Do You See What I See?

Hello, you are listening to Second City Sermons,

a ministry of Second City Church in Midtown Harrisburg.

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Instagram and YouTube. We hope you enjoy this

sermon. God bless. Now, God, as we heard the

Holy Spirit speaking to Simeon long ago in this

passage in Luke chapter 2, God, would you speak

Luke 2 · chapter mention

to us? Would you meet with us now? Would the

preaching of your word be for the blessing of

your people? God, would you direct us and would

we find our comfort and our peace and our joy

in you? Amen. All right, I want you to take a

moment and look at some of the stained glass

around you, okay? Think about the work that went

into creating that. So I read in a commentary,

someone say that the first few chapters of Luke,

in these first few chapters, Luke is kind of

acting like this craftsman who's creating this

beautiful picture for us, this stained glass

picture. And he's taking these bits and he's

staining them and he's breaking parts, you know,

and he's then soldering them together. He's putting

lead between them. and he's wanting to show forth

part of the beauty that is Jesus through this

painstaking craftsmanship and it's actually sort

of in this moment when Jesus is presented in

the temple that part of what part of the beauty

is starting to shine forth at first is just kind

of these little cracks and little pieces and

they're kind of you know disparate and now he's

kind of putting it together and he's saying look

Well, Simeon says, for my eyes have seen, but

it's not just for his eyes, but for the Gentiles,

for all people, for the glory of Israel, a revelation

for all. There's a story that's being told and

it's shining out. This is actually what Simeon

prays, right? Lord, now you're letting your servant

depart in peace according to your word, for my

eyes have seen your salvation. that you've prepared

in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation

to the Gentiles and for glory to your people

Israel. His eyes have seen it. But here's the

thing, it's not just that the beauty is for his

eyes, right? Beauty is for the world. It's to

be presented to all people. It's a light for

the revelation of God to the world, to the Gentiles,

to the folk who are far off, right? Those who

are once aliens and strangers of the promises

have been brought near by the grace of God. The

glory of the story of Israel is seen for the

world to behold the beauty of God. But here's

the interesting thing. I think this is really,

really interesting and I share this with our

senior saints lunch. So some of this is gonna

be overlap for some of you. When Luke, wants

to display this craftsmanship, this beauty, this

thing that has been created for everybody to

see, it's not quite the folk that we would expect

that he goes to, to shine forth this beauty.

If you remember, we actually looked at some of

this in our adult Sunday school this morning,

the story of the Magi, these guys from the East

come. And maybe they came with the pomp and circumstance

that we have in our Christmas plays and stuff

like that with all decked out. Well, certainly

they were probably well to do because the gifts

that they offered. When they come from the East,

because they've seen the star, they go to Jerusalem,

the main city. They get the court of the king.

He questions them. He summons them. That's who

they're talking to, right? That's what you'd

maybe expect. Expect the story to be told to

those kind of folk. But when Luke kind of puts

it all together and he says, look, do you see

what I see? He's not going there. Said he kind

of goes to the unexpected. What we get here is

when Luke begins to tell how the birth of this

little Christ child is going to be the shining

light for the world. this beautiful thing that

is going to be the grace of God for the far off.

What we see is that he goes to the elderly, to

the older folk, to two older folks specifically,

Simeon and Anna. So the last couple of weeks

we've been, I was suggesting that we're kind

of, there's these fatherly figures, these father

figures in the. birth narratives. So we looked

at quiet Joseph, right, a couple weeks back.

Last week we looked at Zachariah, the one who

was made to be quiet out of his unbelief, demanding

a sign. And this morning I want to look at this

other fatherly figure, and actually this motherly

figure too, Simeon and Anna. And as far as we

know, they don't have, they probably actually

didn't have biological children, but know that

they have spiritual children. And just as many

sort of in our own church may not have biological

children yet, there's many spiritual children.

And I think that when we look at this, we actually

see part of the beauty of the good news that

Luke is presenting to us, okay, when we look

at these two figures. So first, the fatherly

figure Simeon. Simeon, like neither of these

figures, we get like this whole bunch of information

about them, but we know that he was righteous

and devout. And specifically, we are told that

he was waiting for the consolation of Israel.

