Wilderness Wanderings

A special, extended Sunday Sermon edition of Wilderness Wanderings! The text is 1 Samuel 1 from the New International Version of the Bible. Dive In discussion questions are below for further reflection!

To see this sermon in the context of the worship service it comes from, find it here on YouTube. Or, head to our website to connect with the worshiping community of Immanuel CRC: immanuelministries.ca

1. In your opinion, what is the state of the church today in North America?

1. In what context does the book of 1 Samuel open? How does Hannah's barrenness reflect conditions in Israel? Have you experienced such times in your life?

1. Why is it so difficult to wait on the Lord?

1. What four things does Hannah do in her waiting?

1. How can you build these practices more deeply into your life? What value will they have for you?

6. Does this story give you hope for yourself and for the church?

Now Jesus himself was about thirty years old when he began his ministry. He was the son, so it was thought, of Joseph, the son of Heli, the son of Matthat…the son of Enosh, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God (Luke 3:23-38).

Well, I skipped most of the passage, as many of you probably do when encountering a Biblical genealogy. Our culture has lost its interest in history, even its own history. But most cultures, today and throughout the ages, have valued the role ancestors played in shaping in their lives. This was true of Luke's world. There is value in this list of names.

When we think of the teachings of Christianity, we might ponder doctrines like the transcendence of God and the incarnation of Christ. Luke didn't have such theological titles; before there were doctrines there were stories and genealogies. With this list of names, he wants us to realize something about Jesus, the main character of the story he was telling.

Luke inserts Jesus' genealogy between his baptism and his temptations. These three panels are linked with these phrases, "You are my son" a voice from heaven tells Jesus at his baptism, "the son of God" with which Luke ends the genealogy and "If you are the Son of God…" with which Satan questions that assertion (4:3).

Literary buffs will recognize that Luke uses a common narrative devise, he gives the answer before he askes the question. Here and throughout this gospel, we are being invited to wrestle with the question, "Is Jesus really the son of God?" and if he is, "What difference does that make?"

So, what answer does Luke offer us in Jesus' genealogy? First, Jesus' ancestry is traced back to David, so he has royal blood and has the right to claim the kingship of Israel, and ultimately the kingship of the cosmos. Second, he is traced back to Abraham, so he receives and has the potential to fulfill the promises made to Abraham and in fact, all the promises ever made to Israel. Third, Jesus is a son of Adam, the figure through whom all of us are connected to one another. He doesn't just represent Israel but all the people of the world. We don't have to be Jewish to be part of what Jesus does.

Luke is underscoring a point he made with Jesus' baptism. Pastor Anthony put it like this, Jesus was baptized to "truly identify himself with us" and "so that he might truly take on our sin". He came not just to be human but for the sake of all humans. That is why Luke ends, "the son of Adam, the son of God."

We might all claim to be children of God, created in his image as we are. But the family likeness was distorted through the fall into sin. Since them, no one can claim to fully bear the likeness of God, except Jesus. He is again what Adam once was. He is human as God meant humans to be, the image of God, showing the family likeness in perfection.

We may picture our present human existence as a pit, in which all of us are trapped. The sin of Adam has removed any possibility of our climbing out. Jesus is like us in that he has come down into the pit with us. That is the message of the baptism story and the family tree, if we leave out their closing verses.

Even though Jesus is like us, he is also unlike us. We are here because of a fall into disobedience. He is here because of a descent into obedience. He never let go of the rope which joins him to God. He is firmly anchored in the unbroken relation of sonship with his Father. That is why his humanity is distinctive. That is why it is only by clinging to him that are we lifted out of the pit. That is the message of the last words of the baptism story (22) and of the family tree (38).

"You are my son" … "the son of God" … Next, we will see that Jesus passes the test of sonship with flying colours. Through Christ, we all can be part of God's family tree, daughters and sons of the king. These are the answers Luke hides in his list of names, the ancestors of Jesus.

Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift.

When all the people were being baptized, Jesus was baptized too. And as he was praying, heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: "You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased." (Luke 3:21-22)

Today is the day of Epiphany! In the Church calendar, Epiphany marks the end of the 12 days of Christmas. Good thing you follow these devotions or you might not have had that epiphany today!

Epiphany also then marks a shift from our focus on Jesus' incarnational "coming in the flesh" at Christmas to his life of ministry and miracles before we arrive at his crucifixion and death in the season of Lent.

