Waiting is such a hard thing to do. Whether we are anticipating the return of a loved one, looking forward to the unveiling of a surprise, anxious for the start of a refreshingly good time, or the end of a soul-crunching time of trial. Waiting is a hard thing to do.

(Extended silent pause.)

See what I mean? The silence of waiting - the uncertainty of waiting ? it makes us nervous and uncomfortable. It's so much easier to charge forward and be busy ? than it is to wait. Have you ever tried to explain that reasoning to a 6 year old who wakes up at 4:30 AM on Christmas morning? "I know honey, Santa's been here. Now go back to sleep and wait for the sun to come up."

Yea, right!

If you've been counting down the days until Christmas, you have only 4 more days to count ? unless you count days like Ali does. She doesn't think today or the target date should be included, so actually there is only 2 days until Christmas. She should know ? she's been counting since October. If you're really a Type A go-getter, you may have been waiting and preparing for Christmas since September or August. I've even know some people who shop the after Christmas sales looking for next year's gifts. Waiting a whole year! Preparing a whole year.

That seems like a long time to me ? doesn't it you? (Of course, I like to do the majority of my shopping on the day before Christmas! I can't imagine holding a gift and waiting for 8-10 months to give it away.) Can you imagine waiting 10 years for Christmas? What about 20? Or even 50 years? Imagine waiting for Christmas for 80 years!!

(You could ask for a new bicycle and be too old to ride it by the time you got it!)

I'm not just being purely hypothetical ? for in Luke's telling of the Christmas story, there is specific mention of a couple of people who had been waiting for Christmas for a long time. They're not people we normally include in the Nativity scene, nor do we see them on Christmas cards or hear their perspective in carols that we sing. Yet their inclusion in the narrative of Jesus' birth is so poignant and so personal, that we need to look again at Simeon and Anna.

Two people desperate to see God. Two people completely sold out to the Lord. Two people who had seen all of life's promises - and opted to wait on the promised One of God. The beauty of their story is that it speaks to every one of us. You would not be within the sound of my voice if God where not answering a prayer to make Himself known to you. Whether you are a long-time believer in need of the Father's reassuring touch ? or whether you are a seeker, looking for God's answer in this world of questions. You are here because at the core, you too wanted to see God.

And like Simeon and Anna, we can!

(ill) I read about a Coast Guard cutter that picked up a distress call from someone whose sailboat was taking on water. The marine radio operator responded by asking "What's your position?"

The distressed caller replied "Vice president of the State Street bank."

T/S: The good news this morning is that if you want to see God - the requirements have nothing to do with earthly status, or worldly wealth. Your name is inconsequential. And it doesn't matter who your references are.

The prophet Jeremiah clued us in by recording God's word, when He said "You will seek Me and find Me when you seek Me with your whole heart." (Jer 29:13 NKJV)

For the next 15 minutes I want to invite you to be open ? open minded and open hearted. Open to the possibility that God really wants to show Himself to you this morning - right here, right now. Open to the possibility that like Simeon and Anna, you may get to see God.

The Simeon and Anna story has many parallels to our day, with regard to the spiritual climate. In their day and ours, there was both a heightened spiritual interest AND a fragmented spiritual community. Let me explain.

In the first century there was a renewed spiritual enthusiasm in Israel that came from basically two sources: Israel was occupied by the Romans and God had been silent for 400 years. Slavery and oppression always lead people to turn to the Lord, because the helplessness of their situation is so apparent. And the people of Israel were accustomed to being God's people - blessed and led by Yahweh, and yet no prophet had emerged as God's mouthpiece for 4 centuries. The combination of Roman rule and Godly silence had fed the fires of Messianic expectation. People burned for the Chosen One of God! The prayed and longed and ached for God to show Himself.

Trouble was - they had some different ideas about what God might look like.

Even among the devout Jews there were starkly divided opinions. Pharisees and Sadduccess, once partners in the centrality of the Temple, now were divided by the politics of Rome. Zealots emerged at another extreme of the spectrum, wanting a total break from the world ? and very willing to fight and die for that belief.

The spiritual environment was further clouded by adding in the pagan influences of the day: from Rome's pleuthora of gods to Greece's philosophic humanism. From Zues to Plato, the first century Jew had to weed through a muddled spiritual landscape to cling to the truth.

