Luke 2:32 Nunc Dimittis - Light page 1

The Nunc Dimittis - for those of us plebs who grew up with a comprehensive education, that's either a prize-winning bloom at the Chelsea Flower Show or a disease for which the doctor will prescribe you ointment.

Latin never was a strong point for the Faulkner family. If I never got to learn it due to attending a comprehensive school, my Dad did at a grammar school and found it pointless - so much so that he spent Latin classes drawing cartoons.

So there is no chance of me giving this sermon in Latin, like graduation addresses at Cambridge University.

My task in this final sermon in the series is to take the theme of the final verse in Simeon's song over the infant Jesus at his dedication in the Temple:

'a light for revelation to the Gentiles
    and for glory to your people Israel.'
[Luke 2:32]

The salvation that Jesus brings is light - light in the darkness. The young Robert Louis Stevenson was at home in Edinburgh as a child when he saw a lamplighter coming around the streets. His nurse called him away from the window to have his tea, but the boy stayed at the window, transfixed. "Look, look," he cried excitedly, "There's a man punching holes in the darkness."

So what Simeon celebrates in the salvation of Jesus is that here is the Messiah, come to punch holes in the darkness. He is light for both Gentile and Jew.

next page

[ Home ] [ Up ] [ About Me ] [ Articles ] [ Kulcha ] [ Links ] [ Messenger ] [ Musings ] [ Search ]

Copyright © David D Faulkner, 2006 except where other sources are attributed or noted as inspiration.