The word "epiphany" quite literally means a "manifestation" or "appearance," and that is precisely what Jesus' baptism at the beginning of his ministry marks: his appearance as the Messiah and Son of God. Alright: enough church history class. What does Jesus' baptism have to say to us today?

Certainly it tells us, through the Spirit's presence and through the voice from heaven, that Jesus is God's Son. It even shows us the Trinity at work: Father, Son, and Spirit. We might be content to leave it there. This is the gospel truth: believe it and be saved!

But there's more here than just a foundation for correct doctrine of the Trinity or the Son of God. Luke says that "when all the people were being baptized, Jesus was baptized too." Just one of the crowd. But why on earth did Jesus need a baptism of repentance like all the other people? In other gospel accounts, John is even shown to protest the idea of Jesus being baptized. He didn't need it! What did he have to repent of?

But that's just it: though sinless, Jesus chooses to be one of us anyway. Not just to put on the flesh of our humanity and walk around among us, but to really and truly identify himself with us. We are baptized to cleans ourselves from sin, Jesus was baptized so that he might be truly able to take on our sin. We are baptized into Christ: but he was baptized into us, into identification with humanity. And it is actually through this full identification with us that Jesus becomes a saviour of us and for us.

And because he does—because he "who had no sin [became] sin for us," we "become the righteousness of God" in him (2 Corinthians 5:21). And so the wise and faithful readers of the Bible over the years have pointed to this baptism text to say that all of us who are baptized into Christ need to see ourselves in these two verses. It is not just that Jesus identifies himself with us, we also need to identify ourselves with him.

We need to see ourselves as those who have the Holy Spirit descend on us. We need to hear the voice from heaven speaking to us, to you, right now: "you are my son; you are my daughter, whom I love; with you I am well pleased."

Do you believe it? That God loves you and is well pleased with you? That you are his daughter? His son? It's true—In Jesus Christ, it is true. God says to you: My daughter… my son… I love you. I am well pleased with you. If that is not the voice you hear when you think of the voice of God, let this be an epiphany to you today.

The people were waiting expectantly and were all wondering in their hearts if John might possibly be the Messiah. John answered them all, "I baptize you with water. But one who is more powerful than I will come, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire." And with many other words John exhorted the people and proclaimed the good news to them (Luke 3:15-18).

Yesterday, Pastor Anthony reflected on John's call to repentance leading to living ordinary lives in an extraordinary way. His listeners had been cut to the heart, desiring to be part of what John was declaring. In John's warning of impending judgement, the folks heard the word of God, maybe not as clearly as Samuel had, but clear enough to make them wonder.

You see, these were people who lived with expectation. Rooted in their listening to the prophets of old, they believed that God was coming to renew his people. They believed it enough to have an ear and an eye open for God's arrival. Luke tells us that they wondered in their hearts if John was the one, the Messiah. Someone must have verbalized this wondering because John responds.

He needs them and us to understand: no amount of baptism or repentance will be enough to get us on board with what God is doing. What is needed is fire. Approaching God is always going into the fire: the fire of judgement or the fire of the Holy Spirit. The great one John is announcing will baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire. The Spirit purifies. We cannot meet God and stay unchanged.

John's audience was expecting the Spirit. They knew God's promises, "I will pour out my Spirit and my blessings on your children" (Isaiah 44:3) and "I will put my Spirit in you so you will obey my laws and do whatever I command" (Ezekiel 36:27) and "I will put my Spirit in you, and you will live" (37:14). Water purifies the outside; fire purifies the inside. This is the ministry of the Messiah, to cleanse our lives of everything that is not pleasing to God so we can live. As it was then, so it is now.

We still believe that baptism points not to our work, but to the Spirit's. These waters draw us to God and call us to respond in faith. But they also point us to the Spirit who purifies us from all unrighteousness and leads us into living our ordinary lives with righteousness, making them extraordinary. "If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you,' writes Paul, "he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you" (Romans 8:11).

John is quite clear that true repentance will produce fruits. The Heidelberg Catechism teaches that genuine repentance or conversion is the dying-away of the old self, to be genuinely sorry for sin, to hate it more and more, and to run away from it; and repentance is the coming-to-life of the new self, whole-hearted joy in God through Christ and a delight to do every kind of good as God wants us to (Lord's Day 33).

