Good morning It is good to be with you this morning our text for this morning is Luke chapter 2 Verses 22 through 35 and this is page 1,090 in your Pew Bibles my name is Scott Simmons. I'm A pastor here, but I'm not one of the pastors here if that makes sense. I'm not a pastor of the church I'm just a happy to be a pastor in the church Here now the reading of God's word
And when the time came for their purification according to the law of Moses They brought him that is Jesus up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord as it is written in the law of the Lord every male Shall who first opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord and to offer a sacrifice according to what is said in the law The Lord a pair of turtle doves or two young pigeons Now there was a man in Jerusalem. His name was Simeon and This man was righteous and devout waiting for the consolation of Israel and The Holy Spirit was was upon him and It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ And he came in the spirit into the temple and when the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him according to the custom of the law He took up he took him up in his arms and blessed God said and said Lord now you are letting your servant to part in peace according to your word For my eyes have seen your salvation that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples A light for revelation to the Gentiles and for the glory to your people Israel and His father and his mother marbled and what was said about him and Simeon blessed them and said to marry his mother behold this child is appointed for the fall and the rising of Many in Israel and for a sign that is opposed and And a sword will pierce your own soul also so that Thoughts from many hearts may be revealed This ends the reading of God's word I don't know if you still have your Christmas tree up. This is about the time when I normally take my Christmas tree down But my daughter is in Israel right now. She's at the University of Haifa studying a semester abroad She left in September and I haven't seen her since then and so we still have some Christmas presents underneath our tree waiting for her When she returns so our Christmas tree is still up and will still be up for another week or so and as we count the days until my daughter returns but as I look at Christmas trees and maybe you've noticed this to this too There are actually a couple types of Christmas trees that are out there some are absolutely pristine and beautiful. They are sometimes artificial trees but even if they're real trees they're Well trimmed and the ornaments that are put on these trees are you know They're color coordinated and they're fragile and they're perfect and pretty and they're made to look Beautiful everything kind of works together to make a pretty picture It's a very ornamental kind of style of Decorating a tree. That's not us. That's not that's not the kind of tree we have and It's a great way to decorate a tree, but that's that's just not what we do It's not the way we did our tree when I was growing up and when I was Little we had a tree that we would get a tree every year and my My aunt had made a an angel out of a ball of yarn and paper it looked awful But it was my parents first ornament my aunt made it for my parents before I was born They put it on the top of the tree because they couldn't afford anything else And that was what was on the top of our Christmas tree For me growing up as long as I can remember and it didn't look odd or strange to me at all That's the way that Christmas trees are supposed to be you stick a ball of yarn and put some paper on it and call it an angel And you stick it on the top of your tree. That's what we did and and for us, you know In our own family growing up with my kids We have ornaments that are Well, they're just you know products of the family We have ornaments that our children made and they bring home and a various different kinds of quality And they go on our tree because our kids made them we have Tree ornaments that are pictures of my kids. We have a picture of my daughter in a snowman that Is on our tree we have a picture of my son with Santa On a on a stocking that's on our tree. This is There there's gifts that we've received over the years and they don't match each other They don't necessarily great together, but that's not really the point. They are on our tree because They tell stories They tell stories about our life and so when we put the tree up and we hang ornaments When we're not fighting about who gets to put wood ornament where we are Telling the stories that go along with these ornaments. We're retelling them in a way that allows us to kind of relive Our family's history and that's really one of the more beautiful moments of the christmas season for me Uh is putting up the tree Because we retell the stories. It's part of what binds us together as a family Uh, the ornaments are symbols They they tell the story of our lives. They tell the story of our family. They commemorate The stories of our lives and that's really the power of symbols in our lives They they are just things we do the rituals that we perform every holiday season They're not necessarily empty of meaning. They they actually Have meaning in and of themselves. They bring unity. They bring tradition They bring things that have meaning in and of themselves to uh to the christmas season uh and uh They ornament our season and allow us to retell the story of our lives and so This is a story that that really hinges on two of these kinds of symbols and in in Israel's history um This symbols that were to be reenacted with the birth of a child So in in Leviticus chapter 12 Joseph and Mary were required to offer A sacrifice for Mary because she would be unclean after giving birth in 33 days After uh, she would have to offer a lamb but Mary was poor her family was poor So she wouldn't have been able to afford a lamb so the text says that she uh was using the Part of Leviticus 12 the gave her the opportunity to come with two doves or two pigeons And so that's one symbol one