Well, I called Stuart last night and told him
the last lesson was the one I was not
too sure about and he said don't worry about it
by the time you get there you will have
so much lathered up.
But you know, I don't stay lathered up as long
anymore so probably all of you are fading
as am I.
But it has been a wonderful day together and I
have, I don't know about you, but I have
just enjoyed reading these texts and I want us
to continue doing that.
We have, our time is limited to cover a lot of
material because we are going to cover
the entire second chapter but I do think there
will be great value for us just to read it
together as we have been doing and discover as
we go what we see in the text.
But again to kind of set the stage and to
summarize and bring us up to date, especially
if you have not been with us, we have been
looking at the birth narratives of the gospel
of Luke and looking not only at the people who
are presented to us, the people who are
representative of expectant Israel waiting to
see the day of the Lord dawning when they
will no longer sit in darkness but will have
the light of day and the salvation of our God.
And as we look at them as expectant Israel, we
who stand in the 21st century are the expectant church.
And so they say something to our lives about
hope and expectancy, about joy and gladness.
And I think part of our challenge is to keep
that same perspective of expectancy in our
lives, especially after we have seen the years
go by, that we still maintain that sense of
keen awareness that the Lord is coming, that
there is yet another promise to be fulfilled
and that God is at the center of all of the
things that are transpiring in the story.
He is the central figure of these 2 chapters.
And his theme is God's own fidelity to his promise.
And we have already seen in our reading
promises fulfilled, Elizabeth, a barren woman
of many
years who has become now pregnant with her
first son, who will become the prophet of
the Most High.
And now we have seen Mary, a young virgin who
questioned how it can be that she, a virgin,
a woman without a husband, could become
pregnant, but was told by the angel Gabriel
that the
Holy Spirit would come upon her and that the
child that was in her would be called Holy
Son of God.
And then we saw the visitation of the two women
as they were together, this old woman
who has now received a miracle of God, awaiting
the birth of her child, and this young Virgin
who has also experienced a miracle of God,
awaiting the birth of her child, together
in the privacy of their lives in Elizabeth's
home, a place that is filled with joy and
gladness and prophecy and with blessing and the
Holy Spirit upon them.
And how the babe in John's womb, who the angel
Gabriel had foretold would have the Holy Spirit
within him, even in his mother's womb, leaps
for joy when Mary arrives at this place.
And to hear Elizabeth blessing Mary as the
mother of her Lord and pronouncing a blessing
also upon her child.
And then pronouncing a blessing upon Mary
because she was the first to believe the good
news of God's salvation through her own Son,
Jesus Christ.
And so now we come to the second chapter as
these birds, these promises, are about to
come into their fulfillment.
And so we're just going to read them and look
at them together and listen to the language.
I think that as I've been reading, I've talked
about the fact that these are stories that
are not often told in our fellowship, that we
sort of avoided Mary, we have avoided the
birth narratives, and rarely do we find, is
this the text we go to on Christmas Day,
it falls on Sunday?
But and so that I feel like that one of our
challenges is to reclaim material, to own
it for ourselves, in our century, in our time,
and I can't remember why I was saying that.
I had a point for that.
Oh, well, we'll just start reading.
But anyway, I have just drawn a blank.
Oh, well, it'll come to me later, I'm sure.
Let's just start reading in the second chapter.
Again, Luke places this passage or these events
in a particular contemporary context.
And so he tells us that in those days, a decree
went out from Caesarea Augustus that all the
world would be enrolled.
And this was the first enrollment when
Quirinius was governor of Syria, and all went
to be
enrolled each to his own city.
And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the
city of Nazareth to Judea, to the city
of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he
was of the house and lineage of David,
to be enrolled with Mary, his betrothed, who
was with child.
And while they were there, the time came for
her to be delivered.
And she gave birth to her firstborn son, and
wrapped him in swaddling cloth, and laid him
in a manger, because there was no room for them
in the inn.
And I know what I was going to say.
I was going to say, while a lot of this
language that we've read and parts to these stories
are somewhat unfamiliar to us, when we get to
the second chapter, it's where we find
the familiar language to us.
