Luke 2:22-38<\/p>\n\n\n\n
January 5, 2003<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sermon preached by Rev. Donald Ng at the First Chinese Baptist Church in San Francisco.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One of the news that caught our attention in the past two weeks is the announcement that an organization that believed the human race was started some 25,000 years ago by some out of space aliens has cloned the first human being. Yet to be proven that \u201cEve\u201d has identical DNA of her mother, we wonder if this is a way to live forever. We would just clone ourselves for another lifetime!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Even without the ability to clone human beings, the life spans of the human race are getting longer. Somewhere on earth\u2014right now\u2014is a child, born during the last 24 months, who will be alive 150 years from now; or maybe even longer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Impossible? Not at all. Consider that the average human life span at the beginning of the 20th<\/sup> century was 49 years. Many women died at childbirth. Many children died of illnesses or accidents. Many men died of disease or war. If you were 61 and lived back then, you\u2019d have been considered an old person, and been respected for your age.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But at the start of the 21st<\/sup> century in the United States, the average human life span is fast approaching 80 years old. Today, at 61 years old, we can\u2019t even afford to retire. And there are people in their 80s who are fit enough to run marathons. Compared to our ancient predecessors, we already have an enormous length of time on earth to learn, to grow, to love, to live.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The challenging question for us in the New Year is \u201cHow well will you live with the time that you have\u2014as an individual, as a community, as a nation?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Let\u2019s suppose that science succeeds, and this child, now only12 months old, lives to 2152 making her 150 years old. And when we think back historically to the past two centuries when we have seen the dramatic changes from the Agrarian Age to the Industrial Revolution, imagine what it might be like 150 years from now! Might there finally be enough time for this child to learn to love God?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Is there ever enough time?<\/p>\n\n\n\n When it was time according to the law for Mary and Joseph to present Jesus to be purified, they came to the temple (just like the way Joe and Alli Shubert presented Liam to be dedicated last Sunday). At the temple in Jerusalem, there were two old people who were always hanging around. It seems like they had plenty of time on their hands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Holy Spirit told old Simeon that he couldn\u2019t die yet. He needed to keep showing up at the temple until the Lord\u2019s Messiah received his blessing. Old Simeon lived long enough to take the child into his arms and then like Mary earlier, breaks into a song from Isaiah that has been passed down the ages. Not only does Simeon expressed his happiness in being able to see and hold the Christ, he also proclaims the special role the child will have in the world. He is to bring salvation, not only to Israel, but for the Gentiles as well. Now Simeon as God\u2019s servant can depart in peace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Then there was Anna who was with great age. Somebody said that Anna had been at the temple for more than 84 years. She lived at the temple and worshipped there with fasting and prayer night and day. Old Anna also recognized the infant as Christ and proclaimed the role that the child will have. She told everyone who longed for the redemption of Jerusalem that this child will bring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For Simeon and Anna, the rituals of the temple service were okay but weren\u2019t enough. They were waiting for something special to happen. I can just imagine Simeon and Anna coming to the temple to pray and worship every day. For years they did this and although their faith may be growing, they were not going to be satisfied until something very special happened. There was enough time in their lifetimes to see the Christ Child.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For many years, Simeon and Anna waited, looking and longing for that moment when God would move in their lives. They never quit or gave up. Unfortunately, we know of people who gave up because they felt time was running out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There are lawyers who once had a great passion for justice, for truth, for doing what is right, but discovered\u2014all too often\u2014that the law could not and did not guarantee justice, truth, or the right. All the law could ever give was some poorly worked out compromise between self-interests. Gradually, they gave up their passion for justice. Now all they do is offering to be the best legal advisor around. They are no longer enlivened with the flame of righteousness; they have settled for being legally correct.