ritual that she would have performed after After giving birth to her son but because Jesus was the first born son She also needed to consecrate Jesus to the temple and this is Exodus chapter 13 Uh, and this was part of the story of Egypt Uh, Mary and Joseph were to consecrate their son But this was not just an empty ritual that they would perform because the law required them to do so It was actually an opportunity for them to retell The story of God's great redemption of Israel from Egypt from slavery in Egypt When their first born son would be Uh, with the first born son of everyone in Israel and everyone in Egypt would be Uh, taken except for the blood of the lamb that we put on the door and the spirit would pass over those homes With the blood of the lamb on the door Sparing the child's life and so this was a memory This was a ritual that would remember we would cause them to remind them Of the great story of redemption of Israel's redemption from from Egypt But these were also signs that would give them perspective on their current situation They would remind them of the ways in which their current lives were not really all that dissimilar from Their uh, their history in Egypt when they were in slavery because now again Israel was under control of a foreign power Israel was under the rule or the rule of the Roman authorities and they had set up a puppet tyrant To rule in Israel by the name of Herod and Herod was an ijmian And uh, if you don't know ijmian is really just the word they use at the time for an edamite In the Old Testament then the edamites were the children of Issa The brother of Jacob and in Genesis chapter 25 verse 23 it says of Jacob and Issa while Sheet while they were both in Rebecca's womb two nations are in your womb And two peoples from within you shall be divided the one shall be stronger than the other and the older shall serve the younger And here we have an edamite Now raining over the Israelites every pious and devout Jew would see this as an insult Against their heritage and against the promises that God had given Israel Through Isaac and Rebecca Edam was supposed to serve Israel Jacob was supposed to rule over Issa but now Issa was or israel was being governed by an edamite And to make matters worse Herod was a tyrant Not too dissimilar from Pharaoh At the time it this is in Matthew and this is sometime within the two years after Jesus was born probably after This story in Luke took place, but at some point in the first two years of Jesus' life Herod decided to commit a holocaust on the region of Bethlehem He had heard that Jesus was born and he had heard that Jesus was a threat to his reign And so he decided to get rid of the threat he would just kill every male child under two years old A holocaust in the region of Bethlehem simply so that Herod could preserve his reign this was the kind of king he was he was a tyrant And when Mary and Joseph entered into the temple they were reminded of another fact That here at this edamite and this tyrant Was one who had actually restored and re and and upgraded the temple So even the temple itself was a symbol of the impact of foreign control over God's people And so as Mary and Joseph entered in the temple course They see a stranger simian a man who is both righteous and devout and the holy spirit had told him he wouldn't he wouldn't die before seeing the Messiah And he was waiting for what the text calls the consolation of Israel He was waiting for Israel to be comforted For light to be given into their darkness so that Israel could be freed from the shackles of Rome So that Israel could no longer be ruled by an ijmian but reigned but ruled by a son of David This was the hope that simian had this was the hope that Joseph and Mary had it was actually the hope that all believers throughout Jerusalem and Judea would have had for the nation of Israel And so simian sees Joseph and Mary coming into the temple and he goes to them and he takes Jesus from her arms Now this is strange. I mean they don't necessarily even know each other I mean imagine coming into church with a newborn child and somebody comes and grabs your child from you and starts to pray for him You would think this was odd but this is what happens simian sees Jesus And he sees the salvation of Israel And a little baby and he can't help himself And he goes over to him And he holds this baby in his arms And he prays Lord now you are letting your servant depart in peace According to your word From my eyes have seen your salvation That you have prepared in the presence of all peoples a light of revelation to the Gentiles And for glory of your people Israel And I'm struck as I read this That simian was longing more than anything else For the redemption of Israel and yet was content Just to see the Messiah As a baby when he was capable of doing nothing more than giggle in his mother's arms He didn't need to see the end of the story He didn't need to see the redemption of Israel come about In history Just seeing him Was enough to say okay now Lord you can take me I have seen the Messiah And Jesus didn't look like a king I mean he was a peasant his parents couldn't afford a lamb They had to use two turtle doves or two pigeons But simian looks at this child a peasant child And sees his lord And sees his king And realizes that he can now die in peace Because a new future has come A new light has dawn And the only way he could have made that conclusion From seeing Jesus Other than by the revelation of the Holy Spirit has been realizing That Jesus came for a different kind of kingdom That Jesus didn't come like Pharaoh Jesus didn't come like Caesar And he didn't come like Herod He didn't come in majesty He came as a peasant child who had no place to lay his head He was not a majestic king like Caesar or Herod But simian recognized in Jesus the sign that was greater than the both of them He recognized in Jesus the sign That was greater than the rituals that Mary and Joseph had come to perform in the temple In fact greater than the temple itself
