Simeon and Anna in their Prime
“Simeon and Anna in their Prime” E-100 #53 Luke 2:21-40
by Clancy Nixon
December 27, 2009
Church of the Holy Spirit
Ashburn, Virginia
[Prayer]
I heard the story of two couples who'd been friends for years, taking a break from their card game. The wives went into the kitchen, while the husbands stayed in the den. Dave said to Bill, "Bill, you played a great game tonight. I usually have to remind you what cards have been played, but tonight I didn't have to." Bill said, "Well, that's because I went to memory school.” "Really?" Dave asked, "What's the name of that school?" Bill thought for a minute and said, "Let me see. Umm … uh … what do you call that flower that's red, with thorns on the stem?" "A rose?" "Yeah, that's it!" Then Bill turned toward the kitchen and said, "Hey, Rose! What was the name of that memory school I went to?"
As I get older, I’m, finding that it’s easy to forget things. My memory doesn’t don't work as well as it used to. Now that I think of it, that’s not all that doesn’t work as well as it used to! In this season of Christmas, I’m reminded that Jesus is the Alpha and the Omega. He’s both the promise of new birth and the hope of our old age.
Ginger’s mother Becky is staying with us for the holidays. We’ve had a wonderful time. Becky was telling us a story at breakfast about a young friend of Sam’s whom she had met, and Beck said, “She was wonderful. I told her a story that revealed to her just how old I was, and she didn’t comment about my age.” On Christmas Day, Beck received a phone call from her cousin Dabney, who’s also Ginger’s godmother. Beck was walking down the stairs with a phone in her hand to get some privacy for her call from all the family upstairs, so she had only one hand free to balance herself. She fell near the bottom, and broke her foot in two places. Becky can’t manage crutches any more, so she is in a wheelchair for now. She spoke of how she does not want to be a burden to us, but I assured her that it is a privilege for us to take care of her for a change. She has continued to love and serve and take care for us her whole life.
I acknowledge my debt to Pastor Daniel Meyer for the several ideas in this sermon.
Have you ever heard it said about an older person, "You should have seen her when she was in her prime"? By the time we meet them in Luke chapter 2, Simeon and Anna were getting long in the tooth. Let’s turn there, to page 1015 in your blue pew Bibles. When Simeon was a younger man, verse 26 says, "It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord's Christ." Can you imagine how that word from the Lord affected him? I imagine that at first, he had high hopes about its early fulfillment. If Simeon were an ambitious young lawyer in Washington, like I was, he may have thought, "I'll discover who the messiah is, and I’ll volunteer in his campaign to elect him. Maybe I'll get a job in his new administration." But then years, and then decades, passed by - and no messiah. He may have questioned - Did he hear right from God? Was it his own imagination he heard, and not the Lord? Did he miss the messiah? After years awaiting its fulfillment, Simeon was tempted to give up on that word from the Lord. But he didn’t!
There may have been a time when Anna, too, dreamed of a glorious life, but her husband died just "seven years after her virginity." Like so many of us, things had not turned out as Anna had planned. "Anna was very old" now, verse 36 and 37 say, age 84 to be exact. Anna "never left the temple, but worshiped night and day, praying and fasting." You get the picture of an elderly widow spending most of her time hanging around the Temple. Today’s worldly wisdom would say their best days were behind Anna and Simeon; their obvious opportunity for influence had long passed.
Daniel Meyer says the way the world defines the "prime of life" is very different from the way God defines it. The world sees it as that season when we are physically strongest and mentally sharpest. God sees it as that season when we are spiritually strongest and intellectually humbled. The world considers us in our prime when we have the greatest access to influence other people. The Bible sees it as when we most please God. The world defines our prime as when we are in the best position to build our own empire. Scripture defines it as when we are most focused on advancing the Kingdom of God.
The Biblical worldview sees gray hair differently than our current culture sees it. The Bible sees advanced age as a sign of wisdom, and deserving of respect and honor. From a Biblical perspective, our dotage is the prime of our lives. Our own culture saw it the same way until about 60 years ago. I’ll never forget a large church where Will and Syd and Lydia and I ministered Healing and Deliverance in Uganda, in Kibioto. Right up front, next to the choir and the clergy, a section of seats was reserved for the elderly, as a sign of honor.