It's waiting for Israel to be consoled. Desiring

consolation, waiting for consolation. And of

course you can think about this in terms of Israel

as a whole. They're waiting, you know, they've

been waiting for a long time. You could even

say in some ways that the world had been waiting

for a long time. I mean there's the prophecy

long ago in Genesis chapter 3 that there'd be

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

a child that would be born of the woman who would

crush. that conniving lying deceitful serpent

in some ways we've all right the whole world

is desiring consolation and it's been a long

time coming but of course israel's also been

waiting a long time we've talked about this recently

israel desiring the true king on the throne yet

one event after another event after another event

only aggravates the desire for consolation but

um But this is also true in Simeon's particular

life. So you could consider the whole world,

you could consider the story of Israel, but you

could also just consider the story of Simeon.

This whole prayer of Simeon, it begins, Lord,

now you're letting your servant depart in peace,

which at least invites us into the idea that

his life was not one of peace. I mean, he's desiring

consolation and he's saying, now finally I can

depart peace. His life had likely not been one

of peace, but rather of desiring it. He'd been

waiting his whole long life with the world and

with Israel for this consolation. And it's not

hard for you to think through your own life and

the different stages of life of how... sort of

the desire gets aggravated. The long life builds,

time elapses, and the desire, the consolation

of life, the consolation of God, the peace of

God seems to grow, the desire for that. From

early on in life, we find a deep desire for consolation.

I'm trying to think of when this begins. No doubt

it begins earlier, but maybe one of the first

stages that it really seems to be present is

just in the odd social awkwardness of middle

school. You know that time where you're just

like, I just wish that I felt like I knew my

people and they knew me and where am I and can

I just have some peace socially? Then, you know,

it kind of, it doesn't really stop. I used to

tell college students when I was doing campus

ministry that they should just fill out a three

by five card and hand it to people because when

you're meeting somebody, you'd be like, oh, where

are you from? What are you majoring? What are

you going to do? It's like this incessant question

of what's your life going to be? And you're like,

I don't know. I just want consolation because

I actually don't have any peace in my own mind.

And I've got to give you the answer to this mess

of what's happening up here. It keeps going,

of course, early in your marriage. You are not

only faith the fact that your spouse is actually

not rose -colored it's just hormones and Neither

are you right? You've come face to face with

the reality that actually you are so messed up

and so are they and the consolation the desire

for consolation peace grows Your sin becomes

more defined It's easier to see partly because

somebody else is pointing it out sometimes by

God's grace. But then, of course, as you continue

on in life, often we experience miscarriages.

Children are lost in car accidents. Children

are estranged. Friends disown us. We move. We

have to make new friends. Ups and downs of financial

difficulties. You find yourself looking for a

new job, you know, and it seems like all they

want is the young people that know how to do

like AI, whatever that still is, right, wherever

the tech savvy folk. And of course, we can just

list our own ways. It seems like the desire for

consolation grows and grows as the years pass.

And here's something that is deeply, deeply important

that I think is actually one of the significant

lessons that we learn in this account here in

Luke. is that this is not just for those who

are outside of the people of God. That's not

the case in this passage. The desire for consolation

and for peace in this story is for the people

that are absolutely under the care and love of

the Lord, attentive to His ways and know His

law and are present in the temple and are worshiping

Him and giving their life to Him. They're the

ones that are desiring consolation, finally saying,

we can depart in peace. Think about this, okay?

We see this first in the parents of Jesus. So

it says, they're not really, they're not the

main figures here, but it says that they bring

what was according to what was said in the law

of the Lord. That's what verse 24 tells us. And

then it tells, they brought a pair of turtle

doves or two young pigeons. So again, we talked

about this in our adult Sunday school. What does

that mean? They were among the poorest. of Israel,

among the poorest of God's people, which is to

say they knew the hard life, life of struggle

for food and maybe housing. And that's what so

often happens among the poor that likely affected

their physical health and their mental health,

right? This is Mary and Joseph, part of God's

people, spoken to in dreams and by angels. and

they are not immune from the dynamic of desiring

consolation and desiring peace. But this desire

for consolation and peace within the people of

God is also highlighted when we look at Simeon.