And we love to hear our children read the story.
If we've ever had them recently, or at
Christmastime this year, our congregation had a Christmas
dinner on Sunday evening in our school cafeteria.
And all the little kids did a little play about
the birth of Jesus, and read these words.
And it's so precious to see these little
children reading the words of the birth of Jesus.
I've even enjoyed watching Charlie Brown read
these words.
But these are much more familiar words to us.
And so they have gone, Joseph and Mary.
And did you notice the line when I read it in
verse five?
To be enrolled with Mary, his betrothed, who
was with child.
So it's a little underscore of what we talked
about before, about her willingness to accept
and to embrace the scandal of faith, her full
knowledge of the implication of the words
of the angel when he told her that she would be
with child, and yet she had no husband.
And so here is just another reminder of that
Joseph takes Mary, his betrothed, and she
was with child.
But it's not only just a reminder of the
circumstance of her life, and the scandal of
faith that
she has taken upon herself as the servant of
God, who willingly accepts the word of
God for her life, but it's also a reminder of
the miracle of this birth.
Because their marriage has not been
consummated, they are still betrothed, and Mary
is still
a virgin to deliver and to give birth to this baby.
And so the story is told in great simplicity.
Oh, wait a second.
I am just completely mixed up.
I forgot the story of John.
Oh my, I have to start all over again.
We'll wait, we'll get there and catch up to ourselves.
Mark, could you get me a glass of water?
My throat is unusually dry and was having
trouble reading.
We need to start where we left off in verse 57
of chapter 1.
Can we do this?
Y'all are with me.
You're hanging in here great.
I've done all right up till now.
It's this age thing, yes.
So now we're on track, well now I just knew I
was out of sync.
There was something wrong here.
Okay, verse 57.
Now the time came for Elizabeth to be
delivered, and she gave birth to a son, and her neighbors
and Kinsfolk heard that the Lord had shown
great mercy.
And so as we pick up this story, the theme of
joy continues with us, and it's not just
the theme of God's mercy, and it's great mercy
that he speaks of to her.
And they rejoiced with her, and on the eighth
day they came to circumcise the child, and
they would have named him Zechariah after his
father, but his mother said, not so.
He shall be called John.
Oh, thank you very much.
I'll set it here because I'll fill over and run
all over my Bible and erase all my notes.
And they came, and they were filled with great joy.
Remember when we read earlier how Elizabeth had
sequestered herself away?
This text seems to suggest that they did not
realize the child was going to be born.
She has kept herself hidden away.
She was with Mary right up until the time of
this birth because Mary came to her in
the sixth month of her pregnancy, and then
remained with her three months and left just
before the child was born.
And so when the kinsmen and when the neighbors
heard of it, they were filled with great joy,
and they came, on the eighth day they came to
circumcise the child, and they would have
named him Zechariah.
So this is a community affair, and everyone
expects that this child will be Zechariah,
and he belongs to the extended family.
And so they're so sure that they will keep the
tradition and name him after his father,
and particularly this special child that has
come at such a late time in their lives so
unexpectedly reminds me of a friend of mine who
works with me, her name is Rita.
And she has one son who is married.
And they've been married for a number of years
and never able to have children.
And I take the pictures of my grandchildren and
I share them with Rita.
And she shares with me pictures of her son and daughter-in-law.
And but there's always sort of sadness, she
knits all the time, and she makes baby blankets
for other people, and this sort of sense of
loss in her own life that she may not have grandchildren.
And one day I was on the phone, I mean she was
on the phone, her office is three offices
down from mine.
And she was yelling, I could hear her all the
way to my office, and she was running
throughout all of our offices saying, we're pregnant.
Such great joy with this daughter-in-law who
was going to have a child.
And then the day came when the ultrasound had
revealed more about this pregnancy to discover
that they were twins.
And you should have heard the shout then, Joan,
when Rita found out that she's going
to have twin grandbabies.
And so we have a big sign on the window that
says, ask me about my baby twins, and great excitement.
