Luke 2:22-40
Everyone has a purpose to fulfill. Everyone has a story to tell.
They shed light on our personal identity, on who we are, who we were created to be. It is the culmination of experiences and encounters throughout our lives; from early years as toddlers to our childhood years to work and study in adulthood. They reveal to us, if we pay close attention, to whom we belong and who we are called to be. Everyone has a purpose to fulfill. Everyone has a story to tell. So what’s your story?
I remember when I first began to discern a call to enter the ministry I reflected back on my life and my life experiences to that point in time. I thought about the joy I found in tutoring inner city children and leading small group bible studies. I thought about my experiences as a child in the Christian church: my baptism and confirmation, Sunday worship services, my years in church school, and the years spent singing in choirs and playing hand bells. I was able to look back and connect the dots that culminated into my sense of call. I continue to look back to see where God has led me, so I can better understand what God is doing now and will be doing in my life in the future. I have a purpose to fulfill. I have a story to tell. So what’s your story?
Luke is writing about the life of Jesus in this same way. Luke is looking back over Jesus’ entire life, connecting the dots in hindsight writing about the life of Jesus long after his ascension to heaven. Luke pieced together very nicely the key events and experiences of Jesus’ life that point to his calling as the Messiah, for the salvation of the world. Luke sets this up for us at the beginning of his writing, in the first five verses of chapter one. He says, “Since many have undertaken to set down and orderly account of the events that have been fulfilled among us by those who were from the beginning were eyewitnesses and servants of the word, I too decided after investigating everything carefully from the very first, to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, so that you may know the truth concerning the things about which you have been instructed.” (Luke 1:1-5 NRSV) As an author and historian, Luke has a purpose to fulfill. He has a story to tell. So what’s your story?
Today we meet Simeon who has his own story to tell, his own calling from God. It’s a story that has been written over many decades, through good times and bad, but with a clear purpose. Simeon is a righteous and devout worshipper of the Living God. He believed in the Old Testament prophets’ messages about the promised restoration of Israel. The Spirit of the Lord dwelled richly within him. At some point in his life, God revealed to him through the Holy Spirit that he would not die until he saw the Lord’s Messiah. I imagine everyday he would go about his daily routine always remembering in the back of his mind the promise God made to him. Did he ever have doubts? Did he ever wonder if God’s promise to him was true?
For Simeon, God’s promise to him was validated when he encounters the baby Jesus. We learn something about Jesus’ identity, his purpose and story, through the prophetic voice of Simeon. First, we learn that the ground work for the restoration of Israel has already begun in the lives of John the Baptist and Jesus. Second, we learn Jesus the Messiah is the promise of salvation to the world. Third, we learn Jesus the Messiah will cause the rising and falling of many in Israel. This is to say that many will here Jesus’ message of salvation and accept it, while others will hear it and reject it. These prophecies clarify for us Jesus’ identity; his purpose and his story as the promised Messiah. So what’s your story?
When I began to seriously discern my sense of call to the ministry, I realized it’s not just a call from God but also from God’s people, the church. In this same way, Simeon is not the only one declaring Jesus as the Messiah. Another devout and righteous person, a woman named Anna, also recognizes and affirms Jesus to be the savior of all people. She confirms the prophecy of Simeon. Together, they represent the people of Israel at their best: worshipping God day and night, obedient, and praying for the salvation of the world. Simeon and Anna are living out their calling in order to fulfill the purposes God laid out for each of them. And so their story becomes a part of the larger story of Jesus the Messiah.
Everyone has a purpose to fulfill. Everyone has a story to tell. So what’s your story? Is there someone here today who is trying to discern and discover their purpose and place in this world? Is there someone here today who has given up on discerning and discovering their purpose and their part in God’s Kingdom?
What Luke is trying to get across to us is that each of us no matter our age or stage in life, God has a purpose for each of us in our role in the Kingdom of God. We’ve seen God surprise Zechariah and Elizabeth with a child in their old age. We’ve seen God come to a young teenage girl to be the mother of the Messiah. We’ve seen the poor and downtrodden, the shepherds, obey the message of the angels and go to see the baby Jesus. We’ve seen two devout and righteous children of God in their old age declare the arrival of the Messiah and so fulfilling their purpose, their calling from God.
“Luke wants to draw all of us of every age and every stage of life into his fold. No matter who or where you are, the story of Jesus, from the manger in Bethlehem to the empty tomb and beyond, can become your story.”[1] This can become your story.
By allowing God’s story to become our story, it is then we understand our purpose and our calling as Christians. We each have a role to play in God’s plan, but we have to seek it out and discover it, putting together the clues revealed to us in the past and then step out in faith. For some of us it is a calling that is active, visible, working in the public eye, perhaps as a preacher or in sharing God’s love with the world at school or work or in your neighborhood. For some it is a calling that is quiet, away from public view, one including a vibrant prayer life or “behind-the-scenes” work that gets done with little or no public recognition. For many it’s a mixture of both, sometimes one, sometimes the other. No matter whether our calling is active or quiet, each of us has a calling, a purpose, a reason for living for Jesus Christ and the Kingdom of God.
By allowing God’s story to become our story, we are confronted with a new way of looking at ourselves. We see the world differently; we see the world the way God sees it. We treat our friends and family differently as the precious gifts they are. We cherish every moment of every day with those we love. We don’t take life for granted. Our lives are never the same again.
As a community of faith, we need to work together to help one another discern our purpose and role in God’s plan for the world. We do this through mission, service, prayer and fellowship. We need to work together to build up the Kingdom of God, its morals and values, to confront the kingdom of the world. We are called to love God and our neighbor as ourselves. We are called to fight against injustice in all its forms whether it is for human rights, animal rights, or personal freedom. We are called to be the light of the world and the salt of the earth to a world that is dark, numb, distant and hurting.
Each of us has a role in this. Each of us has a purpose to fulfill. Each of us has a story to tell. So what’s your story?
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