How many of us have seen The March of the Penguins? It is an 1 ½ hours of how Emperor penguins breed. The process starts when the penguins march up to 70 miles to reach their breeding place. Snow, ice..It is a long journey - they keep marching until they find the place where the ground is solid and deep, otherwise when summer comes the ground will simply disappear beneath their feet.
The key factor to their survival is their faithfulness to their breed and their trust in what they know - That this long walk will bring about a new chick and survival for the Emperor penguins.
If they did not make it to the breeding place it would mean that breeding for that year would be lost and that will affect the population of Emperor penguins.- therefore it is there only way to live! It is their destiny -their calling.
We all choose how we are going to live – the people in the book of Malachi had chosen to live life in way that God was unhappy with. Malachi is the last book in the Old Testament. Malachi is classified as a minor prophet – its title means messenger. The book was written 100 years after the people had been released from captivity in Babylon and contains more of Gods speech than any of the other prophetic books.
The captives had been through a terrible ordeal for a few generations and we know about it from stories such as Daniel.

• "Only a few prisoners had survived and been released
• They had no king
• Upon returning to the Promised Land they had been blighted by poor harvests and swarms of locusts
• As a consequence Judah only consisted of a small hill town and some surrounding villages.

They were a disappointed, disillusioned and even despairing community. Their faith and trust in Yahweh was at a low and as a consequence were allowing sin into more and more of their lives so that they saw no wrong in dabbling in sorcery, committing adultery etc. Those in power were using it to their own personal advantage and were abusing the rights of others. They had cast aside all pretenses for justice and were openly using their power to consume the poor and powerless.
Further to this they had become sloppy in their worship, no longer caring how services were run and didn’t seem to mind that fewer and fewer people were attending worship ....they had lost their trust in God, and they were unfaithful to His teachings and to the community.
Yet we hear of Gods promise to them to send a messenger who will come to– the temple. A messenger in whom you can delight- he will bring light and purify His people so that Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to God , as in the days of old. When this happens God will draw near to HIS people and bring judgement on all those who are leading sinful lives. Hard words but then God loved and still loves His people so much that He has given them His only Son and a a way of life which is the best way of living
. In comparison to the Jewish exiles, written about in Malachi, our reading in Luke speaks of Simeon - A person who followed God way of life and so led a Holy life. Throughout his long life he was blessed with the gift of prophecy as he waited faithfully and trusting in Yahweh for Gods messenger.
He was a bit like an emperor Penguin – it might have been tough but they were determined to be faithful to their cause. We have seen over the last few weeks in our bible readings that the shepherds recognized the child by a sign, the Magi followed a star and today we see that it is the spiritual eyes of Simeon that perceived that this child is the one who would bring all God plans together. – This story has many similarities to 1Sam1-2 where Samuel is brought to the temple to be dedicated to the service of the Lord.
Mary and Joseph were in the temple because they chose to obey Gods laws – They had already chosen to have him circumcised and named. It was customary for the parents of a firstborn son needed to acknowledge Him as belonging to the Lord in a special way. (Exod 13:2, 12, 15). The child had to be redeemed by the payment of a fee of five shekels (Num 18:15–16). And then a lamb would be sacrificed (the poor could use two turtledoves or young pigeons (Lev 12:8).
Theologians believe that when the holy family came to the temple by the need to fulfill the law, Simeon is brought into the temple by an impulse of the Holy Spirit. And so it is divinely conspired that they should meet together.
With a spiritual sight born of his closeness to God, Simeon at once recognizes the child. For this to happen Simeon would need to have been open to the call and movement of the Holy Spirit…. Which only comes when we spend much time in prayer, listening to God and reading the scriptures.
This determination is seen in the life of the penguins – who after they have marched 70 miles to the breeding ground, court each other and then an egg is produced by the mother who promptly hands the egg over to the father and walks the 70 miles back to get food. When she has eaten enough for herself and her chick she then marches 70 miles back again to group of penguins – such faithfulness. So how does she know who is her partner
They know each other because during the gestation period- 120 days (4 months) they learn each other voices…..they know each other intimately.
Simeon was a man of faith- He trusted God to bring the messenger into the temple in his lifetime. In the same way Simeon knew Gods call on his life – he also recognized the touch of the Holy Spirit – and so he entered the temple at the same time as the Holy family. But trust in God in difficult times or over long periods of time is not something that comes easily – trust comes at a price!
…. Often when we are in a position of leaning on our faith we can feel that God has got something very wrong…. Those things should be different; we want to give up…. But as we patiently wait on God and trust that He knows best and we do find that, as Paul wrote to the Romans: all things work together for good* for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. (Romans 8.28) BUT that is often easier said than done!! As I wrote this sermon I thought ....wouldn’t it be wonderful to be as faithful as Simeon – Trusting in God to be faithful over my whole lifetime. Wouldn’t it be good to be so close to God the Father that the promptings of the Holy Spirit were as clear as an audible bell. Wouldn’t it be good to be so focused on Gods Kingdom that I would march 70 miles in the snow to fulfilll my calling.
This trust and faithfulness is not just for Simeon it is for us too. We can choose to be like Simeon -trusting God and remaining faithful or be like the people of malachi, who had lost their trust. We are all able to choose to draw close to God, by reading the scriptures, praying, challenging our lifestyle, listening for the promptings of the Holy Spirit... and so we know Him well. And as we do this we will see our trust Grow, our faithfulness develop and the blessings flow.