Malachi 3:1-4 Who can stand when he appears? (Anna can.)
Hebrews 2:14-18 Free those who all their lives were held in slavery by the fear of death.
Luke 2:22-40 There was also a prophet, Anna.

O God of the prophets, grant us the strength, the wisdom and the courage to seek always and everywhere after truth, come when it may, and cost what it will.

This year, Emmanuel’s 160th Annual Meeting falls on the fortieth day after Christmas, the Feast of the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple, which the Gospel of Luke tells us occurred, as required, when Mary and Joseph took their infant into the Temple in Jerusalem to dedicate him to God and to celebrate the return to purity of his mother. This is a little bit odd because there actually is no known requirement or even custom of presenting an infant in the temple, but there was a rite of purification for a mother after delivering a baby.

In Jesus’ time, a mother of a son could return to a state of purity after 40 days with the offering of a sheep and a dove if she could afford it, or the offering of two doves if she were poor. The mother of a daughter took 80 days — twice as long to regain purity. (whatever) Traditionally, the Church celebration of this feast on February 2 also known as Candlemas, used to be called The Feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mother. In 1969 the name got changed by the Roman Catholic Church, and the Episcopalians followed suit in our 1979 Book of Common Prayer. When February 2 falls on a Sunday, the Feast supersedes the usual Sunday lectionary appointments. Since February 2 doesn’t fall on a Sunday very often, we typically don’t hear this part of the infancy narrative so long after Christmas, after the stories of Jesus’ adult baptism at the Jordan River, and after the stories of calling the first disciples.

Luke tells a beautiful story – of Mary and Joseph presenting their infant son to God and the response of Simeon and Anna, who have been looking for, praying for the consolation of Israel and the redemption of Jerusalem, in other words, the restoration of dignity and peace to God’s people. The Gospel of Luke provides us one of the most beloved hymn texts in Christian history – the Nunc Dimittis or the Song of Simeon. It has been sung as part of daily prayer services since at least the 4th century. The Song of Simeon has its grounding in the words of consolation and comfort in the book of Isaiah, written many centuries before, at another time when restoration and redemption were desperately needed. Simeon sings a song of praise to God and then a song of blessing upon the young family. It’s a curious blessing, though, not one that I would want for my baby. It’s a blessing that predicts that the child is destined to create conflict and violence. If someone blessed my baby that way, I think I would run for it.

That’s when Anna the Prophet takes over. In the Bible, prophet means someone who is divinely inspired to see and speak truth about both what is, and what is possible. Anna is one of six women in the whole Bible who are called prophets: five in Hebrew scriptures, Miriam, Deborah, Huldah, Noadiah, and Isaiah’s wife (whose name seems to have been misplaced). Anna is the only woman in the New Testament who is named a prophet. The name Anna means grace or favor. (It’s the Greek version of the Hebrew name Hannah.) She had a vocation apart from homemaking or mothering, having been widowed after seven years of marriage, and never remarrying. The text can be translated that she was 84 years old, but it literally says that she had been a widow for 84 years, which would make her about 105. Having just had the experience of singing songs with a 105-year-old prophet named Margaret, I’m inclined to assign her the older age. Either way, the point is that she was well on in years. Luke is answering Malachi’s question, “who can stand when he appears” with, “Anna can.”

She was the daughter of Phanuel, which means face of God (a metaphor for God’s favor), from the Tribe of Asher. That makes her “the only Jewish character in the New Testament who is said to belong not to one of the southern tribes of Judah or Benjamin, or the priestly tribe of Levi, but to one of the northern tribes of Israel.” [1] Asher was the eighth son of Jacob and Asher means lucky, bearer of good fortune or salvation. Why did Luke include those details? Surely Phanuel and Anna were both long gone by the time Luke was writing his Gospel three generations after the death of Jesus. Why were these details important to Luke’s audience at the end of the first century? Why do we need to know that Anna confirmed that Jesus would be the redemption of Jerusalem? Could we not just take Simeon’s word for it? Luke apparently did not think the presentation story was complete with just Simeon. It’s possible that Simeon represented the inhabitants of Judah and Anna, daughter of Phanuel of the Tribe of Asher represented the exiles in the diaspora, hoping for return — reunion. [2] Luke’s own community was in the diaspora in the north – probably Syria or Turkey.

With both Simeon and Anna, the story inhabitants of the land and the exiled, the northern and the southern tribes of Israel who are being restored in Jesus to be a light to all of the nations, which is another way of saying a light to the Gentiles. You might not know that “Judaism generally taught that salvation was for all people, not only for Jews.” [3] There’s another thing that Anna represents, in contrast to Simeon. Upon seeing the infant Jesus, Simeon’s song announced his dismissal in peace. Anna’s response is that she began to praise God and spread the word about the child to all who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem – and Jerusalem means city of peace. Not only was Anna a prophet; she was the earliest New Testament evangelist. Her spreading the word of Jesus at the beginning of Luke’s Gospel is one bookend and the other bookend is the evangelism of Mary Magdalene and the other women who witnessed the empty tomb at the end of the Gospel. 

So Simeon saw the infant Jesus and retired, and Anna saw the infant Jesus and got to work. She might have been old in age, but she was “young in hope.” [4] Apparently she didn’t waste any time on folks who were not looking for restoration or redemption. She spread the word to those who were looking. Her words were not recorded. The good news about that is that it leaves room for our imagination about what she said. That kind of holy imagination used to read between the lines in the Bible is called midrash.

If you were going to use your holy imagination to read between the lines in this story, what do you think Anna said? What would you say if you were Anna? What would you say about Jesus to people who seem to be searching for restoration or redemption, looking for respect for the dignity of every human being, for liberation from an oppressive and corrupt government? What words of hope do you have for people looking for relief and reconciliation, for a city of peace, for a world of peace? Could you point them – even bring them to a place where their dignity would be respected, no matter what their age or circumstances? If you were a person in a city searching for restoration or redemption, what would you hope someone like Anna would say to you about Jesus? What words or signs would give you hope for peace in this city, or in this nation or in this world, or even in your heart?

You know, restoration and redemption were not just needed in the time of the prophet Isaiah and his prophet wife. Restoration and redemption were not just needed in the time of the prophet Anna. Restoration and redemption are sorely needed now. The dignity of every human being is not yet being universally respected. By including the story of Anna the Prophet, hearers of Luke’s Gospels learn that it is never too late see a sign of hope and it’s never too late to start spreading the word of hope. None of us is too old to be “young in hope.” None of us is too far gone to be reunited with the Love of God. None of us is too old to shine the light of Christ for others to see. Perhaps you know Rosanne Cash (daughter of Johnny Cash) has a song that reveals her Episcopalian sensibilities, called “50,000 Watts of Common Prayer.” The set up to the chorus is “Love in your future, I’ll wait for you there, Put 50,000 watts of a common prayer – 50,000 watts of common prayer.” A light to the nations indeed: we have a light and his name is Jesus. We are a part of his body in the world now: 50,000 watts of common prayer. It’s our obligation and opportunity to shine.