In Jesus was the rising and falling of many in Israel In Jesus was a sign that reveals our hearts And so he doesn't just give us the light to see in the darkness He also reveals the darkness in us A light for revelation to the Gentiles That we might see the darkness that we're in That we might be redeemed And that we might be forgiven But we have to see the darkness that we're in In order for us to see the light and be forgiven I remember years ago when I was still in Maryland I had a cavity I went to the dentist And the dentist told me I have a cavity And now the way things are today You know it used to be when you had a cavity The dentist told you you have a cavity And they filled it and you went on your way They told you to floss, they told you to brush But now they have technology And they can show you a picture of this cavity And I don't want to see that picture But they show it to you They make you look at it, they hold your eyes open And they make you look at that cavity And they make you see why it is you need to brush And why it is you need to floss Because your teeth aren't fine And you need to take better care of your teeth And I don't want to look at that picture I didn't want to see it Just tell me to floss, fix it And let me believe my teeth are okay And that's just the way I approach so many things in life I just want to believe everything's okay Just tell me what to do Everything's okay And that picture made me look at the brokenness of my teeth Made me look at the the fact that my teeth really aren't fine No matter what I want to believe about them And I have news for you The world around you It isn't fine There is darkness all around us If you don't believe me just watch the news Any day, pick a day There's darkness all around us But the darkness isn't just out there Committed by other people The darkness is also in here The darkness is in us The darkness is in our hearts And we need the redemption that Jesus provides as much as anything out there And God is not a God who just sits up in heaven And looks down at us in our sin and in our misery He is a God who became man And dwelt among us He entered into the darkness of our lives He entered into our world to redeem us from darkness From brokenness And from our sin and from our shame
And that's one of the blessings of the incarnation One of the blessings of Jesus incarnation is that he gives us a sign That reveals our hearts to let us see our darkness But in so doing also sheds light So that we can enter into a kingdom And it's a different kind of kingdom It's not the kingdom of Herod And it's not the kingdom of Caesar The glory of Christ kingdom is much bigger than that It's the kingdom of a peasant child Born to a family to poor To provide a lamb It's a kingdom that is upside down Where the first shall be last and the last shall be first God could have come with armies With heavenly armies and wiped out his enemies And set up Israel to be the kingdom over all others But he didn't do that He sent his son to be incarnate To live in weakness, to live in our misery To fully obey the law, to die a sinner's death And to rise again from the dead And nothing that he did in his life on earth Was lived to benefit himself Every single moment of Jesus' life was to benefit those who believe in him In direct contradiction to the reigns of Pharaoh I'm sorry of Caesar and Herod And this is the light that Jesus brings to us in the gospel The light of an upside down kingdom Where the first shall be last and the last shall be first And the greatest will serve Even the least of these This is the hope that made Simeon say, okay, I can die now Because I've seen him Because this is a different kind of kingdom Where light shines in the darkness Where power is disrupted By a little baby Who's starting a different kind of kingdom Who transforms our hearts Who ushers us into a kingdom Of a Lord who loves us more than life itself Because the church is the kingdom of God on earth It's an upside down kingdom But it's the church is the kingdom of God on earth The community of people that Jesus has brought into his upside down kingdom God became man and he lives among us To bring light into our darkness To bring consolation and peace into our lives In our sin and our brokenness And in our sin so doing He's going to turn our lives upside down as well It may not be pleasant But he's going to turn our lives upside down And this is what we see in the prophecy that Jesus gives And the blessing that he gives in verses 34 and 35 When he says in his father and his mother Marble that what was said about him And Simeon blessed them and said to marry his mother Behold this child who is appointed For the fall and rising of many in Israel And for a sign that is opposed As a sword will pierce your own soul as well So the thoughts of many hearts Will be revealed There was really nothing about Jesus' ministry As it's foretold in this passage That was pleasant There was really nothing about his ministry That was about his own creaturely comforts Throughout his entire ministry He would be opposed by the Jewish establishment He would be opposed by those who couldn't understand his message Those who rejected him would fall Those who received him would rise again And he was a sign that would be opposed by the political and religious establishment People would counter in Jesus and he would reveal their hopes And they're in their hearts and they the hopes that they harbored would be revealed And even Mary would be pierced By seeing his own suffering and death on a cross Jesus was opposed because Many in his day put their hopes and alternate paths for the salvation of Israel The Pharisees Thought that the temple would compromise Thought that by putting hope in the temple and compromise with the Roman authorities Would ensure their safety in Israel The Pharisees thought that through their legalistic devotion to the law They would win God's favor And God would redeem Israel because of their faithfulness The zealots thought that through the power of the sword They could find a king from the son of David and overthrow Rome and bring about a messianic kingdom And so when they heard Jesus' message