In God’s Time
We all have dreams. I’m not talking about the kind of dreams you have when you’re sleeping. I’m thinking more along the lines of the kind that kids have. Kids often dream about what they want to be when they grow up. You know, things like being a singer, doctor, professional athlete, astronaut are some of the more popular ones.
When I was growing up, my dream was to play first base for the Chicago Cubs. Now, chances of that happening are very slim, especially considering they just signed Derek Lee to large contract. So that dream isn’t likely to come true.
Most of you probably had similar childhood dreams. Maybe you wanted to do exactly what your dad did. Maybe you wanted to go into the family business. Maybe you are living your childhood dream. Is there anyone here today doing what you planned on doing when you were a child?
Chances are you’re not. Our childhood dreams generally fade away as we get older. We grow up, our priorities change, and our dreams become just memories of what might have been. But this morning we are going to talk about Simeon, a man whose dream did come true.
Let’s look at the story of Simeon. Our text for today is Luke 2:21-35. Now the first twenty verses of this chapter are very familiar to most of you, especially if you were here for our Christmas Eve service. Luke tells about the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem, the angels’ announcement to the shepherds of that birth, and the visit they make to see the Baby Jesus.
Now, in Verse 21, Luke tells us that eight days after the baby was born, He was circumcised and given the name "Jesus," just as the angel had said.
Every Jewish male was to be circumcised. This rite was so sacred and so important in the Jewish tradition that they would, even if that 8th day fell on the Sabbath, still perform the circumcision. Of course, the Jewish people did no work unnecessarily on the Sabbath, so obviously, this was a very important rite.
And it was on the 8th day when the circumcision took place that the child would be officially named. We know that that name was given to Mary way before the birth of our Lord. Now we’re pretty much required to name our children in the hospital before we take them home. But in this society they did not name the child until the 8th day. And so on the 8th day when Jesus was circumcised as a Jewish male, they named Him, officially, Jesus.
Then in Verse 22, Luke jumps ahead to forty days later, when Mary and Joseph go to the temple. They go to the temple for 2 other important Jewish rites. The first was Mary’s purification rite following childbirth, which is described in the Old Testament in Leviticus 12.
The second rite, made on the 40th day, was to consecrate, dedicate, their firstborn son to God, just as had been done in Exodus 13. This is similar to what we do in our baptismal service when I make the mark of the cross on the forehead and say the words, “child of the covenant, you have been sealed by the Holy Spirit in baptism and marked as Christ’s own forever.”
During these two rites a sacrifice was to be made. Often a lamb was sacrificed, but if they couldn’t afford a sheep, then two doves or pigeons could be offered instead. The offering presented by Joseph and Mary suggests their modest economic standing.
And we are told that when this occurs, there was a man in the temple, Simeon, an old man who had been told that he would not die until he saw the consolation of Israel appear.
Now, you have to realize – Joseph & Mary didn’t come into the Temple carrying a sign like you see sometimes in airport waiting areas that declare: "The Smiths." They weren’t carrying a sign saying: “This is the Messiah”
Instead, they were part of the ordinary crowd of people who came into the Temple every day. In fact, if ANYTHING made them stand out in the crowd, it was the fact that they were poor.
Why is it that when we buy a car, maybe with a special color and the next day we see about a dozen of them out on the highway but before that, we never saw that color? What happens? Were they out there on that highway before? Of course they were. But all of a sudden we are in tune, visually, to see.
Henry David Thoreau said that, "Many an object is not seen though it falls within the range of the visual eye." Thoreau talks about the fact that if it is not seen with the intellectual eye it may not been seen with the visual eye. The fact is, it may be in front of us, but we may not see it. How true that is.
We’ve all had times where we’ve passed somebody and not really seen them. I know I have. Now, why was that? Well, it’s because we weren’t looking for them. Maybe our mind was preoccupied. We were somewhere else, thinking mentally, and we just passed something that was, maybe, familiar to us, and we didn’t even see it.
