Candlemas

Luke 2: 22-40

The good news is there are only 327 days left for shopping before Christmas, 328 if you rush off after this service and make a start.

As far as the Church is concerned the Christmas season is long since gone, and so will Epiphany next Tuesday, the 2^nd February, which is Candlemas, or as it is also known, the Presentation of Christ in the Temple, even though we are celebrating this today. And we begin to prepare for Lent and the Easter season. How quickly we move from the cradle to the Cross, how quickly our seasons move on. And if time marching on wasn’t bad enough, especially as we get older, last Wednesday was supposed to be the most depressing day of the year. Apparently 27^th January of each year is the day all the unpaid Christmas bills arrive; people are anxiously waiting for their salaries - what salary?  and the Income Tax man is chasing us to get our tax return in by midnight tonight. And if all the talk about unpaid bills, income tax returns and getting paid as depressed you, thank God for Candlemas.  It lies half way between the winter solstice and the spring equinox, so winter is half over and we can look forward to brighter and better days.  We can see the day light is getting a little longer, and the snow drops looking saintly in the garden.

In America, the 27^th January is called Groundhog Day, a time when hibernating animals would temporarily emerge from their winter’s sleep to see how winter was getting on. The theory, which comes from the Middle Ages, is that if the day is sunny and the animal can see its own shadow, six more weeks of winter weather would occur, however, if the day was cloudy so the animal cannot see its own shadow the remaining winter would be mild, and there would be an early Spring. “If Candlemas be fair and bright, Come Winter, have another flight, If Candlemas brings cloud and rain, Go, Winter, and come not again”. You see they took Global warming very seriously in those days. They certainly needed to understand the seasons better than we do.  A few extra weeks of Winter could make the difference between eating and going hungry.

But of course today in Luke’s Gospel, we remember Simeon and Anna greeting the baby Jesus, as he is presented in the Temple.  The light of the World revealed, hence Candlemas, when we process in with Candles and bless them for use in our Churches during the coming year. Mary and Joseph were fulfilling the requirements of the Jewish Law, firstly in the purification of Mary after giving birth to a male child 40 days after the birth, by sacrificing 2 turtle doves or 2 pigeons according to the law laid down in Leviticus. The actual sacrifice is a lamb, but poor people were allowed to sacrifice 2 turtle doves or pigeons instead; and then in presenting Jesus to the Temple.

You see every first born male was holy in the eyes of the Jewish Law and is to be dedicated to God.  This involved taking the child to the Temple and then paying 5 shekels to ‘redeem or buy back’ the child.  And they couldn’t do this earlier than 31 days after Jesus’ birth. So what we hear are these devout Jewish parents with very limited means doing what the law asked of them, but then leaving the Temple in utter amazement after meeting Simeon and Anna, but perhaps not entirely surprised, after all angels had been telling them of this miraculous child before he was born.  For Mary and Joseph it was one more prophesy to ponder on.

Those wonderful words of Simeon, “Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word; for mine eyes have seen thy salvation which thou hast prepared before the face of all people.  To be a light to lighten the Gentiles, and to be the glory of thy people Israel”. Its one of those passages I always think sounds far better in the King James version. In these words, Simeon wraps up the Old Testament prophesy. The promised salvation has arrived, the Messiah is here.   We can now start looking to the new age.  And we can say with Simeon, “For mine eyes have seen His salvation”. This is a time of rejoicing that God has kept His promise and given us His Messiah for the sake of the world.  Once we realise and acknowledge that, we can understand why the group of Jews who believed in Jesus and who He was, would have to move out of the Temple and the synagogues, because it was opposed to the belief of the Jewish people who are still waiting for the Messiah.

These early followers of Christ had seen the fulfilment of the prophecies in that baby presented in the Temple 40 days after His birth, and now they found themselves living in a new age which would gradually unfold for them over the next 33 years, a new age brought to fruition for us all on the Cross on Good Friday. And that other side to Candlemas, the dark side, is summed up for us again by Simeon, when he says to Mary, “This child is destined for the falling and the 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 soul too”. Simeon clearly saw ahead to that Good Friday when Mary would stand at the foot of the Cross and watch her beloved Son die for our salvation.

Jesus preached a powerful and challenging message, which we are called to follow in a life changing way today.  We are called to be a Holy people, which means we have to take seriously God’s call to what holiness means, called to live our lives suitable to be called Christian. Being a Christian is not based on a philosophical ideology, ethical teaching, as important as they may be, or mere speculation, but on the great Christ event of His saving love for all creation. For us it is the affirmation that Jesus is our salvation.  God has come among us in human form to live as we live, experience life with us in all its wonder and sorrow, and lead us to a new appreciation of what it means to be truly human.

So between the birth of Jesus and His death on the Cross, we have to reflect on His earthly ministry and what better place to look than Luke 4 14-21. “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor, He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour”. But what it means to be human is becoming more and more of a challenge in the world today.  Does being human mean we have to go to war to settle our differences?  Does it mean we cannot rationally solve the problems we face in this 21^st century for the benefit of all people?  Does it mean that fear, hunger, injustice, war and cruelty are products of our humanity, regardless of what we try to do to put an end to them? Being truly human seems to connect with the message in our reading from Paul’s Letter to the Hebrews that talks about the gift of God among us, the very gift that frees us from the power of evil that is all around us, the power of evil that brings us to war, injustice and hatred. When we say yes to Jesus, we are saying no to those evil things that enslave us as people and nations.

Last Wednesday was Holocaust Memorial Day when we remembered with shame what human beings can do to millions of other human beings, merely because they are different to us. We remembered the mass murder of over 6 million Jews, Gypsies, the mentally and physically disabled, homosexuals, and others that didn’t fit into the Nazis grand plan for the world.  We also remembered the millions of people killed in genocides since then. So if we wish to stand alongside Christ, we must also be prepared to stand alongside those who are not welcomed by others because of their race, religion, creed or sexual orientation. We have to remember Jesus was seen to be prepared to be judged by those in authority in Jerusalem by His friendship with supposed sinners. We have to stand against the tyranny of the BNP, who are really the National Front dressed up, and the EDL who demonstrated in Hanley last Saturday.  As followers of Christ we have to be prepared to denounce the bigotry, racism and homophobic hatred and fear these people preach in our broken communities.  If we don’t who will?

St Teresa of Avila reminded us that Christ has no body now on earth but ours, and we must be Christ like in denouncing this evil which is pervading our society and embrace our brothers and sisters who are different from us.  Only then will we create a just society free from the sort of fears that convinced the German people that getting rid of those that didn’t fit in was the only solution.

Recognising God’s salvation in that baby brought to the Temple means that we have to live different lives.  We are all part of that salvation of which Simeon spoke.  We are called to share in that great work.  We need to take the risk of standing out as lights in the darkness of this world, just as Jesus is the Light of the World, and we do this knowing the danger that accompanies that responsibility, as Christians have known it throughout the ages.

Let us pray that God will challenge the thoughts of our hearts so that the light of Christ can shine in our lives. Amen.