Waiting in Hope | Advent 2024: Waiting with Hope | Pastor Zach Weihrauch

Luke two verses 22 through 33.

And when the time came for the purification according to the law

of Moses, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present it to the Lord.

As it is written in the law of the Lord.

Every male who first opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord,

and to offer a sacrifice according to what is said in the law of the Lord.

A pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons.

Now there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon.

And this man was righteous and devout,

waiting for the consolation of Israel and the Holy Spirit was upon him,

and it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit

that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ.

And he came in the spirit into the temple.

And when the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him

according to the custom of the law, he took him up in his arms and blessed

God, and said, Lord, now you are letting

your servant depart in peace according to your word.

For my eyes have seen your salvation, that you have prepared in the presence

of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles,

and for glory to your people Israel.

And his father and his mother marveled

at what was said about him.

Well, good morning and welcome to the weekly

gathering of Christ Community Chapel.

My name is Zach.

I'm one of the pastors here, and I'm so glad you're here with us this weekend

and that we get to be part of your Christmas season.

We have been in a sermon series this Christmas or Advent series.

We're talking about waiting.

That's what these chairs are meant to represent.

The waiting rooms that so often we find ourselves in, in life

waiting to see what's going to happen, waiting to see if God is going to show up.

Life is full of waiting rooms, and waiting rooms are full of questions.

Questions about whether or not God loves us, whether or not God

can be trusted, whether or not God is involved.

Those waiting rooms and those questions pop up in the Bible, very often.

So we've been looking at this

Christmas season are the different times God's people are waiting and asking,

what can we learn about those times for our own waiting?

You know, you guys are great

about giving encouraging feedback to Joe and I when we preach.

My my favorite encouragement

that anyone can give after a sermon is when someone says, Zach.

It felt like you were talking right to me.

It felt like that sermon was just for me.

I love hearing that because you need to know that is not a compliment to me.

That is an encouragement because of the Bible itself.

After all, God made you.

God knows you.

So of course he can speak directly into your life, directly into your experience.

Without knowing it.

You're acknowledging that God sees you and that God cares about you.

And I love being part of that.

I've heard that feedback a lot this series, and that makes sense

because you talk about waiting.

We all can resonate with that.

We talk about waiting and suffering, waiting in despair, waiting in silence.

Unfortunately, those are experiences that we are all pretty familiar with.

And so when we hear talks about them, it it can feel very relevant.

Actually, I've been terrified this week that this one would be

the least relevant to you, because today

we're talking about waiting in hope.

The reason I say that is because if you're coming in this weekend

in the midst of a difficult season, it probably resonates with you.

If I talk about suffering or despair or silence, that's your current experience.

But when I talk about hope, you might find that a little detached,

a little hard to touch, and what you might hear me saying,

and I hope that is not the case,

is that I'm calling you to some kind of plucky optimism.

You know, we all have that friend who's relentlessly positive

and relentlessly optimistic, like, you get a flat tire

and you pull over to the side of the road and they look at you and say, well,

at least we have time to talk.

And the truth is, that person

is always very nice, but also a little annoying, right?

Because not every situation is optimistic.

Makes me think of a story I heard once about a dad who had two sons.

One was a pessimist and one was an optimist, and he decided

to use Christmas to regulate them both.

So Christmas Eve, he puts them to bed and after they go to sleep, he sneaks

into their room and in the pessimist room he fills it with presents,

and in the optimist room he dumps a big pile of horse manure

right in the middle of the floor,

and the next morning, Christmas morning, he sneaks to their room

to watch their response, and he opens the pessimist door

and he's just staring at the presents, saying, who put these here?

What do they want from me?

He closes the door. I think, well, that didn't work.

He goes, the optimist room and the boy is digging in the manure.

Big smile on his face.

He says, son, what are you doing?

He says, dad, with this much manure, there's got to be a pony in here somewhere.

So my concern is, when I talk

about waiting and hope you will think that's what I mean.

But it isn't.

It isn't.

Here's what I want you to know.

Hope is most necessary

when it makes the least sense.

Hope is most necessary when it makes the least sense.

