Sermon for Candlemas Sunday 29 January 2023: MALACHI 3:1-5, HEBREW 2:14-18, LUKE 2:22-40.

Deacon Christine Saccali – St Paul’s Athens

 

May I speak in the name of the Triune God Father, Son and Holy Spirit

Here in Greece we are fortunate to be familiar with a baby and mother being presented for purification at church after birth at various dates but the main one being the blessing efhi at 40 days. I remember my mother-in-law insisting on this for our son and myself, though I had not been in home confinement for the forty days. Earlier in January we were talking about the Jewish ceremony of naming and circumcision at eight days.

So, in essence, there was nothing remarkable about Jesus being presented in the temple, he would have been one of many being dedicated to God in this way. But what was remarkable was that two temple prophets one male age unspecified, one elderly female, picked him out among the crowds and identified him as special and different. Over and over in the birth narratives we see an ordinary event being suddenly transformed into something extraordinary.

 

As we reach the conclusion of this Epiphany season and Christmas at this feast of Candlemas, which is why we have some Christingles around showing the light of Christ more about that later, let us just run through a quick synopsis of the major events.

As we heard at New Year all ages, types and classes of people , are represented in these stories so that God’s act of redemption is acknowledged within every part of life and for all kinds of people, communities and relationships. The first to hear the angels’ proclamation were Jesus’ own family, placing the incarnation within the most intimate relationships and ordinariness of everyday life. Then the angels called the shepherds, who worked on the edges of society and brought them to worship. The magi found their way to Bethlehem by studying the stars, and so the story includes the rich, wise, the privileged and the educated; the magi also represent the universality and inclusiveness of redemption, which extends far beyond the limits of culture or religious tradition. Finally, 40 days after the birth, naming and circumcision completed at 8 days according to Jewish law and covenant, a perfectly ordinary religious ceremony is marked out as extraordinary, completing the picture by placing the recognition of Christ at the centre of religious tradition.

Simeon and Anna, as prophets were on the lookout for signs of redemption. That was their vocation. The word for those on the lookout, watching and waiting, was sentinel as in the watchman a soldier who stands guard, not a word you hear often nowadays.  Reminds me of ramparts and pacing up and down with a weapon at the ready. Here we are looking at the entrance to the temple with all the noise and bustle, sacrificial animals and trinkets to be found. It also recalls Jesus’ action in the temple overturning the tables.

Those who know me know that big theological terms and minefields like salvation and redemption remind me rather of the painful yet necessary assignments we had to write for the Readers’ course then at theological college towards ordination but there is no avoiding those words salvation and redemption in this narrative of the Presentation – it is what the whole quite long narrative is about. And indeed the whole Gospel story.

The prophet Anna perceived the fulfilment of the messianic hope within this otherwise commonplace religious rite. Her immediate response was to give thanks to God, but then she began to spread the news to those, who like her, had been watching and waiting through difficult years for the fulfilment of God’s promise. We are told that she spoke about the child ‘to all who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem’ the GREEK WORD IS litrosi WHICH WE KNOW ALSO MEANS RANSOM, DELIVERANCE AND LIBERATION.’ Anna identified the baby as the Messaiah  AND IN DOING SO BECAME ONE OF THE FIRST TO PROCLAIM THE GOSPEL and the new covenant.

The prophetic recognition of Christ in this story, however, is not only a message of comfort in the sense of a kind of comfort blanket. IT HAS AN ELEMENT OF EXHORTATION AND encouragement about it and Simeon’s words give the double edge sword- no pun intended- to the message; a warning, simultaneously of comfort and discomfort. He extended the messianic hope of ancient Israel to become a universal hope, a promise of salvation for the whole world, but after this public prophecy, he gave a far more sombre and  ‘This child is destined  for the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be opposed .so that the inner thoughts of many will be revealed and a sword will pierce your own side too.’ The last a personal message in his private words to Mary, Jesus’ mother. And for us this reminds us again of Jesus’ last days on earth and the crucifixion. The wood of the cross and the crib are inextricably intertwined as you will hear echoed in the prayer I will close with.

Back in the stable, we saw we saw Mary pondering while others rejoiced. Now, as Anna spreads a buzz of anticipation through the temple that the long-awaited Messaiah has come, Simeon gives  Mary MORE TO PONDER IN THIS PERSONAL MESSAGE- like a price tag to be picked up by those who come be near to Jesus. Redemption comes at a price, paid not only by Jesus himself but also by those who encounter him at close quarters, whether in deep personal love or in antagonism and conflict. The prophet Malachi anticipated the heaviness of this price in his words; ‘ Who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears?’ Purification is also mentioned this time anticipating the Transfiguration, maybe?

Whoever encounters Christ must be transformed- it is life changing. We can think of many examples of this in scripture and throughout Christianity whether individuals and groups are for Jesus or opposed to him and I hope in our own lives and those who surround us. We are in the season of Epiphany –showing or revelation- and I pray that God’s truth continues to be revealed to us both individually and as the Body of Christ and to come to the surface- epiphania.

It would be nice and comforting to believe that change and redemption are painless  – that God might somehow swoop in from on high and solve our problems, stop our wars, resolve our conflicts and heal our diseases. But Simeon’s double-edged prophecy highlights that there is nothing comfortable about the Christian message of salvation. So many think being a Christian is the easy way out, I can assure you as your deacon, it is not.

The Christian Gospel is not magic wishing away all ills. It is given in incarnation, New Creation, the inseparable fusing together of the human and divine and grows at the same pace as human life- slowly. The unwritten years of Christ’s life between the presentation and the beginning of his ministry except when we are told the episode of him being lost and found in the Temple, were the years in which he grew in grace and wisdom, learning how to live out His vocation as the incarnate Son of God. The Christian message of redemption was not swiftly from on high, but emerged slowly and carefully among human beings.

Redemption, then does not wipe away human flaws and failings,  or iron out our quirks and idiosyncracies. Instead it is transforming effect so we can give glory to God. Also, because redemption is effected through incarnation, it implies relationship with God and other people that is why we are all here in church, right? This relationship is iniated by God and enabled through his grace and only fulfilled by our response. Salvation is not worked on us over our heads. It is realised as we co operate with God allowing our individual and corporate lives to be transformed, sometimes through painful struggle, into his likeness in our community and communion. We are partakers of one another’s redemption, and so we can ease or antagonise one another’s experience as we are transformed into Jesus’ likeness.

So the story of the presentation at the temple celebrates our redemption and commemorates the reception and acknowledgment of Christ into the formal structures of religious rite much as we were received into the church. It stands as an invitation not merely  to commemorate a historic commonplace event but  to welcome God’s promised redemption, again, into our lives, despite its implied discomfort, , co operating with his extraordinary transforming work in our lives and in the lives of those around us.

Let us pray: We stand new the place of new birth.

Let us shine with the light of your love.

WE TURN FROM THE CRIB TO THE CROSS.

LET US SHINE WITH THE LIGHT OF YOUR LOVE.AMEN