When we look at Anna and Simeon, we see that, first, they had become truly devout people. The Bible says that Simeon was "righteous and devout." That doesn't mean that he was a perfect man. It just means that he'd learned over the long haul of life to devote himself to staying close to God. Righteousness, or right behavior, flows from your devotion, what you worship. For Doctor Luke to call him “devout,” Simeon must have had several spiritual disciplines in place, including worship at the Temple. The text goes into more detail about Anna's way of maintaining that intimacy. She had a rhythm of "worship, fasting, and prayer" that built up her spirit, even when her body was breaking down. So they were devout.
Second, we can see that these two were persevering people. It doesn't take much to put your hope in God for a brief season, or when things are at a high or low. For 80 years, however, Anna and Simeon kept right on trusting God's promises. Through tragedies like the early death of Anna's husband, and through long, probably frustrating passages of time like the wait between God's original promise to Simeon and its final fulfillment on that first Christmas, Anna and Simeon persevered in trusting God's plan for their lives. They persevered.
Third, Simeon and Anna were Spirit-led people. Anna was a "prophetess," verse 26 says. That's a title for a woman who hears from God and who speaks God's Word to others, including in the assembly. The title of prophet or prophetess is given to a person who moves so frequently and accurately and sensitively in the gift of prophecy that it describes their spiritual office. Just because most of you do not have the office or gift of prophet does not mean that God will never use you to speak to work of prophecy! When I call for a word of prophecy or encouragement from the congregation, listen to God, incline your ear to him, and believe that He will speak through you.
Look at Luke 2:25, at the end of that verse. "The Holy Spirit was upon" Simeon, the Bible says. Many of us would love to see Jesus like Simeon did. Who among you here would like to see Jesus in this life? Let Simeon be your example. Be devout, righteous, and persevering. And if you want to see Jesus, then pray for the Holy Spirit to come upon you. If you believe in Jesus, the Holy Spirit is already in you. But for some of you, the Holy Spirit’s power has not yet been released in you. One reason may be that you have not asked God to “come upon you.” If that sounds heavy, well, sometimes it is! You may have noticed that sometimes I can look a little strange when I am in the Spirit. You may say, well yes, Clancy, you often look strange to me! I feel the weight of his presence on me, and sometimes this is so heavy on me that I bend over, soemtimes quickly, involuntarily as it were. I’m not telling you here that you are more spiritual if you look strange! Some people, even very godly people, seem to have no sense of self-control at all, and easily put people off by their strangeness. Even so, there is a time and place to let the Holy Spirit come upon you, and that might be in a way that seems strange to you. Here at church on Sunday is a safe place to let God minister to you, even in ways that might look a little strange, and home groups are to be as well. The Bible says we are peculiar people! Let God come upon you today.
Verse 27 says Simeon was "moved by the Spirit," and actually went places and did things that he sensed the Holy Spirit told him to go and do. He came to the Temple at just the right time the Kairos time of the Lord, to see the baby Jesus.
It's hard to overstate how much faithfulness, perseverance, and responsiveness to the Spirit count with God. But one indication is that, in their eighties, God chose Simeon and Anna to do one of the most important tasks in history. With a spiritual power borne of years of cultivation, this elderly pair passed on a blessing that primed the pump of Jesus' mission.
Verse 28, Simeon gathered the baby Jesus in his arms and blessed God, and then gave the Church his wonderful song of praise to God, which the church calls the Nunc Dimittis, after the Latin words that begin it. This is a liturgical song or chant that God’s people have sung for 2,000 years in evening prayer. Listen to the version from the 1662 Book of Common Prayer:
“Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word. For mine eyes have seen thy salvation, Which thou hast prepared before the face of all people; To be a light to lighten the Gentiles and to be the glory of thy people Israel.”
They named the gift that Jesus was, equipped his parents for what lay ahead, and Anna "spoke about the child to all who were looking for redemption." They primed the pump for that long chain of blessing that would one day, maybe today, be passed to you and me. "Beautiful young people are acts of nature, but beautiful old people are works of art."
How about you? What have you got left? In a world that has gone over to the quick fix, there may be no more important ministry you have than to teach others what it looks like to wait with hope, trusting in the good plans of God. Will you be Spirit-led? Do you have a prophetic word of encouragement that others need to hear? Are you willing to still be "moved by the Spirit" and go where God tells you to go?
I want to encourage you this season, be like Simeon and Anna, and ask God to show you one younger person to bless and love and call out into God’s plan for him or her. Believe that God can use you, even you, to hear his voice, and speak blessings over others. Amen.
