Sermon - 2014-12-28

In the Gospel lesson, we hear of two people who were longing for the arrival of the Messiah.  Both of them knew and trusted that God would give a Messiah to save the people.  I think even more important than that is that both of them realized the need for a Messiah.  

Now before we go any further, I want you all to be aware that Messiah, Christ, and the Chosen One of God are all describing the same person.  Messiah is the Hebrew word for Chosen One of God, Christ is the Greek word for Chosen One of God.  So when a person says, Jesus Christ, they are declaring that this is Jesus, the Chosen One of God.  This is the title Jesus was given once people realized who he was and what he was doing.  However, people did not know how the Messiah would come or what exactly he would do.  There were many prophets who told that the Messiah would come and bring peace. The Messiah would bring back the relationship that the people would enjoy with God. That the Chosen People of God would be restored to their role of being a blessing to others.  

As Christians, Baptism is the sacrament, the event in which we are called, claimed, and sent forth as disciples of Jesus Christ into the world.  We are blessed by God to receive the inheritance of God’s own son, Jesus Christ.  This blessing is given to us so that we can then move forward and share that love with others.  Today, we are fortunate enough to bear witness to this for ourselves.  We bear witness to a Baptism, in which the parents are agreeing that they will raise this child in the Christian faith to be a disciple of Jesus Christ.   We see the water being poured, we hear the words of promise, and we share in the love that God has for us.

Which brings us back to our two people we meet today.  They are longing for a Messiah, someone who will be chosen by God to do something that we can not do on our own.  They worked hard within the temple and within the community that others would hear and know that the Messiah was coming. They could be a part of what God was doing.  After going to church for days, weeks, and years, finally they were able to bear witness to the answer of the prayers of all people in the Chosen One of God coming to them.

Simeon and Anna did not receive the announcement like the shepherds, nor did they follow the star that was so plainly in the sky for all to see. When the child was among them, they were aware of it.  They could feel and know the Spirit of God with this child. He was truly someone special for the entire world.  They knew that this baby would not remain a baby, but would grow up and do something amazing with the help of God in the world.   

They saw the future and they had hope for that future.  They saw that God was at work within the world around them. What if we thought that way about all children?  What are we doing for our future?  What are we doing for others and for our own children so that they would know about God, God’s Son, and what God is doing within the world around us?  So that they would be in a community of faith in the world, knowing God’s love, and having God’s love as the very thing that unites our family and community as a whole?