with those who conclude the birth accounts. But they are worth remembering. Luke, and only Luke, introduced old Simeon and elderly Anna. Given how we annually squish together Matthew’s magi, Luke’s Quirinius, and toss in some token animals near the manger for good measure, why not bring in Simeon and Anna before the season’s over?

Simeon and Anna. They finish off the opening, don’t they? The next time Luke’s Jesus appeared, he was in the temple, a boy questioning the teachers. Then, ta-da, he’s getting wet in the Jordan.

So, let’s not neglect the elderly pair that ends the beginning.

Odd as it is, don’t we know more about these two than some of Jesus’ later disciples? Let’s focus on Anna . . . elderly, a widow, a prophet, from the tribe of Asher, and hangs around the temple. Fasts and prays, day and night. Now, tell me something about Bartholomew or Judas, the son of James. (No, not that Judas.) Were they widowers? Did they fast or pray much? Old? Young? Scrawny? Thick-waisted?

The skinny fellow in the postal line looked at me and declared “Santa!” Drats, no one in the long line disagreed with him.

Last summer I was at a writer’s workshop where one of the leaders talked about describing peripheral characters. Not the hero, but the person who comes and goes in the novel. Maybe a woman wearing mismatched socks gives a clue to solve the murder. Or a teenager with a Mohawk dyed red and a ring in his nose provides a diversionary threat. How are they made memorable? The leader’s suggestion was to treat these folks as if you were telling a messenger to take an urgent note to one person in a crowded room.

How would the messenger find that individual based on your description? Keep it brief and accurate: has a package in his hands, gray beard, thick-waisted, and wears glasses. Also laughs like a bowlful of jelly (no, really I don’t!).

Suddenly, one person stands out.

In Luke’s case, her name was Anna.

Look for an elderly woman. Thin, because she fasts. She’ll be in the temple. Always praises God.

Anna and Simeon were mere peripheral characters. And yet, for Luke, they were essential. I agree with scholars (like Joseph Fitzmyer and Fred Craddock) that view the elderly pair as “symbols” of the end of an age. New life! Joy to the world! But Simeon, gripped by God’s spirit, and Anna, the patient prophet, have a lifetime of waiting fulfilled. Out of the shadows they stepped. And speak. They matter. We listen. The old is over, the new is now.

Yup, I agree with the scholars. Anna and Simeon were symbols. But I’m enough of a fiction writer, a teller of tales, to appreciate Luke’s gift. And so I can “see” Anna, even in a crowd of Christmas characters. For me, a bearded, sturdy guy mistaken for Santa, I sensed the old woman’s thrill. As the beginning ends, she helped me understand how much more there is to come.

in Peace,

Larry

In the season of CHRISTMAS - Written on December 19, 2008

For the Lectionary of December 28, 2008: Luke 2:22-40

“There was also a prophet, Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher.”

Hey, I don't look like this guy!!