All this is the purifying work of the Spirit in us. We stand between a fire and a fire. The fire of our selfishness and self-indulgence will destroy us. The fire of the Spirit will make us into fruit bearing disciples.

Can we survive the fire of the Spirit? Absolutely, through faith in Christ. And by that faith are we able to bear fruits of repentance. John called his audience to grow their roots not in their family, nor in their own religious activities, but in Jesus Christ.

If bearing the fruit of repentance seems far fetched to you, listen again to words Paul wrote, "For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. It teaches us to say 'No' to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope—the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good (Titus 2:11-14).

Trust Jesus and let the Spirit burn.

John said to the crowds coming out to be baptized by him, "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father.' For I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire." "What should we do then?" the crowd asked. John answered, "Anyone who has two shirts should share with the one who has none, and anyone who has food should do the same." Even tax collectors came to be baptized. "Teacher," they asked, "what should we do?" "Don't collect any more than you are required to," he told them. Then some soldiers asked him, "And what should we do?" He replied, "Don't extort money and don't accuse people falsely—be content with your pay." (Luke 3:7-14)

Faced with the urgency of the Messiah's coming and the vivid pictures of His wrath that John painted—the people asked: "What should we do then?" John's preaching is confrontational: it demands a decision and a turning around of our lives and hearts. We may not be as quick to open ourselves to this kind of a sermon, but it's good to try.

From the preaching of John, we learn that life is not actually a tolerance-oriented, hands-off matter of "you do you" and "I'll do me," however much we might like to think so. This notion so prevalent in our society and culture today is actually rather flat, admitting of no interference from any external agent aside from the horizontal pull of peers and influencers. They may speak into our lives, but submitting ourselves to the dictates of any vertical agent set over us like God or some institution like the church or government really rubs against the grain. So it increasingly is in our world today. Our tolerance for any vertical dimension is disappearing.

John's preaching would seek to wake us up from this flat, individualistic cultural peculiarity of ours though, and immerse us back into a full, three-dimensional reality where there is still a God in heaven with a valid opinion about how we live our lives.

We are responsible to God for our living and doing, says John. God sees what you do, and what I do too. God judges those actions, but also invites us to repent, or quite literally "turn" toward better ones: toward actions that conform more and more to the contours of the Gospel of Jesus and the coming Kingdom of God.

"Producing fruit in keeping with repentance" is about more than just showing up at church or the Christian school. It is more than just doing the right churchy things of baptism or Professions of Faith. It is about your whole life. Your heart. Your actions at and in response to school, home and work.

You'd think then that those actions would have to be as radical as John's message of fire—but no. John didn't send the people out to change the world. Instead, he sent them right back to their ordinary corner of the world as changed people—people who'd encountered the vertical dimension of God and who had a change of heart, a repentance, a turning around because of it.

Nothing of John's message changes your work or to-do lists, but it might change you. That's what the good news of Jesus does. So, turn around. Repent. Live generously. Work with integrity and honesty. Be content with what you have and receive. It's not an exhaustive list, but it's a few snapshots of the Good News of Jesus fruitfully at work. Remember Renita telling us about that?

Ultimately, it is through little things like these that the good-news Gospel of Jesus' coming begins to transform workplaces and schoolplaces, perhaps even our society and world. But it starts ever and always with little things. The fruit of repentance, the change of heart that comes from an encounter with the living God.

In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar—when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, Herod tetrarch of Galilee, his brother Philip tetrarch of Iturea and Traconitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene—during the high-priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness. He went into all the country around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet: "A voice of one calling in the wilderness, 'Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him. Every valley shall be filled in, every mountain and hill made low. The crooked roads shall become straight, the rough ways smooth. And all people will see God's salvation'" (Luke 1:1-6).

When coastal people are warned that a tsunami or hurricane is on the way, the wise ones prepare or evacuate. Imminent danger needs urgent action. That's the kind of work John the Baptist was doing. People believed John and came to him for baptism.

What was the emergency, and how would being plunged into the Jordan help people to avoid danger? Luke's introduction to the story of John the Baptist gives us the context to answer these questions. Its a story of oppression and misery that was building up to explosion point. The social tension was like that in the USA during their last presidential election.