So the first thing we read about Simeon is not

that he was desiring the consolation of Israel,

but the first thing that we read was that he

was righteous and devout. And then we read in

verse 26, that the Holy Spirit had revealed to

him that he would not see death until he'd seen

the Lord's Christ. Verse 27 tells us that Simeon

came in spirit to the temple, which is to say

this man who desired consolation, that wanted

peace, that wanted a life where God actually

met his sorrows with God's consolation, was somebody

that was led by the Holy Spirit, indwelled by

the Holy Spirit. This is, you know, if you could

say this is one of the leaders of God's people.

And he's living the life that you're living that

seems to be sorrow aggravated by sorrow aggravated

by sorrow, desiring consolation. And this is

an important lesson that we learn here. And unfortunately,

honestly, it's a lesson that lots of Christians

want to shun and say, ah, you come to God, you've

just got your life to get, you get your life

together. He's just gonna, your life's gonna

be fine. And here we find these saints near the

end of their life. Desiring consolation, desiring

peace, because they had known such deep sorrow,

no doubt. Even the devout and the faithful and

those who are led by the Spirit ache for peace,

desire, consolation. Which leads me to this.

One of the graces that God has given to this

church is our elderly. fathers and mothers of

the faith. Let me say this, because I want particularly

you elderly to hear this. One of the graces God,

do I need new batteries? Am I cutting in and

out a little bit? No, okay, no. One of the graces

God gives to our church is the elderly. You older

folk among us, you are God's gift to us. The

long faithful, you know? Ed Camp had his birthday

a couple days ago. If you know Ed, if you've

sat with him, you know that his life has been

one of sorrow on sorrow, some really deep tragic

sorrows. Some of you know that one of his boys

was killed in a car accident years and years

ago. He had gone out to the shore with some friends

in his early 20s and on their way back was hit

and died in a car accident. You know Ed and you've

talked with them recently, you know, what an

utter Challenge these last few years have been

these last three and a half years since his wife

Anna passed away They met in high school And

he loved her dearly and they were married what

62 years I think it was or something like that

Maybe they were part of the church. I forget

what how long it was exactly and yet Ed is holding

fast to Jesus. You know, he's one of the long

faithful ones. Sorrow upon sorrow, desiring consolation,

desiring peace, and holding fast to Jesus. Many

of you know our dear sister Donna Weatherly has

been having a difficult time. She's in a rehab

on the west shore. and hasn't been able to be

present with us, she's holding fast to Jesus.

And what a gift and what a grace of God to us

all. Fathers and mothers in the faith, you are

a grace to us from God. You are a gift to us.

Your long life of bearing sorrow, your long life

of desiring consolation, You're aching for peace

and looking to God as the giver of it is one

of the greatest gifts that we have as a church.

To be greeted by Dot Fisher after she hasn't

been with us is a gift, right? Especially when

she gives you a big bear hug. Especially when

you know why she hasn't been with us is because

often when the weather is not well, she is not

well. And she still desires the Lord and the

peace that comes from him. in the midst of a

body that's not always working well. Gordon,

your bearing your cancer, your lung cancer, right

after you retired was such a gift to me those

years ago. But even more, Elaine and Gordon,

you together, trusting the Lord in the midst

of Elaine's cancer, spoke to every one of us.

It was a gift. Your long faithfulness is a gift

to us. This is part of the lesson of this passage.

The long desire for consolation and looking to

the Lord for our peace, the long faithful, the

long faithful fathers and mothers are the gift

of God to the people of God. And they train us

in the way, in His ways, they are truly fathers

and mothers for us. As we age, And at each stage

of our aging, here's another lesson that we need

to hear. We need the gift of the long faithful

and the elderly among us. But I also want to

suggest to you this, we need the gift of those

who are just beyond us. You didn't know what

I mean? You like high school or college age folk,

our children need to see that Jesus can be followed

at the next stage, right? you high school college

age students, you need young adults who are trying

to figure out like, what do I do in my like,

you know, post college life? What does singleness

look like? How do I faithfully follow Jesus in

the midst of like desiring a spouse maybe, or

trying to figure out what my job is like. In

the midst of that confusion, and actually following

Jesus in the midst of that confusion, you are

a grace to the people that are right behind you.