Simeon saw Jesus because he was looking for Jesus. We see what we look for. The scripture says that the Holy Spirit was upon him and that he was led by the Holy Spirit to be in the Temple on this particular day.
In this hymn of Simeon, verses 29-32, he praises God. He then blesses child, and speaks over him to Mary and Joseph - and to the temple crowd - the word of God regarding what had occurred and was occurring and would occur throughout the life of this child.
In some ways, Simeon’s words remind me of a line in a speech made by Martin Luther King where he said, "Like any man, I would like to live, but it really doesn’t matter anymore because I’ve been to the mountain top." King was using an analogy of Moses having the privilege to view the Promised Land before his death. Likewise, Simeon has reached the mountaintop; he has seen God keep His promise. You could say that he has achieved his childhood dream.
I’ve heard people say, upon achieving a milestone or some life’s goal, that “I can die happy now”. They feel they have reached the culmination of their life and it just can’t get any better than that particular moment.
This is what Simeon is saying when he makes the statement, “you can now dismiss your servant in peace. For my eyes have seen your salvation.” Think about it. Can you possibly imagine the feeling in Simeon’s spirit in verse 28 when he took the Christ child into his arms? Can you imagine the feeling? He personally received the Christ child. He “can die happy now”, for he has held God in his arms!
Here we are, 3 days from marking the passing of another year. Someone once said, "About the time you decide to make the most of your life, most of it is already gone." It’s true. Seems like the older you get, the faster time goes whizzing by. And before you know it you’re old and reliving your dreams in your head. And depression, or at least discouragement, sets in.
Maybe you have known someone who was so discouraged that life didn’t seem worth living anymore. I know of a man that, every time I visit him, I hear the same phrase over and over. “I don’t know how much longer I’m gonna be here.”
He feels he has nothing to live for. His childhood dreams are just that, dreams. He can hardly perform the simple functions that once gave him his reason for living. His body is crippled from a life of hard work and smoking so, in his eyes, he’s just waiting to die.
People sometimes feel so empty that don’t want to go on living. Maybe the death of someone close to you, a broken relationship, or some other tragedy has caused you to feel empty inside. Maybe you’ve prayed, "Lord, let me die, take me home. Life is more than I can handle."
Those are not fun times. Just like I tell that man when he says, “I don’t know how much longer I’m gonna be here”, it’s not up to you to decide when it’s your time to go. It is God’s to decide. You’ll go in God’s time. I tell this man that his work here is not done yet and while he thinks that he can’t do anything, God must have something for him to do. But he just grumbles some more.
Note that Simeon’s attitude is totally the opposite. He is ready to die, not because he’s old and crippled or his life is so empty but because it is so full. He is so full of joy. He’s reached the mountaintop. He knows that anything else that would ever happen to him could even come close to matching the experience he’s just had of holding the Messiah in his arms.
Simeon had the right attitude about his life. He had the thing we talked about back the 1st week of Advent – hope. Hope is a powerful thing. I asked a friend one time, “What if we die and there’s nothing? There is no heaven, no eternal life. What if this is all just a joke? I’ll never forget what he said. He said, “But we had the hope!” Hope makes a difference.
We’ve never met Simeon before Luke introduces him to us. We never hear from him again. He may have died that night, the next day, or 10 years later. We don’t know. The one thing we can be sure of is this: He lived exactly as long as God wanted him to. He told God that he was ready, but we can be sure that he went in God’s time.
We can also be sure that he lived with the hope and dream that he would live long enough, “For my eyes to see your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all people.”
Friends, I don’t know what your childhood dreams were. I don’t know if you have achieved them. What I do know is that there is still time for your dreams to come true. You know, Derek Lee could be injured and the Cubs could still call me. Nah! I don’t think that will happen. I have new dreams now and I’m living some of them and waiting for others to materialize.
What you need to know is that, as long as you’re still here, you have the opportunity for your dreams to come true. Maybe you have new dreams now. Good! There’s absolutely nothing wrong with having new dreams. And if you do, know that you’ll reach that mountaintop in God’s time. Just be like Simeon, keep looking!