About 25 years earlier the Roman emperor had sent a governor to Judea to enforce Roman rule against constant unrest. The current emperor, Tiberius, was a ruthless tyrant who was worshipped as a god in parts of the empire. Herod's sons had Roman permission to rule in Galilee, but they were barely holding onto power. Rome had taken direct control of Judea, including Jerusalem. But every sign of Rome's power rankled the Jews.

The family providing the high priests at the time wasn't fairing much better. Many Jews considered them in bed with the Romans. Even though various resistance movements had been brutally put down revolt was in the air. Everybody knew things couldn't go on as they were. Something had to happen. But what?

Devout Jews longed for a new word from God bringing Israel out of slavery into a new freedom. The old prophets had spoken of a time of renewal, through which God himself would come back to them. Details of the renewal were sketchy, but when a fiery young prophet appeared in the Judaean wilderness, telling people that the time had come, they were ready to listen.

Baptism, plunging into the river Jordan, was a powerful sign of this renewal, reminding them how God brought their ancestors through the Red Sea, through the Sinai wilderness, then through the Jordan into the promised land. Now they were in slavery again – in their own land! – and wanted a new Exodus to bring them to freedom.

The prophets had declared that this slavery was the result of Israel's sin, worshipping idols rather than their one true God. The new Exodus, when it happened, would deal with this as well. The way to escape slavery was to 'return' to God with heart and soul; that is, to 'repent'. 'Return to me, and I will return to you', Malachi had said (3:7). Hence John's agenda: 'a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.'

John was doing what the prophet Isaiah had said: preparing a pathway for the Lord himself to return to his people. This was the time. Rescue was at hand. But the people were not in good shape. Baptism was part of the ritual Gentiles had to undergo if they wanted to convert to Judaism, so John's summoning of Israel to baptism speaks for itself. There was a national crisis at hand, but John called each person to search their own hears.

And so, it has been through the ages, all spiritual renewal begins with a turning away from what is hindering our obedience. If John were to come down your street with his megaphone, what would he be saying to you?

An extended Sunday Sermon edition of Wilderness Wanderings! The text is Revelation 21-22 from the New International Version of the Bible. Dive In discussion questions are below for further reflection!

To see this sermon in the context of the worship service it comes from, find it here on YouTube. Or, head to our website to connect with the worshiping community of Immanuel CRC: immanuelministries.ca

DIVE IN QUESTIONS

1. If you've got time: feed your apocalyptic imagination by reading the following passages!

-Exodus 28:15-21 - Aaron's Breastpiece with precious stones for each of the tribes

-1 Kings 6:11-13, 19-20 - Holy of Holies; God promises to live among the people.

-Isaiah 65:17-66:24 - New Heavens & Earth; judgement; Jerusalem; glory of the nations

-Ezekiel 40:1-4 - Man with the measuring rod (see Ezekiel 40-48 for more)

-Ezekiel 47:1-12 - The river from the temple

-Ezekiel 48:30-35 - City gates named for the 12 tribes; city name: "THE LORD IS THERE"

-John 1:1-14 - The darkness has not overcome the light.

-2 Corinthians 5:17-18 - New creation in Christ: old is gone, new has come!

Can you think of other passages or Biblical images that feed John's imagination (or yours!) as he writes Revelation 21-22 or as you hear it read?

2. What is significant about the Holy City's symmetry? (more than one answer!)

3. What is significant about the Holy City's light? (more than one answer!)

4. What is significant about the Holy City's life and fertility? (more than one answer!)

5. What and who is heaven ultimately about for John? What does his picture of heaven motivate us to do in response?

Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven… Amen, come Lord Jesus.

When his parents saw him, they were astonished. His mother said to him, "Son, why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you." "Why were you searching for me?" he asked. "Didn't you know I had to be in my Father's house?" But they did not understand what he was saying to them. Then he went down to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them. But his mother treasured all these things in her heart. And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man. (Luke 2:48-52)

The folks at the temple were amazed at Jesus' answers. His parents were astonished too, but for a whole different reason: "Son, why have you treated us like this?" I suppose even the Holy Family has their days. Anyone whose parented can be thankful Luke included this story: even God himself drove his parents nuts from time to time. And all of us who have been children or are right now can take heart too: even Jesus got himself into hot water sometimes.

And that is part of the point of this story: Jesus was a normal kid. Mary and Joseph were normal parents. Their family was a normal Jewish family. They had their tensions, they had their worries, they had their big family stories of "remember that time when Jesus ditched us to stay in Jerusalem?" "Yeah! You nearly gave your father and I a heart attack!" All that normal family stuff.

