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Christ Church
Morningside 4th February 2007
Two days ago on Friday the 2nd February we celebrated the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple more commonly known as Candlemass following the custom which began in 7th century Rome when people would make their way through the streets of the city, long before dawn, carrying lighted candles to join the thousands of pilgrims waiting in St Peter’s Square to process into the basilica for the candlelit mass. It’s a beautiful feast which is rich in symbolism and in meaning and since it fell on a day when few of us come to Church I trust you won’t mind me focusing on it in this homily.
The presentation of Christ in the temple comes 40 days after Christmas and draws the Christmas season to a close with the message that the Good News of Christ’s birth is not only for the shepherds or for the wise men, less still for God’s chosen people Israel – but rather for everyone. Just as the coming of the Magi from their different nations pointed to God’s love for the whole world, so too, the song that Simeon sings in the Temple - The Nunc Dimittis – reminds us that God has come to bring light to all people without exception.
But the feast is also a bridge between the Old and the New. Not only does it hold together the wisdom of old age (exemplified by Simeon and Anna) and the innocence of new life (in the infant Jesus) but it also marries the future longings of the Jewish community (who await the messenger who will cleanse the Temple) with the gratitude of the Christian community (who remember Christ’s sacrifice made once and for all).
But there is something far deeper going on as well; something which even Mary and Joseph have not yet fully grasped and that’s where the real heroes of the story – Simeon and Anna – come in. In their words and actions, Simeon and Anna, true pillars of the Temple, point to the sheer joy and the unbearable pain of the moment.
After years and years of waiting, and despite the long delay, Simeon is ready to let go of his life – ‘At last all powerful master let your servant go in peace’ - such is his joy in having lived to set eyes upon the Saviour. But his joy is tinged with the chilling announcement that this new born child will be hunted and hounded by those determined to do away with his life. And in those words ‘a sword will pierce your own heart too’ we see Mary, her heart bursting with joy as she holds Jesus in her arms in the Temple, fast forwarded to the foot of the cross, when the veil of the Temple will be torn from top to bottom, once more holding her son in her arms but this time in unspeakable grief.
The story presents Simeon as the last of the Old Testament prophets and Anna as the first New Testament evangelist who simply can’t stop telling everyone the good news that she has seen and heard.
The presentation of Christ in the Temple wraps a birth and a death into one moment. In visual terms it would be as if one half of the Temple would have come dressed in the festive clothes of celebration while the other side turned out dressed in mourning apparel. Or to put it another day, Simeon’s announcement would be like someone in our own day coming along to a baptism and giving, as a christening present, the obituary notice they had written for the child
But if Simeon’s words take us to the foot of the cross, what Anna does in telling everyone the Good News about Jesus is to take us to Easter Sunday morning when finding the tomb empty, the holy women lifted up their skirts and ran as fast as their legs could carry them, to announce to the disciples that the one they thought was dead was in fact Risen.
So what about us? What can we learn from this feast today? To be honest we are spoilt for choice.
From Mary and Joseph we can learn how to live with God’s surprises, and to ponder the mysteries of God within our own hearts.
From Simeon we can learn the value of faithfulness, of waiting patiently for God to reveal himself as well as the lesson of letting go rather than clinging to the blessings that God places in our hands.
But the lesson I will take away today is from Anna who not only teaches us the path of holiness and of persistence in our prayers, but that none of us should consider ourselves past it as far as God is concerned. If at 84, when any other self-respecting pensioner would have been quite happily retired, she could become the first Christian missionary - a movement which is still going strong 2000 years later in our own day – then let’s face it folks, there are no excuses for the rest of us. At a time when so much of popular culture favours the young and the strong and sidelines the elderly and the retired today’s feast is a welcome reminder that in God’s upside down world things are different. And if that’s true for God, it is also true for us in the Scottish Episcopal Church.
So my message to you as a typically ageing congregation is TAKE HEART, remember Simeon and Anna and never let yourselves off the hook by saying that you are too old or too frail to do God’s work. God needs missionaries in Bruntsfield, Merchiston and Morningside and the nearer you are to 84 the more likely you are to find him tapping on your shoulder. So watch out. Amen.
Michael Paterson 4th February 2007 |