LUKE 2:33-40 The child's father and mother marveled at what was said about him.

Simeon prophesied that Mary's tiny infant boy would be the light of revelation to the Gentiles and the glory of Israel. In faith, Mary and Joseph knew Simeon's words were true; for they already had the testimony of the angels that Jesus is the Son of God, and the testimony of Bethlehem's shepherds. But they marveled; for Jesus had not yet performed a single miracle, nor spoken a single word. Mary and Joseph, Simeon and Anna all had to live the same way we do: by faith. For none of them had yet seen the Lord Jesus speak or act. Their faith rested entirely on the inspired words of prophets and angels. None of them had yet seen the end of the story. Only a small part of God's plan had been revealed. It was an important part: the Savior had been conceived and born. But that was it. We have lost much of our sense of amazement, because by God's grace we live in the time of fulfillment. We know and believe the rest of the story. But in many ways, we are like Mary and Joseph. We have just lived through yet another year in which people questioned God. They loudly questioned the very existence of God. And they questioned God's interest and involvement in people's lives. After every disaster and crime Superstorm Sandy, the school shootings in Newtown we heard people everywhere questioning and doubting God. Without knowing it, these skeptics and critics demonstrated the truth of God's Word. Jesus is the sign who is spoken against. Jesus is the one who causes the thoughts of many hearts to be revealed; because only when we have Spirit-worked faith that Jesus is the Word of the Father, now in flesh appearing, will we have hope as an anchor for our faith, firm and steadfast. The infant lying in Mary's arms, who is at the same time the God who created Mary and every other creature, is the supreme reminder that when it comes to the ways of God, we must never trust what our eyes can see, or what our reason can think, or what our hearts can feel. We must instead rely on God's revealed Word. For God will always act the way he acted when he sent Jesus into the world: God will always conceal and veil himself. He will make himself known only through his Word and Sacraments. God does this out of supreme love for us. Many people want God to speak directly to their hearts. The religious world of America in 2012, like the religious world of Elijah and Elisha and the religious world of the time when Jesus was born, is filled with people who want God to reveal himself in some private whisper. But if God would really speak that way, we could not be sure whether we were hearing the Lord or Baal, whether we were hearing Jesus or Satan. If Satan transforms himself into an angel of light, he can certainly make himself sound like God. So, like Simeon and Anna, we find Jesus only where he promises to be found. We find Jesus in the temple, that is, in the place where Jesus has promised he will be with his Word. That's in his church. But even in the visible church, there are many who do not heed God's Word. Imagine with me the scene that day in the temple, when Mary and Joseph brought in the six week old baby Jesus to present him to the Lord. The temple was a busy, hustle-bustle place. There was lots of religious activity going on. People came there to pray and to offer sacrifices. So the temple courts were no doubt full of worshipers. Many people that day heard Simeon's sermon about Jesus. But they passed by unheeding. They didn't stop to see the Christ Child. They didn't ask for more information about the baby. They were too busy with their religious exercises. So it is still today. Many people pass by Jesus Christ. They pass by the one who was conceived and born so that he could be crucified and buried. For all who come to Jesus must fall and rise again. And that fall is loathsome to our sinful flesh. We must fall from the lofty position we have created for

ourselves, the false heights of believing that we're really quite good people who just need to shake off a few bad habits. We must fall from our falsehood of thinking that we're earning something good from God just by coming inside his temple and praying and performing religious duties. Only those whose pride has been smashed by God's holy Law will have any interested in the Christ Child. Anna could only speak about Jesus to the people who were waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem. Nobody else was interested in hearing that the promised Savior had come. And we will only look forward to redemption when we confess that we need to be redeemed. Anna was a widow woman who had learned that the promise of the coming Messiah was all she had, and all she needed. Her husband had been taken from her by death many years before this, leaving her at the lowest and most helpless level of Jewish society. Like another widow who brought her mites to this temple decades later, Anna relied completely on God for her daily support. The priests at the temple had taken pity on her, and had given her one of the little apartments in the temple to live in. She took her faith seriously: She never left the temple, but worshiped night and day, fasting and praying. Her fasting was evidence of sincere repentance. Her prayers were no doubt prayers that the Lord would fulfill the prophet's promise by sending the Messiah. Anna is a reminder to each of us: we will not be interested in Jesus is we feel that we have all we need in life. We will only be interested in Jesus if we recognize how spiritually bankrupt we are. That's when we'll want to never leave God's temple, that is, never have enough of hearing the comforting Gospel message, that Jesus came for our salvation. He died on the cross and rose again from the dead so that you would be an adopted child of God. God has given you the full rights of sons. God has sent the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, by whom you call upon God as Abba, your dear, forgiving Father in heaven. Through Jesus, you are a son, and an heir. This morning Jesus comes into your body, which he has made his living temple. He comes not to rest in your arms, but to live in you. He feeds you with his body, swaddled in bread. He comes to you with his blood, wrapped in wine. This is the glad foretaste of the heavenly feast that you will enjoy when he comes again. After you take Communion this morning, you will sing the words of Simeon: Lord, now you let your servant depart in peace according to your Word, for my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared before the face of all people. Simeon and Anna were ready to die, now that they had seen Jesus. You are ready to live in a confusing, sinful world, and you are ready to die and go to heaven, because Jesus came to be your Savior. You have learned not to rely on sight or emotion, but on God's Word. You know that God is there, that he is real, that he cares for you. He has proved it, by sending his Son.