Time To Look Up And Be Still In The Temple

Luke 2:22-40

Taxis and buses rumble and honk their way down the streets.

Along the pavement and into the concourse, people are rushing, rushing, rushing.

One carries a briefcase, another is laden down with shopping, a third has massive luggage which she can barely drag along.

There is the sound of running footsteps all around. Doors slamming. Voices calling.

One carries a giant mug from Costa. Another munches into a steaming pasty.

And into their mobile phones they bellow as they march along.

Each call sounds like a crisis.

Yet even at the station be it Waterloo, Victoria or London Bridge – there is a stillness at the centre.

A hundred people stand motionless gazing up into heaven – eyes all intent – hearts pumping – open mouthed – waiting to be the first to see – the moment!

The moment when the departure board clicks round and you know your platform number and you can rush, rush rush to get that seat  in coach number one of four.

I imagine the scene this morning as a bit like that.

The scene in the Temple when the Holy Family brought Jesus in.

The temple as a frantically busy place.

Money changing. Dove selling. Rule making. Prayer chattering. Sacrifice making.

Scribe teaching. Pharisee lecturing.

All about God – but God snuffed out of the picture by the focus on doing.

And the people thinking they were justified in their doing rather than their being.

So I see Simeon and Anna standing out like a sore thumb.

Probably a bit of a nuisance with their insistence being there all the time – when people had things to do.

The two of them had a feeling in their bones – their old creaking bones – that the Messiah was due. Like a train arriving.

 So it was that when the Holy family entered the house of prayer Simeon and Anna were the only ones found praying – they were the ones to whom that sudden holy presence was revealed. And not just revealed – but saw – and touched and held – in a way that makes us gasp.

And Simeon took Jesus in his arms and praised God.

The creator of the world nestling down into the folds of your clothing.

Imagine that!

We wonder where we are with God – and then we look at our lives and their busyness.

We can identify with the rushing railway station concourse and the temple with all its bustle.

An experience such as Simeon and Anna had can seem like wishful thinking.

God snuggling down into the crook of your arm.

And yet it’s there as a possibility – every day of our lives.

I’ve got two practical challenges to throw down at your feet.

One to help us become aware of God being close to us.

One to help others become aware of God being close to them.

Lent begins in twenty five days time and I’m going to suggest something that we all might consider giving up.

I’d like to invite you to give up five to ten – this Lent.

To give up five to ten as the time when you’re rushing to church or just wanting to catch that person over there.

For there is a danger that we are as busy and as preoccupied before our worship at St Matthew’s as were the majority in the temple.

So imagine if five minutes before the Sunday service we were all here and in our places.

Imagine that we put away the bustle – the people we must see, the conversations we think we need to have – what if we let those things go to their appointed place – and we sat quietly together with the organ for company, so that when we started with our opening hymn – we’d be like a hundred Simeon’s and Anna’s – ready to welcome him, ready to take him up in our arms in worship.

Keep the chocolate coming during those forty days. Carry on uncorking the occasional bottle – instead give God what, twenty five minutes out of forty days.

That doesn’t mean that if you find you’re late – then you don’t come. Those things happen. Nor does it mean that if there is an emergency – you have to sit on your hands.

Take time to be still – see where your journey is taking you – where its starting from.

I think that’s something we can all do.

Then there are times when, quietly and gently we need to make ourselves available to be as Christ to others.

Next Saturday at 9am at Holy Trinity Church Hall there will be free bacon rolls on offer.

Why not come and have one if you think you might be in the least bit interested in being part of our street pastor scheme.

As I explained briefly last Sunday, our aim is, as churches working together, to train 20 street pastors to be out in Redhill Town centre each Friday night into Saturday morning.

The aim is not to be law enforcers or street evangelists – but to be a listening caring presence amongst young people when they need it.

Those streaming out of Liquid and Envy, those around McDonald’s and by the taxi rank.

Young people who through a variety of circumstances can be confused, upset, hurting or lost and just need someone to be alongside them.

Out in teams of five – probably one night each month – never on your own.

Working in partnership with the local police and properly trained.

If the idea is touching you – come and find out on Saturday.

Street Pastors is not some hazily dreamed up sort of thing for naïve do-gooders.

It is active in over a hundred Town centres and we have the enthusiastic support of the police and the Council who have backed this up by covering the cost of half of the training.

We need actual pastors – we need a prayer support team and we need an overall coordinator.

It will be our Christian faith which motivates us – but we’ll express it in just being there.

The stillness created at the centre of the railway station concourse is due to people wanting to find out about their journey.

We need to create such a stillness too – to see where Christ is – to wonder where he might be leading – to be as Christ to others.

Simeon and Anna hold candles before them this morning – for their own enlightening – but also so that God’s people might see which way to go.

RH 1.2.09