Sunday Homily - February 2nd, 2020 - Faith and Perseverance

Simeon and the Prophet Anna Meet the Lord Icon

I.

Joey is a man from the backwoods of the Ozark foothills.
 "Big Joe" is what his friends called him,
   and for good reason.

 He was an old, rough looking man,
  in his late 60s
   large frame, tall and towering at about 6'2,
    big, rough hands entirely calloused over from the years of working as a diesel mechanic,
     long, silver beard that he kept long, but trimmed and shaped,
      as the last thing you want your beard to do is get caught up in a truck engine
       that he was working on.

But to his family,
 Joey was the gentle giant.

He loves his family,
 spends time with his wife, Evangeline, everyday after work,
  and after a long day's work,
   he enjoys sitting down to read the latest novel that he picked up from the used book store.

But Joey also carries with him a sadness that has long haunted him.

Joey and Evangeline had two kids,
 now grown.
  A daughter named Dolly,
   named after none other than Dolly Parton
    (he and his wife were quite proud of that name, by the way)
      and a son named Joey,
       or Joe Jr.

Dolly grew up to be bright and very prolific
 She even went to college on a full ride scholarship that didn't cost their family a penny,
  and she is a very successful business woman living in Tennessee.

But Joe Jr. was the one that Big Joe thought about every single day.

Joe Jr., when he was in high school,
 got addicted to heroine
  after he and a couple of friends went to a homecoming party
   at the local high school.

And Joe Jr. was still an addict to this very day,
 refusing to see his problem,
  burning bridges with every relationship that he ever made
   in order to feed his addiction.
    In fact, Big Joe hadn't heard from his son in nearly 40 years.
     Big Joe didn't even know if he was still alive.

Big Joe prayed for his son every single day.
 Big Joe HAD been praying for his son, every single day
  for the past 40 years.

Big Joe had been discouraged many days when in prayer.
 Often he thought, "Jesus, do ya even hear me?"
  There were glimmers of hope,
   where it seemed like Jesus was really working on his son,
    but many times it ended in disappointment.

But Big Joe never stopped praying.
 He was a man of faith, a solid relationship with God,
  and even on his worst days,
   he never stopped praying.

Even in the midst of his discouragement,
 Big Joe never gave up on his son.

But Big Joe,
 a man almost about to turn 70 years old,
  also was feeling the weight of his own mortality.

"What if he never comes home before I die?"
 Big Joe said to Evangeline one evening.
  "What if it never happens?"

II.

Man, I hate to take a break from that story of Big Joe at this point,
 but has anyone here had an experience like this?

Having someone or something that you have prayed for,
 fervently, constantly, without ceasing,
  and you are beginning to wonder if it ever will happen?

Have you ever had the experience of wondering,
 "Does God even hear me?
  Is God even near to me?"

Even if you haven't,
 I hope that maybe we can all identify at least a little bit
  with two very important people in our Gospel account this morning:
   Simeon and the prophet Anna.

Simeon, as described by St. Matthew,
 is a man who was an extremely devout man,
  constantly in prayer with the Lord Most High,
   who believed that Israel would be saved by God,
     and even more amazing, a man on whom the Gospel says that the Holy Spirit rested.

Simeon had lived a long time.
 And he had been constantly looking for the Messiah of Israel,
  which God has told Simeon that he would actually see before he dies.

But Simeon was getting old!
 No doubt that Simeon wondered some days,
  "I know what I heard God speak to me:
   but I wonder if I will ever see the Messiah soon."

No doubt Simeon had many days of discouragement.
 Staying constant in prayer and service and faith in God,
  no doubt that there were some bad days in there, too.

If this is true for Simeon,
 it is doubly true for the prophet Anna as well.

Anna, as St. Matthew even accounts,
 was "of great age,"
  and it even says she was 84!
   And Anna was in the Temple EVERY day,
    even to the point where St. Matthew says,
     "She never left the temple
      but worshiped there with fasting and prayer
       night and day."

Can you imagine Anna's life and her devotion to God
 to be described as a prophet?

But, friends, I imagine that in Anna's life,
 there were many days where she wondered and questioned
  whether God would deliver Israel soon enough
   for her to actually witness it.

Being in the Temple night and day,
 I imagine that Anna had many days where she so deeply desired to see God's redemption
  she so deeply prayed for the sight of God's salvation
   that it became a daily chore to keep up her hope.

