Have you ever had a stranger proclaim Christ to you? A few examples come immediately to mind for me. The first was when I attended community college in Illinois. I was hanging out with some friends in the common area of the school when a man came in and began shouting at the top of his lungs that if we did not accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior that we would go to hell. While being a loud proclamation, that was not something that I think really changed people’s lives for the better. In fact, if the reactions of the others around me was any indication, I think that proclamation of Christ was more of a hindrance to the gospel than a help. Another proclamation of Christ by a stranger that I recall was when April and I were in seminary and April was pregnant. We attended a birthing class at the hospital in Holland, Michigan. At some point during that experience, we shared that we were studying to be pastors. At the end of the class, one of the other couples approached us. The gentleman from the couple said to us, “You may think this is strange, but I saw Jesus once.” He went on to explain to us that he had been visiting a grave in the cemetery and a man appeared to him that he knew was Jesus. I don’t recall the specifics  beyond that, but I remember thinking that it was a strange conversation to have with someone we’d just met. I’m not sure that his proclamation of the Christ was really life changing for me, but I don’t think it was really harmful either.

These sorts of proclamations of Christ are interesting. In some ways, they have a similar feel to that of Anna’s proclamation that we read in the gospel of Luke this morning. But I think that Anna’s proclamation had more important and impact than either of those. There’s a great video by pastor Rob Bell in his Nooma series that talks about a guy he saw on his way into a concert he and his friends were attending. The guy was standing outside the venue with a bullhorn and shouting at people that if they did not convert to Christianity that they were going to go to hell, sort of like the guy at my community college. And Rob Bell talks about how this sort of proclamation of Jesus seems more like an attempt to get people to convert to a religion rather than show God’s love. And Bell says this, “If I’m loving somebody with an agenda, then it isn’t really love, is it?” I believe that in both of those stories I told the people proclaiming Christ were doing so with an agenda. The first was trying to convert people. The second was trying to show off his own spirituality. Neither were proclaiming the love of Christ, which is so deeply a part of who Jesus is.

But those are not the only times I’ve had Jesus proclaimed to me by a stranger. One time when April and I lived in Iowa, we had gone to Waterloo to do some shopping and we were feeling a bit stressed out from the week. We stopped at the drive thru at Starbucks to acquire some emotional support coffees and we placed our order and pulled up to the window to pay. When we got there, the barista said, “Your order has already been paid for by the person in front of you.” We were taken aback. It was such a selfless act by a stranger and a blessing to us in a stressful time. I remember another time when I had just returned to seminary after my mom’s funeral. A fellow student who was in the Masters of Theology program approached me. I had seen him before, but I’m not sure we’d ever even said more than “hello” to each other. He came up to me and he said, “I’m sorry to hear about your mother. I wanted to attend the funeral but I didn’t know how to get there.” I almost cried on the spot. This person I barely knew had longed to comfort me in my distress. That was an amazing and life-changing proclamation of Christ.

Anna was a widow. She’d lost her husband in circumstances that the Bible doesn’t really share with us. But since his death, she has not left the temple. She stayed there to worship God, fast, and pray day and night. The text says that she had been married to her husband for 7 years before he died and now she was 84. Given that most women were married off in their teen years, Anna had most likely been living in the temple for about 60 years. Luke calls her a prophetess, a designation not given to many women in the Bible. Only 5 other times does the Bible give women that designation, and only one other time in the New Testament, which occurs in Acts, another book written by Luke. The Greek word prophetes means “one who speaks forth by the inspiration of God” according to Strong’s Concordance. Anna spoke the truth about God to those who would listen. So her words were important. They mattered.

Listen again to what the text tells us Anna spoke about: “At that moment she came, and began to praise God and to speak about the child to all who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem.” Two things: Anna praised God and she shared the good news of redemption. To me, that is the crux of evangelism. Evangelism is not about converting people. It’s not about saving them from hell. It’s not about convincing them that our truth is the real truth. Evangelism is about praising God and sharing the good news of redemption. Anna saw in baby Jesus that the Redeemer had come. The long-awaited Messiah was there, among the people. And that was very good news, news worthy of telling everyone about.

The prophet Isaiah, in chapter 60, made this proclamation: “Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD has risen upon you. For darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples; but the LORD will arise upon you, and his glory will appear over you. Nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn.” Isaiah’s words are a call to proclaim good news as well. Isaiah, of course, didn’t know about Jesus yet. But he knew about the goodness of God and that redemption would come. In this passage, Isaiah tells his readers to shine. The Hebrew word there literally means “to be or become light.” This is a phrase I’ve heard Christians use many times and I’m sure I’ve used it too. But what does it mean for us to “be light.” Life coach and writer, Susie Draper, on her blog describes it like this: “As Marianne Williamson wrote in her book, A Return To Love: ‘As we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we’re liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.’ To me, ‘being the light’ doesn’t mean being a perfectly positive person who is blissfully happy all the time and never makes mistakes. It means doing things that make me feel free and peaceful, surrendering control, trusting my intuition, showing compassion and kindness to myself and others, and believing the simple truth that I am enough. It is about bringing light to the places that are dark. It is about looking for opportunities to lift someone else up. It is about making a conscious effort to do the things I know make my own light shine brighter so I can also help other people recognize the light that is within them.”

Like Anna, we proclaim the good news of Christ, not in order to convert others, but because we have been transformed by that good news. And we want to share our story. When I made the decision to follow Christ as a teenager on a youth group work trip, I made that decision because another youth on that trip shared about how God had transformed her life. She didn’t tell me what to believe or how to believe it. She simply let her light shine. And I was drawn to it. I was drawn to the God who had made a big difference in her life. I thought, “If God can do that in her life, then maybe God can transform my life for the better too.” When Anna saw Jesus, she could sense that there was something different about this child. While she probably didn’t know all of what Jesus would become, she could see a bit of his light shining forth. And she had to tell all who would listen about this child. She had to tell them that God was going to redeem them.

The wonderful Christmas carol “Go, Tell It on the Mountain” was a Negro spiritual, sung on the plantations around Christmas time. While it has become a rousing piece in our Christmas carol repertoires, it began as a song of encouragement to those in bondage. African American theologian James H. Cone wrote this about the song: “the conquering King, and the crucified Lord . . . has come to bring peace and justice to the dispossessed of the land. That is why the slave wanted to ‘go tell it on de mountain.’” Jesus’ birth meant redemption was coming, freedom was on its way. That didn’t mean that all oppression would cease and everyone would suddenly live in harmony. But Jesus’ birth was a sign of hope, a light shining in the darkness. Go, tell it on the Mountain was a proclamation of that hope.

Go, tell it on the mountain

Over the hills and everywhere

Go, tell it on the mountain

That Jesus Christ is born

May we be so transformed by the hope, peace, joy, and love of Jesus that we shine our light before others, so that they might be inspired to shine their own light, whatever that might look like. And in all of it, may God be praised. Amen!