"Salvation Has Come!"

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.