After all, think of what was happening during Simeon and Anna's lifetime.
 Israel had been subjugated as a Roman province,
  under the empire that was literally on a mission to conquer the world.

Israel was still suffering under captivity,
 slaves again to the empire,
  as they were slaves to the Pharaoh in Egypt
   during the time of Moses.

But, friends, to Simeon and Anna,
 those who had remained devout for years and had perhaps had many a day
  where nothing remarkable happened,
   God actually came and met them
    as God had promised.

Jesus, brought by Mary and Joseph to be presented in the Temple,
 according to the Law,
  is glimpsed by devout Simeon and the prophet Anna.

Simeon, filled with the Holy Spirit,
 experienced such elation that he sang out a song,
  which we call, "The Song of Simeon."
   And Simeon sang out,
    "Lord, now you are dismissing your servant in peace,
          according to your word;
     for my eyes have seen your salvation,
          which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples,
     a light for revelation to the Gentiles
          and for glory to your people Israel."

As Simeon finishes his song and Mary and Joseph stare in astonishment,
 the prophet Anna sees Jesus,
  and immediately recognizes in mystic vision,
   that the Messiah, the Holy One of God has come!
    She is so ecstatic,
     that she begins to sing praises to God
      and to tell all in the Temple about Jesus
       and that the redemption of Israel has actually come!

Simeon and the prophet Anna
 in their years of constant prayer and devotion to God
  all at once had their prayers answered.

All at once,
 even though it took decades for God's promise to come to them,

III.

So now we return to Big Joe,
 who wakes up after a night of intermittent sleep,
  and just as he always does,
   he goes to his chair in the living room
    and talks with God.

He thanks God for the day that has come,
 for a safe sleep through the night,
  and thanks God for Evangeline,
   for Dolly,
    and, with a downcast face, for Joe Jr.

And that's when Joe notices a FedEx truck pulling up in the dirt driveway.
 Awfully early for them to come, thought Big Joe.

And Joe gets a package,
 small, but heavy,
  and Big Joe with astonished eyes
   sees the words "To Dad"
    and a return address from Texas attached.

He opens the package quickly,
 and a huge stack of pictures is sitting in the open box,
  and he sees his son,
   in clean clothes,
    in a nice house,
     with a picture of what Big Joe assumes to be a family portrait of Joe Jr.,
      with a wife and a young girl maybe only 3 or 4 years old.

There is a letter on top.
 Written by Joe Jr.

The note tells the story that Joe Jr.,
 for the first time since high school,
  has been clean from abusing drugs for 5 years now.

Joe Jr. tells how a local narcotics anonymous and the friends he met there
 through a number of years,
  rallied around him and taught him what it meant to rely on God to overcome addiction.

And Joe Jr. then begins to say how he met his wife,
 how they had been given a heart to adopt children,
  and how they adopted their daughter last year
   and were in the process of adopting their 1-year-old son.

But the thing that really got Big Joe
 was the following sentence:
  "Dad, I know you probably have been wondering what happened.
   You wonder what changed.
     And to be honest, I'm not so sure myself.
      But what I do know is that a lot of people must have been praying for me,
       and that they must have not given up.
        Because there is no other explanation that makes sense."

For you who have come this morning
 who are discouraged by the times and circumstances of life,
  who have prayed with every last ounce of your soul,
   and who have yet to see anything come of it,
    never forget that Simeon and Anna also experienced
     the long-suffering, patient provision of God.

For you who have come here needing hope,
 needing a sign of God's presence,
  think about Big Joe and the love he had for his son,
   and that even when all hope seemed lost,
    Jesus showed up big.

For you who have come having prayed for God to come
 and redeem an impossible situation in your life,
  or who have just prayed for God to just be near you,
   please know that God's love and provision will show up
    and often when we are at our wit's end.

I hope and pray that God works a great sign of hope in your life,
 just as Jesus Christ came to give hope back to the entire creation,
  and to redeem what once seemed totally lost.

And I hope you never forget the love that God has for you,
 no matter what the circumstances,
  no matter where you are,
   and no matter what you have done.

Jesus Christ will come to save.
 Persevere, my brothers and sisters,
  because you never know when you are about to be witnesses
   of God's work
    in your lives
     today.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.