Luke 2:22-40
“Salvation Has Come!”
By: Rev. Ken Sauer, Pastor, Grace United Methodist Church, Soddy Daisy, TN www.graceumcsd.org
I have a hard time waiting, how about you?
The Rock Band Queen had a song in which Freddie Mercury belted out: “I Want It All and I Want It Now!”
A good friend of mine in high school used to love that tune.
I think it pretty much sums up the thinking of our culture.
I want it all; I want it NOW!!!
My wife and I did our Christmas shopping late this year.
That was one thing we had been able to wait for.
Walking up and down the isles at Target I was taken aback by a yard ornament that was counting down the time left until Christmas day.
It flashed: 15 hours 20 minutes 35 seconds until Christmas…
…that’s how late we were in doing our Christmas shopping…
…and before I looked away it was down to 15 hours 19 minutes and 55 seconds.
Whoever created that thing just couldn’t wait for Christmas.
We are a culture of people who just can’t wait.
As kids, we can’t wait to grow up.
As adults we have a difficult time waiting in line or at a traffic light.
Most of us feel rushed.
We can’t wait to be successful.
We can’t wait to save up money for a house or new car—so we take out loans we can’t afford.
Many of us think we haven’t made it unless we have a house bigger than the one we grew up in by the time we are 30!!!
Last week I heard a lot of people say: “I can’t wait until Christmas is over!”
Why are we in such a big hurry?
What are we so impatient about?
It’s seems like yesterday that my wife and I were in a dance club counting down the New Year—singing along to the tune: “I’m gonna party like it’s 1999!!!”
I still don’t know what that means.
And that was ten years ago!!!
Lot’s of people spend hours upon hours playing video games.
Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not dissing video games.
One of my nephews has Guitar Hero, and its lots of fun.
He got it for Christmas last year.
We were together during Thanksgiving a month ago, and he was still playing it continually.
He had gotten real good.
He’d obviously played it a lot.
What if my nephew had gotten a real guitar for Christmas last year.
Just think how good he could be by now—if he had spent as much time practicing it as he had practicing Guitar Hero.
We like instant gratification.
Guitar Hero provides instant gratification.
We can’t wait to learn how to play the guitar for real…
We want to be instant Rock Stars.
We just can’t wait.
In our Gospel Lesson for this morning we meet a man who could wait.
His name was Simeon.
He was waiting for the Savior of his people, his nation: Israel.
At some point in time the Holy Spirit had revealed to Simeon that Simeon would not die until Simeon had seen the Lord’s Christ.
So Simeon waited and waited and waited.
He waited until he was an old man and then he waited some more.
Imagine waiting that long for something.
It may be fairly easy at first when one is still young and the promise is still fresh…but as the years pass and one becomes an old person…
…it would be awful hard to keep waiting with the same anticipation.
Many people might start to question whether or not they had been mistaken in their understanding.
Perhaps they had gotten the message wrong.
Certainly they were not expected to wait for so long.
Maybe it had all been a ruse, and there was really nothing to wait for at all?
Apparently, Simeon’s anticipation did not fade with time.
Perhaps it only became more intense.
How many of us are waiting this very moment?
Some of us might be waiting for a doctor to say the miraculous words: “It’s benign.”
Others of us might be waiting for another person to say: “I love you.”
Some of us may be waiting for someone or something to reveal to us that there is meaning to this life.
We may be waiting for the assurance that we are not here just by chance, that we are not alone, that evil, hatred, hardship and death do not have the final word.
Some of us may be very aware of our “waiting.”
Perhaps we have been looking around, and bouncing our feet in the waiting room of life for a long time.
Maybe we have read the same magazines over and over again-- cover to cover waiting for our name to be called…
…waiting for our turn at bat.
Perhaps we have heard the stories of others who have found “meaning” in life.
Perhaps we have friends who talk with confidence about God’s plan for their life.
They “feel called.”
Perhaps, when we hear this kind of talk, we can’t relate—although we’d like too!
…so we wait.
An old saying promises that “good things come to those who wait.”
The Prophet Isaiah promises us in Isaiah Chapter 30: “Blessed are those who wait for [God].”
Remember when God was calling Samuel (one of Israel’s great judges and deliverers) in the night, and Samuel kept thinking it was Eli, the Priest, who was calling him?
But Eli knew it must be the Lord, so Eli told Samuel to go back to bed and wait for the Lord to call again.
And Eli told Samuel: “if he calls you, say, ‘Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.’”
And so Samuel went back and lay back down in his place.
He waited for the Lord.
Are we willing to wait for the Lord?
The Bible promises that God has great plans for all of us…
…every single one of us.
God has a call on your life; God has a call on my life.
And it’s a good call.
It is what will give our lives meaning.
It is what will bring us joy.
It is what puts a shine on our face and a bounce in our step.
Even when things aren’t going so great in our personal lives…
…even when the world is trying its best to pull us down!
When we live into BEING the people God has created us and calls us to be—there is no stopping us!!!
There’s nothing that can take away that kind of joy, peace and satisfaction!
What has God called you to do?
Are you doing it?
Perhaps you haven’t yet heard God’s call.
What is your passion?
What are you good at?
Use those gifts for the Kingdom of God!!!
Listen for God’s still, small voice!
Pray, worship, study the Bible.
Keep God at the center of your mind at all times.
Be intentional about it.
God is talking to you all the time.
God is with you at every moment.
Listen.
God will let you know what your calling is.
It may take a bit of time, some trial and error…
…but keep trying, keep waiting, keep listening.
Samuel listened, and as we are told in 1 Samuel Chapter 3: “The Lord came and stood there, calling as at the other times, ‘Samuel, Samuel!’”
“Then Samuel said, ‘Speak, for your servant is listening.”
“And the Lord said to Samuel: ‘See, I am about to do something in Israel that will make the ears of everyone who hears of it tingle.’”
We need some tingling in this world of ours!!!
In our Gospel Lesson in Luke, Simeon was waiting for the Lord’s salvation of Israel.
“It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord’s Christ.
Moved by the Spirit, he went into the temple courts.
When the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him what the custom of the Law required, Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying:
‘Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you now dismiss your servant in peace.
For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all people, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel.’”
Simeon found that his waiting on the Lord had not been in vain!!!
For he held and looked into the eyes of God!!!
And as he did so, he not only saw what God’s salvation was for the Jews but also for the Gentiles—that is for ALL PEOPLE EVERYWHERE!!!
He saw and knew for sure that God had not forgotten God’s people.
He saw and knew for sure that God is love and that no matter what life may throw at us now—life is more than worth the living and salvation is more than worth the wait!!!
And so, in peace, Simeon died knowing that this life is not the final resting place.
Evil and hatred will end.
Death and dying will be no more.
God will wipe away every tear from our eyes.
If you are waiting upon the Lord, your wait will not be in vain.
God will reveal God’s self to you!
God came in Christ Jesus to do just that!
We can read about it in the Bible.
We can live it out when we take the initiative to be the hands and feet of LOVE in our community and in our world.
God came and lived and died and rose again in order that you and I might hear God’s call on our life, and that we might have peace and joy everlasting!
Are we listening?
Are we waiting?