Fast forward 2000 years, and change some names - and things may not be as different as we think. There is ongoing in America today, a spiritual awakening. People are looking to answer questions about the meaning of life, the purpose for man's existance and the explanation of suffering. And those answers aren't addressed by economics and technology. So people have turned inward and they've turned upwards. And America has experienced a dramatic rise in interest for things spiritual.

In our country, there are two forces at work in our quest for inner peace. One is the collective guilt that we bear regarding our excess materialism and unquenchable lust for possessions and power. Commercial success has consumed 3 generations since 1970. We Boomers came of age with the determination that we would accomplish, achieve and accumulate. And we have.

Funny thing happened on the way to Middle Age. We found out that hatfuls of money don't buy happy marriages.

Our treasure does not purchase tranquility.

Low interest rates don't produce high interest families.

High tech communication never bridges the gap between parents and children.

And no matter how big our piece of the rock is, it doesn't get us peace of mind.

So we have started to look elsewhere. Matters of religion and spirituality abound. Meditation and yoga are flourishing. There is a revival of Eastern mysticism and the popularity of new age philosophers like Deepak Chopra and Oprah Winfrey continue to skyrocket. In fact, with great unanimity America agrees that we need to pay attention to and nourish the "inner man." Problem is, conventional wisdom has told us that the inner man is unique to each person, so each person should approach enlightenment in their own way. The only spirituality that is not to be tolerated is one that claims to actually know and be based on truth.

Add to our guilt the immediate trigger of the 9-1-1 terror, and the precarious war-bent path that we are walking now. These influences only add pressure to our need to find inner relief - some answers to the questions of meaning and purpose that abound.

And just like in the first century, our spiritual answers come from a highly divided and fragmented spectrum. Within Christianity there are over 600 denominations in the United States. Triple that number and you will approach the number of known cults and spiritual organizations that range from thee kooky to the respected. After all, we are told over and over - Islam, Buddhism, Judaism, New Agism - these are just lots of different ways to reach the same God.

So what does all that have to do with Simeon and Anna - or me and you - and the Christmas story? To understand what kind of world these two people lived in, I am hoping, will help you appreciate what happened when they finally encountered God. And I hope it will help you see the lengths God will go to in order to make Himself known.

You have to know where to look.

(ill) I recently read the account of some Wildlife Rangers in Alaska who spend a great deal of time investigating and pursuing moose poachers. It was sort of a CSI for the frozen animal kingdom. The author was describing how rangers look for clues like bullet casings, boot prints, tire tread tracks and other things that can direct them to the criminals. His favorite prosecution was the poacher who had meticulously cleaned up the scene so there was no evidence, except that the poacher backed his vehicle into a snowbank as he left and left a perfect impression of his license plate.

T/S: The Alaskan Ranger said, "It's all about knowing where to look." The same is true for us this morning. The spiritual landscape can be confusing with so many different people claiming to believe in so many different things. And our needs are so acute.

I don't know what brought you out looking for God this morning: But He wants to show Himself to you more than you want to see Him. But you have to know where to look. Because the answer to life's questions and the relief from life's pains is found in the same place today as it was when Simeon and Anna were looking: in a baby!

T/S: If you approach the manger this Christmas with an open heart, you too will see God! And the evidence will be in the gifts that God gives you. It's the very same gifts that He gave Simeon and Anna.

I don't have anything against PEACE and JOY, but I wish there was a good Christmas carol about HOPE. Nothing robs us of our humanity quicker than despair. To give up. To believe that because there are so many answers, none of them must be right. To believe that there is so much evil, good cannot possibly triumph. Or saddest of all, to just stop believing anything ? giving in to apathy and nihilsm.

I want you to try and imagine the weight of lifted from Simeon and Anna's shoulders. So many years of waiting ? so many years of watching the situation around them deteriorate from bad to worse. Maccabean corruption had been replaced with Roman oppression. And still no Messiah!

Maybe you have been waiting for a struggling relationship to improve.

Or you've been waiting for the answers to a medical situation.

Or you've prayed for a child or a husband or a father to return to the Lord.

Maybe you have headline fatigue - heard too many horror stories on the evening news, seen to many predictions of war, listened to too many accounts of the terrorist threats - and your spirit is just tired.

