Sermons
Date:
Sunday 29 January 2017 Epiphany 4 6.30 Evensong
Preacher:
Jane Milligan
Theme:
Candlemas
Readings:
Exodus 13:1-16; Romans 12:1-5; (and referring to Luke 2:22-40)
It already seems a long time since Christmas – though in the last few days I have seen several late
Christmas trees in the street, waiting forlornly for collection. After all, it’s now five weeks since
Christmas Day, three weeks since we celebrated Epiphany Sunday – three weeks of ‘getting back to
normal’, tidying away the decorations, eating up the chocolates.
But now, today, we find we’ve got one last flourish of the Advent to Epiphany seasons – that
succinctly named festival of “Candlemas, or the Presentation of our Lord in the Temple”. And
appropriately for a closing festival, the themes of Candlemas reflect some of the main themes of
Advent, Christmas, Epiphany – and along with the themes, some of the paradoxes and
contradictions of the season.
As some of you will know, the actual date of Candlemas is the second of February, this Thursday –
forty days after Christmas. But the church allows for us to celebrate it today, so for the sake of the
celebration, imagine we are forty days from Jesus’s birth. The day when Mary and Joseph go to the
temple for purification, and to present their first-born son.
It’s a story which reminds me of the fundamental paradox of our faith, the Incarnation, the nature of
Jesus as both God and man. Both the humanity, the rootedness, of Jesus, his life in a particular place
and time – brought up in an ordinary Jewish family of the time, faithfully following the Law. And
then, as Simeon and Anna appear, praising God, singing the Nunc Dimittis, recognizing the Messiah,
we are reminded as well of his divinity and his power.
Let’s think for the moment about the humanity of Jesus, and his family. They turn up at the Temple,
just one couple among hundreds, to perform two duties. First, purification: under the Law, anything
to do with blood, birth or death made you ritually unclean. That doesn’t mean it made you dirty, or
an outcast – it was a matter of ritual, meaning you couldn’t take part in the Temple services until
after a 40 day period of purification, completed by making a sacrifice at the Temple. So after the 40
days, Mary and Joseph come to make their offering.
Secondly, as we heard in our first reading today, the Law said that every first-born child or animal
was ‘holy to the Lord’, set apart for God, to be given to God. It was part of remembering the Exodus,
remembering how God saved them from slavery in Egypt – remembering that dreadful night when
he killed all the first born of Egypt, but passed over the Israelites.
So a first-born animal would be offered to God as a sacrifice, a burnt offering, the sweet smoke rising
up to God. But for a child, a human first-born son, an animal sacrifice could be offered instead, to
redeem the child – or very occasionally they might indeed be dedicated to God’s service, as were the
prophet Samuel, or John the Baptist.
Routine religious practice, by an ordinary family, but some big concepts – purification, redemption –
and we who follow see a range of images and meanings. We see the humanity of a Jesus who
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became like us in every respect, in order to offer the sacrifice that redeems us, that saves us – his
defeat of death through his own death. We see Mary’s first-born son dedicated to God’s service –
we see God’s firstborn son dedicated to serve humanity.
But then along comes Simeon, and we are reminded of the divinity and power of Jesus, as Simeon
takes Jesus in his arms, and bursts out in praise, singing the Nunc Dimittis as we have just done. The
Holy Spirit has shown him that this anonymous child is the expected Messiah, the one he had been
waiting and praying for. His first reaction is to praise God, to praise him for fulfilling his promises –
because Jesus will bring salvation, the light of revelation to the Gentiles, and glory for your people
Israel.
But Simeon knew, like the prophets before him, that the coming of the Lord is a testing as well as a
blessing, that Jesus will turn things upside down, that he will be a sign that will be opposed, not
welcomed. The people of Jesus’s day would be tested and judged by his very existence, his
presence, by how they responded to him. We can’t think of Jesus in the Temple without
remembering his own act of cleansing, turning out the traders and the money changers – without
remembering where that led to, his rejection, arrest and crucifixion.
And what of us, our times? The warnings of Simeon and the prophets speak just as much to us, to
the need for us to clean up our acts, as individuals, churches and societies. We too will be tested by
our response to Jesus, we too need to be open to purification and transformation. As Romans tells
us, it is now our time to present ourselves to God – to offer ourselves in his service, to be ready and
willing to be transformed and renewed, transformed together into the body of Christ.
Simeon spoke of the light of revelation for all people, and at my own church this morning we
celebrated that light, carrying candles in procession. We are called not just to light candles, but to
be candles, to take that light of revelation, the light and love of God, out into a world which so badly
needs it.
Amen
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