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There are doctors, who began with a great passion for helping, healing and giving life, but discovered that the science they knew can only give longevity to body functions. They settled in prolonging sometimes a dreadful life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There are teachers, who began their careers so excited about learning and teaching, but they slowly realized that there were many and great forces that discouraged children from wanting to learn about the world. They settled for teaching to pass the state requirement exams and keeping discipline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There are corporate executives and business people who began with the belief that through their creativity and efforts more people will be able to live more comfortably with a higher standard of living, but they soon became selfish and saw themselves to be above the law. They settled with the hard reality that what they have done was wrong and unethical. And we all ended up having loss something in the process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But we see in old Simeon and old Anna that they didn\u2019t reject the ritual, the temple, the Torah because it didn\u2019t give them what they wanted right away. They found that worship and the temple kept them and their hope alive. Although the law has not fulfilled that hope, it has kept the flame alive. They kept showing up at the temple even when they have become old.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In Galatians 4:4-7, Paul declared that when God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, in order to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as children, the fullness of time had come.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It seems that no matter how much time humans have, we remain essentially the same. If we doubled our current life span of 80 years, would that make that much of a difference spiritually or ethically, personally or nationally? Would we choose to love more or to give more if we lived longer? Would we choose to dedicate a larger part of our lives to God? Or have we just settled with what we have?<\/p>\n\n\n\n But the fullness of time has come in the birth of Christ! And if old Simeon and old Anna were able to wait and not give up their hopes in seeing the Messiah, we must not give up too. We don\u2019t need to clone ourselves for another lifetime or to expect to live to 150 years old to believe that God\u2019s fullness of time has come. With the birth of Christ, the fullness of time has come! It is here and we rejoice!<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 2003 you have 52 new Sundays to come to worship God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Whether we live to 49, 89, or 179, our spiritual goal ought to remain the same as Simeon and Anna\u2019s. We want to see Jesus and receive salvation in our lives, in our community, and in the world. Our goal ought to be pursuing eternal life and salvation, no matter the length of our lives because eternity lasts longer than a century and a half.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When we think about our lifetimes, we can imagine it to be something like tending and cultivating a garden. A garden is measured by what it produces, not by its size. A life is measured by its deeds and its love, not by its length. What good would a vegetable garden be if it didn\u2019t produce any edible fruit? What good would there be in a life of any length, if it gave forth no love, no delight, no joy?<\/p>\n\n\n\n The measure of a life is found not in quantity, but in quality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So here we are, almost twelve days after Christmas and right before Epiphany when we understand that God has revealed himself in the Christ. This is the season when Christians celebrate God\u2019s manifestation of the Christ coming into all the world. The magi from the east are here to testify God\u2019s revelation is extending into every corner of the world. With all the signs from God that he is here, how well might we live our lives beginning today?<\/p>\n\n\n\n There\u2019s a story about a homeless person who walked into a downtown church one Tuesday morning. Everyone thought that he came just to use the restroom, which was just inside the side door of the church. To the surprise of all, and the consternation of some, the man used the restroom, freshly scrubbed himself, and joined the 6:30 AM Bible study class. People thought he came just for the breakfast. They fed him and sent him on his way at the end of the class with the leftovers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The next Tuesday, Joe was there bright and early. People were now convinced that he came only for the restroom and a handout. As weeks passed, class members brought him small gifts: a bag of oranges picked from someone\u2019s tree, a Bible. Joe began adding his pennies or a dime to the offering basket that was used to help pay for the breakfast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Soon it became clear that Joe came for something more than his personal needs. Turned out that he was educated, and educated well, in philosophy and world religions. Now it appeared that Joe came to argue with the teacher, or to throw out questions designed to disrupt the class.