December
28 2008 Reading: Luke 2.21-35
“Sovereign
Lord, as You have promised, You now dismiss Your
servant in peace.”
Luke 2.29 (NIV)
First Part
First, let us say something of Simeon.
The church has always believed that Simeon was an older man.
There is
something of a
sense of peace, about Simeon,
The poet TS
Eliot captures something of this in his poem A song
for Simeon
Lord the
Roman hyacinths are blooming in bowls and
the winter
sun creeps by the snow hills,
I have
walked many years in this city
kept faith
and fast, provided for the poor
have given
and taken honour and ease
there
never went any rejected from my door...........
Luke’s
gospel shows Simeon to be a good man, a patient man, a man of great dignity, a
man of long experience of God’s goodness throughout his long years. Now comes
the day,we see him climbing the long stairs up to the Temple, the day, when he
will see with his own eyes, the Messiah and Simeon’s life will find its
completion, as he himself says.
But for the
moment, notice the striking contrast, between the dignity, peace, pace of this man
Simeon, and the frenetic bustle all around in the
Great, and deep, and glorious and sombre words.
Now, of
course, there is so much that could be said about this wonderful passage in
Luke. But let us, for the moment, ponder this. The
completeness that Simeon finds. Simeon expresses it himself. Sovereign Lord, as You
have promised, let Your servant depart in peace. Simeon, in later years, has
found completeness, and peace, the fulfilment in his own life, of hope. As you
promised, Lord, he says, so with my own eyes I have seen............ Simeon is an example of what Paul says in the letter to the
Corinthians that even with the passing of Summer and winter and seedtime and
harvest............ Sun moon and stars in their courses above....... as we get
older, yet spiritually, we are renewed in Christ, day after day, in new
life............
In the Bible
there is no age discrimination, God’s blessing is there for Samuel aged 4, and
for Abraham aged 104. The prophet declares Your old
men will dream dreams, and your young men will see visions. Because In the very
midst of the constant change of the world, the changing trends, changing
fashions, changing values, and attitudes, the living Word of the living God
endures. Luke’s gospel records for us, standing there in the
Second Part
Some years
ago, there was a major conference in the United States on the church and modern
culture which asked just this question, in a rapidly changing age can the
church keep up. One representative of the Russian Orthodox church, said this
about the orthodox church “It can be exalting to belong to a church that is 500
years behind the times and sublimely indifferent to fashion; it must be exhausting to belong to a church
that is five minutes behind the times, always huffing and puffing to catch up.”
On the one
hand, great long years of tradition, of worship, of order. On
the other hand, now, the moment.
Now isn’t it fascinating that in fact we see both in Luke chapter 2 ? The age old tradition of worship in the Temple, the Law,
the sacrifices, which meant that the Temple was filled from dawn to dusk with
thousands of worshippers, a great moving tide, a drifting current of people
moving in the courts of worship. And yet it is here in the midst of all this
bustle and activity, that there is a single still, profoundly deep moment - a
point of revelation. The moment where and in the midst of this place of great
long tradition, in the midst of all the busy worship of the people, at that
very moment the Holy Spirit reveals to Simeon, to Joseph and Mary who the child
is - this child Jesus is salvation, a light for revelation, glory for the
people.
And its then
we notice that in the space of three verses Luke’s gospel speaks of the Holy
Spirit three times: that the Spirit rested upon Simeon, that the Spirit had
revealed to Simeon that he would see the Messiah; and that moved by the Spirit
Simeon went up, climbed the long stairs up into the Temple courts. In all that
happens here, God is working through His Holy Spirit, leading Simeon, opening
Simeon’s eyes.
Simeon’s
life is marked by this - the The Holy Spirit upon him, working in Him,
revealing to him that he would not die before he had seen the Messiah. Simeon, a man of the
Spirit, guided by the Spirit.
Now, if we read on through the gospel of Luke, we will see how the
Spirit moves, works, anoints, upholds Jesus. First,
the gospel declares Jesus is conceived through the Spirit, the Spirit comes
down upon Him in power at His Baptism at the beginning of His ministry; the
Spirit leads him into the desert, to the great test there. We read in the
gospel that Jesus came to
And here, right
at the beginning of the Gospel, on the eighth day after His birth, the Spirit
is moving: for here we see how the
Spirit reveals Jesus, how the Spirit opens Simeon’s eyes to behold the
salvation in this child, His light and glory. The Spirit giving to Simeon to
understand how the whole of the Scripture, the promises of God, the words of
the prophets, are being fulfilled - this is why Simeon, at the end of his life,
speaks of a glorious, wonderful completeness. This is the gift of the Spirit.
The Spirit. You know, Romans declares in chapter 6 that the Spirit
is the gift of Jesus Christ to us, to every believer.................... when we know Jesus Christ we receive the Spirit we come to
be filled with His Spirit, the Spirit who rests in Him rests in us too: To
become source of our joy, source of our strength in overcoming the troubles and
trials of life. Through
the Holy Spirit we become a new creation, serving, says Romans, in the new way
of the Spirit, no longer driven by our sinful human nature, but living through
the life giving Spirit of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Spirit who helps us to understand Jesus,
and Jesus words, and Jesus life and who Jesus is is.
Towards the
moment when we will say with Simeon: now Lord,
as You have promised, let Your servant depart in
peace, when we will know for ourselves, in completeness.
AMEN.