The Current Thing

Biblical Text: Luke 2:34-35 (Luke 2:22-40)

The Current Thing is internet slang for whatever is being fought over right now but is ultimately meaningless. Nothing will change, and in a short time a new current thing will engulf everyone.

When Joseph and Mary are taking care of everything they need to legally due for purification after childbirth, they run into Simeon and Anna. And Simeon has a bunch of prophetic words. The longest being what the church calls the Nunc Demitis, Now let your servant depart in peace. But this sermon reflects on what he says to Mary directly about Jesus. The child is a sing of contradiction. And that sign is destined for the falling and rising of many, not sparing even Mary herself. It’s a deep and complex prophecy, but at the same time the eternal experience of the church. If the current thing is ultimately meaningless, Jesus is the eternal thing. People fight over and deny exactly what this sign is. But unlike the current thing, the eternal thing doesn’t move on. The eternal thing has real apocalyptic consequences. That is what this sermon for Christmas develops. We have been given a sign. A sign for the falling and rising.

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Consolation and Redemption

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Biblical Text: Luke 2:22-40

This is an attempt at a New Year’s sermon. I admit upfront that I failed to create the sense that I wanted for New Year’s Eve that I wanted to. The texts of the day just wouldn’t allow it. I’m not sure if I combed through the bible I could find exactly that text. But I don’t think what I ended up with is bad. The text is really about Simeon and Anna and that is what the focus in on – and primarily the differences in Luke’s pairing of these two. Simeon is waiting for consolation; Anna is looking for redemption. Consolation and Redemption you could say are both modes of justification, the gift of God, but they are quite different. Consolation might be more appropriate for New Year’s, but that is me. This sermon explores these and how they are fulfilled in the Christ child.

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Waiting for Consolation

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Biblical Text: Luke 2:22-40

This sermon is some ways continues the contemplation between fortune and blessing started last Sunday, but it stands by itself, that continuation is just the pattern of the Chistian life. One person’s praise becomes the next person’s blessing and promise. This sermon focuses on the characters of Simeon and Anna, and specifically how they receive the blessings of God. There are three different ways we might respond. The pattern of Simeon is for us. He is “righteous and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel.” If we receive the blessing, this is the pattern. (I’ve also left in a couple verses of a couple of the hymns sung. You forget how good “See Amid the Winter’s Snow” is.)

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A Sign of Opposition

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Biblical Text: Luke 2:22-40

This sermon owes a bunch to Luther’s Postil sermon on this text for this 1st Sunday after Christmas. That published sermon of Luther’s is one of those great overstuffed things. There are about 6 different sermons attempting to break out. In some ways I imagine the great man might have been under some of the similar pressures. He’d probably preached three times in the week already and had a few other things due. And then the next Sunday is there. What do you say? There is always a lot in God’s word, the real work of preaching is picking and expressing one specific thing. But sometimes you just don’t have the bandwidth for that work. So you offer up a smorgasbord.

Solid potato dish – The faith of Simeon & Anna/Joseph & Mary.

Vegetables – The humility of Christ in this group

Fish – Typology, Anna as Old Testament Saints/Temple; Mary as New/Church

Desert (don’t take too much) – Some numbers, 7 & 84

Prime Rib – The sign of opposition

Ham – The Christmas promise against that sign

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The Light on Groundhog Day

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Biblical Text: Luke 2:22-40

February 2nd, commonly known as groundhog day, in the church is Candlemas or The Purification of Mary and the Presentation of Jesus. Candlemas is actually a lot older than the groundhog, but it doesn’t have a cute animal mascot. In pre-electric times it had a great ceremony, but candles just aren’t as important as they used to be. Anyway, the point of the day is seeing the light. Regardless of what extreme we are coming from – male or female, jew or gentile – the light of our salvation has come. This sermon invites us to ponder the reality of Jesus, redeemed by Mary and Joseph as true man, but also true God, and how that redeems us.

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Ceremonial Niceness

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Biblical Text: Luke 2:22-40

The text for the Sunday after Christmas this year was the Purification and the Presentation of Jesus at the temple. These are actually two separate things. The Old Testament laws that are being fulfilled are from two separate places. The OT text of the day is the basis of the Presentation of Jesus. The Purification is from Leviticus. The Sermon is an attempt to ponder what odd ceremonial laws have to do with us today. I think they might mean more than we would give them credit for.

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Backwards and Forwards, Grounding and Hope

Biblical Text: Luke 2:22-40
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New Year’s Eve is not something on the Traditional Church calendar, it is the 7th day of Christmas for those who follow the liturgical calendar. I know that other Protestant traditions (typically Reformed) have a long history of worship on New Years, but here, as I mention in the sermon, it is the first time in my pastorate that I’ve had the pulpit on the Eve. A new year automatically creates a looking backward and a looking forward. What this sermon attempts to do is ground it in the saintly examples of Simeon, Anna and the Holy Family. Instead of wishing the old gone and the new on our strength alone, the old is our grounding and the new we look for is the strength of God. Happy New Year, and may the consolation of Israel be found in your hearts.

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The Consolation of Israel

Biblical Text: Luke 2:22-40
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This sermon in the third in a week, and the last, so instead of the polish of a story, it is more intensely on the text itself. The good thing, I think, is that the text lends itself to such a homiletic study. I would be helpful to have the text in front of you while listening. You can double check my referents that way and see how the text is constructed. I’m not going to tell you the main purpose right here, because I think that would betray the purpose of the text and sermon which is understanding. And understanding takes some marveling.

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Spiritual and Religious

Biblical Text: Luke 2:22-40
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The text is the presentation of Jesus and the purification of Mary. It is a text deeply rooted in the religion of Israel. It is also with Simeon and Anna a text populated with the advent of the Holy Spirit. What the sermon does is look at what happens when we treat the Spirit and Religion as either/or instead of both/and. From Anderson Cooper and Gwenyth Paltrow to Anna/Simeon as models for the church.

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The Location of Security

Biblical Text: Luke 2:22-40
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If you ask the question How do you know, the vast majority of answers come down to some form of “internal” knowledge. Whether that knowledge is feelings or intellectual or sensory it depends upon you. Yet all of those things are highly suspect. Which is part of the good news. The acts of God come from outside of us. Christ came into the world, to us, but remained what he was. Jesus himself is the light of revelation to the Gentiles as Simeon sings. Part of what he reveals is our salvation. And that doesn’t depend on us or anything in us.

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