Singing of a Savior
The Sunday after Christmas is known among seminarians somewhat jokingly as "seminarian Sunday" because so many of us are asked to preach at our home churches while we are visiting family over the holiday. It is a joy to get to preach before the people that have walked along side you on the journey to and through seminary; and this year was no different. On December 28th, I preached on the Song of Simeon at the First Presbyterian Church of Lee's Summit.
You can listen to an audio recording of the 11am service by clicking play below. Following is the scripture passage and the outline I was preaching from.
A reading from the Gospel of Luke, the second chapter, verses 22 through 40. Listen for God’s Word to you today.
When the time came for their purification according to the law of Moses, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord (as it is written in the law of the Lord, “Every firstborn male shall be designated as holy to the Lord”), and they offered a sacrifice according to what is stated in the law of the Lord, “a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons.”
Now there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon; this man was righteous and devout, looking forward to the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit rested on him. It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Messiah. Guided by the Spirit, Simeon came into the temple; and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him what was customary under the law, Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying,
“Master, now you are dismissing your servant in peace,
according to your word;
for my eyes have seen your salvation,
which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples,
a light for revelation to the Gentiles
and for glory to your people Israel.”
And the child’s father and mother were amazed at what was being said about him. Then Simeon blessed them and said to his mother Mary, “This child is destined for the falling and the rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be opposed so that the inner thoughts of many will be revealed—and a sword will pierce your own soul too.”
There was also a prophet, Anna the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was of a great age, having lived with her husband seven years after her marriage, then as a widow to the age of eighty-four. She never left the temple but worshiped there with fasting and prayer night and day. At that moment she came, and began to praise God and to speak about the child to all who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem.
When they had finished everything required by the law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth. The child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom; and the favor of God was upon him.
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“Singing of a Savior”
- The Usual? No thanks.
- The “normal” sermon for this week is about waiting. (heard it last week!) Simeon & Anna - two old prophets, waiting for the Messiah
- The point? If we wait, God will keep God’s promises, just as God did for Simeon. (along with a joke about you all being like Simeon)
- This works well for us, because we all struggle with waiting (waiting for…)
- Important? Sure. HOWEVER -You’re going to have to wait for a sermon on waiting, because I don’t think it is the most important thing here. What happens in the temple is much more basic to who we are than waiting ever could be - it is about how we respond when we are face-to-face with God.
- Response to the presence of God - first two chapters of Luke
- At four points in the first two chapters of Luke, as people are faced with the news of God’s incarnation, they break forth into song. (explanation on verse vs song)
- When Mary visits Elizabeth, she sings the Magnificat.
- At the birth of John the Baptist, Zechariah sings a prophesy.
- At the birth of Jesus, the angels sing Glory to God in the Highest!
- Simeon, upon taking Jesus into his arms, cannot help but break into a song of praise and thanksgiving.
- Why does Simeon Sing?
- It is the only thing he can do. What else is there to do when faced with God’s promise, not only to you, but to your people? So, the old man sings praise.
- He sings that salvation has come, not only to Israel, but to the Gentiles as well - one of the early hints from Luke that this whole Messiah thing is not going to go as expected.
- Simeon sings for the same reason that Anna, just moments later, bursts onto the scene, telling anyone who would listen about the child.
- Isn’t it amazing; two prophets - an old man and an old woman - at a time when prophesy was rare at best - come face to face with God incarnate and without a second thought begin singing and shouting to anyone and everyone around them that salvation is here.
- Do we sing?
- Have you ever been face to face with salvation?
- Sure - there are no Simeon’s, or Anna’s, or Mary’s here - no one who has held God incarnate as an infant; looked him in the eye.
- I’m not talking about time-travel here - I’m talking about being face-to-face with the realization that this - the praying, the singing, the confession and pardon, the statements of faith, the bread and the wine - that all of this is actually means something?
- The realization that the promises we have heard growing up - of goodness and light, of angels singing Glory to God in the Highest, of an end to pain and death… That all of those promises are being fulfilled.
- What do we do when we come face to face with that?
- I say we sing. We sing to praise, we sing to pray, we sing to tell the story of the hope we have in Jesus Christ.
- We sing these things with our voices, we sing them with our actions, we sing them with our lives.
- Come - let us sing!