Monday, December 29, 2025
Fifth Day in the Octave of Christmas
(click here to listen to or read today’s scriptures)
Depart in peace
There was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon,
and the Holy Ghost was upon him.
When Jesus was eight days old,
Joseph and Mary brought him to the temple.
Simeon took him up in his arms, blessed God and spoke.
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.
A light to lighten the Gentiles,
and the glory of thy people Israel.
Long ago I had memorized the melody. Sunday after Sunday, year after year, after our Communion, we sang the song of Simeon in the Lutheran church I attended as a young person, as a young Christian. We partook of the wine and bread, prayed together, and then sang these words in a haunting, plaintive chant. Sometimes the minister sang the song alone, with no help from his congregation. That is when it was most powerful.
Decades later, in 1996, Margaret and I attended a Rich Mullins concert at Lincoln Christian College, Rich’s show was wonderful, and his songs were deep, funny, unpredictable, inspiring.
For his encore, Rich took the microphone and sang something I’d never heard. I later learned it was a song written by Albert Brumley, author of I’ll Fly Away – my father’s favorite song, the song Dad asked Margaret and I to sing at his funeral. Alone and vulnerable, Rich sang.
  This world is not my home, I’m just a passin’ through
   My treasures are laid up, somewhere beyond the blue
   The angels beckon me, from heaven’s open door,
   And I can’t feel at home in this world anymore.
There was no accompaniment. Pastor Neitzel’s acapella chants of Simeon’s song flooded my memory and cut straight through me.  Rich sang those words with the loneliness and desperation of a stranger in a strange land. I believed him utterly.
Less than a year later, Rich Mullins was killed in a freak auto accident. I have never forgotten the sound of his voice singing that song, asking in the words of Albert Brumley for the Lord to allow him to depart in peace.
Behold, this child is destined
for the fall and rise of many in Israel,
and to be a sign that will be contradicted
(and you yourself a sword will pierce)
so that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.
(posted at www.davesandel.net)
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