There is an ordinariness to this story. And part of that ordinariness is not only about telling us how the Holy Family had their issues too, but also how ordinary the life of faith and faithfulness was among them. Jesus would not have been likely to get lost "in his Father's house" unless Mary and Joseph brought him there sometimes. But they did, every year. The house of God was a familiar place to Jesus because his family went to church. And when Jesus got to church, he had something to say at the feet of the Rabbis because his family talked about the things of God at home around the dinner table and on the way to the grocery store as Deuteronomy 6 called them to.

Most significantly though, over the past 12 years of faithful family life, Jesus had formed a living relationship with God, his Father, such that here in these verses he is able to make his public profession of faith. All sorts of folks have said all sorts of wonderful things about him over the past few chapters of Luke: angels, shepherds, Elizabeth, Zechariah, Simeon, and Anna. But here, for the first time, Jesus speaks for himself. His relationship with the Father has become his own. It's not Zechariah, Elizabeth, or John's faith, not Simeon or Anna's, not even his parents' faith anymore: Jesus has come to know God the Father for himself. "Didn't you know I had to be in my Father's house?" he says.

Far from making him arrogant, however, that relationship with God inspires a deeper commitment in Jesus to God's ways. From this time on, he is said to keep the 5th commandment to "honour his father and mother," even as he grows in wisdom and stature, in favour with God and man.

Study after study shows that the faith life we live at home matters more to the faith of our children than what happens at school or church. And it's the small, simple things. Don't discount the role of small devotions around the dinner table or before bed: even if you don't always "get something out of it," a faithful time set aside to attend to God in the life of your family forms the fabric of faith and gives opportunity for faith to find a way into your hearts, lives, and conversations.

Of course, this is also an invitation to those of you 12 years old or a little more or a little less to think about your own relationship to God. You parents faith is not your own, nor can it be. You have to find your own relationship with God and give voice to it yourself if it really is to be yours (that's what we call Profession of Faith). Jesus had to do it too. We all do. And today is as good a time as any to think about whether you're ready yourself to claim this God as your Father. I'd be happy to talk more with you about it if you have questions or whatever about that. Let me know.

And parents, despite all our anxieties, that transition of our children into their own responsibility before God is one of those things hidden in the mystery of God that sometimes we can do nothing about but pray and ponder through, like Mary, in our hearts.

After three days they [Jesus' parents] found him in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. Everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his answers (Luke 2:46-47).

Of all the stories about Jesus' childhood, why would Luke choose to tell this story? Certainly, there were more interesting ones; stories that would give us a flavour of what his youth was like. And even this story leaves us with questions, such as, how did a 12-year-old boy survive three days in a strange city without his parents?

Most of our tantalizing questions wondering how life in Nazareth was affected by having the Son of God grow up there remain unanswered for now. Luke chooses to tell us this story to fill in the portrait of Jesus birth he has been painting. In Philippians 3, Paul details how in his early life he was the perfect Jew. Luke is picturing Jesus with similar colours. He was born to and raised by pious Jewish parents. Only men were required to attend the religious festivals in Jerusalem, so Mary's going shows deep family piety.

With this family setting, Luke invites us all to consider the kinds of things our children learn from us. Do our words and actions match the faith teaching that we offer our children and grandchildren? Is our piety mostly showy, as Jesus decries in Matthew 6, or does it show a deep faith in God's activity in this world? Can those around us notice our growing faith?

Further, Jesus and his parents were well integrated into their community. The trip from Nazareth to Jerusalem took three days and people traveled in caravans for protection. That Jesus' parents did not worry about him for the first day, indicates that they fully expected others in the caravan to be looking out for him. They were likely looking out for other children and youth. This tidbit suggests that Jesus' family was very ordinary.

In that day, it was not unusual for students to gather at the feet of the rabbis to discuss the Jewish faith, their understanding of God, and how to live faithfully with him. This was usually in a group question-and-answer discussion format, as Luke indicates. Thus, Jesus' interaction with the rabbis was not unusual. That he didn't leave Jerusalem with his parents was unusual, but Luke does not put the focus there.

His intention is that we recognize that even at this young age, Jesus has amazing knowledge of the things of God. Those listening to him are astonished at his understanding, a reaction that will occur later to Jesus' miraculous work (8:56). Already early in life Jesus values the pursuit of comprehending God.

