Finnish Lutheran Church in Ball

Pastor Timo’s sermon, December 28th, 2008 ; Translated by Katja Kupari

First Sunday of Christmas, Luke 2:22-40

Expectations come true. Longing is answered. The old Simeon sees the happy day that God had already told him about. He had not had false hopes or imagined things. No – this was the moment when Simeon was able to personally meet and hold in his own arms the little child Jesus - the Savior of the world, who was brought into the temple in Jerusalem.

Simeon was not the only one who had waited for this day and this encounter. Anna, a prophetess was even older. She had been widowed for 84 years. The temple was the center of her life and she never left it. Praying and blessing, worshiping God was her life mission. Now Anna was seeing the same thing Simeon was seeing. Together they were able to witness what all of the nation had talked about for centuries and what it had hoped for; the comfort promised by God, salvation, the coming of the Messiah.

Old Simeon and Anna, even older, the loyal servants of God, were rewarded for the waiting. A new time had begun, a time of salvation, Jesus was born.

Those of you who are grandparents may find it easy to identify with this story. It has the common human characteristic that brings a smile to every grandpa and grandma. A grandchild has finally been born! What a joyous day, a day that I have been able to witness with my own eyes, too. A long wait, but an even bigger elation.

Anna and Simeon personify more than just a long and eventful lifespan that is reaching its evening. They personify an open and trusting attitude towards the future. It was not the purpose of their lives to worry and fear tomorrow, but hope for it to be even better. Their lives did not revolve around themselves, but they believed in the next and the next generations, that came after them. Generations that they were able to raise, encourage and bless, generations that they could leave their own example to, the footprints of their own trek of faith as a legacy.

So it is then not just age and youth, a life lived and a newborn, that meet in the gospel, the old Simeon and baby-Jesus. More than that, it is eternity and limitations that meet in the gospel. God and man. With this meeting, it is no longer of importance how old or young one is, because there are no such time limitations in God’s eternity. The elderly Simeon and Anna were able to meet the young Jesus, but above all they were able to witness the promise of the eternal God come true. Simeon was old, but he was able to look into the future after him with God’s eyes, as he says: ”30For my eyes have seen your salvation, 31which you have prepared in the sight of all people, 32a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel." (Luke 2:30-32)

Old Simeon, and Anna even older, had themselves been in the arms of their mothers and fathers one day, when everything they saw was new and amazing. Now it was close to the time for them to leave this limited life, but they were able to do it filled with peace and faith given by God. They were able to go to God aware of the fact that the world after them had been given salvation and new hope through Jesus.

”7 Surely the Sovereign LORD does nothing without revealing his plan to his servants the prophets.”Says the book of Amos in the Old Testament. This is how God has always worked according to His word, this is how God continues to work. When God works in people’s lives, He even prepares and calls in advance. The Holy Spirit talks and expresses itself to everyone who seeks and prays for the Lord and His guidance. The promise in the Bible reads; ”and with supplications will I lead them.” (Jer 31:9)

But in secular and human ways God’s principles and ways of operating are often challenging. That is why the human faith is often tested, as we wait. We often ask ’if I can truly trust that God guides everything in my life, the life of my neighbors and congregation, for the best’, even though it doesn’t always seem or look that way.

God’s promise of seeing the Messiah had also taken time with Simeon and Anna. But they knew in their faiths that they would see Jesus before their deaths. And it all happened, too, not too late and not too early, but just according to God’s schedule. This is why Anna and Simeon are examples of the perseverance of faith. They are the people we look up to, respect and sometimes avoid. People whose life focus is hearing the voice of God. They make their choices according to what they feel is the right thing to do in God’s eyes, regardless of human opinions. They have the patience and are able to wait even when others lose their faith. They may have the courage to take steps that others do not dare. They are willing to get out there because they know who stands behind them. We continue to find such men and women of God among and beside us. One does not become such a man of God on their own or by chance, but often through hardships and daily practice of faith, such as Simeon and Anna.

It is often these men of God that also divide opinions and cause people to get offended. They may be deficient in human ways, but they turn to God. Old Simeon prophesized to Mother Maria that if anyone would experience this first hand it would be her, as the mother of Jesus. .” Behold, this child is set for the falling and the rising of many in Israel; and for a sign which is spoken against; 35 yea and a sword shall pierce through thine own soul; that thoughts out of many hearts may be revealed.” (Luke 2:34-35) This is how Simeon saw Jesus’s magnificient mission, that He would have until He was crucified. People like this who want to get to know the will of God, may also be ridiculed and laughed at. They are willing to follow God’s guidance even when others do not see it or want to see it. For example, we remember Noah, who was given the task to build the Ark. Throughout the building of it, his sanity was questioned and he was laughed at, but on the day the floods came and covered all of the land, people knew that Noah had been working for God. We also remember Moses, whose mission was to free Israel from Egypt. He had to work against not only the Pharaoh, but also his stubborn nation who started to resist him and God which led the time in the desert to be 40 long and hard years, even though they would have finished the journey sooner had they listened to God, like Moses.

Today’s gospel, though, is joyous, it promises the fulfillment of hope, the time of salvation. Simeon was the first to say: ”For mine eyes have seen thy salvation” (Luke 2:30) After Simeon hundreds, thousands, millions and billions of people all over the world have been able to experience the same; ’my eyes have seen the salvation’, ’I have found Jesus’, ’I can believe in God’, ’my sins have been forgiven’, ’I have hope’

The child of Christmas is a sign. A light shines among us through Him, that defeats darkness. Hope, that defeats hopelessness. Love, that defeats fear. Faith, that defeats heresy. Jesus, the light of the world, promises: .” I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in the darkness, but shall have the light of life.” (John 8:12)

Saarnat Suomeksi	Previous Sermons in English
Jouluk. 14, 2008	Dec.14, 2008
Marrask. 23, 2008	Nov. 23, 2008
Marrask. 9, 2008	Nov. 9, 2008
Lokak.12, 2008	Oct. 12, 2008
Syysk.28, 2008	Sep. 28, 2008
Syysk. 14, 2008	*Sep. 14, 2008*
Elok. 31, 2008	Aug. 31, 2008
*Elok. 24, 2008*	*Aug. 24, 2008*
Toukok. 25, 2008	May 25, 2008
Toukok. 11, 2008	May 11, 2008
Huhtik.27, 2008	April 27, 2008
*Maalisk. 30, 2008*	Mar. 30, 2008
Maalisk. 23, 2008	Mar. 23, 2008
Maalisk. 09, 2008	Mar.09, 2008