Collect
Almighty and ever–living God, clothed in majesty, whose beloved Son was this day presented in the Temple, in substance of our flesh: grant that we may be presented to you with pure and clean hearts, by your Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.
or
Lord Jesus Christ, light of the nations and glory of Israel: make your home among us, and present us pure and holy to your heavenly Father, your God, and our God.
Post Communion
Lord, you fulfilled the hope of Simeon and Anna, who lived to welcome the Messiah: may we, who have received these gifts beyond words, prepare to meet Christ Jesus when he comes to bring us to eternal life; for he is alive and reigns, now and for ever.
Readings
Old Testament – Malachi 3.1–5
See, I am sending my messenger to prepare the way before me, and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple. The messenger of the covenant in whom you delight—indeed, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts. But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears?
For he is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap; he will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the descendants of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, until they present offerings to the Lord in righteousness. Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the Lord as in the days of old and as in former years.
Then I will draw near to you for judgement; I will be swift to bear witness against the sorcerers, against the adulterers, against those who swear falsely, against those who oppress the hired workers in their wages, the widow, and the orphan, against those who thrust aside the alien, and do not fear me, says the Lord of hosts.
Psalm 24.[1–6] 7–10
[1 The earth is the Lord’s and all that fills it, ♦
the compass of the world and all who dwell therein.
2 For he has founded it upon the seas ♦
and set it firm upon the rivers of the deep.
3 ‘Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord, ♦
or who can rise up in his holy place?’
4 ‘Those who have clean hands and a pure heart, ♦
who have not lifted up their soul to an idol,
nor sworn an oath to a lie;
5 ‘They shall receive a blessing from the Lord, ♦
a just reward from the God of their salvation.’
6 Such is the company of those who seek him, ♦
of those who seek your face, O God of Jacob.]
7 Lift up your heads, O gates;
be lifted up, you everlasting doors; ♦
and the King of glory shall come in.
8 ‘Who is the King of glory?’ ♦
‘The Lord, strong and mighty,
the Lord who is mighty in battle.’
9 Lift up your heads, O gates;
be lifted up, you everlasting doors; ♦
and the King of glory shall come in.
10 ‘Who is this King of glory?’ ♦
‘The Lord of hosts, he is the King of glory.’
Epistle – Hebrews 2.14–18
Since, therefore, the children share flesh and blood, he himself likewise shared the same things, so that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by the fear of death. For it is clear that he did not come to help angels, but the descendants of Abraham. Therefore he had to become like his brothers and sisters in every respect, so that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make a sacrifice of atonement for the sins of the people. Because he himself was tested by what he suffered, he is able to help those who are being tested.
Gospel – Luke 2.22–40
When the time came for their purification according to the law of Moses, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord (as it is written in the law of the Lord, ‘Every firstborn male shall be designated as holy to the Lord’), and they offered a sacrifice according to what is stated in the law of the Lord, ‘a pair of turtle-doves or two young pigeons.
Now there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon; this man was righteous and devout, looking forward to the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit rested on him. It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Messiah. Guided by the Spirit, Simeon came into the temple; and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him what was customary under the law, Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying,
‘Master, now you are dismissing your servant in peace, according to your word; for my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel.’
And the child’s father and mother were amazed at what was being said about him. Then Simeon blessed them and said to his mother 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.’
There was also a prophet, Anna the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was of a great age, having lived with her husband for seven years after her marriage, then as a widow to the age of eighty-four. She never left the temple but worshipped there with fasting and prayer night and day. At that moment she came, and began to praise God and to speak about the child to all who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem.
When they had finished everything required by the law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth. The child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom; and the favour of God was upon him.
Sermon on Candlemass
Today we are celebrating Candlemass, the end of the Christmass–Epiphany season, the day when Jesus was presented in the Temple, when Simeon declared the words we know as the Nunc Dimittis, revealing yet again the magnificent mystery of the incarnate Lord. And we are told that Mary’s heart would feel a sword piercing it because the destiny of the child was “the rising and falling of many” and making known “inner thoughts”. I suppose Simeon was warning those parents that the life of a prophet was to be their son’s. It would not be one of sweetness and light, but the pain of self knowledge was to be his fate – that this child was going to stand against the ignorance of the crowd for the sake of humanity’s salvation in the truth, a stance which too often calls forth opposition in every sort of way.