So I can imagine what little bit of excitement
I heard from, or what great excitement that
I heard from Rita as she learned about her
daughter-in-law who, through the miracle of
science today, is able to have her children, or
I should say, through scientific efforts today.
But now Elizabeth, who was advanced in years
and who had been called barren all of these
years and lived with a reproach that Rita's
daughter-in-law does not live with in the
world, really, to now have this baby come into
the world.
And then it has struck me in reading this.
They knew from the beginning it was a boy.
Now, how unusual is that in that world to know
this far in advance that this is going
to be a son?
They probably already had the nursery painted
blue with little Noah the Arch trim around
the top of the room.
And maybe that's what she and Mary were doing
all of this time, was knitting blue baby booties.
I don't know.
But there is great, great joy as the neighbors
and as the family come to celebrate this birth.
But Elizabeth said to them very boldly.
She steps forward and says, because remember,
Zachariah still cannot speak.
In fact, the text indicates that he may even be
not only that he can't speak, but that
he cannot hear because they make signs to him
when they ask him about the name of the child.
So she said, not so.
He shall be called John.
Now remember when we began earlier today and we
talked about the meanings of these names
and that Zachariah's name means God has remembered.
And Elizabeth's name means God is my fullness.
John's name means God is gracious.
What a wonderful name for this gift of God.
God is gracious.
And they said to her, none of your Kindred is
called by this name.
And so they made signs to the father.
They're not going to take her word for this at all.
She may be the mother, but they are not taking
her word for this.
And so they asked the father, making sign.
And he asked for a writing tablet and he wrote,
his name is John.
And they all marveled and immediately his mouth
was opened and his tongue loose.
And he spoke blessing God and fear came upon
all of them.
And all things were talked about throughout the
hill country of Judea.
And all who heard them laid them up in their
hearts saying, then shall this child be for
the hand of the Lord was with him.
And so this wonderful occasion is occasion for
celebration, for the rejoicing of all
that are in the area, for their family and
their neighbors, the community experience
together, wondering about this birth, marveling
at what they heard.
And you know, that is another theme that has
been running through, the sense of wonder,
the sense of Marvelment, the sense of awe, the
sense of fear that is touching all of
the lives of those who are encountering
marvelous events that are transpiring at this time.
And so his father Zachariah was filled with the
Holy Spirit and here it is again.
Over and over the Holy Spirit fills and
overshadows all of these events and all of
these people
become filled with the Holy Spirit and praise
and bless God.
And so Zachariah filled with the Holy Spirit
prophesied saying, blessed is the Lord God
of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his
people and this first portion of his is
in praise of God for his sending of his son.
And then the second portion of this prophecy is
concerning John, his uncle.
And so he says he has visited and redeemed his
people and has raised up a horn of salvation
for us.
This is a warrior image, a horn of salvation in
the house of his servant David as he spoke
by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old
that we should be saved from our enemies.
So this is the Savior who is coming to restore
the house of David but also to save them from
their enemy and from the hand of all who hate
us and perform the mercy promised to our fathers
and to remember his holy covenant, the oath
which he swore to our father Abraham to grant
us that we being delivered from the hand of our
enemies might serve him without fear.
So as the day of salvation arrives, it is the
time when God will deliver them from their
enemies, deliver us from our enemies, will set
us free, will bring salvation to our life,
will redeem us, but he comes even though this
warrior image comes to visit us with mercy.
It is an expression of God's great mercy toward us.
So once again, we have this theme of mercy that
permeates all of this material, the mercy
promised to our fathers, the mercy of his
forgiveness, the mercy of his salvation that
we have come to know and that we will be able
to serve him without fear in holiness and
righteousness before him all the day of our lives.
And again, you get, you see this phrase before
Elizabeth and Zachariah were righteous before God.
Zachariah went in and offered prayers before
God at several times.
This phrase has been used that these people are
living their lives before God in the presence
of God.
And then he turns and he speaks a prophecy
concerning his own son and you child will
be called the prophet of the most high and you
will go before the Lord to prepare his
ways to give knowledge of salvation to his
people in the forgiveness of their sins through
the tender mercy of our God.
