Sermon Tone Analysis

Text: Luke 2:22-38

Title: Better Things to Come

Thesis: There is great anticipation at what God can make happen in our lives, as Christ has come and we live by faith.

Time: Christmas, 1, A

 

We all know what it is like to wait for something better to happen.

Any child knows the anticipation that comes when Christmas Day is approaching, counting down the days until all the presents under the Christmas Tree can be opened.

Seniors in school can’t wait until graduation day, something they’ve waited a long time for it usually seems.

Those who work wait for better things to happen, maybe a job promotion or a much-deserved raise or even the day they can finally retire.

Even with our families we wait for good things to happen, like the birth of a child or a grandchild.

This story from Luke 2 is a story about waiting for something better to happen.

Now if you think about the things you would like to happen in your life, some better thing you would like to happen, some of them may seem unlikely, maybe even near impossible.

But whatever we could go around and name as things we would like to see happen to make our lives better, all of them would fail in comparison to what happens to these two people we read about in Luke 2, Simeon and the prophetess Anna.

We know what they were waiting for, the birth of the Messiah, Jesus Christ.

But their sense of anticipation was not some casual, yes, some day the Messiah will be born, we read about it in the Bible.

No, their sense of anticipation was so strong that they had devoted their whole lives to this dream, to this promise that yes, some day the Messiah would be born.

They knew that when the Messiah was born things would be better, much better.

Devoting themselves to the service of the temple, they would have been very familiar with the texts that told of the coming Messiah.

They would have known the promises given that the Messiah would make it possible for a better life for all people.

They knew that with the coming Messiah there would be given a better covenant, a perpetual covenant that would allow people to once-and-for-all experience a relationship with God that was not marred with sin.

Let’s just pick one of these interesting people, let’s talk about the prophetess Anna.

We are told in verse 36 that at one time she was married, married for seven years and then her husband died.

Hers was not a long marriage, she probably questioned God why her husband died, why their love for one another was cut short.

After her husband died, we are told that she then did something positive with her life.

It ways in verse 37 that she lived to the ripe old age of eighty four and “she never left the temple but worshipped there with fasting and prayer night and day.”

We are then told in the next verse some of what Anna hoped for, the better thing she wanted to see happen.

Listen to verse 38, “At that moment she came, and began to praise God and to speak about the child to all who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem.”

Anna’s great desire, the reason she devoted her time to prayer and fasting in the temple night and day was so that people could experience redemption, the redemption that would come about once the child, the Messiah was born.

After Anna had a trying, sad event happen to her with the death of her husband, I am sure she thought about her life.

Sure, she thought about all the things that would bring her happiness and fulfillment and fill the void left with the death of her spouse who she loved for the past seven years.

But as she turned to God for answers, the better thing she wanted to see happen was more than simply, “God what can make me happy,” to the dream that someday the Messiah would be born and he would bring redemption to all people.

Anna found herself a ministry that extended out to all people, one that connected people to God, Anna found her purpose in life of helping to make a better way for all people.

I am sure that like me, like the prophetess Anna, you have had things not go the way you would have wished.

We have all had things go wrong that make us long for something better to happen.

Imagine if right after that event, you were to write down a list of three things you would like to happen in your life, three things that would make your life better what would they be?

If you lost a job, it might be for a new job, maybe a better paying job, or a job with a better boss.

Those would not be bad things to wish for.

But as I think about Anna, I wonder if we sometime shortchange ourselves in what could happen to us once we go through some difficult experience.

Usually, we want life to resume as quickly as possible, as much as it can to how life was once before.

But not Anna, her whole way of living changed.

Once, where she would have been primarily confined to her household, she was now confined to the temple.

Where once she would have spent most of her time and energy and thoughts on domestic, household things, she now spent day and night in the temple in fasting and prayer.

Imagine all of her friends, what they would have said about her.  Have you seen Anna lately?

All she does is spend time down there at the temple.

What is up with Anna, has she lost her mind, turned into some kind of religious fanatic, if I want to talk to her I now have to meet her in the temple.

Whenever I talk to Anna now days, it’s like I’m talking to a different person, she keeps going on and on about redemption and the promise that the Messiah is going to be born and about what redemption will mean for me.

What has happened to Anna?

 

Whenever we go through an experience that leaves us saying, I can’t wait for things to get better, what we often mean is I wish things were like they once were.

What we witness in Anna is that a bad, tragic situation can reverse itself and we can find a positive, meaningful purpose in life.

We can find a way of turning attention away from ourselves, and to turn our attention to God and what God’s redemption can mean for other people.

We hear about people like this all the time, people who start missions because they were once homeless themselves.

People who start rehab clinics because they were once on drugs themselves and now want to help others to get off drugs.

We hear about people who volunteer or give to hospice because that ministry helped them when they were helped when they experienced the death of a loved one.

What I would call Anna’s ministry and the ministry of people who stand up and make a difference is a ministry of presence.

It’s not easy to have a ministry of presence.

People will talk about you, they will say, What’s up with Anna, what’s up with John.

They will see something is different.

I read this in a book by Erwin McManus called /Seizing Your Divine Moment, /“It is so much easier to choose to be invisible.

Oh, there are other words for invisible- average, mediocre, normal, compliant, predictable, safe –and the list could go on.”

I would say God does not want us to be invisible, he wants us to be seen in ministry like Simon or Anna.

McManus also says this, “Not every moment is the same, nor does every moment have the same level of potential.

Some moments carry within them the capacity to shape a lifetime.

And this is the challenge that comes in those moments.

The greater that moment’s opportunity, the greater the risk required.

In that moment when we are invited to receive the infinite grace of God, we are required to give up everything we have.”

Perhaps, whenever we are going through one of those “I wish things were better” moments we are struggling with what we to give up and what we need to receive.

What we need to give up, old habits, false worldly securities, pride, and whatever else.

And what we need to invite and to receive is the infinite grace of God.

A grace that has provided us with full redemption through Jesus Christ.

Today, as you think about your life, are you living with a ministry of presence.

Are you making a difference in the life of others as you help them to understand and to see that through Jesus Christ they can have redemption.

Are there still struggles you may be having that are holding you back, where you wake up each day saying, “if only things could get better.”

Today, right here and now, receive God’s grace and have a faith that is committed to saying, “God, I want to make a difference in the life of others, I am willing to be your servant, use me as you will.

Amen.”