If things are going well for you right now, you don't need a sermon on hope.

You might need a sermon on gratitude, right?

You don't need a sermon on hope.

If you're here and you're not doing well, it's

absolutely the right time to talk to you about hope.

Let me let me show you what I mean.

If you have a Bible, would you open it to Luke chapter two?

We're going to look at the passage on Simeon that was just read so beautifully.

If your phone, your tablet, totally okay to take that out.

The verses that I quote are going to be on the screen behind me.

Hey, if you're here and you want to follow along in the Bible,

you don't have a Bible.

There's one in the pew in front of you or in the back of the room over

in East Hall, and you can find today's reading on page 805.

This passage is about a man named Simeon.

Simeon is waiting in hope, but not because things are going so well.

Remember, hope is most necessary when it makes the least sense.

Simeon is an older Jewish guy living in a time

when Israel is under Roman oppression,

so politically he is being oppressed.

Religiously, Judaism is a mess.

The Pharisees are fighting with the Sadducees.

There's hypocrisy everywhere.

So politically, religiously, socially, morally, things

are falling apart around Simeon, and Simeon is old.

So the thing is, even if things are going to get better, he isn't going to see it.

Simeon is in a circumstance in which hope doesn't

make a lot of sense, but that's when it's most necessary.

But what you will find in this pages is Simeon is hopeful,

and the reason he's hopeful is because he believes the story of the Bible.

He believes the story of the Bible, the Bible is a story

that is meant to give us hope.

Now, let me say two things for this.

One is, what I mean is that the Bible comes to us in narrative form.

If God had wanted to give us a text book, he could have, if God had wanted us to

give us a collection of of witty sayings, he could have, he gave us a story.

Now, when I say story, I don't mean fiction.

I hope you know that if you were to go to dinner, your spouse

and you with my wife and I, we sat down and we didn't know each other very well.

I know my wife would lead with this question.

Tell me the story of how you met

the. She

doesn't mean make something up unless your story's boring.

Then do us all a favor.

Make something up.

No, she means tell me the actual story.

If I came in from a crazy weekend, I come in the office on Monday

and I'll say, boy, have I got a story for you.

I don't mean I'm making it up.

I mean, I'm going to tell you what happened in narrative form.

The Bible is the story of what God is doing in human history, and it is a story.

He meant to give us hope.

Simeon understood this.

That's where his hope came from.

It wasn't internal or intrinsic.

It came from the story of the Bible.

In fact, let me show you three things that Simeon understood

about stories that gave him hope in a difficult time.

Three things. Here they are.

Number one, stories have arcs.

Number two stories have heroes,

and number three stories have room for us.

Stories have arcs.

Stories have heroes.

Stories have room for us.

Let's start with the first one.

Stories have arcs.

Now, by this I mean arcs.

They have narrative trajectories,

not big boats, although some stories do have big boats.

But that's not the point.

Every story is going somewhere,

right?

There's a plot, there's a through line, there's a direction.

A story is moving in a particular direction.

And here's what's true.

Good stories are headed somewhere good.

Good stories are headed somewhere good.

And Simeon knew that the the story of the Bible, the story of

what God is doing in human history, is a good story.

And he knew it was headed somewhere good.

Look with me at verse 25.

This is what it says now there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon,

and this man was righteous and devout,

waiting for the consolation of Israel.

And the Holy Spirit was upon him.

The words righteous

and devout there mean that Simeon believes the story of the Bible.

But I want you to notice it's a story, he believes of consolation, of good news,

for hurting people, of encouragement, for people who need it.

He's read the story.

He knows it's a good story, headed somewhere good.

And you know this about stories that Luke Skywalker will bring down the Empire.

Frodo will bring down Sauron, throw the ring

into Mordor, Paula traders will bring down the harken.

And somebody likes science fiction.

Good stories are headed somewhere good.

But here's what Simeon also knew stories make sense of hard moments.

Stories make sense of hard moments.

Simeon is in a difficult scene.

The world around him is not good, but he knows this.

You don't understand the story through one scene.

You understand a scene in the context of the larger story.

Like, let me give you an example.