It can be done, right? Or think of you couples,

maybe you've recently been married or something

and you're like, I think we want children. That

sounds like a good idea. That sounds unbelievably

stressful. And I'll just tell you it is. And

it can be done because the Lord is kind and He

is gracious. Right? And in the midst of your

questioning, actually seeing people just ahead

of you saying, you know what? God can be followed

now. The long act of faith can be done. You empty

nesters are God's gift to me because I am often

shook up by the idea of that stage of life because

it sort of feels like the next major stage in

my life. There is a great gift of being in this

body of Christ where we have fathers and mothers

going ahead of us and saying, follow Jesus to

the end. Follow him to the end. The consolation

will be met. with the peace of God. Simeon is

a father in the faith instructing us in our sorrow

to lay it all on the God of peace. And many of

you are that to us as a church. Many of you can

be that to those that come after you. God is

creating this beautiful piece of art. And often,

if you looked about it, you're like, those are

pieces that were probably broken. Maybe crushed

a little bit, chipped off on a side. Maybe when

it was laying out on the table, you're like,

what is this mess? And then he puts it up for

the world to see and he said, oh my word, it's

a light to enlighten the world, to bring peace.

He is creating something lovely. One of the greatest

witnesses you give to the world is through your

long faithfulness to the Lord. Your long faithfulness

in a life of sorrow desiring his consolation.

So then we have the story of Anna, right? Again,

we actually don't learn a lot about Anna. I mean,

we have the little bit at the beginning, her

family lineage and stuff like that, but we don't

get a lot. We don't get a lot about Simeon. We

don't get a lot about Anna. And in some ways

what we have about, Anna is similar to what we

have about Simeon, which is to say it's just

this little glimpse into a long life that was

probably often marked by sorrow, desiring consolation.

Look down at verse 36 if you have it open. The

second part there, it says, she was advanced

in years. having lived with her husband seven

years from when she was a virgin, meaning that

they were married for seven years. Which means

that, you know, at that time, very likely she

would have been married like mid -teens. Say

she was married when she was 15, 16, you know,

she was married until she was in her early 20s.

That's probably what it was. And then it says,

Verse 37, and then, as a widow, until she was

84. Here's an interesting thing. Actually, the

Greek is not as clear as the English says there.

It says, so we get the sense from that that in

this passage, she's 84. That's possibly what

it was. It could mean that she lived 84 more

years after the passing of her husband. We actually

could be dealing with somebody that's in her

early hundreds. Honestly, we're not totally sure

what it is, but the point remains. She lived

decades upon decades as a widow, having lost

the love of her life. And isn't that actually,

isn't that what's happening here, right? This

long waiting God, bring your comfort and your

consolation into the midst of our sorrow. And

this passage again, it shows us her devotion.

She did not depart. This next part of verse 37,

she did not depart from the temple worshiping

with fasting and prayer night and day. It's not

that she probably had like a tent there, but

she spent all of her days there, which also indicates

to us that she very likely did not have family.

We're invited into this deeper story of sorrow,

and we're invited into seeing that again, she's

devout. She's a prophetess, it says. That would

have been a teacher. She would have been outside

the temple talking about God with people, telling

them about the Old Testament, right? Verse 38

says, and coming up at that very hour, she began

to give thanks to God and to speak of Him to

all who were waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem,

just devout. Her life was marked by sorrow upon

sorrow. She too was waiting, long waiting for

consolation. Which is, again, to say this, your

gray hairs and your aching joints, your arthritic

bones are welcome in the fellowship of Jesus.

He delights in it. He actually teaches us through

you, even in your aching. your long sorrow of

lost loved ones and your clinging to the promises

of God might be the exact place, might be the

exact thing that God uses to teach others. It

often is, actually. They're often the exact places

where God is taking broken things and saying,

look at the beauty of my grace. Look at my love

and my kindness. Look at this beautiful painting

that I'm displaying for generations to come.

Look at the light that's shining through them.

But let me sort of end by coming to the little

paragraph that actually joins these two stories.

