For the past couple weeks, we’ve been looking at the story of Anna and Simeon in the Gospel of Luke. This elderly pair spent decades of their lives waiting to see the fulfillment of God’s Promise to the people of Israel of a Messiah. What they got was an infant who they recognized as God Incarnate and the fulfillment of that promise.
We often get impatient (at least I do) when our plans don’t
fall into place right away or in the way we planned. Waiting on God to act is
sometime difficult.
What if we are looking in the wrong places for the
fulfillment of God’s dream in our lives? What if we think that success is found
in the number of people who attend an event we plan, or in the amount of money
in our bank account? What if we fall into the trap of thinking we are successful
when our name is on the office door of a high-power business or when we are
recognized when we walk down the street?
Maybe that’s not how God measures success. Maybe God’s
success is the heart transformed by a sentence in a blog post. Maybe God
measures success in the kind acts we do. Maybe God is pleased with us when we take
time to sit with a friend or smile at a stranger.
Simeon and Anna spent their time in prayer in the Temple
waiting for the fulfillment of God’s promised Messiah. We aren’t told what else
they did during those years, but probably they became unofficial greeters and
helped many visitors to the Temple find their way. Then when a confused couple
from Nazareth arrived with their baby to do as Mosaic Law ordered, Simeon knew the
truth. Then, he took him up in his arms and blessed God and said, “Lord, now
let your servant depart in peace, according to your word; for my eyes have seen
your salvation which you have prepared for all peoples, a light for revelation
to the Gentiles, and for glory to Israel.”
Anna as well recognized God’s truth and proclaimed thanks
to God and spoke of him to all who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem.
It is easy to get caught up in the messages of our society and forget that God very often, throughout history has worked in the lives of the least likely of people. There is the reoccurring post on social media that reminds us that “God doesn’t call the qualified, God qualifies the called.” In face, as this graphic reminds me, God uses people I might not have considered 'good enough' at all:
None of us are perfect. We are each simply loved by God and in that love, we are able to act and love others. What if we each just quietly lived as if the Kingdom of God’s love was in our world and lives now?
Brian McLaren
notes, in The Secret Message of Jesus, that we are all secret agents of
the Kingdom, “Your job is to discover how [you] can align and participate in
the Kingdom of God…help fulfill God’s will…you work each day not just for a
paycheck but also for the kingdom of God to come more and more fully.” McClaren
asks “What would happen if you saw your job as one component—large or small,
enjoyable or depressing—of your larger, deeper, grander calling as a
participant in the kingdom of God?” (The Secret Message of Jesus,
Brian McClaren, W Publishing Group, 2006)
