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Thought for the Week 31 January – The Presentation of Christ
“Down with the
rosemary, and so Down with the bays and the mistletoe; Down with the ivy, holly, all, Wherewith ye dress’d the Christmas Hall.” “Ceremony on
Candlemas Eve” A poem by Robert
Herrick
Today
is Candlemas. Also called The Feast of the Presentation of Jesus, The Feast
of the Purification of the Virgin and the Meeting of the Lord. In the Church
of England it’s a principal feast day, and in many western churches marks the
end of the Epiphany season. But why Candlemas? A
bit of history. The name Candlemas comes from the practice in which a priest
blesses beeswax candles for use throughout the year by sprinkling with holy
water. It is one of the most ancient feasts of the Christian calendar, with
references to it going back to the first half of the 4th century.
As Candlemas depends upon the birth of Jesus for its date, it falls 40 days
after Christmas. All other so-called Holy Days depend on Easter, and as that
is a moveable feast it follows that all other Holy Days are as well. There is
some dispute over the name Candlemas and the carrying of candles. Pope
Innocent XII believed it to be an alternative to Roman paganism. It appears
that in a sermon on the subject he said it is “…because the Gentiles
dedicated the month of February to the infernal gods, and as at the beginning
of it Pluto stole Prosperine , and her mother Ceres sought her in the night
with lighted candles, so they, at the beginning of the month, walked about
the city with lighted candles. Because the holy fathers could not eradicate
the custom they ordained that Christians should carry about candles in honour
of the Blessed Virgin and Christ, the Light of the World. Thus what was done
before in the honour of Ceres is now done in honour of the Blessed
Virgin.” End of history lesson! Traditionally
the green Christmas decorations were taken down on Candlemas Eve and thus the
poem — but Robert Herrick lived in the 17th century, and it seems
the tradition has died. In the light of recent weather, it might be as well
to remember an old sailor’s saying “If
Candlemas Day is clear and bright, winter will have another bite. If
Candlemas Day brings cloud and rain, winter is gone and will not come again”
!!!!!!***** Let’s
look at the Gospel reading. It’s a fascinating and interesting reading from
Luke’s gospel that we have today. It says something to us about ritual, it
contains a synopsis of Jesus’ life, and it tells us that we all have a part
to play, no matter what our age or background. The story is basically about Jesus’
presentation at the synagogue and Mary‘s cleansing after the birth of her
firstborn son. Both of these matters have to do with Jewish law and ritual.
Clearly Jesus’ earthly parents, Mary and Joseph, were good Jews. For they saw
to it that Jesus, as a young Jew, was to properly comply with Jewish law and
custom, but not only him but themselves as well. On the eighth day after his
birth, he was circumcised and now came the time set down for the offering of
the first-born son and the ritual cleansing of Mary after childbirth. We find in Leviticus and in Exodus
the appropriate aspects of the law in this respect. Leviticus 12 requires a
woman to wait forty days before going to the Temple for purification, which required
the sacrifice of a year-old lamb and a pigeon, before she could take part in
any Temple based ritual. If the family were too poor then two pigeons/doves
were acceptable instead of the lamb and pigeon. Exodus required that the
first-born male of animal and man was to be dedicated. The animal was
sacrificed. Fortunately for the human, he was to serve the Lord for his life,
a role that was in fact taken on by the Levites. This requirement you find in
Exodus 13, and was a thanksgiving for the release from Egypt. We have an insight into Jesus’
family fortunes in as much as the sacrifice was two doves or pigeons. So Jesus was a good Jew from a
truly Jewish family background, but in fact this is the last we hear of Jesus
being involved in any Jewish ritualistic ceremony. Indeed, Jesus’ severest
criticism is reserved for the Pharisees, the Sadducees and the lawyers, since
this group were perceived by the rest of the population to be the
interpreters of the law. They applied the law ritualistically, without
compassion, and it had become such that it was of itself the be all and end
all and impossible to keep. The breach
of one aspect meant the breach of it all. The letter of the law, the
ritual of the law became more important than the purpose for which law was
made in the first place. Jesus came to redress the balance — as he himself
declared, he did not come to replace the law but to fulfil it. Perhaps the lesson in this for us
is not to be so concerned at the ritual of our worship that we overlook the
faith that brings us here in the first place. Don’t get me wrong, ritual has
its place. Every Christian denomination has its ritual, every spirituality
has its ritual if for no other reason than the proper and orderly conduct of
our worship. What we mustn’t do is allow ritual to cloud the issue of faith
