Listening for Hope
Listening for Hope // Luke 2:22-40 // Christmas week 2, 2023
Join me in reading Today’s Scripture passage from the Gospel of Luke, the second chapter versus 22-40.
Scripture:
22 When the time came for their ritual cleansing, in accordance with the Law from Moses, they brought Jesus up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord. (23 It’s written in the Law of the Lord, “Every firstborn male will be dedicated to the Lord.”) 24 They offered a sacrifice in keeping with what’s stated in the Law of the Lord, A pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons.
25 A man named Simeon was in Jerusalem. He was righteous and devout. He eagerly anticipated the restoration of Israel, and the Holy Spirit rested on him. 26 The Holy Spirit revealed to him that he wouldn’t die before he had seen the Lord’s Christ. 27 Led by the Spirit, he went into the temple area. Meanwhile, Jesus’ parents brought the child to the temple so that they could do what was customary under the Law. 28 Simeon took Jesus in his arms and praised God. He said,
29 “Now, master, let your servant go in peace according to your word,
30 because my eyes have seen your salvation.
31 You prepared this salvation in the presence of all peoples.
32 It’s a light for revelation to the Gentiles and a glory for your people Israel.”
33 His father and mother were amazed by what was said about him. 34 Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother, “This boy is assigned to be the cause of the falling and rising of many in Israel and to be a sign that generates opposition 35 so that the inner thoughts of many will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your innermost being too.”
36 There was also a prophet, Anna the daughter of Phanuel, who belonged to the tribe of Asher. She was very old. After she married, she lived with her husband for seven years. 37 She was now an 84-year-old widow. She never left the temple area but worshipped God with fasting and prayer night and day. 38 She approached at that very moment and began to praise God and to speak about Jesus to everyone who was looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem.
39 When Mary and Joseph had completed everything required by the Law of the Lord, they returned to their hometown, Nazareth in Galilee. 40 The child grew up and became strong. He was filled with wisdom, and God’s favor was on him.
Common English Bible (Nashville, TN: Common English Bible, 2011), Lk 2:22–40.
Prayer: Let’s pray: Christ, our long-awaited hope. Be with us as we continue to listen for your peace in our despair. Be with us as we wait with your Holy Spirit and listen for your voice. May we be about your business of spreading the Good news of your arrival to all we come in contact with through our words and actions. Amen.
What’s your greatest hope? I want you to keep that question in your mind. I was recently watching one of my all-time favorite movies, Wes Anderson’s “Royal Tenenbaums,” it's about this rather dysfunctional family that is in need of hope. Their father, who has been estranged for years, hopes to bring everyone back together in some way. In the stories resolution, We see each character find a bit of peace. And Ultimately, the father lives to see his family rescued in their own ways. Then we see that a few months later, he Dies of a heart attack. At his funeral, no one speaks, which the narrator says the father would have found most satisfactory. His grandsons offer a twenty-one-gun salute with their bb guns, and then the priest is shown looking at the gravestone rather quizzically where the epitaph reads, Royal O’Reilly Tenenbaum Died tragically, rescuing his family from the wreckage of a destroyed sinking battleship. This father is not kind and is seen throughout to be negligent, but in the end, his only hope is that his family will be okay, and he does everything in his power to make amends to his ex-wife and their kids. He is expectantly hopeful that his family will be okay.
In today’s reading, we are introduced to two characters that, for most of my life, went unnoticed in the nativity story. Simeon and Anna. These two characters help to show us that God is intrinsically woven throughout the story of Christ. Both characters longingly and expectantly hope for the Messiah. The one to bring peace and justice for Israel after exile, return, and ultimately now under Roman occupation.
This story is both about hope and faithfulness. It begins with the faithfulness of Jesus’ parents taking him up to Jerusalem. In verse 21 we see his parents are faithful in naming their son. Commentator Richard Vinson said that “True to the command in Genesis 17:12, Mary and Joseph see that Jesus is circumcised on the eighth day after his birth in this way, Jesus becomes a participant in the covenant with Abraham, following the practice of Jews throughout generations.” You hear about Mary and Joseph going for their ritual cleansing, being faithful again to their beliefs as they were unclean with the blood of the newborn. They present Jesus to God as their first born, because all first horns belong to god which is from Exodus 34:19 and 20. We then see in their poverty, they sacrifice two turtle doves or two pigeons, in order to complete their cleansing ritual which was commanded from them in Leviticus 12:1-8. Mary and Joseph are obedient, Vinson tells us that “Luke does not tell us if they are anxious or excited or worried about the money they are spending, and he does not put a human face on the priests who help the two of them at this important moment. They are obedient, everything functions normally, no big deal.” All that changes when we come to verse 25. When we hear the prophectic side of the story.