When you watch a movie with a little kid, like a little little kid,

always early on in the movie, the bad guy is winning.

That's what builds the plot tension, right?

And sometimes a little kid will get really distressed by that because

they're worried where you're headed is that the bad guy is going to win.

And so the little kid, one of my kids, for instance, will stop it and say, whoa,

wait, wait, I don't want to watch this anymore.

I don't like this movie. I don't want to watch.

Because in their minds, if

we pause it right now, the bad thing that's coming won't happen.

And what you have to say to that kid in that moment is, hey, hey,

hey, hey, hang in there.

The story keeps going.

This scene will make sense in the larger story.

Sometimes to keep that kid going, you got to call them over and say,

you want me to tell you what happens, and they'll say.

Because you know that

the power of the story will help them get through that scene.

Listen, if I'm the pastor here long enough,

it will be my privilege to sit with you

in hospital rooms.

And funeral homes.

In living rooms

where we're mourning the loss of a family.

Or the disintegration of your of your family.

We're grieving a bankruptcy.

You're struggling through an addiction.

And in those moments, you will probably want me

to explain why that particular scene is happening.

And I have to tell you, I won't be able to do it.

In fact, more than that, you should run from anybody who tries.

You see, the hope that Simeon had

didn't come from having all the answers of his particular scene.

The hope that Simeon had was knowing where the story was

going.

It's the story that gives us hope in the scene.

It's the trajectory, the arc, the direction.

Simeon knew that God had promised to put the world back together.

God had promised to right the wrongs to the good, would defeat evil.

That in the end we would be with him forever.

And Simeon was saying to God, I just need a glimpse of the story

so that I can keep moving through my scene.

In fact, he

understood that we need glimpses of the ending

to get through the story. Is that not true?

Is that what you're telling that little kid?

Hey, you want me to tell you what happens?

Simeon says to God, just give me a glimpse and I can die.

Because then I know the story is bigger than my scene.

Listen, the hope of Christmas, friends,

is not that you'll get all the answers to your particular scene.

The hope of Christmas is that it is a reminder

that it is just a scene.

If there is a larger story of what

God is doing in the universe, it was happening long before you.

It will continue long after you and you can have a part in it.

Stories have arcs and the arcs help us find a hope.

Even if, like Simeon, we are in the midst of a difficult scene.

I don't know what this week holds for you.

Whether it

will be an amazing week or an awful one,

whether you want the minutes to go by slowly or as quickly as possible.

But this week is just a brief moment

in the story that God is writing.

Here's the other thing Simeon understood about stories.

Stories don't just have arcs.

They have heroes.

Stories have heroes.

You know, the great thing about the great stories is that heroes

carry the story forward.

You know, when I when I read Lord of the rings, well,

not when I read it, because I think those books are boring.

But when I watch it.

I don't want to be Frodo.

That seems stressful

and I'm not sure I would accomplish it.

I don't want the weight of the story to be on me.

I don't want the plot to move forward on my bravery

or my strength that would feel crushing to me.

I want to be like Hobbit 712,

just minding my own business, right?

Raising my crops back in the Shire, saying,

tell me when Frodo gets the job done.

Heroes carry the story forward.

Paula tradies brings down the Harkin owns Larry.

Larry, I called Larry Skywalker.

That's the guy with high school with

Luke Skywalker.

He defeats the Empire.

You see, heroes carry the story forward.

Let's get what it says in verse 26.

Simeon, this is his prayer now,

and it had been revealed to him, verse 26, by the Holy Spirit

that he would not see death before he had seen

the Lord's Christ.

Simeon says, I'm old, I I'm not changing anything.

I need to know, God, that there's a hero.

I need to know you're sending someone who will carry this story forward.

Here's what Simeon knows.

It's not just that heroes carry this story forward, it's that everyone else

finds their success, their hope in the hero's success.

Is that not true?

When Luke Skywalker brings down the Empire, we all win.

When Frodo throws the ring into Mordor, we all are

set free from the evil of Sauron.

Simeon knows that the hope of the Bible, the hope of the story,

is not that he's heroic, but that God will send the hero, and that

Simeon can link himself to the hero so that when the hero wins, he wins.