in our Lord Jesus Christ. Ritual, to state the obvious, does not get us into
a relationship with God that he wants. This was what Christ was about; this
was why he struck out at the Pharisees about the Sabbath, fasting, healing
etc. etc. There is a thin dividing line between good practice and ritualism;
the latter we need to avoid. I know I keep harking on about Romans 14 and 15,
but they are well worth reading in this context, mainly because the
differences that have grown up among Christians are ritual-based. Paul also
wrote that it is circumcision of the heart that counts, not circumcision
under the law. Ritual is there to serve human beings as an expression of
faith, not the other way around. So
this presentation of Christ in the Temple was the last ritual Jesus appears
to have taken part in. Mary, when the angel Gabriel
announced that she was to be pregnant from the Holy Spirit, acknowledged what
God was doing in her and through her in her song — the Magnificat As a consequence
of what she was told, she accepted the Christ child within her. She met up
with her cousin, and the foetus of John the Baptist recognised the Christ
embryo within Mary and leaped. John the Baptist when Jesus was baptised
recognised Chris for what and who he was — the one to
come after who would baptise with water and with fire; and at the point of Jesus
emerging from the water, God acknowledged Him as His son in whom he was well-
pleased . Nathanael recognised his Lord with the words “You are the King of
Israel you are the son of God,” thus.recognising Jesus before the time when
Peter was challenged with the words “Who do you say I am”. A question we all
have to individually answer. But we get ahead of ourselves. Today it is the
turn of Simeon and Anna, Simeon as a consequence giving us the beautiful Nunc
Dimittis. Can you imagine this man’s
excitement? He had been assured by the Holy Spirit that he would not die
before he had seen the Lord’s Christ. We don’t know when this assurance was
given, but it doesn’t seem from our reading that it was the day before.
Before Pentecost, God gave the Holy Spirit for specific events at specific
times, and here Simeon has been gifted with a special insight to recognise
the Christ at the appropriate time. The appropriate time had now come, and
Simeon makes the declaration that now he can die in peace, for his eyes have
now witnessed the salvation, i.e. the Christ child. Anna, described as a prophetess
aged it seems about 84 and spending her time praying and praising in the Temple,
saw the child Jesus and immediately gave thanks and spoke of the hope of
Israel — recognising in Jesus the hope of all who looked to the redemption of
Jerusalem. Mary, Joseph, John in utero,
Simeon and Anna all, except John of course, recognising in the baby Jesus,
within 40 days of his birth, the Messiah that Israel was awaiting. You would
have expected joy from all of them; there can be no doubt that Mary and
Joseph were filled with the joy of having their first-born son. Of course
there was joy from Simeon and Anna, but that joy is tempered with the
prophecy of Simeon who in effect gives a short resume of the life that is
before Jesus. Filled by the Holy Spirit, with a word of knowledge and wisdom,
he almost pours cold water on the event. For through the Holy Spirit, after
the Nunc Dimittis bit, which is full of joy and expectation, he tells Mary
that her child will be the cause of many in Israel stumbling. For Mary he
reserves perhaps the cruellest blow, telling her that a sword will pierce her
heart. Prophesying the pain that she would suffer when Jesus meets his death
on the cross. It is doubtful that Simeon was aware of the implications of
what he was saying at the time. We have all age groups involved in
this story, showing that it is not a story reserved for one particular
section of society but for all. Whatever our age or station in life we can be
part of the story — no one is excluded. The Bible tells us we can be children
of God simply by accepting Jesus for what he was and is, our Saviour, our
Lord. But it gets better than that, doesn’t it? Because if we accept this Jesus as our
Saviour ,we are then children of God, we are then his sons and daughters and
part of his family. Mary and Joseph, our reading tells
us, marvelled at what was said about their baby. Of course what was said was
prophesy and hadn’t yet happened as it were. For us it has all happened two
thousand odd years ago. We now know that Jesus was a historical figure, there
is enough contemporary history to confirm this fact. But do we, like Simeon,
see in him the Saviour that was awaited? Do we marvel, like the mother and
father, not only at what was said about him but what in fact he did then and
does for us now? — if we don’t, then we have to ask ourselves where is our
faith? Because that faith should leave us in complete awe. A holy awe
recognising the hand of God our Father breaking into history to give us the
opportunity to get back into the relationship with God that he/she desires of
us through this Jesus. Amen. Mel
Fancy: Reader, Anglican Chaplaincy of Midi-Pyrénées & Aude To return to main Thought for the Week page, click X at top right to close this window. |