And when the day shall dawn upon us from on
high to give light to those who sit in darkness
and in the shadow of death to guide our feet
into the way of peace.
So this event that we're watching unfold, these
miracles of earth, these acts of God
as fulfillment of his promises, bringing
forgiveness to our lives through his great and
as Zachariah
said, tender mercies, which he is bringing to
us to provide salvation for us so that
we might not walk in darkness but walk in light
and Zachariah and John will be the prophet
of the most high here as Gabriel said in the
first chapter of people made ready for the
Lord and Jesus will come as son of the most
high, bring God's salvation to our lives.
Now we can get to the second chapter.
Now one of the things that strikes me about
then the difference and this is why it clicked
in my head that I was all wrong is that when we
see the birth of these, we've already read
it now.
So different in character, birth of John was
attended by relatives and
neighbors came to celebrate with great
rejoicing the birth of this child.
But this telling of the birth of Jesus is
almost too simple and bare in terms of detail.
There is no great miracle other than the
miracle of birth.
There are no attendance dignitaries, no wise
men standing around.
There are no, nothing out of the ordinary that
happened other than he was born in a
stable and laid in a manger and that when you
think about God's Christ, God's savior,
his son was come is a reversal of human expectation.
That is extraordinary to see that he was born
and laid in a manger, an unexpected thing
from human perspective.
But then we've seen it all over these pages.
A barren woman being called righteous before
God, a virgin who becomes pregnant without
marrying and now we find a baby, the Savior of
the world wrapped in swaddling cloth and
laid in a manger because there was no room for
them in the inn.
And so this quiet, simple scene in which this
baby is born without any attendance ceremony,
but off in a distant hillside, there are angels
and glory fills the air.
I would like to think that even off in the
heavenly realm, there are angels singing and
that glory is filled all of the heavenly realm,
but on this hillside or on this field, in
that region, there were shepherds out in the
field keeping watch over their flock by night
and an angel of the Lord appeared to them and
the glory of the Lord shown around them
and they were filled with fear, the very same
response that Zechariah experienced when he
turned and here was the angel Gabriel standing
beside him.
And when Mary turned and Gabriel was there with
her, the same kind of fear that comes
over them.
And the angel said to them, as he did to
Zechariah, as he did to Mary, behold, do not
fear, behold,
I bring you good news of great joy, which will
come to all the people for to you is
born this day in the city of David, a savior
who is Christ the Lord.
And this will be a sign for you.
You will find a babe wrapped in swaddling
cloths and lying in a manger and suddenly there was
with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host
praising God and saying glory to God
in the highest and on earth peace among men
with whom he is pleased.
Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace
to men.
Some have said this is almost antiphanal, it's
almost as if you could have, you could
have two voices singing, one from Heaven and
one from earth, where the one from Heaven
says glory to God in the highest and earth
answers back peace among men.
So it's wonderful symmetry in this hymn, glory
to God in the highest, peace to men upon earth.
I thought I would just stop for a moment and
now we've been reading these stories and talking
about these promises of God, looking at their
lives unfold before us and ask you, what do
you see in these stories now?
What strikes you as particularly wonderful?
And if you want to enter into a conversation
with me about this, what do you see in these stories?
What do you see about God?
Yes, I think that is a remarkable part of the story.
We know there's a great deal of difference in
their ages.
Mary, when you think about it, Mary is just
entering into puberty because she's not yet
been given in marriage to her husband.
So she would be 12-13, whereas Elizabeth is
past the time, or it doesn't say this,
but we assume this, that she is past the time
of bearing children.
So we have a woman of my age together with a
young 12-year-old girl, but what joins them
together is the wonder and the awe of the
miracle of their lives, and sharing the pregnancy
And I can imagine what Mary must have been
seeking from Elizabeth, this older woman,
to help her, to share with her in the early
stages of her pregnancy.
I think it's a very tender and very wonderful
little scene that Luke provides.
I also think it's wonderful that we are privy
to the private world of women.
We have very few places where that is true for
us in any kind of writing that comes from
this world.
What else have you seen that you've enjoyed or
that has meant something to you?