Look at what he says. Verse 29,

Lord, now you are holding Jesus right?

And he says, Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace.

That's a really romantic way of saying, what

now I can die,

now I can die

according to your word.

For my eyes have seen your salvation, that you have prepared in the presence

of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory

to your people, people, Israel.

Simeon says, now I know there's a hero,

so it's okay if my scene is over.

It's okay if my chapter end.

It's okay if my little bit part in this play is over

because the hero is here, and when he wins, I will win.

Listen, the Bible isn't just a story.

Jesus.

Jesus is our hero.

Now, I know some of you are here because it's Christmas

and you came for grandma or grandpa or mom or dad or your aunt or your uncle.

And by the way, I think that's awesome of you.

That's incredibly kind for you to step out of your comfort zone

and come to something that's not really your thing because you love them so much.

I'm really that's an amazing thing for you to do.

And I know we might not see each other for another year,

and that's okay.

But while you're away, I want to make sure that as you think

about Christianity, you're thinking about it rightly.

Christianity is not the idea

that if you will get serious about fixing your life, God will help you.

It is not the idea that God has given you a path and

and you need to walk down it and you need to, you know, the Lord will help those

who help themselves get your life together, get sober,

get clean, get serious, get right, and God will show up.

Christianity is the belief

that the hero Jesus does for us what we could never do for ourselves.

It's not my life, but he is.

That is righteous.

It's not my death, but his that pays for my sin.

It's not my resurrection, but his that gives me hope, his ascension,

his authority in heaven, his coming again.

Simeon is holding Jesus in the midst of a world that is broken

under Roman oppression with a broken religion, a world decaying around him.

Politics are a mess.

Religion is a mess.

Stop me if this sounds familiar and he's holding Jesus and he's saying,

now I can die

because I'm just Hobbit 712.

But this is the hero.

And friends, you need to hear this because it's possible that this week

is going to be awful for you and it's your fault.

That you'll be alone because of the choices you have made.

That you'll be struggling

because of the decisions you are making now.

But the hope of the biblical story is not that you get your act together.

The hope of the biblical story is you say to God,

is there any way you could do for me what I could never do

for my self?

And the answer to that is Jesus.

That's what God is saying to you every Christmas.

Don't you see?

Every Christmas you come and we seem to say, you know.

So you come back once a year.

You think not much is changed.

We sing the same songs, we tell the same story.

We say the same things.

Because every year God is saying to you,

would you stop trying to be the hero and just let me do it?

My story is headed somewhere good.

Just grab hold of Jesus and let him do for you what you cannot do for yourself.

That brings me to the third thing that Simeon knew about stories,

which is that stories have room for us.

Stories have room for us.

In fact, great stories include us.

That's why.

That's why It's a Wonderful Life resonates more with us than Die Hard,

even though both are Christmas movies.

I said, why?

I said.

It's because, listen, it's because I can't resonate with going up

Nakatomi Plaza to rescue my wife from the terrorist that decided

for whatever reason, her staff Christmas party was the right party to crash.

I would be dead in the first sweep, or I'd be hiding in the bathroom shivering.

Right?

I'm not John McClane, but when I watched George Bailey deal

with broken dreams,

when I watch his life not quite become what maybe he had hoped when I.

When I see him buckling under the weight of pressure and expectation and

and when I see him fail and and deal with failure, I can resonate with that.

That's why

the end of Die Hard, I just go to bed.

But at the end of It's a Wonderful Life, when his brother holds up

that stupid cop and says to my brother George, you know what?

How what? He say? The richest man in town.

I cry like a baby every time

because I want people to say that about me.

Because great stories always include us.

Simeon gets a promise from God.

Simeon, you won't die until you see the hero, until you know for sure.

But I believe he gets that promise because he won't stop asking for it.

Simeon says, the God of you're doing something.

If there's a story you're writing, if there's a hero who's coming, can I just

get a glimpse?

Can I just know for sure there's a place for me?

It makes me think of a time I was on a work trip.

I don't even remember where I was by myself.

And I went to see a movie.

It was one of those times where I was just trying to kill time.