Lean over the side of the crib ? there's a Baby. Nothing restores hope like new life. I've seen grieving families that rally from the death of a loved one with a new baby. And this Baby, He's not just any new life ? He is the Way, the Truth and the Life. The Apostle Paul would say that this Baby's appearing was the blessed hope for all man.

Simeon knew. When he looked in on this Baby, he praised the Father for revealing the One Who was the "light and glory."

Every other religion ? every other spiritual answer that man has to offer, depends upon our willingness and ability to work up to a new level. Be good enough that God will accept us. Be enlightened enough that we will understand. Be sacrificial enough that we will earn redemption. Every religion and philosophy on earth has the blueprint for how man is supposed to get to God.

Only Christianity offers man God Himself ? so willing for us to know Him that He came to us. As a Baby. Simeon and Anna saw Him and knew God's promises were true. If you are willing to see Him, you can experience that hope as well.

(ill) You've heard the new joke going around in the wake of the Enron and other corporate scandals? If you ask an accountant what 2 + 2 is, what will they say?

"What do you want it to be?"

T/S: Some times that ?s how we look at spiritual matters, as if we just invent some new reality. Believe whatever you want, and it will make you feel better. That's not the kind of hope I'm talking about. God's promise is that if you will lay aside your ego and pride, for a moment stop pretending that you already have the answers, He will deliver Jesus into your heart. He will give you hope.

One key element of this story has to do with Simeon and Anna's age. Both were up in years. Both had followed the Lord for a long time. And that matters so much because often we are so focused on making Jesus available to those who may not yet know Him, that longtime believers are overlooked. By us, not by God.

Maybe your decision to follow Jesus was made a long time ago. That distance can be measured in years or in experience, but in either case, things today are much different than when you first set out after the Lord. Your family situation is different. The financial situation is different. The health situation is different. Heck, the world is different.

You too need to be reminded to come look in the manger.

See the Promise.

See the baby.

See God.

Remember what it was like to be passionate about believing. Feel the power of His immediate presence. Know that He loves you and cares for you. Be reassured that even if life is changed, God has not. Nor have His promises withered away.

In the first century, Jews waited for a Messiah that would free them from Rome. God's redemption was believed to be a warrior-king who would restore Israel to political and military might. But time has taught us that there are much worse conditions of bondage than to be out of political power. Trent Lott will figure this out.

Our world is populated by men and women in bondage to fears and addictions.

Enslaved to lusts and pride.

Chained by racism and sexual discrimination.

Imprisoned by selfishness and arrogance.

And no warrior king was strong enough to free man from himself. Christmas is wonderful time to remember that true freedom comes from true salvation -a recognition that God has come among us Himself, to show us the way out of slavery. And the way was through knowing Him.

Simeon was so right when he told Joseph and Mary that for some people, that would be unbelievable. They would miss God's redemption because they refused to look at Jesus. That answer was too far off their expectations. Too different from our imaginations about what it would take to save the world.

But our expectations do not change the truth that Jesus came as a baby, lived among us - like us, in all ways except sin, so that we would know what God was like. So that we would know how to live abundant lives, because Jesus modelled the fullness of life. Love, joy and peace were not to be found in wooden nativity scenes, but in the Living God ? living among us.

And that offer of freedom is ours today ? but he condition still remains. Believe. Look into the feed trough and let the God of Heaven speak to your heart and tell you that He came to earth. To offer you freedom. To offer you life. To save you.

All you have to do is want to see Him bad enough that you will let go of everything else.

(ill) last night we got home from doing some Christmas shopping and Ragen was enthralled with bags that were off-limits to her. She crawled under the bed to see what was in the bags. She snuck around the corner, went through the bathroom into our bedroom ? laughing at the top of her lungs and telling us "I want to see the presents."

Aaron Brown said "Persistence always trumps talent and good looks."

Sure enough, Ragen kept at it until she got one purchase out of the bag ? much to her delight.

T/S; Do you remember what it was like to anticipate Christmas like that? To search your Mom and Dad's closet when they were out, looking to see what they bought you? Shaking the wrapped packages trying to hear a clue?

Come look at the Baby. Keep looking. Touch Him with your prayers. Hear His Word speak to your heart. Keep looking. Keep waiting. Keep wanting. Keep searching. Merry Christmas.