Luke 2:21-40

God’s Workers

It’s been good, over the last few weeks, since before Christmas, actually to be
working through the Christmas narrative from the Gospel of Luke. We have learnt so
much together about the life of Jesus Christ and his importance to the world
generally and us specifically.
But, as we’ve gone through it, we’ve learnt more than just about Jesus himself.
There have been some wonderful characters who have walked on from the wings, as
it were, and taken centre stage for a few moments. And these characters have a lot
to teach us as well, primarily about our own response to Jesus.
And what I want to do this morning is just do a sort of recap on some of the
characters we’ve met in the last month or so and try to pull together some of the
loose ends from their lives and witness. Because, as we’ve studied each one
individually, we’ve learnt a great deal. But if we look at them together – corporately –
then we begin to see some interesting patterns emerging. There have been five main
characters that have appeared in the last few months, not always at the 9.45 service,
but in the services in their totality.
The first, right back in Advent, was Zacharias – the father of John the Baptist,
who received a vision of God in the temple sanctuary. The second was Elizabeth his
wife, an old lady taken aback by her surprise pregnancy. The third character was
Mary, the mother of Jesus, whose obedience and humility serves as an example to
us all. And the fourth and fifth characters, we’ve just met: Simon and Anna in the
temple, two elderly people who recognised Jesus for who he was.
And what unites each and every one of these people is that each one of them
was chosen by God to be his witnesses. Each one of them was set aside by God to
do a very special work for him. Each one of them – in different ways – was entrusted
with the good news of the coming Messiah and each of them had a part to play in
telling others about that Messiah each one was given a special role in the history of
mankind. And you know what? Only one of them was ordained!! Only Zacharias was
a priest. Isn’t that wonderful? The rest of them were just ordinary people going about
their everyday lives when God called them to do their special tasks. A housewife, a
schoolgirl, a couple of old-age pensioners. All of them met by God in their everyday
situations and commissioned with the wonderful privilege of telling others about the
amazing works of God.
So let’s never fall into the trap of thinking that the work of proclaiming the Gospel,
the God-stuff, is only the work of people like me with funny collars and a Sunday-best
dress. Four-fifths of the time, God calls people like you – not me!
So what do we learn about the type of people who God calls to be his
messengers? Three things…

1. That God is no respecter of age

Now the church as a whole has got itself into a bit of a pickle about this over the last
few years. Because the way the Church of England has run over the last 100 years
or so is that we have been too afraid to use young people in the church. We are
afraid of their enthusiasm, which we quaintly write off as immaturity. And then, at the
other end of the spectrum, we’ve been keen to put people out to pasture once they
reach a certain age as having nothing else to offer our great institution. The fallacy
the Church of England has laboured under is that it is only the people in the 35-55
age bracket who have anything positive to offer the church. And since the prevailing
pattern in churches today is that we have plenty of contact with young people and
loads of contact with pensioners but much less contact with the 35-55 age group, we
have got ourselves into a situation which we desperately need to address.
But you know, God has no such problem with age-ism. God is no respecter of
age. And it doesn’t matter what your age is – God still wants to use you for his

1
purposes.
Throughout Scripture, we read of young people being used by God and for God.
Isaac, Joseph, David, Timothy, the boy with the loaves and fishes – there are many
examples in Scripture of young people being used as Christians, used to make a real
difference for God.
And if we count ourselves as being young this morning, we need to know that
God wants to use even you to make a difference for him. And for those of us who
don’t count ourselves as being young anymore, we need to consider the challenge
which God sets before us to liberate our young people into the service of God.
Because the truth is, more often than not, our young people are desperate to make a
difference, they are desperate to channel their energies and the church seems a
good place for them to do that. And we need to carefully consider whether or not the
way we structure our Institution serves as a liberation or a barrier to the full
involvement of young people. Is the way we do church a cork in the bottle-neck for
our young people or is it a funnel through which their energies and skills can flow?
This is an important question for us to ask ourselves.
God calls young people to be his messengers. But God calls older people into his
service too. What do I mean by old? What is elderly? I don’t know – I’ll leave that for
you to judge! Perhaps it might help you come to a decision on that by thinking about
Bob Hope’s definition when he said, “You know you’re getting old when the candles
cost more than the cake!”
But what is absolutely clear is that Scripture is crammed full of people past
retirement age called by God to make a difference in the world for him. Abraham,
Moses, Haggai, Ezekiel, many of these Old Testament saints were called by God
when they should have been collecting their pensions…
And my firm belief, and what I believe will be the catalyst for major growth here at
St. Mary’s, is that for some of you who have been faithful disciples of Christ for 20,
30, 40, 50 even 60 or 70 years – for some of you, the best is still to come in terms of
Christian discipleship. It would not be unusual for God to use some of you more
powerfully in your retirement than in all your youth added together. Because that’s
the way God works: if you are still open to being used by God, if you want to be a
vessel for God’s transforming love and power, age is no barrier at all.
God is looking for youthful people to be his disciples. That might be young people
like Mary, it might be older people like Zacharias, Elizabeth, Simeon and Anna. But
youthful people all the same…As Malcolm Boyd once said: “Youth is not properly
definable by age. It is a spirit of daring, creating, asserting life, and openly relating to
the world.”
Are we youthful for God?
First, then, God is no respecter of age

