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Here lately around the office I’ve had less to do than what I do during the school year.  Less counseling appointments and programming.  Some of that has left me feeling a little listless.  That’s part of where this sermon came from - a yearning to be as faithful as Anna and Simeon getting up every morning to pray for what might have seemed like a wild goose chase to some.

Text: Luke 2:22-40 When the time came for their purification according to the Law of Moses, Joseph and Mary brought Jesus up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord (as it is written in the Law of the Lord, “Every firstborn male shall be designated as holy to the Lord”), and they offered a sacrifice according to what is stated 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; this man was righteous and devout, looking forward to the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit rested on him.  It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Messiah.  Guided by the Spirit, Simeon came into the temple; and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him what was customary under the law, Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying, “Master, now you are dismissing your servant in peace, according to your word; for my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel.”

And the child’s father and mother were amazed at what was being said about him. Then Simeon blessed them and said to his mother Mary, “This child is destined for the falling and the rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be opposed so that the inner thoughts of many will be revealed – and a sword will pierce your own soul too.”

There was also a prophet, Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher.  She was of great age, having lived with her husband seven years after her marriage, then as a widow to the age of eighty-four.  She never left the temple but worshiped there with fasting and prayer night and day. 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.

When they had finished everything required by the law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth.  The child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom; and the favor of God was upon Him.

What gets you up in the morning?

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, the Holy Three in One who has shown our eyes salvation.

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

During the Renaissance period in Western Europe, a Christian legend appeared in stories throughout the land of a man named Ahasver.  If you’ve ever heard of Ahasver, it has probably been under the title that was given to him in those fictitious stories, the Wandering Jew.  According to the legend, Ahasver was either a Jew or a Roman who was cursed to wander the earth until Jesus’ return.  He was supposedly someone who was taunting Jesus as He dragged His cross to His execution spot, Golgotha.  The legend says that Ahasver told Jesus to hurry up and get to Golgotha after Jesus had stopped momentarily to catch his breath.  According to the legend, Jesus stood and said, “I shall stand and rest, but you will go on until the last day.”  It seems that this story was told to be a foil, a contrast, to what Jesus said to the repentant thief on the cross, “You shall be with me today in paradise.”  An urgency was given to the repentant thief, while aimlessness was given to the unrepentant scoffer.

In our Gospel lesson for this morning, we heard of two souls that were bound and determined to wait until Israel saw redemption, Simeon and Anna.  Simeon had been promised by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death until he had seen the Messiah.  Anna spent night and day in the temple, praying and fasting, waiting for the same figure to arise on the scene.  Every morning, they got up and went to the temple waiting to see this mysterious figure that had been promised by God, but that no one had seen.  It probably seemed to be just as wild a goose chase as waiting around to see the Wandering Jew, but it still got them up in the morning.

What gets you up in the morning?  If you’re like me, when the alarm rings and NPR turns on my clock radio, there is a temptation to go back to bed.  Sometimes I even succumb to that temptation thinking, I don’t need to check my email or my twitter or facebook before I go in to work, I’ll get just 15 more minutes of sleep in.  But there is always something that gets you up, something that you have to do, something that gives your life a sense of purpose and meaning —- or at the very least, something that haunts you, knowing that if you snooze too long you’ll get a nasty look from a boss or a professor or someone or maybe even something worse, so you get up.

Of course, maybe you’re a member of that odd class of people that make the rest of us normal people groan – the morning person.  Maybe you get up at 5 in the morning just so that you can spend some quiet time or go out for a run or whatever it is that you people do while I’m sleeping.  For you, maybe the question is, what keeps you up at night?

Whatever it is, whether it makes you get up early in the morning or keeps you up late at night, there is something that gives your life a certain sense of urgency, something that you need to get done.  Something that needs to happen.

Anna and Simeon knew that sense of purpose.  Their purpose was to get up in the morning and go to the temple and pray for the coming Savior of Israel and of the world.  Their purpose was to get up and worship God.  They knew it well and it got them up in the morning.

So what gets you up in the morning or keeps you up until late at night?  Is it God?  Are you up early in the morning reading about faith?  Are you up late at night thumbing through your Bible?  No, chances are that for many of us here – other things take that priority.  Maybe it’s a project from work or school, maybe it’s just sitting in front of the TV entertaining yourself.

The problem is that no matter what we’re doing with that time that we have, there is a danger of turning into the Wandering Jew.  There is a danger that if we start giving ourselves the wrong reason to get up or the wrong reason to stay up late, that we begin to wander around aimlessly.  Pretty soon our lives seem to be a repetitive eternity.  We get up, we do our thing, and then we go to bed.  Wash, rinse, repeat.

We become slaves to our schedules, to our fears, and it becomes much easier then to become slaves to our sins.  We assume that life has no purpose. Maybe we’d never say that, but we act like it.  And in a life that has no purpose, what does it matter if you steal from someone? Or if you don’t do your duty to your loved ones or those you work with? A purposeless life, no matter how long, isn’t a blessing, it’s a curse – just like the curse of that Wandering Jew.

I recently heard someone say that Jesus lived our whole life for us.  His life was a microcosm of every one of our lives.  This person just gave the book-ends of Jesus’ life to illustrate that point – he said, “He lived, and He died.”  But there is much more to life than just being born and dying.  In the middle, there are alarm clocks and nights that go to 4 in the morning.  Jesus experienced that part of our lives too.  He experienced what it meant to get up in the morning and to stay up late at night.  He talked with Nicodemus late at night and He regularly met the apostles for breakfast.

His life was no different from ours except in one regard, and that was the regard of His purpose.  While we struggle with decisions about what jobs to take or what gets us up in the morning, Jesus had a purpose from the very beginning of His life – a purpose that Simeon and Anna knew about that purpose, it was to save the world from sin.

Jesus’ purpose perfectly coincided with the purpose of Simeon and Anna.  He had come so that their prayers would be answered.  His life perfectly coincides with yours as well.  Because He came as a little baby into this world and lived among us, teaching us and telling us of God’s love, you now have a purpose in your life – to get to know your adoptive Father, God.  Because He came and sent out His disciples, you who are His disciples are also sent out into the world as His ambassadors.  Because He came into this world and died on a cross, you now have a purpose that does not stop, but you have an eternal life matched with an eternal purpose.  He has come into our world, and now we can live a life that is not purposeless, but urgent and focused.

He has given to us the gift of salvation.  The gift that wipes away our aimlessness, our idleness, and He has given us a reason to get up in the morning.  And when He comes again and that trumpet blows to announce His arrival, we will get up on that morning just as He got up on Easter morning – not to live a life without urgency and meaning, but a life in the Resurrection that is filled His plan for us.

Image: The Wandering Jew from the post “Shoes of a Wandering Jew” from Letters of Thought