You see, simeon was this devout Jew, who was full of the Holy Spirit, meaning the words we hear from him, are also the words of God. He eagerly waited for the restoration of Israel. The story of Simeon fits beautifully in these first two chapters of Luke. You see he joins the chorus of early church hymns. The author of Luke begins his story with three distinct songs. We call them the Magnificat: Mary’s song from luke 1:46-51which begins by saying “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my savior, For he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant. And then John the baptizer’s father Zechariah sings what is called the Benedictus in 1:68-79, which starts “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has looked favorably on his people and redeemed them. He has raised up a mighty savior for us.” And finally Simeon, with the shortest of the three songs, called the Nunc Dimittis which states, “29 “Now, master, let your servant go in peace according to your word, 30 because my eyes have seen your salvation. 31 You prepared this salvation in the presence of all peoples. 32 It’s a light for revelation to the Gentiles and a glory for your people Israel.”
The tone of these Hymns is jubilant, ringing with the conviction that God’s promises are being fulfilled. One commentator said, “Luke proclaims that Jesus is the fulfillment of God’s promise to Israel and of Irael’s deepest yearning – for a king like the great king David, for a different kind of life and different kind of world, for a light in the darkness, for the presence of God with us. A line from the late nineteenth century hymn “O Little Town of Bethlehem” express this conviction with remarkable economy: ‘The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight.’”
What Simeon had hoped for was now in his arms. This beautiful, small child. Was hope for the world, both for the Jews and the gentiles, for you and for me. A hope of restoration for the weak. A hope of healing for the sick. Hope for peace and justice. A light in the darkness.
We then see the prophetess, Anna, Who also is elderly and has been waiting through fasting and prayer for years and in her faithfulness, she got a glimpse of Jesus and could not contain her excitement and became an early evangelist, a person spreading the good news of Jesus. Liz Curtis Higgs said in her book the Women of Christmas, that in “These few verses reveal a woman of exceptional devotion, incredible discipline and endless dedication. Her example continues to inspire God’s daughters from generation to generation…Oh yes, she talks about Jesus to everyone who would listen and especially to all who have longed for his appearing. Curtis-Higgs goes on to say that “seasoned as she was, Anna knew all the temple regulars – the priests and the worshipers, the Pharisees and the faithful. She knew who had ears to hear and eyes to see, and so she made sure to tell those people about Jesus. All of them.”
So have you continued to think about what is your greatest hope? What is that thing you’ve been longing for? Maybe you too, hope for your family to find peace? May you hope for this New Year to be different? Maybe, you long for connection? And maybe, maybe you hope for hope? To me it’s providential that passage on hope and faithfulness is how the lectionary calendar fell for New Year’s Eve. Are you being faithful to God? Are you resting in the hope that God’s son Jesus is the light in the darkness?
For me, one of my greatest hopes was realized when I became a father. I’m passing on my knowledge and my lineage to a new generation. And just a couple of years ago it happened again with the birth of my daughter. If you haven’t heard her birth story, it’s one that always makes me smile and I still feel all of the emotions that I had that evening. You see, my first two children were born in hospitals and it was amazing, but with our youngest my wife Rebekah wanted to experience a home birth. And I thought that’s a great idea, my one stipulation, is that I don’t want to catch the child… So the night for our daughter’s birth came and it we call the midwives and let them know that active labor is happening, with them being in Clarksville, they had a bit of a drive. So here I am in the middle of blowing up our pool and trying my hardest to get the water from our laundry room to our dinning room and realizing that I don’t know what I’m doing. Then I hear my wife shout my name from our bedroom. I run back there and I call the midwives and say it’s progressing quickly and they say they’re on their way. I hang up and then my wife in all her awesomeness delivers our daughter and low and behold, I caught her. Right here in my left arm. In this moment of terrified wonder, the hope and fear of that night went away. My daughter was in my arms. I called the midwives and said okay, there’s a baby, now what. They walked us through the rest and in about thirty minutes they showed up and helped. This story always reminds of Simeon holding Jesus and Anna wanting to tell everyone about what she saw.
Today I want you to think, think about that moment that brought you immeasurable joy and hope. Now think about that hope and compare to the everlasting hope found in Jesus. May you go from this place knowing that you are loved and that your hope is realized. That our darkness is paved in the light through the death and resurrection of this Baby boy who would become the savior of the world, Hope realized.
My hope is that you in your waiting for the assurance and consolation we find in Jesus will live a life devoted toward God like Mary and Joseph, like Simeon and Anna. Through ordinary means of grace may you connect with God. Reading scripture, fasting, prayer, connecting with others and living life together, may you feel the hope and peace of God. In this new year, I want to challenge you to find ways to connect with God. Maybe you need to partake in communion, maybe you need to find a bible reading plan, maybe you need to join a Sunday school class or maybe you need to find a ministry to be involved with. Or maybe, you just need to believe. Believe in the hope of Jesus. Are you listening, are you waiting expectantly for this hope? I pray that this new year is a time that you can find hope. But most importantly, that you realize that this Hope has already found you, that God’s grace is wrapped around you and you are loved.
Let’s pray.
God of hope, be with us we go from this place. Guide us toward your love and light. Help us to be a beacon of light and hope as Anna was help us to share your message of grace and peace to all we come in contact with. Amen.