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Seeing Salvation
Sermon at St Stephen’s Chapel Stanley, 31st January 2010 (Candlemas)
‘Lord, now you let your servant depart in peace,
According to your word;
For my eyes have seen your salvation
Which you have prepared in the sight of all people,
To be a light to lighten the nations
And to be the glory of your people Israel.’
The song of Simeon, the devout old man who came into the temple, saw Jesus, and said ‘My eyes have seen salvation’!
What did Simeon see? A baby, probably around 6 weeks old, in his mother’s arms. Jesus has done nothing yet, except what all babies do: feed, sleep and cry. Start to look around at the world. Start to recognise his mother. That’s all. He’s done no miracles, or acts of healing. He has cast out no demons. No teaching, or words of wisdom. He has said nothing about the kingdom of heaven. How could he do any of these things? He’s only a little baby, just like the other firstborn baby sons that parents were bringing daily into the temple, as the law of Moses said they should. Jesus has done none of the things that we would recognise as signs of salvation. And yet Simeon recognizes this particular baby, and sees that he is salvation. ‘My eyes have seen salvation’. Not because of anything he’s said or done. Did Simeon’s old eyes see into the future, and envisage who this child would grow to be? Old people sometimes have that ability. If Simeon did see something of that, it was surely with the guiding of the Holy Spirit, saying ‘This is the one’!
Who or what has guided you to recognize Jesus?
At Christmas time the shepherds were told of Jesus by the Angels. Angels are simply messengers, that’s what the Greek word ‘angelos’ means. Was there someone who passed the message on to you, who told you where to find Jesus?
The Wise Men were led to Jesus by a star. Did you catch sight of a bright light that shone in the darkness when you didn’t expect it, a light that led you to Jesus?
Simeon and Anna in the temple were guided by the Holy Spirit. Do you know times when the Holy Spirit is at work in you, guiding you closer to God, closer to salvation?
I trust that you can answer yes to at least one of those questions. Yes! There is someone, or something, that has enabled me to see God, to see salvation!
And then, once you have found God, it could be your turn next to be the messenger, the angel who tells the new to someone else! Something good or wonderful or exciting in your life could be the bright shining star that shows the way to God for others who are searching! The Holy Spirit could work through you to guide another person towards God. We must be alive to these possibilities, to the real chance that we too can have a part to play in growing the kingdom of God! Don’t think that your part is only about doing the right things in your own life, it’s also about what you can do for other people, providing them too with a chance to see salvation.
What is the salvation that we find when we see God in the person of Jesus, as Simeon did that day in the temple?
Think of salvation. What do you think of? Being saved? As Christians we believe that salvation saves us from sin and death. Salvation leads to eternal life. But salvation is also to be experienced here and now, in our daily lives. ‘Are you saved?’ is a common question from evangelical Christians. My answer is ‘Yes, I’m being saved every day, all the time.’ Salvation is not a single act, but a process that needs to go on throughout our lives. We need to be constantly saved from selfishness and darkness and meaninglessness and the power of evil, all the things that hurt and destroy us and our relations with other people.
It’s easy to make that connection between salvation and being saved, but salvation is also connected with healing. When you have a wound, you put salve on it to heal it. Healing puts right things that have been wrong. This is the salvation we find in Christ. Simeon, St Luke tells us, was looking forward to the consolation of Israel. He was looking forward to things being put right after so many years of things going wrong. When we look around at our world, often even at our own lives, we too can see that we need consolation. We and our world need that healing salve, that soothing balm. People look for salvation in many things: some people seek salvation through riches and wealth; some seek salvation through making themselves powerful and being in control; some wrap themselves in their own world and seek salvation in isolation. But these things bring no healing; they are more likely to bring hurt than healing. God’s salvation, the true salvation, is revealed in a little baby. Hurt and pain, love and joy, and all the potential of human life and the divine come together, and we see salvation.
Amen.