Listen to Sermon
Pastor Tom Johnson, February 2, 2020
Last week, someone sent me an article about a congregation in Minnesota whose membership is getting smaller and older. They want to attract younger families in one of the fastest growing communities in Minnesota. The church will close for two years and restart with a younger pastor and more contemporary worship . Older members feel like they have been asked to leave to make way for the young. They feel unappreciated and discarded.
This is such stark contrast to what we see in our reading from Luke. We have one man, Simeon, who is holding onto a lifelong promise that he will one day meet the Messiah. And an 84 year old woman, Anna, who is in the Temple night and day. Luke says, “She never left the temple.” Both of these faithful worshipers welcomed Jesus into the Temple as the promised Messiah. Simeon says that this child is the light and glory for both Jews and Gentiles. Anna starts to praise God and prophesy—to preach—to those who were longing for Messiah to look to this small child as the one. What God is doing here is multigenerational and multiethnic. God shines his Light into the world through young and old, Jew and Gentile, male and female. Decades later, in the same Temple, Peter will preach from Joel chapter 2: “…I will pour our my Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions and your old men shall dream dreams even on my male servants and female servants in those days I will pour out my Spirit, and they shall prophesy.”
The temple did not have much furniture in it. What it did have were tables, altars, and lamps. These lamps were fueled by olive oil. They were to be set up to bring light to God’s gifts and blessings in his Temple. In the Temple, these lights shined on the altars of thanksgiving and the forgiveness of sins. The lamps illuminated the space so that all could enter in and see all the good and beautiful things God was doing in the lives of his people.
Anna and Simeon are God’s light and bearers of the Holy Spirit in his Temple. They are doing their part to bring the promised Messiah to light. God uses them so that the whole world will not let this Child King escape their attention. Both Anna and Simeon receive the Light of Christ into the Temple with praise, thanksgiving, and a celebratory and prophetic Word. They immediately shine their lights on the true Light that enlightens the whole world. What this story tells us is that Anna and Simeon received the Light of Christ not only into the Temple—that building made of stone, wood, and precious metals and fabrics. They received the Light of the Messiah into their hearts. They received Christ into the Temples of their bodies. And they prepared others to receive Christ’s light into their hearts and lives. The pointed to the One who brings God’s forgiveness, love, and eternal life most fully to light.
This text is about Christ’s Light coming to the world through unexpected people—a newborn infant and the elderly. It reminds us that God’s ways are not our ways. He does not want us to miss his gifts to us. He does not want us to underestimate the blessing of the very young nor the very old. God’s light shines brightly through those who are in the dawn and dusk of their lives—through those freshly beginning their lives and those who are well seasoned and mature. This account reminds us not underestimate God’s power in anyone’s lives—Jew or Gentile, young or old, male or female—no matter one’s ethnicity, age, or gender. That means we do not underestimate what God does through others. Nor do we underestimate what God can do through each one of us.
Today is candlemas. It is one of those Sundays we set out a few more candles and lamps to celebrate the coming of Messiah’s light. Today we even light the Christ Candle in anticipation of Holy Baptism. Like Anna and Simeon welcomed the young Child Jesus, so we welcome Margo into God’s family as our sister in Christ, a royal daughter of our heavenly King. We will light a candle from the Christ Candle. We will tell her what is true of all of us: “Receive this burning light. Jesus said, I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will have the light of life. Let your light so shine before others that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.”
The Light of the World has come through the Child King. He bathed the world in the light of his teaching and healing. The world tried to snuff out his light on the Cross of Calvary. But three days later his light burst out of the empty tomb and illuminated his defeat of sin, all evil, and even death itself. He brought immortality to light. On Pentecost, the fire of his light entered the Temple by the Holy Spirit. And by Holy Baptism, we receive the light of Christ into the Temple of our bodies and hearts.
We are the light of Christ! We bear his light to one another. The young are here to warm our hearts of those who are older. The older are here to bring their wisdom, to model ardent and vibrant worship, and to sing their songs of praise. We bear the light in this world until that day we need neither sun nor moon because the Lord of glory returns to be our eternal light and our lamp will be the Lamb. And we will radiate his light for eternity—more brightly than the midday sun.
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