Well and what's amazing to me is to see his
hand from the very beginning, to weave all
of these lives together, and as we said in the
first lesson, in the fullness of time,
the lot fell to Zechariah, even to see the way
that he appeared to Zechariah to answer
his prayer there in the temple and to announce that.
So we see his hand from the very beginning
guiding all of these events and shaping them
into this wonderful, and I use this word drama,
as it unfolds before our eye.
And I like the way that so often the word mercy
is used, because we've seen in their
personal lives, there is a sense of personal
mercy that God would answer their prayer and
give them a child in their old age to take away
the reproach, what a merciful thing
that is.
The theme of mercy extends far beyond that.
The theme of mercy is, as Zechariah sings of it
here, in terms of forgiveness for all
people, and there is a sense of universality in
this hand, and that it is a fulfillment
of the promise to Abraham, both Mary and
Zechariah, refer to the covenant made with
Abraham, and
now to see it developing, to see it coming and
extending, as Mary's hand says, from
generation to generation, for as Gabriel has
said, his kingdom shall have no end.
So this mercy extends far beyond the personal
realities of their lives, but extends to all
of us who have seen the Lord's salvation, all
of us because of the forgiveness of sins
that is brought to our lives, therefore the
extension of God's mercy on our behalf.
So I think that's one of the powerful things
about seeing God's movement in all of this.
What else do you see?
Don't you, don't you, did you hear what she
said, the great tenderness and care with which
God moves?
It's almost, there's a gentleness to it all.
And I love this phrase that Zechariah used, his
tender mercies.
I remember the movie, did you see the movie
with Robert Duvall, years ago, called Tender
Mercy, and he was this sort of broken down
country western singer who had become an alcoholic
and this young woman takes him in and gives him
work to do and she's a widower, a widow
with a little boy and they go to church, and I
remember the scene, I know this has been
in it since.
Thank you.
But anyway, there's a line in this.
And I think of it, I don't know really what it
has to do with the birth narratives, but I
think of it every time I read this line from
Zacharias hands, this line that says,
The woman in this movie says,
Every time, every night, before I go to bed, I
thank my God for his tender mercies.
So there is a tenderness in God that we see
very much manifest in these stories.
Great care, great sensitivity to who these
people are.
And also when we realize their lowliness.
These are not people from the powerful of the earth.
These are common people of Israel, people of
the hill country, a woman of Nazareth, who are
among the poor and the lowly, and it is God who
lifts them up.
I think that's also a part of the expression
that we're seeing in these hymns of the mercies
of our God, who as Mary sings, who acts
contrary to human expectations.
And so that those who are high and proud in the
imagination of their hearts, he brings down but
to those who are lowly, like our submissive
humble servant of God, Mary, and lifts them up
and gives them place before him.
And so I think it's a wonderful, wonderful
characteristic we see of God.
What else? Do you see anything else?
Right, mother? Right.
It doesn't, that's so good.
Isn't she good?
But that's right, that it doesn't matter our
age, whether we're older or young, young girl,
older woman, serving God together and sharing
in the joy of that experience together.
I saw a couple other hands. I think you're just
getting warmed up.
And how so?
Oh, right, I see.
We sent them away. Right.
That may have been, I mean, at one level that
may very well have been that the family sent
her off to Elizabeth.
But I think on a theological level, because I
interrupted the story before we actually
finished with the shepherds going to Jesus,
they go with Haze.
Now, this is an interesting thing that we see
in the text.
Twice there is mention of a sign.
One is when Gabriel says to Mary, and this
shall be a sign for you.
Your kinswoman Elizabeth is with child.
This is a sign for Mary that what Gabriel is
saying to her is of God.
And she goes with haste to see this sign.
And when the shepherds are here in the field,
they say, and this is a sign for you.
You will see a babe wrapped in swaddling
clothes and line a manger and it says, and they
go with haste to see this sign from God.
Well, there are a lot of things on the fringe
of the story that we don't know.
But what we see is this is the activity that is
at center stage.
And this is the focus of Luke's telling.
He wants us to see how this came about.