2. God is no respecter of gender

Today, we live in an egalitarian society; a society where, more than ever before,
there is movement towards equality of the sexes. The days of Martin Luther in the
16th-century who said that, “women should remain at home, sti still, keep house, and
bear and bring up children…”, the age of that type of comment if it isn’t dead yet
then, God willing, it soon will be. And in recognising that equality in the church we are
not bowing down to some sort of modern idol. Instead we are recognising something
that is in the very heart of God. Now, I’m not talking about the ordination of women to
the episcopate here – this is not the time to have that debate. What I’m talking about
is the clear and unequivocal testimony of Scripture that God recognises no difference
between male and female when it comes to calling people who will minister his
Gospel.
I’m picking up on Paul’s words that, “in Christ there is no male or female; all are
one in Christ Jesus”. I’m picking up on the fact that, throughout Scripture, there are
as many women as men called to bear witness to the love of God. I’m picking up on

2
the fact that three out of the five characters in these two chapters of Luke are
women; Elizabeth, Mary and Anna, called and chosen by God for a special purpose
in the plan of God.
Our God is a God who recognises the special giftings – the unique giftings – of
both men and women alike. Our God is a God who acknowledges that if a church is
to represent the whole nature of humanity if the church is to represent the image of
God Himself, then we must value the gifts and the ministries themselves with no
special regard for the gender of the giver the genetic make-up of the minister. All are
one in Christ Jesus. In him there is no male or female. That is the testimony of
Scripture. That is the teaching of the Word of God.
So then, if God is no respecter of age, if God is no respecter of gender, what
does God look for when calling people to minister his Gospel? Well, as someone one
put it so simply, “When God measures a person, he doesn’t put a tape round their
head. He puts it round their heart.” God looks to our hearts and if our hearts are right,
he will use us.
And very briefly now, because we are running out of time, the example of these
five characters show five different but overlapping characteristics of the heart which
are pleasing to God.

3. Characteristics of the heart

First, a prayerful heart. Zacharias is the perfect example of this, the man to whom the
angel said, “Do not be afraid, God has heard your prayer”. Quite simply, if we do not
pray, we cannot be used by God. A Christian called Carlo Carretto once said: “The
degree of our faith is the degree of our prayer. The strength of our hope is the
strength of our prayer. The warmth of our charity is the warmth of our prayer.” If we
have no heart for prayer, we have no heart for God.
Secondly, God looks for an expectant heart. We thought a few weeks ago about
how Mary was expecting God to act; maybe not at that time, in that place, in that way
but nevertheless, she was expecting God to act. And unless we have expectant
hearts, unless we are expecting God to act, we will never see it when he does. “Aim
for nothing and you will surely hit it”.
Thirdly, God wants us to have rejoicing hearts again, like Mary, to rejoice in God
when we see him moving amongst us.
Fourthly, God wants us to have accepting hearts. Simeon gives us a wonderful
example of that, doesn’t he? When he finally meets with Jesus, when he finally sees
the Messiah face to face, he just says, “Oh God, do with me whatever you want…”
And finally, finally, God wants us to have excited hearts, I love this image of
Anna, this really old woman getting so excited in her faith that she just can’t stop
telling other people about Jesus. Is that how it is with us? Are we so excited about
what God has done for us and for this church that we just can’t stop telling other
people about him?

God has a work to do – a message to proclaim. He’s not just looking for people to
become Vicars. He’s looking for everyday people, with everyday lifestyles and
everyday jobs, to go out and proclaim the Gospel of Christ. Is that a task we want to
undertake, regardless of our age or gender? Zacharias and Elizabeth and Mary and
Simeon and Anna, over the past few weeks, have served as wonderful examples to
us.
As we draw a line under our Advent, Christmas and Epiphany seasons today, we
are left with the challenge of their examples and we are called by God to respond.
It’s up to each one of us how we do that…