SERMON 479
FIRST SUNDAY AFTER CHRISTMAS – DECEMBER 31, JANUARY 1
ISAIAH 61:10-62:3, PSALM 148, GALATIANS 4:4-7, LUKE
2:22-40
THE PROPHETIC WORD – ALL ABOUT CHILDREN
Beloved in the Lord, grace
and peace be unto you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus
Christ, and from the Holy Spirit, the Lord and giver of life.
We were watching the Larry
King show the other night as he interviewed a number of people who called
themselves pschycics or seers. It was their gift, they said, to see into the
future, to be channels through which important information might flow to the
enquirer. He also had those on the program who disputed the validity of the
gifts that the seers said that they had been given.
In our lessons for this first
Sunday after Christmas we have placed in front of us THE PROPHETIC WORD – and
strangely enough, it is ALLABOUT CHILDREN.
The prophetic word we know
about. It is enclosed in the Scriptures and we call it the Word of God. We have
the word from Isaiah the prophet telling us that the Lord God would clothe him
in garments of salvation, and he expressed his joy and exulted in that
knowledge that had been revealed to him by the Lord God. We have the psalmist
engaging in an elaborate hymn of praise to the God who created all things and
who was about to strengthen and redeem his chosen children.
We have that beautiful
passage from Paul telling us that God fulfilled his prophetic word when God
sent his beloved Son into the world to redeem all those under the bondage of
the law. God had promised it, proclaimed it through the mouths of the prophets
and then proceeded to do it at the right time. God always does things at the
right time.
Then in the gospel we have
the aged saints Simeon and Anna both prophesying about what God has in store
for the world in the baby that they found with Mary and Joseph.
So our theme will be THE
PROPHETIC WORD – ALL ABOUT CHILDREN.
But let us first of all
notice through whom this prophetic word came, particularly in the Gospel
lesson. There were three things that had to be done after the birth of a child.
If it was a boy, he had to be circumcised on the eighth day. If it was a first
born he had to be redeemed in a special ceremony, recalling the death of the
first born of
There were two people who
recognized that God had visited his people in Jesus, and they were, both of
them, what we would call aged, or elderly, or fairly senior seniors. We do not
know how old Simeon was but we are told that Anna was in her eighty fourth
year.
She was quite a remarkable
woman, a widow for most of her life, but very much alive and filled with faith
and hope. Age can take away the bloom and strength of our bodies. But age can
also take away the hopes one cherished. Sorrow and living alone had not made
her bitter, resentful or rebellious. Indeed her life was characterized by joy
and hope.
Anna was in the temple daily,
worshiping with the faithful. But Anna also worshiped and praised God on her
own, sometimes with fasting.
Simeon must have been quite
like Anna although we are not told that much about him. One thing we know, it
had been revealed to him that he would not die until he had seen the Lord’s
Messiah. Both Simeon and Anna were filled with hope and joy, constantly
offering their praise and thanksgiving to God, constantly looking forward to
what was coming next.
George reminds me of what
Simeon might have been like. George served his wife during her stay at the
Fanning center. Now we see him every month, helping us for the service there,
serving the patients with joy and looking forward to the return of the Messiah.
There is one difference. George has not been told that he will not see death
until he sees the Messiah.
Our age is prone at times to think
of the elderly has having lived beyond their time. But God very often uses them
to bring the prophetic word.
Both Anna and Simeon
recognized what God had put into our midst in the babe of Mary and Joseph and
they both praised God and spoke the prophetic word.
THE PROPHETIC WORD – ALL
ABOUT CHILDREN! One of the tales of Narnia, THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE
WARDROBE has been playing in the theatres. C.S. Lewis was certainly a forceful
and articulate witness to Christ. I have met many a person who has been stirred
up to faith and service through reading this tale of C.S. Lewis. The movie is
beautifully and movingly done.
In Narnia, the residents live
in winter under the rule of the witch who is queen. Many live in hope because
of the prophecy that four children, sons of Adam and daughters of Eve, will
some day come to the kingdom and through them release everyone from their
bondage. C.S. Lewis knew how to portray the message of Christ in the characters
of his novel.
The prophetic Word in
Scripture has talked about children from the very beginning. The Bible talks
about the seed of Abraham, the son of David, the son of God. Unto us a child is
born. Unto us a Son is Given. And his name shall be called, Wonderful,
Counselor. And when he finally came among us he was called Jesus because he was
to save us from our sins.
Mary and Joseph had been told
by an angel that Jesus was the long promised child. That message had been
confirmed to them when the shepherds came and told them about what the angel
had told them out in the field where they were watching their flocks. Now God
sends two more messengers with the prophetic word to tell Mary and Joseph much
more about this child. Simeon and Anna are the messengers.
According to them this child
was sent for the redemption of
THE PROPHETIC WORD – ALL
ABOUT CHILDREN! I was speaking with a friend of mine about a task that we were
undertaking together. In the conversation she was telling me about her four
year old grandson. He had celebrated his birthday a week before Christmas and
so was absolutely beside himself with joy and exuberance and energy with
birthday and Christmas celebrations still flowing through his frame.
Have you every considered the
possibility of someday celebrating life and its excitement as would a child?
The thought itself seems a bit ridiculous does it not, for whoever would even
want to be a child again? Besides that, returning to our childhood is an utter
impossibility is it not?
But the prophecies in our
lessons, as we have said, are all about children, and strangely enough, those
prophecies include us, even naming us as children.
Paul, in the lesson from
Galatians tells us that God sent his son, born of a woman, born under the law
to redeem those who were under the law. And in that redemption we were told
that we were adopted as children, children of God.
Paul is very clear about
this. He tells us that (because} we are children, God has sent the Spirit of
God into our hearts. Indeed, he goes on to emphasize as clearly as he can, that
we are now children by reminding us how children do respond in the presence of
their Father. If one is a child, one calls his father, either father, or dad,
or daddy. Now that God sent his Son into our midst, we have become children of
the heavenly Father. We are to call God Father or Abba which can be translated,
“dad,” or “daddy”
Through the Baby Jesus, born
in
So we might well ask, what
does this mean? It does not mean of course that we take off our mantle and
responsibilities as father or mother, grandfather or grandmother or whatever
our state in life. But it does mean that before our heavenly father we do
become the children God has called us to be.
We are to trust God as would
a child. We are to obey God as would a child. We are to honor and fear God as
would a child. We are to seek the advice and counsel of God as would a child.
We are to honor and praise God as would a child. We are to recognize that our
life is totally in God’s hands as would a very little child.
THE PROPHETIC WORD – ALL
ABOUT CHILDREN! We have seen in our lessons the response of the children of God
to the coming of the baby Jesus into our midst. Joseph and Mary, children of
God, were amazed at what was said and they pondered these sayings in their
hearts all of their lives. They were filled with such joy in what the Lord had
done through them. Simeon, child of God, declared that he was ready to take off
into the joy prepared for him by is father. Anna, continued her life of praise
and worship and fasting and prayer, for now she too had seen everything there
was to see on this earth.
As we enter this New Year let
us be conscious that we too are children, children of the heavenly father by
adoption through Jesus Christ. And there are always two basic ingredients to be
found in children of God; concern for the poor and the helpless, and a life of
prayer, much of which is filled simply with praise to God.
May our lives be filled with
concern for those who need help. May our lives be so disciplined that prayer
and praise to God actually take up the central times of our day; the central
and not the peripheral times of our day. For of such character and such joy are
the very children of God!
AMEN!