This Savior of the world and John the Baptist
who led the way, they are connected and these
stories are intertwined and they are part of
what God is doing to bring about his salvation. Yes.
Well, now that's an interesting idea.
This baby was born painlessly.
But you know, I also would like to think that
this woman experiences life as we do, even
though she did not experience conception in the
way that we do.
But I would like to think that their
pregnancies were every much as much as ours.
Well, I'm sure she had special protection.
But do you know, most women of that day were of
this age when they gave birth to their first children.
This is not an unusual age at which to give birth.
When women reached this age, they were given in
marriage and then often as soon as they were
able, had their first child. Yes.
Oh, I see.
I think that is the power of the word to make
known to reveal it. Yes.
And to be able to read these stories that you
see what I mean when I say these are more than
just stories of a little baby in a manger, a
baby Jesus in a manger.
There's such power in these stories because of
what they tell us about God and what we can see
and what we can experience.
And I think they are especially beautiful
stories for women to read and to claim these
stories and to see these great women of faith
become models for us. Yes.
Yes, we don't say much about Joseph.
Right. Yes, Joseph is and he is mentioned as a
righteous man.
But one of the things that as we look at the
Gospel of Luke and we look at the Gospel of
Matthew, the stories are different in their focus.
Matthew, Luke is more concerned about the lowly
circumstance of his birth because Luke's Gospel
develops this sense of God coming to lift the
lowly and call us to the wisdom of the just.
And so so to have have Jesus born in a manger.
See, for Luke, it is from a manger where God
can sustain his people.
For Matthew, our other birth narrative, it is
the coming of the king.
And so in Luke's Gospel, and I don't want to do
a full comparison of these, but I just want us
to realize that in Luke's Gospel, Mary is
central figure.
And in Matthew's Gospel, Joseph is a figure.
But your point is still is still right.
And that is that that Raya and Elizabeth were
both righteous before God.
We don't want to forget that Joseph as well.
And Joseph's name, by the way, in case we don't
we won't leave him out either in our in our
names means that God will or YHWH will add.
Not quite sure. And oh and Mary means excellent.
So I just find these names fascinating.
I think they and I think they help carry and
convey part of the meaning of the stories.
I don't think these names would have been lost
on Luke's audience.
OK, anything else? Yes. Yes.
Yes. Yes.
There is great tenderness in his boy and in
what he said. And you wonder what Zachariah has
been contemplating these nine months.
Well, we need to over our our time is moving on.
So let's let's see if we can finish the story.
So the angels went away from them into Heaven.
And the shepherds said to one another, let us
go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that
has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.
Here is another unexpected reality in the story
that the Lord would make known the birth of the
Savior to shepherds in a field.
You know, we think of shepherds is taking care
of cute little fuzzy fuzzy sheep.
But they were marginalized people in society.
They were not people who were at the center of
what might be expected in terms of power and
authority when God's Savior arrived.
And so they said, And they went with haste and
found Mary and Joseph and the babe lying in a manger.
And when they saw it, they made known the same
which had been told to them concerning this child.
So even Mary and Joseph were unaware of the
things that were said to the shepherd.
And the shepherd told them all that transpired
and all who heard it wondered at what the
shepherds told them.
But Mary kept all these things, pondering them
in her heart.
And the shepherds returned, glorifying and
praising God for all they had heard and seen as
it had been told.
Now then, I'm not going to read all of the next
two passages because our time is getting away.
But I enjoyed our conversation together.
That was a wonderful way to see what we have seen.
But now on the eighth day, they take Jesus to
the temple to be circumcised.
Oh no, is this right?
Maybe I ought to read it. I'll get my facts wrong.
And at the end of eight days when he was
circumcised, he was called Jesus and the name
given by the angel before he was conceived in
the womb.
So this part of the story parallels that part
of the story in John.
But then, after the baby is circumcised, in
fact 33 days following circumcision of a male
son and seven days before,
that provides 40 days and the law requires that
Mary needed to go to the temple and to present
the child but also for purification.
And so Luke brings these two events together as
he talks about their going to the temple.