Did you notice that? There's this kind of story

of Simeon and then it kind of jumps down to Anna

and there's this little paragraph in between

that sort of joins them together. I mean, Simeon

does speak, but... but here's what it says, verse

33 to 35, and his father and his mother, that's

Mary and Joseph, marveled at what was said about

him and Simeon blessed them and said to Mary

his mother, and I think this is very likely because

we don't believe that Joseph lived into Jesus'

adulthood because he's not mentioned when Mary

and his brothers are mentioned later on, behold

this child is appointed for the fallen rising

of many in Israel and for a sign that is opposed

and a sword will pierce through your own soul

also." So that thoughts from many hearts may

be revealed. That sounds maybe cryptic. But what

we find is that the beauty of this brilliant

story that God is shining into the world is where

he knows the sorrow, the parental sorrow. Mary.

A sword will pierce through your soul also. And

that's where we see actually the beauty of the

gospel of Jesus is when the sword pierces through

the soul of Mary. When does the sword pierce

through the soul of Mary? I guarantee you it's

when she is watching Jesus on the cross. Is there

a greater sorrow that a mother could experience

with their own child in agony upon a cross dying

right in front of them? I guarantee you, that's

when the sword pierces her soul. It's gotta be

it. Which is to say, right here in the midst

of this story of simian desire and consolation,

I'm saying I long for peace and I can finally

depart in it because I see this child right before

me. And in Anna's own story of long sorrow, the

linchpin of all of it, is the fact that God is

not distant from it, right? That's why they have

consolation. It's the unique thing about Christianity.

It is. That God not just knows sorrow, but becomes

part of the sorrow. He's not just far off looking

down upon you thinking, oh, I'm so sorry you're

going through all that. But he goes to the place

of the cross. Takes our sin upon him. He goes

to the place of pain. His mother's own pain,

the sorrow of the world, for the life of the

world. To say that the hope that we have in our

lives, in our lives as young children, our lives

as young adults, our lives as young parents or

senior citizens, is that when God comes to us,

He comes to us Himself and goes to the place

of sorrow Himself and suffers. that we might

have consolation. He's not distant from it, he's

not divorced from it, he's not so far away as

a God distant, but he comes to the very place

of sorrow that we might know his consolation.

Which, let me end with this, is to say, I bet,

I bet there are people that went to Simeon and

to Anna. They're at the temple and Anna's this

teacher, right? And Simeon, obviously, is teaching

too. He's got this prayer that we remember as

the Nunc de Midas, which is prayed, by the way,

every evening in complying prayer in many traditions.

Some of you use the Book of Common Prayer. That's

at the end of every day. So he's still teaching

us, which is awesome. But I bet as they were

there at the temple, no doubt people would come

to them, as some of you have come to me and say,

why does God allow such pain and sorrow in our

lives? Right? I mean, who doesn't ask that question

in that time? And my guess is what they would

have said is actually the same answer that I

often get, which is I don't really know. I mean,

the Bible doesn't exactly tell us why you experience

the particular sorrows that you experience, why

we wait so long for consolation. Maybe Simeon

and Anna met them and said, I know that I know

the long waiting and it was painful You know,

they knew that so they could they could talk

to people about their own experience, but they

probably don't know the exact answers But on

this side of the cross what we can say is That

Christianity and Jesus unlike any other good

news that you will have on offer says God knows

it God knows what you're going through God knows

your long desire for consolation and for peace

and he goes into the midst of a broken world

and he goes through the cross and through the

empty tomb to say it is not the end of the story.

Consolation will come. His light will shine into

the darkness of the world. His peace will come

into this messed up world. This is the good news

of the gospel. that Jesus meets the long waiting,

the desiring for consolation, the ones who want

peace. And then Jesus says, it's on offer. Give

my life for you that you might have life. That's

the good news of Christianity. That's the good

news of our season that Jesus knows our long

waiting and he comes to bring us his peace. Amen.

Amen. Lord God, thanks for the fathers and mothers

of the faith. Thank you for Simeon and Anna.

Thank you for Mary and Ed. Thank you for Donna

and Gordon. So many others, Lord. Gotta pray

that we would live the long, faithful road. It

is very hard. And it is long and it's waiting.

And we desire your consolation. We desire peace.

And sometimes it feels like we keep waiting,

God. But Lord, more than anything, we say thank

you for the Lord Jesus, not only whose mother

was pierced with sorrow, but you, Lord Jesus,

yourself were pierced, stricken, smitten, and

afflicted for us. We bless you, Lord, that you

not remain a distant God, but you come to us

in sorrow that we might know your peace. In your

name we pray. Amen.