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Class members continued to welcome Joe, fed him well, continued giving him the \u201chand-outs,\u201d listened to his words with respect. A year passed, and people began to see Joe change. He stopped harassing the teacher, and joined in with honest questions and entered the discussion as an interested participant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At last report, Joe was leading the class in prayer, praying to the God he\u2019d come to know through the love and acceptance of a few folks who met on Tuesday mornings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s never the length of our years that\u2019s important, it has always been showing up year after year like Simeon and Anna. The people at this church\u2019s Tuesday morning Bible study had to come to church every week before they can meet Joe. Joe had to come week after week for a year and perhaps for the rest of his life to come to know the saving grace of God in the birth of the Christ Child to know about redemption.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Simeon and Anna believed that God was about to do something great at the temple, the focus of their worship life. What do you expect to happen at church each Sunday? Do we expect to encounter the resurrected Christ here in the music, prayers or the sermon?<\/p>\n\n\n\n When I come to worship, I pray that we would encounter Christ just like Simeon and Anna did on that day when Mary and Joseph brought Jesus to the temple to dedicate him to God. Our worship must not be a time when we just go through the ho-hum routine of predictable motions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There were lots of days before Simeon and Anna\u2019s great encounter when little out of the ordinary happened, other than the usual offerings of the sacrifices and the chanting of psalms by the priests and people. However, Simeon and Anna kept showing up. It took only one glimpse at that baby and it filled their understanding of the grace of God that is offered to all people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We need to keep showing up at our worship services too. Sooner or later, whether we are 49, 89 or 149, the Spirit will speak through and to us\u2014with a hymn that we had chosen, an anthem or solo picked by our choir director, the reading of sacred Scriptures, the sharing of a faith story by one of you or perhaps even from a sermon\u2014something holy will touch us and we will know that we are in the presence of God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Simeon in his old age prophesied that God\u2019s salvation was for all, including the Gentiles. Old Anna went out and shared about the Christ Child with anyone who was ready to hear about redemption. Our church and its worship services are not just for our own inspiration and comfort but intended for all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Last week we watched the movie, Spiderman <\/em>on DVD. Before Peter Parker\u2019s uncle Ben died, he taught his nephew, \u201cWith great powers, come great responsibilities.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Whether your life is short or long, in this fullness of time when God\u2019s epiphany is upon us and we have come to adore the Christ Child, we have great responsibilities because we too have seen the powerful epiphany of the Lord\u2019s Messiah, the Christ Child.<\/p>\n\n\n\n God calls us to live our lives dedicated to seeking God as a plant seeks and needs the light of the sun\u2014even in midwinter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s not how many years we have, or will have. It\u2019s what we do with those years, and how we use them that matter. As we go forward into this New Year, it\u2019s less important to worry about how long we\u2019re going to live, as it is how well we are living.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There\u2019s an old Quaker poem that goes like this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n When the song of the angels is stilled<\/p>\n\n\n\n When the star in the sky is gone<\/p>\n\n\n\n When the kings and the princes are home<\/p>\n\n\n\n When the shepherds are back with their flocks<\/p>\n\n\n\n The work of Christmas begins:<\/p>\n\n\n\n To find the lost<\/p>\n\n\n\n To heal the broken<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 To feed the hungry<\/p>\n\n\n\n To release the prisoner<\/p>\n\n\n\n To rebuild the nations<\/p>\n\n\n\n To bring peace among brothers and sisters<\/p>\n\n\n\n To make music in the heart.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Let us come to church and keep showing up. And in God\u2019s own time, we too will see the face of the Lord\u2019s Messiah.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Let us pray.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Timeless God, we thank you for the years of our lives and pray that we would dedicate them for service in your kingdom on earth. Enable us to continue showing up at church and reveal to us your presence in the grace and mercy we receive from you and made possible by Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. Amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Luke 2:22-38 January 5, 2003 Sermon preached by Rev. Donald Ng at the First Chinese Baptist Church in San Francisco. One of the news that caught our attention in theSimeon & Anna<\/h6>\n\n\n\n
Fullness of Time<\/h6>\n\n\n\n
Living Well<\/h6>\n\n\n\n
Keep Showing Up<\/h6>\n\n\n\n