This sermon examines the story of Anna when she met the child Jesus in the temple. Dan Kent highlights how she waited for the Messiah for decades and the importance of waiting on God to act in our lives and release his gifts through us.
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Waiting with Anna
• Dan Kent
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Anna was a prophet who was a widow. She had only been married for seven years when she was widowed and she then spent the rest of her life praying and fasting in the temple. When she met Jesus as a baby, she was 84 years old. Her life was dedicated to the redemption of Israel, which meant that she was ardently looking forward to the coming of God’s Messiah. The wording of the text implies that she was a well-known and respected devotee to temple life. When she saw Jesus, she immediately recognized him for who he was, the one for whom she had been waiting.
The story of Anna stands out. In that culture, to be a widow was much more than a sorrowful thing. In a male-centric society, it often resulted in a state of despair. But Anna did not fall into that. She turned her suffering into service. She discovered the joy in serving others as she prayed. Her grief and despair did not overcome her. Instead, it became the seedbed from which God spoke through her.
Anna serves as a role-model for us today. For most, life has not turned out as expected. We all have hit a wall in some way that resulted in grief and despair. Anna embraced her situation and pressed through it in a way that freed her to wait for God’s deliverance. And through that waiting on God, she realized that she had a unique role to play. She was a prophet. She had a gift to be a blessing to others. We all have a gift, one that often is hiding beneath the struggles in life that we face. And many times we never press through the situation patiently, like Anna, and realize what God has given us. Even in the midst of her situation, against all odds, she was a prophet who had eyes to see what others did not.
Anna did not merely wait. She also used her situation to nurture her gifts. We too can do this, even in the midst of not having an opportunity to use them. We, like Anna, can develop our gifts so that when the time comes, we are ready to offer them to others. Our gifts do not depend upon opportunities for use. They are present and we can cultivate them in whatever situation we find ourselves in.
Anna’s response to her challenges did not fit the way of the culture. But we are called to walk a different path, one that looks toward a different goal and a different way of life. We can enter this different way, no matter what we are facing.
Hide Extended SummaryTopics: Discipleship, Spiritual Gifts
Sermon Series: Seeking Christmas
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The MuseCast: December 3
Focus Scripture:
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Luke 2:36-38
There was also a prophet, Anna, the daughter of Penuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was very old; she had lived with her husband seven years after her marriage, and then was a widow until she was eighty-four. She never left the temple but worshiped night and day, fasting and praying. Coming up to them at that very moment, she gave thanks to God and spoke about the child to all who were looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem.