I think Luke wants us to understand that Jesus' pursuit of God was not a product of his unique sonship with God. Rather, it was the outcome of a life lived among those who walked with God. It pictures how all of us should prioritize our lives before God. The way he lived his life and pursued God faithfully reflects how we should seek God's face. When David was dying, he counselled his son with these words, "If you seek [the Lord], he will be found by you" (1 Chronicles 28:9). Luke is illustrating this truth.

Finally, this story illustrates something that one of Jesus' brothers would later write, "But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere" (James 3:17). Later, Jesus and the religious leaders would come to logger heads, but that was because they were threatened by him. They refused to believe that he was the Son of God. They pursued their own power rather than submitting to the Lord. Jesus began by submitting to them.

As you ponder the year that was, consider these things.

There was also a prophet, Anna, the daughter of Penuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was very old; she had lived with her husband seven years after her marriage, and then was a widow until she was eighty-four. She never left the temple but worshiped night and day, fasting and praying. Coming up to them at that very moment, she gave thanks to God and spoke about the child to all who were looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem. (Luke 2: 36-38)

There was a law in Israel, it shows up a couple times in Deuteronomy and it goes like this: "One witness is not enough to convict anyone accused of any crime or offense they may have committed. A matter must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses" (Deuteronomy 19:15).

In Luke's gospel and in the book of Acts, as well as in other places scattered throughout the New Testament, you'll find this wisdom in play. As these writers seek to establish the truth and validity of their witness to Jesus they often give not one, but two testimonies. Luke has a special twist on this theme. He will often ensure gender parity in his slate of witnesses so that we will hear from both a man and a woman. This is one of the first instances of this theme at play in Luke's gospel that doesn't come from the family of Jesus or John themselves. Remember too, that this pair of witness show up in the section of chapter 2 that's all about righteous law-keeping at the centre of Israel's life in the Temple.

So we meet Simeon and hear him praise God, bless, and testify to Mary and Joseph about their son who is the salvation of Israel. Then we meet Anna too, who also came "up to them at that very moment."

While Simeon's words are directed to God and to Mary and Joseph, Anna's words are directed to the people. Simeon is noted to be a righteous and devout man, but Anna is acclaimed to be a prophet. Simon does all the speaking, or at least all the speech that's quoted, but Anna appears to be the one even more significantly at the heart of Israel's faith.

"She never left the temple but worshiped night and day, fasting and praying." And she was a prophet: one called by God to minister the word—both God's word to his people and the people's words to God. More than that though, Anna had long been recognized by the people and by the Temple authorities themselves as someone called to this work. As we will discover later in the gospels, one does not just mill around in the Temple claiming to be a prophet without the permission of the religious authorities. The Temple guards knew she was there and the priests did too. Her presence there for so many long years speaks to their affirmation and authorization of her role as a prophet among the people.

So it is Anna—and not Simeon—who speaks to the people about this child. We may often think of Anna as just this cute, busy-body of an old lady who flits about, babbling excited niceties with all the passers by. "Oh look at the cute baby! He's gunna save us all, eh!" But no. That is not the picture.

Anna is introduced with gravity in the same way any prophet is introduced with a pedigree when we first meet them. Isaiah, son of Amoz. Jeremiah, son of Hilkiah. Anna, daughter of Penuel of Asher. She is a prophet in the line of prophets. She has been acclaimed as such by the people and their leaders, and as a pillar of 84 years in the Temple, she speaks as one with authority. Not only that, but from long years of ministry, she knows which Temple goers are looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem. It is to these faithful in Israel that the word of the Lord from Anna comes. "Behold the child of the promise: your redemption draws nigh."

Israel's ancient faith, full of memory and faithfulness is witnessed to by Anna of the prophets and Simeon of the faithful people of God. Both of them have remembered well and reflected long on God's word and promises—throughout their lifetimes. And now, by their dual testimony they witness to God's doing of a new thing through this child that is firmly anchored in Israel's past and that fully matches Israel's future hope.

It takes long years marinating in the word, rituals, and gatherings of God and his people to come to a faith like that. We are invited by the stories of Anna and Simeon to do just that though. To remain in the church, to remain in the scriptures, to remain in conversation with God in prayer long enough for him to do his long work in us of shaping, in Christ, both our memory and our hope.