Hope For Every Longing Heart: January 3, 2021
Happy New Year and Welcome to St. Paul's Bloor Street! Our vision is a church made alive, a city made new, and a people made whole. Today we're concluding our sermon series "Hope For Every Longing Heart" and looking at Luke 2: 22-40.
Luke 2:22-40 NIVUK
Questions to Ponder:
1. Chapters 1-2 of Luke’s Gospel are very carefully set up and written, with both songs and stories. There are four songs mentioned in the sermon, found in these chapters. Who sings them and when? Why do you think Luke recorded these songs?
2. Are you familiar with the Nunc Dimittis, the Song of Simeon? What do you think of it?
3. Here at the beginning of Luke’s Gospel he is careful to show that Jesus is a Jew, born to poor Jewish parents. The mention of “two doves or pigeons” is for poorer people who can’t afford a bigger sacrifice. Why do you think Luke makes reference to this?
4. Have you known or been inspired by people like Anna or Simeon in the past, people whose faithfulness to God is so quiet that they don’t receive notice for it?
5. Have you found that regular practices of reading your Bible, praying, and loving neighbours helps you to see ways that God is at work in the world?
6. How does this passage give you hope?
Closing Prayer:
Loving God, open our ears to hear your word and draw us closer to you, that the whole world may be one with you as you are one with us in Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.