Simeon and Anna

I love the story of Simeon and Anna, and while they encounter the infant Jesus just 8 days after his birth, for some reason we don’t put them in our nativity scenes. We put in the Wisemen who could have arrived up to three years after Jesus was born, but we don’t put in Simeon and Anna who worshipped Jesus in the temple about a week after his birth, but maybe we should because their story has a powerful message for us today. As we look ahead to the new year, Simeon and Anna share with us two valuable lessons that we should carry in to 2010.

The first lesson is that if we want to really see Jesus and experience all that God has for us, we have to remain faithful in the little things and follow through on all routine practices of our faith. Both Simeon and Anna were waiting for the Messiah to come – the both wanted to seek the fullness of God. In Luke 2:25-26 it says… Simeon had been told that he was not going to die until he saw the consolation of Israel – he wasn’t going to die without seeing the Messiah, and yet he is not out searching for the Christ to come in some remote area and he’s not sitting on the mountain top waiting for the God to come down riding in on the clouds, he’s right where he always is – he’s in the temple - worship God. Simeon was looking for God to come, but he was looking for God to come in the midst of the everyday routines and practices of his faith.

Too many times we think that we will only experience the presence and the power of God when we are sitting on the mountain top, or on some far away mission trip, and while those times can open us up to God’s presence in new and unexpected way, what Simeon shows us is that God comes to us in all the normal practices of our faith. In fact, the reason Simeon was able to see Jesus at all and the reason he got to hold Jesus in his arms was because he was in church that day! Simeon didn’t miss out on Jesus was because he was in church every day. Simeon was simply being faithful in his worship of God so it was just a normal day when he looked up and saw Mary and Joseph brining in the son of God.

It is in the daily routines of life and faith that we find Jesus, which is why we are told to not stop meeting together. In Hebrews 10:25 it says, let us not neglect meeting together as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another and all the more as we see the Day of God approaching. It is important for us to keep worshipping together and we need to make sure we continue to pray together, study God’ word together and serve together in the new year. It’s important for us to develop healthy habits of faith development and as we make new year’s resolutions, this is a great week to start.

If you don’t have a daily devotion, think about starting one. Use the upper room, use a daily devotional focused on something that interests you, commit yourself to developing the practice because it will be in our daily devotions and our weekly worship and our persistent periods of prayer and our seasonal small groups that we will find Jesus. It is important for us to remain faithful in all these routine practices of our faith, because it will be during these times of worship that God will show up.

This is Anna’s story as well. Anna was even more devout than Simeon because it says she never left the Temple, she worshipped and fasted and prayed night and day. She was not about to miss out on what God was going to do, she was faithful and persistent and her faithfulness paid off because she was there when the Messiah arrived. Now I’m not suggesting that we drop everything and move into the church to live, but I am suggesting that we develop lives where we intentionally and consistently live in Christ. In Acts 17:28 it says that in Christ we live and move and have our being. What would it look like for us to live moment by moment in Christ? What would it look like if day by day we moved in Jesus? What would a life of constant worship and prayer be like for us? We are told to pray continuously and that worship is to be a lifestyle – so how can we commit ourselves to this way of life in the year ahead?

Part of developing this lifestyle is intentionally spending time with God. Back in the fall of 2008 many of us tried the 60/60 experiment where we tried to just think about God once an hour. Some of us set an alarm to go off every hour to remind us to ask God to direct our thoughts and hearts and actions in that moment. Many of us did that for 60 days to try and develop the habit of consistently turning to God and being aware of his presence and leading in our lives.

Let me suggest that the new year might be a great time to commit ourselves anew to the 60/60 experiment, or try what some people call 10 + 10. 10 + 10 is just making the commitment to spend 10 minutes a day reading God’s word and 10 minutes a day in pray. You see, our devotional life doesn’t have to start out big, it’s ok to start small and build. Can we make the commitment to just 20 minutes a day and start living in the presence of God? We can start anywhere in the Bible, but if it’s been a while since you have seriously read or studied the Bible, let me suggest starting with the gospel of Mark. If we will commit ourselves to daily devotions and week times of worship something wonderful will happen because in the midst of this discipline and practice, God will show up. That’s the message of Simeon and Anna; God will show up when we are faithful and commit ourselves to a lifestyle of faithful worship, devotion and prayer.

