THE WITNESS OF SIMEON

THE WITNESS OF SIMEON Luke 2: 22-35


Tonight we are going to do something a little different in our service. I'm going to

read a scripture from Luke, chapter 2, beginning with verse 22 following - about a very

obscure personality - really, around the birth of Jesus Christ. And try to present this

obscure Iyet very important individual - I've sought to do it before in homiletical form

and found it very unsatisfactory - so without seeking to be particularly dramatic or

anything else...... tonight I have selected the media of a monologue - to share with you

just simply the witness of Simeon. And so, I trust he will speak to me and speak to you

across these generations and reveal to us something perhaps of what he himself felt and

saw and experienced - there in the Temple when prophecy was fulfilled, as far as the

Messiah and as far as his own life was concerned.



(Music begins)


My name is Simeon - for almost a century I have lived in Jerusalem. These years of my

life... I wish I could tell you tonight they were filled with joy and happiness, peace...

but this has not been the casp-- llijri-ng the-se alrngst ICIO years, I have seen much of

suffering, of war, of disease and of senseless murder and death. I am an Israelite. I

am a Jew. I am proud of my race, I am proud of my religion, I am proud of my heritage,

I am proud of my nation. I say that to you in advance.... because in order to explain my

life and to give my witness, I have to put it in context... of my people, who so many

times ... have been guilty of blatant sin and so many times, where there has been one of

my people.... one Israelite without guile.... there have been hundreds...who have gone

their own way ...

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