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All scripture is quoted from the New Living Translation of the Bible.
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There is a wonderful line is the movie “My Big Fat Greek Wedding”. Maria, is speaking, after her husband has just reminded everyone that he is the head of the house. And Maria says, after he leaves the room, “Well, the man may be the head but the woman is the neck and she can turn the head any way she wants.”
Women rule! Have you noticed how the women have big time roles in the arrival of Jesus – not in the brash sense of female manipulation – which is what Maria was talking about. But there is a sense in which they are the neck upon which the head turns -- especially in this story.
Women are center stage at the coming of the Messiah. They are pivotal in the story. Elizabeth, then Mary the Virgin mother of the Savior – who had the biggest part – and now this morning heads in the Temple are turning toward Anna.
Just as Joseph and Mary are finishing up with their conversation with Simeon, who we talked about last week, onto the stage comes Anna – a very old woman - according to verse 36.
She had been married for 7 years before her husband died and she was 84 years old, according to verse 37.
Now if you do the math, figuring that she married at 14-years – the common age for marriage – and had been married 7 years – that means she had been a widow for 63 years -- give or take a few years.
We don’t know anything else about her – whether she had children or relatives or whether she was a college graduate. But we can speculate – reading between the lines – that she was probably a little strange – at least as most people would have seen things.
A lovely young 21-year-old woman who never remarried -- unusual in that culture -- a woman so preoccupied with her religion that she actually figured out how to live in the Temple. Verse 37 says that "she never left the Temple and worshiped God with fasting and prayer night and day."
Verse 36 says that she was a prophet. And you know about prophets – people who see things other people don’t see – people with divine insight – people with messages from God.
We look at them and think “Wow – how spiritual. We admire their faith but under our breath we thank God that we’re not like them. Prophets, no matter how good they are, how much they know God, and how helpful they are – well, they’re just not normal people. They amke us uncomfortable. They are idiosyncratic and eccentric. They are just not the types of people that you’d like to spend the day with.
And I’m sure that some of strange Anna’s relatives thought she had wasted her life – not that they weren’t interested in the kingdom of God and the promised Messiah – but at least they had lives. They enjoyed feasts and family. They had friends and adventures. But Anna stayed in the Temple – sleeping where? On a slab of rock behind some colonnade? Dependent on people to occasionally bring her food and drink.
Some must have looked at her and said – what a waste! She could have had a life.
But like prophets of old Anna was focused – focused on seeing and hearing what God was up to – focused on speaking for him. And when she saw old Simeon with that young couple and their baby she knew – she knew that he was the one she had been waiting for.
Don’t ask how. She knew. God somehow told her. After all she was a prophet. God spoke to her in a unique way. And indeed this is why Luke includes her in his gospel account.
She appears as a witness for the incarnation – in line with Simeon, the angels, the shepherds, the baby in Elizabeth’s belly who leaps for joy, and Zechariah – many of whom seem to be quoting the Old Testament prophets – somehow drawing them in as witnesses as well.
St. Luke wants us, his readers, to see that this is it. This is the highpoint of human history. God has entered human flesh. So things will no longer be the same. This is what we’ve all been waiting for – more or less. Some like Anna were a lot better at waiting than others.
Some no longer really believed that God was going to send a Savior Messiah. Most, I suspect, were casual believers. They liked the idea of a Savior – but really it didn’t have that much impact on their day to day existence.
They went to work at the cheese plant like everyone else. They bought new cars like everyone else. They took the same ski trips and Hawaiian vacations as everyone else. Not that those things are wrong. They aren’t. It’s just that they are so – so – mundane – so routine – so mindlessly unaware of what God is up to.
Most everyone was distracted on a daily basis – but not Anna. Some maybe thought she was wasting her life in the Temple – but really she was fulfilling her unique call – hanging out and waiting – waiting for just the moment when she’d see him for herself. She had been waiting for that moment when Mary and Joseph showed up at the Temple with their baby.
That was her moment. That was the pinnacle of her life -- the moment when she would be the neck turning heads.
And what does she do when she sees the baby for herself? When her life’s ambitions are fulfilled?
Two things --
The first is in verse 38 – “She came along as Simeon was talking with Mary and Joseph, and she began praising God...”
This is always the true first response to God’s gifts – to seeing what he’s doing. Praise be to God.
