Master, you now have set your slave free to go in peace
The 8th day of Christmas ~ The Name of Jesus ~ New Year’s Day
The preaching passage is from Luke’s Gospel, chapter 2:21-35, in which Joseph and Mary bring the baby Jesus to the temple to be circumcised and receive his name. While taking him to the temple, they encounter a man named Simeon, who rejoices to meet the infant Jesus.
The New Year comes with new (or renewed) resolutions. Good habits and good hearts are good aims, and Simeon offers us a good example to follow. But when Simeon meets Jesus, he finds a new song to sing, and we discover that the message might not be the one we expected to hear! Jesus is here, and that changes everything.
This sermon is given by Kim Todd, a Seminary Student who works at St Paul and is pursuing her Master of Divinity at Luther Seminary.
The artwork is by Rembrandt, Simeon’s Song of Praise taken from https://rabbitroom.com/2016/05/art-stories-one-rembrandt-and-two-simeons/