LESSON 1
SCRIPTURE
T
Luke 2:21–38
Anna is able to recognize Jesus’
role and calling when he is brought to the temple
as an infant because she is in a place where revelation is likely, she practices her spirituality, and
she gives voice to what she understands — three
decisions we can follow in our own lives.
SUMMARY
B Y R E V. D R . C A T H Y M Y E R S W I R T
his summer at the
Christian Church in
Oregon and Southwest
Idaho High School
Camp in Central Oregon, campers and staff
gathered around the theme,
“Praying It Forward.” As a
part of the day, campers could
choose between trips to waterfalls, rivers, or a lake, or spend
time on art projects.
Each choice involved lea rning
prayer practices of mindfulness,
praise, petition, and blessing.
When hiking along a river,
campers stopped to listen to
the river and center themselves,
praying in gratitude for the ways
the Holy Spirit was shaping their
lives as the rapids shaped the
riverbed. Those who rowed canoes were invited to experience
the unity of rowing together and
pray for other ways they might
work together in the world.
In all of these experiences,
staffers sought to teach campers
the spiritual practice of slowing
down, calming the heart, listening for the Spirit, and deepening the knowledge that when
we “wait upon the Lord,” our
strength is renewed.
All week long campers worked
on a worship cloth for the communion table. The second day
they worked on stained glass-like
candle holders to hold the light
of Christ. Day three found them
baking bread for the table. The
last full day of camp, prayer
beads were strung for the closing
communion table. On the final
morning, the table they had
been creating all week long was
lovingly set.
One young woman, Hannah,
spent a good part of each day
painstakingly working on the
worship cloth. She helped to
conceive the design, drew the
vines, and slowly set dots of
puff paint for the flowers. She
possessed a focus for the project.
She watched it emerge from her
hands and the hands of others.
She maintained a vision for the
group all week of how the cloth
might evolve as it emerged.
Hannah stayed in the lodge
during the choice times, and she
was waiting for the vision she
held for the cloth to be visible to
everyone.
ANNA WAITS FOR GOD
Anna, whom we read about in
Luke’s gospel, was another woman of focus. Her name translates
literally to words such as grace
or favor. Anna, described as a
woman “of a great age,” had
been waiting in the temple for a
long time, holding a vision of a
new time to come, of a new type
of leader for her people. Anna,
immersed in prayer, watched
for God to break into the world.
Through her prayer, she had
narrowed her search and waited
in the temple, a place where
she expected the breaking in of
God’s spirit. She was there on
the day Jesus’ family appeared,
along with Simeon, another
older person waiting for the
Messiah. In the chapters directly
before the story of Anna, we
read the story of Mary, signaling
to the reader that God speaks
to the young as well as to those
in advanced years. The author
of Luke’s gospel also might be
giving us a clue that waiting for
God’s presence and direction
sometimes comes quickly and
unexpectedly, as it did to Mary,
and other times it requires a long
wait and deep patience.
By pairing stories and meanings in this way, the author of
Luke gives a balance and a
message of fullness. He connects
the old and the young, the rich
and the poor, and very often,
male and female in a variety of
sections of his gospel. Other examples of this kind of pairing of
stories in Luke’s gospel include
these:
SPRING 2015
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