February 1, 2015

Helen Jacobi

Year B     Feast of the Presentation     Malachi 3:1-20     Psalm 24     Hebrews 2:14-18     Luke 2:22-40

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Jesus, a 40 day old baby being presented at the Temple in Jerusalem. This feast day of the church’s calendar is like a cross roads. We have travelled quite a way since Christmas and for the last 3 Sundays we had left Jesus’ childhood well behind. And now we take one last look back down that road, with one sign pointing back to Christmas, while we turn and head in the direction of Lent and the cross. [1]

Luke, the gospel writer brings Mary and Joseph and Jesus to the Temple. Luke’s knowledge of Jewish custom was a bit hazy and so he doesn’t get all the details right, but that is not relevant to his purposes. It would have been Mary who came to the temple, 40 days after the birth of her son, in order for her to be purified from the uncleanness of childbirth. If Jesus had been a girl, she would have waited 80 days, you got a double dose of impurity for giving birth to a girl. That would have played havoc with our church calendar! And don’t forget there are still women amongst us who to remember the service of the “churching of women” after childbirth from the Book of Common Prayer,

Old customs die hard it seems (although it is a service no longer authorized for use in the church!)

Luke, rather than focusing on Mary and her ritual, chooses to model this story of the presentation of Jesus on that of Hannah and her son Samuel. Samuel whom she dedicated to God’s service in the Temple, and he became the first of the prophets of the Hebrew Bible.  So in a similar pattern Jesus is brought to the temple. And as Eli had waited for Samuel so Simeon and Anna have waited for Jesus. Simeon is the one to confirm for Luke that Jesus has come for the Gentiles as well as the Jews “a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel” (v32). His words soon became a hymn of the church, known to many as the “nunc dimittis” or the Song of Simeon; said and sung at the beds of the dying and at their funerals. Words also prayed at the end of each day in evening prayer “Lord now let your servant go in peace; your word has been fulfilled” [2].

Then as Simeon finishes his prayer of thanks that he has lived to see the One who was promised, he turns to Mary and says rather ominously “a sword will pierce your own soul too”, words of dread and fear for this new mother. Words that are our signpost at these crossroads showing that the cross and Lent is this way.

Anna’s words are not recorded but Luke describes her as praising God and proclaiming / preaching about this child. In Luke’s gospel women are not unclean, they preach and proclaim the word of God.

Revelation is what the season of Epiphany has been about, the revealing of the nature of Jesus to the world. Simeon’s revelation closes the season of Epiphany and then reveals a glimpse of the cross as we turn towards Lent which is only 2 ½ weeks away.

In our southern hemisphere calendar today’s feast of the presentation also falls at the beginning of our year. School goes back this week; the long hot summer days are still with us but most people are back from holiday and gearing up for the year. Diaries fill up, meetings get underway. 2015 has begun.

And so as Jesus was presented, offered at the Temple, what might we offer at the beginning of this new year? Every week as we gather for the eucharist we offer ourselves in God’s service. That is what eucharist is – giving thanks and offering.

The eucharist is not just about the church parts of our life, but about all of it. Our work, our play, our housework, our children, our community service, our joys, our fears, our anger, our hurts and our loves. All of it bundled up like a 40 day old baby and offered up at the Temple.

Think about what is in your bundle today. And see Simeon, old and wise, take up your bundle, and look at it and say, “I see salvation and light in this offering” “and I see suffering and sadness”; “for all of this I give thanks to God, for it is the stuff of life and faith.”

And then see Anna, watching from the side, and pointing and saying to all who pass by – this life offered here brings faith and hope to those who know him or her. Pay attention!

Can you imagine someone saying that about your bundle, your life, in all its ordinariness and messiness? On this feast day I am here to tell you that God gladly receives your offering, your presentation of your life, and mixes it in with the messiness and ordinariness and extra–ordinariness of creation and makes it new. Makes your life new, makes my life new, makes your life worthy of such praise and mine as well.

Then what – well we don’t get to stay in the temple making our offering, listening to beautiful music and feeling blessed. We get sent out as Mary was – to endure the suffering of a mother, and to endure and to return once again, week after week to the altar; to this table where we offer our lives and offer the bread and wine of Jesus’ life.

This pattern of offering and being renewed and strengthened is the pattern of our Christian life. We come each week to practice the patterns of our faith so we can live our faith in the days in between.

So we can offer help to those who need it; so we can offer our skills in our work; so we can offer love in our families; so we can be strong in times of trial; so we can be weak and depend on the offering of others when we have no strength. We gather each week not as disparate individuals but as a community of faith to support each other in our practice of offering ourselves at this altar.

Mary and Joseph belonged to a community of faith. Simeon and Anna waited and prayed at the Temple for long years. The gospel writer we call Luke wrote for a particular community who wanted to know where did the hymn come from that they had always sung at the end of the day – Lord now let your servant depart in peace? They wanted to know about Anna whose proclamation had been passed down.

And so like them we offer our individual lives on this feast of the presentation and we offer our lives into this community. We commit to each other, to gathering, to support, to learning and listening from each other. We have a Lenten programme coming up; other ideas for groups and worship seem to be bubbling up all over the place at the moment!

I am thrilled to see ideas and offerings coming from all directions. Offerings that will build our common life as a community and build our individual lives of faith. Offer your bundle today and see what might unfold.

Lord now you let your servant go in peace: your word has been fulfilled.

My own eyes have seen the salvation: which you have prepared in the sight of every people,

a light to reveal you to the nations: and the glory of your people Israel. [3]

[1] Martyn Percy “Candlemas” p 99 in Darkness Yielding 3rd edn 2009

[2] ANZPB p 47

[3] ANZPB p 47