they had one response We have our temple. We don't need you. We have the law. We don't need you. We have the sword We don't need you but there were many in Israel that said we have nothing And so we need you Those that thought they had something rejected him But those who by God's grace realized that they had nothing Accepted him And we have nothing which is why we're here Because we have everything in him And Simeon looked in the face of Jesus and saw the salvation of Israel And not just Israel but Gentiles as well who would receive the light of revelation and that's us That's you and I Saved together with the people of Israel. Jew and Gentile together saved by the Jewish Messiah Who lived in our misery bore our sin and rose again from the dead He is the light that shines in our darkness and turns us upside down Seven years ago. I think it was seven years ago We put up our Christmas tree just like we normally do We I didn't realize it at the time but I was putting up the tree and I put it in its tree stand and it was just a little bit off Did I didn't notice it was a little bit off but it was a little bit off And we tightened the screws and they should have been a little bit tighter And we set up the tree and we did our ritual we put the ornaments on the tree We did the things that we normally do every Christmas and we did and then we go on to eat or whatever we're doing hours later There's a crash in our living room And as I walk back in there, there's pine needles everywhere The tree is down the water that was in the stand is all over the floor ornaments are broken the tree is now kind of crushed on one side and Our living room is mess with pine needles everywhere our tree is broken and at that time in our lives our family was going through Really the darkest time of our life There were things that our family was going through that are too severe for me even to share here And as I witnessed that I remember thinking that's my family
That my family is fallen my family is broken And this is my family Broken on the floor of my living room But we did what the only thing we could do We took that tree and we stood it up And we put it in the stand straight and we tightened up the screws More and we turned the broken side of the tree towards the wall and the ornaments that weren't broken we put back up on the tree And we cleaned up the mess we cleaned up the water off of our wood like substance floor and We had a Christmas tree again and it and if you didn't know about the ornaments that had broken You wouldn't probably have thought it looked much different But it really was Because this tree wasn't falling This tree was stable It was strong and it was going to stand In a way that it couldn't before And I didn't know it at the time But that was true of our family too
The God was doing something wonderful And the midst of our family He was standing us back up And we were going to stand and we were going to be strong
And that that's tree Really did symbolize our family and our that tree wasn't the same and our family Wasn't the same we got turned upside down And our family will never be the same But it's better Because we can see the grace of God
Because now even in the pain as we think about those times even the pain of it all Is an ornament to God's grace That we can retell in our family About how God is great About God how God can redeem and how he can turn our lives upside down and sometimes that's painful But it's good Because our lives are better now than they would have been before
I think I can honestly say That I wouldn't have the story of our family any other way Because God is greater in it Our lives tell a better story Because of what we went through as a family And I have good news for you all You're not fine
There is darkness in you And around you. There is brokenness I know this because you're human And you live in the same world that I do And That there's light in your darkness
I know this because You have a king Who loves you more than life itself And maybe your tree is fallen
And maybe it's not standing again yet
But your story isn't over There's grace That's your kingdom That you're a part of this upside down kingdom You can turn your life upside down too And bring healing And renewal and peace And you have a family here at UPC
That can love you through it Whatever it may be I know this because I had a family here when I went through it
There's no need to hide There are safe people here that will love you through whatever you might be going through And so let me ask you a question What does darkness look like in your life Where is your tree broken
And how can Jesus Christ be the light That brings light into that darkness
To turn your life upside down As painful as that process might be So that you can see the grace of God in the midst of it Because the end product of the gospel Is an end to suffering Not just forgiveness It's an end to suffering To live with him in a new heavens and a new earth And that feature doesn't come without a cost
And Jesus loved us and have to pay it
And so it is true With Paul said of Jesus and 2 Corinthians chapter 8 verse 9 For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ That though he was rich Yet for your sake he became poor That you through his poverty Might become rich Because this is our king Not Caesar not Herod A peasant child born to a peasant family It turns this world upside down And our lives as well That we might become rich And Jesus is kingdom Let's pray
Heavenly Father, we thank you for men like Simeon Who wouldn't stop By the bounds of propriety to Not hold someone else's child in his own arms We thank you that He Prayed this prayer that allowed us to see the hope that you've given Your people Israel through Through Jesus Christ In all Gentiles who believe in the Jewish Messiah That in him and your son Jesus Christ we have salvation In him we have light in our darkness In him we have one who reveal our hearts Who will love us More than life itself And rise again that we might walk in newness of life For us is in the son of your son Jesus Christ that we pray Amen