Now this doesn’t mean that God will show up in profound and life changing moments everyday, think of all the days Simeon and Anna went to the Temple and Jesus wasn’t there. There were many days, literally hundreds if not thousands of days that Jesus was not there, but that doesn’t mean God wasn’t there in quiet ways to love them and give them hope to keep going. We will also experience days of silence and days of questions and days of doubts and fears, but God will be there. God will be there it the silence and questions to love us and give us hope and strength to keep going, but there will also be those days when unexpectedly God will show up in a word, a thought, a feeling or in some situation where we see God’s glory and purpose for our lives.
Simeon and Anna remind us that we need to be faithful in our worship of God, but they also teach us that we need to be open to God doing something new in our lives and we have to be accepting when God comes to us in a new way. I’m not sure that either Simeon or Anna expected the Messiah to be carried into the Temple in the arms of a poor unknown couple. They were looking the king who was going to take the throne of his father David and establish a kingdom that would last forever. You would have thought there would have been more fanfare, an entourage of servants meeting this new kings needs and the needs of his parents, but there was none of that. Mary and Joseph were poor and unknown and most people didn’t even notice them that day.

It’s amazing if you think about it. God first entered His Temple as a human being carried in the arms of a couple so poor that they couldn’t even bring the full offering that was required in the law. God first entered his Temple unannounced and in anonymity, and it was only Simeon and Anna who could see that this child was the Messiah, and the reason they could see God moving in this situation was because their hearts were in tune with God’s and they were open to God working in some new and different way. I wonder if Simeon and Anna could see God coming in this new and unexpected way because their lives of faithful devotion and worship had led them to the words of the Prophet Isaiah who said, I am doing a new thing (Isaiah 43:19)

In Jesus, God certainly was doing a new thing. God was coming in flesh and blood, God was blessing the poor. God did a new thing when Jesus chose fishermen as his disciples and not Pharisees. God did a new thing when he reached out to love sinners and not just saints, and God did a new thing when he rejected a throne and took up a cross. In Jesus God was always doing something new and so as we enter into a new year we have to be willing to not only see God come to us in new and unexpected ways, but we have to be willing to move with God in new and unexpected ways.

Are we willing to be part of something new in 2010? God always wants to move in new ways because our world is always changing and so to reach people with God’s love we have to be always changing. Our message doesn’t change, God’s message in Jesus didn’t change – God was still saying I love you and I want you to love me – the message didn’t change, but the way the message was proclaimed did, and the places where the message was proclaimed and the people to whom it was proclaimed did. God shared his message with the poor and uneducated not the rich and well bred. God spoke on hillsides and lakeshore, not in the Temple and royal city. In Jesus God moved in new ways and in the coming year we have to be willing to move with God in some new ways.

I’m excited to see where God will lead us in this new year. Many people are thinking about what it will mean to spend less, give more and love all and this new way of living has the potential of taking us and the love of Jesus into new places and into new ventures and new adventures of faith. Following Jesus this year will lead us to new places to proclaim God’s love and following Jesus this year will open new doors of mission and ministry for us and our families and our church

Like Simeon and Anna, I’m excited because this morning we are here, we are doing exactly what they did the day Jesus showed up, we are faithfully following the traditions and routines of our faith. We gather to worship and sing and prayer and read and share and give ourselves to God like we do every week, but I hope that as we gather to worship today and every Sunday in the new year, that we will do so ready and waiting to see Jesus in our midst. As we look to the new year, let’s not just look for the Messiah through worship, devotions and prayer, but let us be ready to follow him in new ways and to new places.