Candlemas

Jack and Doris had known each other for fifty years and more. She was a widow and he a widower both in their eighties now. After their respective spouses died they renewed their acquaintance with one another. They would go out for lunch together and to the odd tea dance. Jack was especially lonely since the death of his wife, but was growing increasingly fond of Doris. He longed for marriage despite his great age. But he was diffident about it – considering their age and all. How would Doris react if he popped the question? Eventually he plucked up his courage. Took her out to dinner and asked her. ‘Doris’ he asked,’ Have you thought about getting married?’ ’Oh yes’ she answered ‘But who on earth would have us’!

Someone once said: ‘When you are forty half of you belongs to the past.  When you are seventy, nearly all of you does’. In other words, as we get older, we have more memories to look back upon, than we have plans for the future. Long on memory and short on expectation.

Now I can see many of you becoming alarmed at the direction that this sermon is taking and so I’ll move on – but only a little. Because today we meet a lovely old couple in the Temple of the Lord. Simeon and Anna. In the Gospel account of the presentation of the Lord St Luke presents Simeon and Anna as connected with the past and with the memories of Israel. The devout and faithful remnant who stayed faithful to the ancient promises of God. They knew what the God of Israel had done for his people in past times. They were in touch with that sacred memory. And there was a great deal of it. All of it recorded in the Law and the prophets and the writings of what we now call the Old Testament.

Old they may have been – and long on memory they surely were, but Simeon and Anna also had their hearts and minds set on the ancient promises of God for the future. Listen to the words of the prophet Isaiah and try to catch the promise that Simeon and Anna were waiting to see fulfilled:

‘The Lord has revealed his holy arm

In the sight of all the Gentiles.

And all the ends of the earth

Will see the salvation that comes from God.

I shall give you as a light to the Gentiles

That you may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth.

The glory of the Lord will be revealed

And all flesh will see the salvation of our God’.

Simeon and Anna longed to see the fulfilment of those promises. Day by day they went to the Temple full of hope and expectation. As old people they represented the past. But they are nonetheless an unusual old couple because their total concern is for the future. They know the past and rejoice in all that God has done. Yet they don’t live backwards but forwards. Something yet to happen dominates their life. They are alive with expectation and hope. Waiting for the glorious promise of the past to be fulfilled in the present and to blossom in the future. Their waiting is not in vain. Mary and Joseph bring the child Jesus to the Temple. They are a good Jewish family keeping the law that required them to consecrate every first-born male. In the tradition after the tribe of Levi was consecrated to God the parents of every child were released from the demand. Instead the law required that they pay a small ransom to the priest to buy back the child. So in today’s Gospel story as the parents of Jesus bring their child to the Temple we have a meeting at two levels going on at the same time. At one level there is a meeting between youth and old age.

But there is a deeper meeting going on. Israel’s past hopes and her future aspiration are met. The longing of the past and the expcetations of the future come together in Simeon and Anna and the chid in the arms of its mother. Hope and the fulfilment of hope are seen together as old Simeon takes the child in his arms,

‘Now Lord you can let your servant go in peace just as you have promised

For my own eyes have now seen the promise you made to your people in times past.

A Light to bring light to the Gentiles and glory for your people Israel’.

That ancient promise of the past is now fulfilled in the present to blossom in the future. In the person of Jesus all the ancient promises are fulfilled. And Simeon and Anna can see that because they represent both the past and the future. They look backwards and forwards. They have memories and they have expectations.

It’s a big mistake to undervalue the place that older people have in life. If you look at the situations vacant column of the Church Times you will see adverts for Churches looking for a priest to come and fill a vacancy. They always try to present their church in a good light of course they do. Very often one of the attractions will be ‘lively congregation, lots of young families’. I've never yet seen an advert that says: ‘Lively congregation - lots of elderly people’. And that’s a great pity because older people have many gifts to offer the life of the Church not the least experience of life. In any case age is a state of mind. I like you know some thirty year olds who are old well before their time in their attitude to life. And some seventy-pluses who are full of mental energy even if the body isn’t so full of physical energy. Simeon and Anna show us the way. Long on memory and equally long on hope and expectation. Their experience of God in the past shaped their hopes for the future. Their memory of what God had done for them personally in the past. Their understanding of what God had done for Israel in the past, led them to be full of hope for the future. And that can be true for all of us.

Think of the many ways in which God has blessed you in your life. Think of the many ways in which God has blessed us here as a Church community in the past. Think of the many ways in which God has blessed the wider church in the past. Think of God’s blessings to his world as you have known and experienced it. And in the light of all that allow God to raise your hopes and your expectations for the future. Today we welcome Christ the light for us all.

As we reflect upon past memories of the light of Christ shining in our lives. So may he fill us all with the light of renewed hope for the future.