Do you ever have those moments where the only thing that you really feel like saying is Praise God? I do – even though I’m not all that demonstrative of a person – my northern European genes are pretty strong.
Everett Honnette called the other day and I asked him whether his land had sold. We’ve been praying for the sale of some of his land. And this particular piece had been in escrow 7 times – if I remember the number right. And each time the deal has fallen thru.
So when Everett said that the whole thing went through on the 31st – the first thing that popped into my mind was Praise the Lord. Wow, finally, we’ve been waiting long enough.
How much greater was the praise of Anna who had been waiting 84 years – and preparing herself for that moment.
She practiced and rehearsed daily through her prayers and fasting. I mean, praising the Lord, isn’t necessarily something that comes naturally. Feelings of elation and self-satisfaction are natural – but praising the Lord doesn’t always come without cultivation.
And she had been cultivating her praise for years. So when the moment came – when the time was right – she praised the Lord.
Then secondly, she was was a witness.
Verse 38 again – “She came along just as Simeon was talking with Mary and Joseph, and she began praising God. She talked about Jesus to everyone who had been waiting for the promised King to come and deliver Jerusalem.”
I bet that Anna had been keeping a list – a list of people whom she considered to be fellow waiters – people like herself who had been truly looking for and longing for a Messiah to come and deliver Israel.
So as soon as she got done with Simeon and Mary and Joseph and the baby – she went and found her people – and told all of those receptive people about what she had just seen.
This is one of the characteristics of Luke’s gospel – and on into Luke’s second book, Acts – people keep telling other people. I mean, it is after all, good news.
Luke doesn’t tell us any more about Anna after the brief cameo appearance in Luke 2. The church doesn’t even have any kind of extra-biblical tradition about what happened to Anna. She has her 15 seconds of fame -- and then she drops off the radar screen. After all, she has fulfilled her role – her mission as prophet witnessing to the coming of the Messiah.
But you know, I seriously doubt that Anna talked only to those on her list of receptive people. When something like this happens you don’t easily stop talking. I bet she button-holed people coming into the Temple left and right. I bet she talked non-stop about what she had seen. And I bet that people stopped and listened – after all she was an old lady. And old ladies deserve respect – even if they’re a little weird – for they’ve seen more and done more and turned more heads than the rest of us.
So I would challenge you to hear the witness of old Anna, too, and to enter into the praise and the thanksgiving of Christmas.
One of our traditions at Cornerstone – and it’s a good one – is to on the first or second Sunday or January make a list of people that we are going to pray for in the coming year. These are people that don’t know Christ as Savior. Some of them are not necessarily even very receptive at this point. They are the opposite of Anna.
And we’re praying that God would work in the lives of these people in the coming year – and that they would eventually turn and trust Christ as Savior and Lord.
Now, some of you have seen some incredible turn-arounds in the lives of the people you’re praying for. Some of you, though, are like Anna. You’ve been waiting for years and years for something to happen.
That’s okay. God has his own timing. Our assignment is to wait and pray – and whenever possible to share a word of witness.
So I would like to invite you this morning to jot down the names of people that you’re going to pray for in 2003. If you’re concerned about privacy – write down their initials. You know who they are and God knows who they are.
We’ve provided a form to make this easier for you. And we’re going to give you a minute or two to make your list – and then copy it. There are really two lists here with a perforation between the two – tear the form along the line and then in a few minutes when we take the offering I’d like you to drop the smaller form – the gray one – into the offering bag. Keep the large on as a pryer reminder but drop the smaller one into the offering.
And then – in a few months at the annual meeting of the Pacific Southwest Conference we’ll take those forms and combine them with lists from other churches – and then in June we’ll take all of these wonderful statements of faith and hope from the conference – and combine them with all of the forms from the entire body of Covenant churches from throughout the US and Canada.
So I’m going to give you a few minutes to fill out your list. But first I want us to pray together.
Gracious and loving God – We are overwhelmed by your ongoing generosity – especially the gift of your Son, our Savior Christ Jesus. With Anna, we bless you and honor you for this great gift. And with Anna we want to share what we have received with others. So we would ask now that you would bring to mind the names of individuals and even groups of people that you would like us to be praying for in 2003. Show us who and make us sensitive to the openings that your Spirit presents that we might be able to say a word about the gift of the Savior and the new life that belongs to all who trust him. We pray in the name of Christ Jesus. Amen.