So I just bought a ticket for the next movie.

Whatever it was ended up

being this movie about a mom and her son and their relationship in the midst

of some pretty difficult circumstances, and it was a good movie, not a great one.

But at the end, there was this powerful scene that wrapped the movie

up, and this little boy said something to his mom that just wrecked me.

When I say it wrecked me, I don't mean like the single tear

that goes down here, guys that we wipe away and say allergies.

I mean, like for five minutes.

I'm the only one in the theater.

I am just crying.

Like the guy who came to pick up the popcorn.

Probably left because it was awkward for both of us,

like I was.

I mean, I was just wrecked.

I went back this week to watch the scene of that movie

because I was thinking I would tell you more about it,

or I would show it to you even to bring the point home.

And you know, what's crazy is I watched it like five times.

That little boy never said the line.

I heard.

I mean, it's the sentiment of the scene.

It's the point they're making.

But he never

I mean, I can remember hearing him say it, but he never actually said it.

Do you know why? Because

I heard it.

Because it hooked into my own story.

Friends, Christmas points to a larger story.

It's a promise God is keeping,

and it invites you to go backwards.

Well, why did God make that promise and invite you to go forward?

Well, does he keep it? What happens to the little boy?

Who does he grow up to be?

What does he grow up to do?

Christmas invites you into a larger story, but more than that,

Christmas is your invitation into that story.

It's your chance to hear the line

that is just for you.

But if I think about it long enough, I can put myself in that theater.

I can feel the moment that little boy says that.

I can remember why I cried.

I can remember what I was longing for.

I can remember how vividly it hit me.

But it was. It didn't even happen.

And I've come this weekend to tell you that

I think that God wants to speak to many of you in just the same way.

As though you're the only one in the room.

As though you're the only one.

Hearing the line of him saying, I know your scene is hard,

but there's a place for you in the story that I'm writing.

You do not have to accomplish it.

Jesus will grab Ahold of him and watch where he takes you.

I want to end by reading you

a section from one of my favorite books, The Jesus Storybook Bible.

I talk about this all the time. I hope you know I love this.

If you're still looking for Christmas gifts, buy this.

Buy it for your kids.

Buy it for your grandkids.

52 stories, one a week. They're awesome.

But even if you don't have kids, buy it for yourself.

I mean it, buy it for yourself.

But this is how Sally Lloyd-Jones, the author of this book, puts this.

I'm going to end with this, she says,

man, and if you're just here for Christmas, you need to hear this.

No, the Bible isn't a book of rules

or a book of heroes.

The Bible is most of all a story.

It's an adventure story about a young hero

who comes from a far country to win back his lost treasure.

It's a love story about a brave prince who leaves his palace,

his throne, everything to rescue the one he loves.

It's like the most wonderful of fairy tales that has come true in real life.

You see, the best thing about this story is it's true.

There are a lot

of stories in the Bible, but all the stories are telling one big story,

the story of how God loves his children and comes to rescue them.

It takes the whole Bible to tell this story.

And at the center of the story, there is a baby.

In every story in the Bible whispers his name.

He is like the missing piece in a puzzle.

The piece that makes all the other pieces fit together, and suddenly

you can see a beautiful picture in this.

This is no ordinary baby.

This is the child upon whom everything would depend.

There is no hope in a story that is about you.

Simeon knew that.

But there is hope that transcends

even your own death.

In Jesus.

Let me pray for us.

Father God,

thank you so much for the story that you are writing in human history.

Thank you even more that right now your Holy Spirit is whispering his name.

As the book says to people in this room, some of them for the first time

somewhere, there's somebody in this room saying,

I can't believe I did this for grandma, grandpa, mom, dad.

And and here I am

actually connecting with God.

I don't make that about.

It's not about the sermon.

Let them know that just as you wanted

Simeon to know, he had a part in the story you were writing.

You want them to know that even now,

some of us are hearing this for the thousandth time.

But amidst the busyness of Christmas, we need to be reminded that

our hope is that there's a larger story.

We are not the hero. Jesus, you are.

And we win because you have won.

In your name we pray. Amen.