This is the signal event of Jesus’ life in the gospel of Luke, never mind the birth narratives, for he then sums up his childhood with these simple words. “The child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom; and the favour of God was upon him.” Thirty years of life summed up in one verse. A rather slim recounting of the whole of experience in a youth’s life.
I suppose we have to say that there is no official biography for Jesus. Jesus never published his memoirs. None of the gospels tell the full story of Jesus’ life from his birth through his death to his resurrection. Of course there are all the sayings and miracles, but they are not in one place and they are not all the same in all the material we have about Jesus. In fact there is only one reference to Jesus the Christ in official records outside of Christian literature, at least that is what my teacher used to say.
Even christian records are quite different, the birth narratives diverge drastically, one talks of shepherds, the other about magi, and two of the books do not speak of Jesus’ early life at all. They all agree that Jesus died on the cross, crucified. They all tell of the miraculous resurrection appearances, but each narrative takes on a different character in each gospel.
I suppose it should be no surprise that the lectionary calendar is also confused. Two weeks ago we heard about the miracle at Cana, the week before that we considered Christ’s baptism. The week before that we heard about the visit of the three kings. This week we hear about Jesus’ presentation in the temple. There is no chronology in the gospels nor in the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church’s liturgical year. You could say we have a confused narrative concerning Jesus Christ.
Nevertheless from this muddle arises a corporate body of faith, a community of great diversity – sometimes even at odds with itself – and yet it has an historical longevity. The Church has lasted two millennia despite its history and its hopes – despite its internal divisions.
We can understand why Jesus’ biographical narrative is spotty. Don’t we tell each of our own stories in the same way? Episodes appear and disappear at random as we narrate our own history. At one time we tell it this way, at another we tell it in a different way. It depends on the audience whom we are addressing with our story. You could say we are our own “spin doctors” – we tell the narrative for our own lives as we need to. We don’t have to rely on biographers nowadays, since we are all on FaceBook and we tell our stories in the best possible way there, don’t we? We don’t have to rely on another writer to tell everyone about us hoping against hope that that particular narrator will make us look good. Instead, we do that for ourselves now. Our FaceBook pages remain forever in the ether of the internet and we have created them. They are our gospels, the good news of our very own selves – they are out there in our very own words. They are like the four gospels telling the muddled tale about the person who has appeared on them. The gospels are FaceBook pages in their own peculiar way – just as my pages are the gospel about myself according to me.
Being out there is not all sweetness and light, is it? We have done our best to show ourselves off . We have spun our stories so that we look so very fine. But what happens when people begin to reflect on the story we tell about ourselves. What happens when someone looks a little deeper than the surface revealed by social media? What if one of my beloved NT scholars were to look at my social media output? Would I remain the hero of my imagination and the stories I tell about myself? Or would I appear to be something completely different than the person I portray as myself?
It becomes our turn to be interrogated and interpreted by the readers of our pages, just as Jesus is interpreted by all of us when we open the good book. What do you think the crowd makes of the tales we tell of ourselves? Are we the heroes we think ourselves to be, or do we actually seem to be the villains the crowd may consider us to be?
The difference between our own self understanding through a social media presentation and how others see us, can be very stark. Sometimes we don’t see ourselves in the reflected image we propound. When we overhear a conversation concerning ourselves, do we recognise the person who is subject to that gossip and story-telling? – I suppose the saying we never hear good of ourselves when we eavesdrop is actually true.
So just how does our own understanding of our selves differ from the understanding others have of us? How do we appear to others? How do we appear to ourselves?
Those biblical scholars, whom I revere, took up at one time what was called “the quest for the historical Jesus”. One of the longest and most intricate investigations concluded that they could all be likened to someone looking down into a deep well which is so dark but there is a disk of light at the bottom. On that quest, deep down there, in the well, we see an image. That scholar concluded that the image may not be the authentic and historical Jesus, but it certainly does reflect ourselves as we portray Jesus.
That quest evaluates the records we have and comes to a conclusion, always speaking to the present, always formed by the interests of the time, addressing the meaning we find because of the methods we employ.
These limitations of method and the strictures of self-awareness are what we have to remember when we write on our own FaceBook pages and tell stories about others. I can only hope that when people tell stories about me, they might be uplifting, and when I talk about others, whether friends or not, I will be generous and encouraging as I portray them as they are of me.