8^th January 2015

Rev Dr Max Champion at St John's UCA Mt Waverley Sunday 28 December 2014

Lessons - Isaiah 61:10 - 62:3; Luke 2:25-40

Christmas is so widely regarded as a children's festival that it may surprise you to know that, apart from Jesus, there are no children in the nativity stories. Only adults! Some are hostile. Others are astonished. Two - Simeon and Anna - are very old and, although never appearing in our Christmas pageants, they play a key role in Luke's Christmas story.

Our neglect is partly due to our unfamiliarity with Jewish ritual around which action takes place and partly due to a lack of drama in the story itself. But mostly, the story of an old man waiting for death and an 84-year-old widow at prayer is seen as irrelevant to our youth-centred culture that is promoted by the media, businesses and the churches.

No wonder we have ignored these two old folk! They are out of touch with reality! Instead of looking for instant excitement and action, they spend time and energy on impractical activities.

Unlike a lot of old people, Simeon and Anna are not simply waiting to die.
They have a deep appreciation of (past) history and a lively sense of (future) hope. After more than 200 years of persecution, they were looking for 'the consolation of Israel' (v25) and 'the redemption of Jerusalem' (v28) that would also be 'a light for revelation to the Gentiles' (v32).

They hunger and thirst for righteousness for a world in which sin and evil cause such terrible suffering. They look back to the promises of God throughout Hebrew history, particularly where prophets speak of hope for 'all the nations'. And they look forward expectantly to a future in which God will bring history to a glorious completion.

Yet, unlike many who long for a better world, they are not fanatical, frenetic or impatient. They are not agitating for political revolution (Communists), Holy Jihad (militant Muslim suicide bombers) or individual rights (Secularists). They do not think they have to achieve something heroic to justify their existence. Nor are they despondent, 'resigned to their lot'
or apathetic. They do not live in the past!

They simply 'wait' on God with deep joy, knowing that life and history are significant because God's love has become 'enfleshed' in the real world in the Christ-child. They respond to his presence with gratitude, praising God for the gift of 'peace' to Jew and Gentile alike.

They certainly are not naive. Unpopularity, suffering, rejection and crucifixion await the adult Christ. Their joy at his birth is tempered by the realisation that he will provoke terrible conflict and opposition and die a God-forsaken death (v35), causing distress to Mary and other disciples (v35).
Already in his birth, Simeon and Anna know that he will suffer rejection and crucifixion at the hands of Jews and Gentiles alike.

Simeon and Anna are models for us. This 'old man' and this 'old woman' represent the faith, goodness and hope that is God's purpose for the whole human family. They invite us to wait patiently for the future that God has promised in Christ. They warn us against becoming despondent or desperate in the Christian community. Also, they encourage us to focus on the joy of worship, prayer and right living.

They prompt us to be beacons of hope in a world where many folk have lost touch with their ultimate destiny; a world where 'young people' are easily tempted by popular culture, and 'old people' are easily tempted to apathy, nostalgia and despair.

We should not underestimate the difficulty of living out this vocation today.
Nor should we expect it to be widely accepted. In the years ahead, the Western Church will find comfort and strength in the story of Simeon and Anna. Christians are no longer tolerated as quaint, harmless curiosities but as dangerous opponents of all things human. This trend is unlikely to be reversed in the short-term.

We dare not neglect the story of Simeon and Anna! They represent quiet, patient, joyful devotion to God that is thought to be irrelevant in our helter-skelter world where few people think that it is virtuous to 'wait in hope'. Because so much that happens today is geared to getting instant results, worship and prayer are seen as impractical and 'righteousness' is thought to be a dangerous obstacle to self-fulfilment.

In such a society, we may be in for a very long wait indeed! If so, we must not dismay but take a cue from two old folk who, long ago, rejoiced in the hope that was embodied in Jesus, even though they knew that his coming would bring conflict to him and his followers.

If we still need convincing about the importance of Simeon and Anna for the witness of the Church in our contemporary society then two events that took place in the twentieth century in countries with strong Christian traditions should jolt us out of complacency, sharpen our perception and steel our resolve.

* In the 1930s, in the country that initiated the Protestant Reformation,
German Nazis formed a Youth Movement that was exciting, idealistic,
community-minded, character-building and patriotic. Only a few Church leaders
and others foresaw the terrible global suffering that would spring from these
high principles. The desires of a nation were manipulated for evil purposes.
Christians and others suffered terribly.

* From the 1920s to 1980s in the Soviet Union, which was shaped by Eastern
Orthodoxy from early times, countless churches were destroyed and millions of
citizens, priests and lay-people died in the gulags. Yet a few old women here
and there continued to pray and worship in Orthodox Churches. Thought by
authorities to be irrelevant to the revolutionary goals of Communism, they
kept hope alive in the midst of unspeakable evil and suffering.

National Socialism and Communism are now widely discredited, but disciples of the crucified-and-risen Jesus - born of Mary out of love for sinful, suffering humanity - continue to worship, to pray and to bear witness to the righteousness and mercy of God who judges such evils.

In fact, in every congregation there are people whose quiet, unobtrusive, steadfast and prayerful faith in God's future flies under the radar; people who have glimpsed in the crucified-and-risen Christ-child the One who is testimony to the presence of God's steadfast love for all.

Church leaders and ageing congregations take note! Young people are not necessarily the future of the Church. Old age is not necessarily a barrier to faithfulness nor an excuse for nostalgia. The story of Simeon and Anna should be a spur to old and young alike to develop an informed, patient faith!

Therefore, despite not figuring in our pageants or choral music, Simeon and Anna are essential to the Christmas story. They typify the quiet, patient, strong and joyful hope in God that springs from astonishment that Jesus has come into the midst of our suffering world, borne the consequences of evil and triumphed. They encourage us to live out the 'peace of Christ' in the 'real world', not in a desperate, futile attempt to appeal to 'popular youth culture' or 'nostalgic aged culture', but by concentrating on what is necessary for its well-being: worship, prayer and righteous action.
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Rev Dr Max Champion is Minister in St John's Uniting Church, Mt Waverley, Victoria, Australia.

Dr Champion is a member of the Council of the Assembly of Confessing Congregations within the UCA.