This transcript has been automatically generated, and therefore may not be 100% accurate.

Thank you, Brett, for that reading. And let's just pray before we begin to look at God's Word this evening. Father, thank you for this story of Simeon and Anna and the role that they played in the birth of Jesus and the subsequent events Help us to know that you are a God who orders time for us and that we are called to live in obedience to you. Amen. Well, if you do the sermon at the end of the year, which this is, you're supposed to do a bit about, you know, it's been a year when, etc.

It does feel like we've lived a lot of history. If you turn the news on. I think we've lived a lot of history as a church. We've had major changes in. For many of us, people we've known and loved, perhaps no longer with us, you know, the world's a bit in turmoil as Mark prayed in his prayers.

And the new year does seem to me a bit uncertain. And this is a time to stop and reflect and to call ourselves back to some really important Bible understandings, which I'm going to come to in a moment. A few days ago, I think I read his obituary in the paper on Friday. A man by the name of Charles Handy died. Now, if you're in management or business, you might know who this guy is.

He's one of the leading business and management thinkers. And he had a really revolutionary concept, and it was managers should know the name of the people who work for them. He used to keep stressing they shouldn't be interested in a job title, they should be interested in the person.

And Charles Handy was a really interesting guy. I heard him speak once, and that one time was so impressive that when I came home, I sort of went to the library and got everything I could possibly find by him. And one particular book struck me as important. And this is called the Second Curve. And I'll explain what that means in a moment.

But he. In this book, he talks about the fact that some people think their life's a bit wasted and hasn't got any direction. And he particularly points to this story. To begin with, I was at a local party and I saw a man standing by himself in the corner, elderly and obviously a bit lost. So I thought I'd go over to talk to him.

Had you lived long here? I asked. Yes, he replied, and I'm 93, you know.

I hadn't asked him what age he was, but he felt it was important to tell me. So I thought to myself, and then I said it to him. Then you must have lived a fascinating life. Tell me all about it. Well, when the war broke out, I was 19, I tried to join up, but they said my lungs weren't up to it and I must do industrial work instead.

They offered me a choice of two factories, one north of the Thames and one south. Since I lived north, I chose that one and I stayed there for 40 years, moving up a couple of levels during that time. Then I retired and came to live here. And then I prompted him, that's it, that's it. That's the only thing that happened in my 93 year old life.

I worked in a factory for 40 years and that's it. And Charles Handy says, but I'm sure there was much more to that man's story than just that. And why had he reduced his life to just that? Why did he feel that was all his life was about? Simeon and Anna are people who were looked at, possibly by the people around them, as a bit of a failure each.

Anna in particular, right at the end of our story, she's a prophetess. She's 84 and she was widowed after seven years. Now, probably that means quite early. She may well have been in her early 20s and she was a widow. So my suspicion is.

The text doesn't tell me. My suspicion is she had no children. So this is a woman on her own for most of her life, probably disregarded by most people, seen as not important.

A woman that people will walk by and not even notice they walk by her. But in this passage, what does she do? She praises God daily and she's expectantly waiting for the Messiah to come. And then her whole life comes into focus in the few minutes where she's in the presence of Jesus. Your whole life comes into focus when you're the presence of Jesus.

All of our lives should echo into eternity. Does anybody know which great spiritual writer wrote that? I can tell you it's the guy who wrote the screenplay to Gladiator 2. And it's just a throwaway line in Gladiator 2. But all of our lives do echo into eternity.

What you can do today, those conversations you can have, can be eternally significant if you are following and being obedient to God.

Let's look at Simeon. So Simeon is a man, we're told, who's full of the Spirit. He's righteous, he's devout. But most importantly is the Holy Spirit is upon him. The Holy Spirit is telling him what to say, when to speak.

He's in the temple there because the Spirit has led him, and then he can talk to Mary and share what is now called the nunctomittis. The bit in the passage that starts from verse 28, I think it's 28, 29. Sovereign Lord, you have promised many Christians each Sunday sing this. Particularly if you go to cathedral service for evensong, you'll sing this, what's called the Nunc Dimittis. And it's Simeon talking about the importance of what he's seeing in the form of Jesus in front of him.

Sovereign Lord, you have promised that you wouldn't dismiss, that you may now dismiss your servant in peace. What he's wanted all of his life to see. The Messiah is right there in front of him. For my eyes have seen your salvation which have been prepared in the sight for all nations. It's a lighter revelation to the Gentiles and a glory to the people of Israel.

Simeon had to learn to stop and wait in that temple. He'd been waiting as much as as Anna had been waiting for something to happen. He had that gift of the Spirit to help him be there at the right time. And because he was there, later on, Luke could record what he saw, what he experienced. Simeon and Anna were people that the world probably forgot, but they were vital to the history of salvation.

They were people that God used to challenge and to reassure. What Simeon says to Mary isn't always easy. Simeon says, this child is going to be a source of division, that many people will reject his message and it will be tough, but ultimately he will fulfil God's purpose for salvation.

Simeon and Anna stop and they wait and they listen for God's call. To them, stopping and waiting for God's call is not easy. When I listened to Charles Handy for the first time over ten years ago, I was kind of in that situation where things weren't going quite right in my career. Things weren't working out. I wasn't really sure what I wanted to do.

And Handy just said something about, well, actually, in this difficult time, that's when you learn to refine what the next thing is and use the time now to see what the time will be later on. Not get obsessed with the fact you're not there yet. You're not at that good time, that better, more fulfilling time for you. But learn what you can from this moment. As Christians, we need to learn to learn that each day is a possibility to meet with God.

Each day is a possibility to do something for others that will echo into eternity. Not because you're great, not because you're Wonderful. But because you're being obedient to the cooler, loving God who wants you to be his servant. So let me bring my short, hopefully bring this into land. So I want you to think about just some of these thoughts over the next coming days.

Anna and Simeon were privileged to see in those first few hours, those first few days, first few weeks of Jesus, they were able to see that what they had wanted all of their life was going to happen. Neither of them would live long enough to see it in its fullness, but they were there as obedient servants of God, witnessing to him. Simeon lived in that power of that spirit. When we are in difficulty, when we were in struggle, let's pray for God's Spirit to give us the strength to carry on and to make the right decisions. Simeon wanted to depart in peace.

He wanted there to be a fulfilment of things, and that's quite natural. We want things to be sort of naturally sort it out. And Simeon also marvelled at the light of God that he saw in front of him. So as we start, as we finish this new year, with all of its history, good and bad, personal, national, international, let's go back to this first principle of as we make our choices, as we think our lives through, are we in the power of the Spirit, waiting for God to show us the way forward? When we do that, we can testify like they did.

Sovereign Lord, you have promised and now you will dismiss your servant in peace. I pray for each of us that peace is what we know in our lives in the year ahead. And if we can't be peaceful, then at least let us be spiritful to be able to deal with the difficulties we might face. Let us pray.

Father, may we be people of the Spirit. Thank you for the gift of your son that Simeon and Anna were able to celebrate.

May we give peace and live in peace as far as we're able. But when peace is far from our hearts, help us to look to you for your spirit, to help us to deal with whatever difficulties we have. May we this New year, share your love with others as never before in the power of the Spirit. Amen.