And as I said earlier today, she offers, as her
offering, not a lamb but two turtle doves,
which are the offering of the poor.
And when she goes there, there are two figures
that are there.
And one is Simeon, who is a prophet, and it
says that he was righteous and devout, looking
for the consolation of Israel and the Holy
Spirit was upon him.
So do you see all of our figures, all of the
people that we are being told about that are
part of the story are righteous and devout
people and the Holy Spirit is upon them.
But there was another figure there and it was
Anna, Anna the prophetess.
In fact, let's look at her story for a moment,
verse 36, and then we'll end with Simeon.
Anna was a prophetess of the daughter of
Phineul, tribe of Asher, and she was of great
age, having lived with her husband seven years
from her virginity and as a widow until she was 84.
And she did not depart from the temple,
worshiping and fasting and prayer, worshiping
with fasting and prayer night and day.
And coming up at that very hour, she gave
thanks to God and spoke of him to all who were
looking for the redemption of Israel.
We have this old woman who is living in the
temple, devoting her life in prayer and
fasting, waiting for the coming of the Messiah.
And she was a prophetess, prophesized to all of
the people that are there, but we don't hear
her prophecy.
Remember what I said about Luke painting women
as true in their culture, and we don't hear her word.
She is in a public space, but she is going
around to everyone, talking to them about God
and about this event.
But then before this, we have the story of
Simeon, and I would like us, I'm reading so
fast, trying to get this in.
So beginning with, let's see, verse 26, it had
been revealed to Simeon by the Holy Spirit that
he should not see death before he had seen the
Lord's Christ.
And inspired by the Spirit, he came into the temple.
And when the parents brought in the child to do
for him according to the custom of the law, he
took him up in his arm and he blessed him.
Do you see the same tenderness that is evident
in this story?
He took him up in his arms and he blessed God.
And he said, Lord, now let us thou thy servant
depart in peace according to thy word, for mine
eyes have seen thy salvation,
which thou hast prepared in the presence of all
people, a light for revelation to the Gentiles,
and for glory to thy people, Israel.
You see the universality of this salvation that
is coming to all, a light unto the Gentiles,
and glory to Israel.
But I like the image of this hymn.
It's the image of a watchman who has been on
duty, watching, looking, waiting to see the
salvation of God.
God has promised him that he will not depart
this world until he has seen it.
So here is another promise fulfilled.
And so he said, Lord, let us thou thy servant
depart in peace according to thy word, for mine
eyes have seen thy salvation.
We have now an old man whose promise has been
fulfilled, who can now be relieved of his post,
watching and waiting for the coming of Christ.
And then the last part of this, his mother and
his father marveled at what was being said
about him.
And Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his
mother, Behold, this child is set for the fall
and rising of many in Israel,
and for a sign that is spoken against, and a
sword will pierce through your own soul also,
that thoughts out of many hearts may be revealed.
And so he prophesied to Mary, to the pain that
she will experience when her own son is rejected.
These people, in their simplicity and in the
piety of their lives, all of them righteous in
the eyes of God, all of them of lowly circumstance,
all of them humble, submissive servants of the
Lord, stand as models for us.
They stand as a touchstone, a place where we
can go see what happens to people's lives when
they wait for the Lord,
and live their lives in expectancy and in hope,
and how God will use their lives and work
through them for his purposes, and how God
fulfills his promise.
We saw him fulfill his promises in their lives,
and by extension, God is still faithful to his promise.
And we, where we stand in our lives, have seen
the Lord's salvation, but there is yet a
promise to be fulfilled.
So as the expectant church, our calling for the
21st century is to keep vigil, to keep
watching, not to give up our post,
but to stand attentive and to be alert,
watching in expectation and hope, but giving
our lives in humble service before God, waiting
for the day of his return.
So that we can all say with Simeon, mine eyes
have seen thy salvation, face to face with
Christ my Savior, face to face, what will it be?
When with rapture I behold him, Jesus Christ,
who died for me.
Thank you very much. It's been wonderful, and
thanks for putting up with me this afternoon.
I had a wonderful time.