Anna & Simeon: A Skit for Blue Christmas

Anna and Simeon: A Sermon Dialogue

Intended for use with Luke 2:25-38

By Pastor Katherine Rohloff, ELCA 2015

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Anna and Simeon enter, both very simply dressed, Anna wearing a black scarf. They are elderly and have known each other for decades. They’ll need a place to sit, and something for Simeon to lean against while sitting.

A: What was that you said to his mother, Simeon?

S: They aren't going to have an easy time of it. Well, the whole nation's going to go through a lot of upheaval when that child grows up, but to be his parents­ I can't imagine what that would be like.

A: It will be difficult for them. They don’t live anywhere near her family, you know, she'll have to depend on his for support. At least I had my mother nearby when I had my first.

S: That's not really what I meant, Anna.

A: I know.

S: She's going to have to watch him die.

A: That's a pain too many mothers know.

S: Not like that.

A: It's always just like that, Simeon, whether they're 30 weeks or 30 years old.

S: (remembers) I'm sorry, Anna. I'd forgotten that you'd lost a daughter. ...Perhaps you could give Mary some advice?

A: That she'll remember decades from now? Nothing that memorable, I'm afraid. God will be with her, but I won’t be, by then.

S: I haven’t thought much about the years to come. I’m still in shock that the Messiah has finally arrived.  Our wait – my wait – is over.

A: That’s right, you’ve been waiting for this day a long time, since the Spirit of God revealed to you that you would be here for the Messiah’s arrival.

S: I’m suddenly feeling my mortality, after years of knowing I had time left. Years of watching my friends and family die and knowing I wouldn’t join them yet.

A: At least you know why you’re still alive. I’ve been wondering for years.

S: Anna, you’re a prophetess! You speak the word of God to the people!

A: And I will continue to serve the Lord our God as long as I live. But I’ve lost people too, Simeon, my daughter, my husband…. We were only married 7 years.

S: How long have you been living here at the Temple?

A: Since my youngest grew up, over 40 years now. Since Herod took over, I suppose. I’ve said a lot of prayers, walking these floors.

S: Some days it seems like it’s been a lifetime of lonely prayers. At least our hope has finally arrived, now that the Messiah is born. Change is coming.

A: I’ve seen plenty of change. We used to be our own nation. I was a newlywed when Rome laid siege and took over the city. That was enough change for me.

S: I admit, with all that’s going to happen in the years to come, it’s exhausting just thinking about it. (sits down, rather suddenly)

A: Simeon, are you all right?

S: (too insistent) Fine! Like I said, it’s just exhausting.

A: (sits next to Simeon, watches him carefully) You’re right, the redemption of Jerusalem is coming. We do have hope, now that the Messiah is here.

S: God is with us, Emmanuel. So much good to come from one little child.

A: God never left you, Simeon.

S: Don’t you start. I don’t need a speech about how righteous and devout I am from you, of all people. Those young priests treat me like an ancient relic already.

A: You’ll get no such speech from me. I know you, remember. You’re as troublesome and forgetful as you are righteous and devout – which is plenty. But that’s not why God never left you.

S: Oh? Why is God still with me, then, O Wise and Crotchety One?

A: You are God’s beloved child. You were when you were a child, when you were a scandalous young man who refused to get married, and you still are now.

S: I’ve done what God has called me to do. Salvation is on the way, my part is done, maybe now I can finally go in peace. (leans against wall/bookcase/structure) I’ve been alone so long.

A: (worried) You’re not alone, Simeon. I’m here. God is with us.

S: Why am I still here, Anna? What’s the point? I’ve been an old man wandering the Temple for decades now, of no use to anyone. Why did I have to stay, mourning my friends, my family? Why didn’t God let me die years ago, if God loves me so much?

A: (pauses) You’ve been given a gift, Simeon, you lived to receive it.

S: What gift was that? Telling a mother she’ll watch her child die?

A: That child is not just any child. That child is living proof to each and every one of us of God’s love for all of us. God has loved us from a distance for thousands of years, but now has given up that distance to walk among us, as one of us.

S: To age and grow weary, to lose loved ones to death, to be hurt and in pain, and finally to die at the hands of his own people?

A: Exactly. How could God go any further to prove how deep love goes? That is the gift God has given us, to come among us and understand us, from inside out. Our grief and our joy, our struggles and our triumphs.

S: And I’ve seen God come into the world. (leans heavily)

A: What an extraordinary gift we’ve been given.

S: Anna, I think it’s time.

A: (studying Simeon carefully) Let us pray together, then, old friend.

S: Hear, O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is one. (quietly dies)

A: You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might…. You did, Simeon. You did. (lights go dark)

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