Patience and Perseverance
Epiphany 4 Candlemas
When I was a kid, my least favorite Church service of the year occurred on Super Bowl Sunday. You see, I grew up in a pastor's home, and my grandfather's church had a Sunday night service every week. I wanted to watch the Super Bowl instead of going to church. So I concocted a plan, we could have a church party and watch the super bowl together.
That idea crashed as gloriously as it burned. We refused to “compromise and worship at the altar of a football.” I was twelve, and in my youthful and yet insightful wisdom I told him, “If I’m ever a pastor, I’m never holding a service on Sunday night!” Well, I’m going to make good on my promise, because tonight, we will not have a service! Plus, I have a strange feeling that if we did, padre would say mass alone.
I played some football when I was younger, and it taught me some life lessons. Two of those are in this Gospel reading.
There is are two people in this Gospel lesson we often overlook because they seem to play a very insignificant role. Luke is the only Gospel writer to mention them. As a matter of fact, I’ve never preached a sermon on them. Who are they? The first is a priest named Simeon, the second is a prophet named Anna. They each teach us a spiritual truth.
Simeon shows us patience.
Patience. The mere thought of it makes us cringe like a ___. Patience is hard, but it’s not in vain. 2,300 years ago Aristotle said, "Patience is bitter, but her fruit is sweet."
Luke says Simeon was a patient man, “he was waiting for the Christ.” But here’s the thing, is more than standing in line at Disney World waiting for our turn on Splash Mountain. The Greek word is complex; it is an active welcoming of waiting. It's not passive; "Oh, whatever comes along will be fine." Spiritual waiting is when we intentionally and purposefully commit to watching while we wait.
I'm going to cross myself and turn around to say this just in case someone hurls a hymnal. The greatest comeback in super bowl history occurred in 2017 when the New England Patriots patiently mounted a comeback against the Atlanta Falcons.
[The Falcons had a 25 point lead, or as my son says, "spotted them 25 points." The score was 28-3 was the score halfway through the third quarter.]
Now, I've thrown a football in a few games. I can tell you that a football comeback is an emotional experience because the offense is at the mercy of their defense. I can throw touchdown passes on each possession, but we are powerless to win unless the defense can’t stop the other team. The offense must sit patiently, watch, and wait… or like me, pray… because you want to impress the captain of the cheerleading team.
Simeon prayed for the Christ, and he actively “waited” for the Christ. He worshiped God in the temple, and he lived in anticipation instead of fear. Finally, the promised child, the Christ, came to the temple.
Here’s a question you/me/us need to ask ourselves about our church, what are we waiting for, and are we willing to wait actively? We need to acknowledge that some things are hard, but tolerate being uncomfortable anyway. Patience is endurance for the difficult.
Simeon waited. What is says next such a powerful sentence, "And he took him in his arms and praised God."
Does anyone remember Guns ‘N Roses? They had some insight… the 1987 song titled, “Patience.” “Take it slow, it will work itself out fine. All we need is a little patience.” Now, no 1980s rock band is perfect since the album was named, Apatite for Destruction, but that’s another sermon.
Simeon saw Jesus because he patiently waited for him.
Anna shows us Perseverance
The male-dominated society of the first century acknowledged that Anna, as Luke says, "was a prophet." God was at work through her in such a way that on one, even the make religious leaders, couldn’t deny it.
All we know about her is that Luke says she “lived in the temple and waited for the Messiah.” Life wasn’t kind to her. Her husband died when she was likely between 23-25. She did the only thing a homeless woman could do; she went to live in the Jewish temple in Jerusalem.
Luke introduces us to her when she is 84. Perseverance carried her through life’s hardships so she could see the Messiah.
She persevered through the grief of a husband’s death, she persevered in defiance of 1st century the gender discrimination of the; she persevered despite homelessness; she persevered regardless of her social standing, and she persevered through doubt, fear, bitterness, and uncertainty; she persevered over pain, prejudice, and panic. It makes me ask myself, “What’s my excuse?”
One of the teams I worked with in Afghanistan had a saying, I can’t quote it directly because I'm in church, but it's something like, "Victory has nothing to do with strength, only Marines would fall for that. Victory is perseverance.”
Remember that Super Bowl comeback? It wasn't an accident. Tom Brady knew he would have to do the impossible to win the game. Brody thinks, and I agree, that the Pat’s spotted them 25 points for sport. The Patriots defied the odds and overcame a 25 point deficit, shut down the Falcons, and tied the game. Then Tom Terrific threw his fourth touchdown to win and become the winningest person in Super Bowl history.
If we're going to accomplish things as a church, it will be from hard work, patience, and perseverance.
Conclusion: Kyle Maynard
Since we began with football, let's end with a story about a man named Kyle Maynard. Kyle was born with some birth defects. His arms and legs are stunted, and his hands and feet are misshapen. Most people would consider him handicapped. But most people don’t know Kyle Maynard.
Kyle is a man of perseverance! He continues to challenge himself to break physical barriers. He played middle-school football alongside his classmates. In high school, he began weight training and joined the wrestling team.
Kyle Maynard has such a positive attitude that a juvenile court judge sentenced a troubled kid to spend the day with Kyle. The judge wanted the young man to understand that attitude shapes our lives more than our circumstances.
After spending a day with the boy, Kyle said, "People think I have a bad life, but look at my life compared to this kid. I’m blessed with a beautiful family who loves me. Everybody has struggles. My struggles are just more apparent."
On January 15, 2012, Kyle became the first quadruple amputee to climb Mount Kilimanjaro without assistance. He crawled all 19,340 feet over 10 days. It wasn’t too cold, it wasn’t too far, it wasn’t too hard… and it wasn’t impossible.
Amen.
