Psalm 131 on December 29th, 2024
Above is audio of the sermon pulled from the video and amplified.
Below is transcript pulled from the video and formatted by artificial intelligence. There may be inconsistencies or errors.
Many of you know that we have two children, Jonah and Anna. And in the Bible, Jonah gets plenty of airtime. Most people know him as the guy who runs away, the storms in the sea, the big fish. Jonah is well known. But Anna, not so much. Anna's biblical story isn't as familiar and there aren't too many children's books titled, Anna and the Temple or anything. So since today, we get to read Anna's one and only scene. I decided to ask how were Anna if there was anything that she wanted me to include? A story, a note, any advice on behalf of all Anna's out there. And she said, like what? Something funny or sweet like love everybody. I don't know. So there you go. Sage advice.
Our story today is full of piety. Of course Mary, Joseph and Jesus are there, but we also meet two new to the story characters, Symian and Anna. Symian and Anna represent the older generation of the faith. There to witness God's fulfillment for the younger and the yet to come generations. They're the type of people that you want in a congregation. Righteous, devout, present, people who show up the Sunday after a big holiday, model Jewish leaders.
And we start with Mary and Joseph being those pious observers of God's commands. When keeping with the mosaic law, they bring Jesus to be circumcised eight days after his birth. He also receives his name, which means God saves, which clearly signals the coming story. They come to Jerusalem for their purification, which having just given birth Mary would need to do under the law. And they also come to dedicate their first born son to God showing that Jesus has been born into a family of observant Jews. Jesus doesn't just show up out of the blue to save the world. He is part of a long history of God working.
And also there's more to this than Jews simply following the rules. This dedicating the first born to God thing started way back in Exodus 13 and in the context of the Passover and Pharaoh's release of the Israelites. This dedication of Jesus brings back all of those memories and links them to the Exodus and a continuation of God's promises. Again, Jesus's name, God saves, tells us what he is going to do. And this dedication not only fulfills the law, but it points us back to the greatest thing that God had done for the Israelites people up to that point.
Then we move to Simeon. His story points to Israel's hopes and expectations that God would send a savior, the Messiah. He awaits the consolation of Israel, which is his language borrowed from the prophet Isaiah. And while Isaiah doesn't use that exact phrase, the idea of consolation and comfort is a major theme of the book. Speaking of hope for the coming Messiah who would bring comfort and redemption to Israel. Okay, so so far we have fulfilling the law, pointing back to God's salvation in the Exodus and now the biggest prophet being alluded to. Have you picked up that this Jesus guy is kind of a big deal?
And when Simeon finally meets the baby, his response comes in two parts. First we have the praise and the joy through song. Simeon considers himself dismissed from the task of awaiting God's salvation now that he has seen Jesus. It's a little bittersweet considering the promise that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord's Messiah. In essence, he's singing, this is great. Oh, and now I'm going to die. But not only does Jesus set Simeon free from from waiting, but Simeon again adopts language from Isaiah to refer to the universal scope of the salvation that Jesus brings. Jesus is the savior of all people, a light to the Gentiles and God's glory for Israel.
And then there is the second part of Simeon's story, the falling and the rising of many in Israel. Despite Jesus' identity as Israel's Messiah and the savior of all, some will oppose him. God's power and presence are revealed and so is human sin, resistance and opposition to what God is doing. And for Mary, witnessing this will be painful, like a sword piercing her soul too. That too gives us a hint of what is coming for Jesus. Nail, spear shall pierce him through the cross, be born for me, for you.
And then finally we meet Anna. She is a prophet, like Miriam and Deborah and the Old Testament. Luke highlights her piety, noting that she worships, she prays, she fasts, nonstop. And being 84 years old but only married for seven, most likely means that she had been a widow for a long, long time. But Anna's age brings wisdom and credibility. And she prays as God and speaks about Jesus' redeeming Israel we can trust her testimony.
So these characters, Mary, Joseph, Simeon, Anna, they paint a picture of faithful, devout people. They observe God's law, they know the scriptures, they worship and they live out their faith in community. For those of us here on this Sunday after Christmas we've been tempted to think that these people are being rewarded for their piety and we too should get some pretty cool things for how holy we're being right now. But that is not what Luke is trying to do. He's not holding them up as example saying, do this and Jesus will save the world, live at church and you'll get a sneak peek into what God is up to next. As much as I'd like to see you more often I don't think that is what Luke is doing.
Ultimately, Luke wants us to see what God has done, is doing and what God promises yet to do. But God continues to work, to save, to set free, to bring light, to comfort, to forgive, to welcome, to redeem. Luke wants us to see God's activity more than our own because every step of the way each phase of the story, each moment of the day, God is bestowing grace upon grace through Jesus the Christ. And rather than rewarding the piety of Mary, Joseph, Simeon and Anna, we learn that their religious devotion and living out their faith and worship and community, it opens them up to what God is already up to. They become aware of God's activity in their lives and in their world.
And so in our community, our faith, our rituals and sacraments are being here and worshiped this Sunday after Christmas's training. God uses it to help us see what Jesus is up to in our world. Because this child born to two ordinary people stirs up extraordinary love, praise and hope. See is God's love embodied, God's promise fulfilled. Simeon and Anna don't just see a baby, they see God's promise breaking into the world. And they don't see Jesus merely as what he was in that moment. They see what he would grow to do, the lives he would touch the love that he would embody. They saw hope for all creation. And why wouldn't we want to see more of that?
Here's the truth for us. The same hope then still moves in our world. And it is shared by those of us who dare to believe it. It's a hope that asks us to look at our lives in our world and say, yes, God is still at work here and I am part of that story. So as we leave here today, may we like Anna and Simeon see the hope, joy and salvation that Christ brings. And may we carry that light out into the world, knowing that God's promises are still unfolding in us and through us. Amen.