Candlemas - The Presentation of Christ 

This is one of the most beautiful and prophetic scenes in the New Testament

Mary and Joseph brought the baby Jesus to the Temple in Jerusalem for His Ceremony of Presentation - as their firstborn son and His Mother Mary’s purification: 40 plus days after the birth, (thus is distinct from the circumcision which is 8 days),

 We can join the Holy Family early in the morning as they set out from Bethlehem to take the two hour walk up to Jerusalem. As they neared that great city, they would have caught sight of the newly rebuilt temple on the hill.  It was immense, covered with gold ornamentation and would have shone like the sun in the morning light. Once inside it would have been packed and noisy. They would have been lost in the crowd of priests, worshipers and traders!

Incredibly they were suddenly picked out in the crowd and welcomed by a stranger who knew and received them like long lost relatives. It was the wonderful Simeon!  He was not a priest but was a devout elderly man who had been promised by the Holy Spirit that he would see and receive Messiah, the Christ child before he himself died. He took Jesus into his arms and uttered words of the Nunc Dimittis which we have just heard

Then there was Simeon’s prophecy of the child’s future ministry “This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against, 35 so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed.

 Our Lord brought the New Covenant – the upgrade on the early Jewish covenants –the fulfilment and completion of the old covenants

 The Old Covenant contained which essentially ceremonial, moral, and civil law As prophet Malachi said in his extraordinarily precise prophesy 500 years before ‘For he will be like a refiner’s fire or a launderer’s soap. 3 He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; he will purify the Levites and refine them like gold and silver.’ Salvation for those who believed and less so for those who heard and did not believe

To sin we have to know what is right from what is wrong. Our Lord raised the bar. – with His teaching, His parables, the Beatitudes, His example and His sacrifice. In short once you have heard the and accepted truth you will be judged by that truth – some will rise others will fall.

In addition, our Lord was to be a merciless critic of the Pharisees’ s and Sadducees hypocrisy and legalistic approach to religion. Ultimately it was probably this aspect of His ministry which led to His crucifixion 

Then we have poor Mary’s prophecy. She had the immortal honour of giving birth to a man who would change the world. However, Simeon prophesied that “a sword will pierce your own soul too.”  For parents to witness the death of their child is always a truly unbearable trauma …. Mary was to witness the death of her precious child ……. by crucifixion in front of her ……. Surely a truly unimaginable grief.  ‘a sword would indeed truly have pierced her own soul.”

Lastly it is worth pointing out that Simeon, unlike the Prophetess Anna, did not live in the temple. He had received a call from the Holy Spirit – a diving nudge – that he was to suddenly make his way to the Temple to receive the Christ Child, to find Him to Bless Him and offer his great prophecy

How can we relate this to our religious practice today? Some of you may know that my own background is monastic. This period allowed me to live with people whose whole lives were driven by divine nudges.  In my experience they are a small quiet voice, the nudge, that comes before the big ego driven one of my own.

An example of a divine nudge might be ‘go to church tonight’. This is then easily pushed out by the big voice.  I am ‘busy’, ‘what about the cricket’, ‘There will be another service next week’, ‘Let’s just go shopping’ or ‘do the weeding’.

Over a period of several years, I saw how important divine nudges are to both our spiritual wellbeing and the quality of our lives.  The challenge is to both hear them and then to follow them – just as Simeon did.

Finally, we can end by picturing the little holy family going back down the hill to return to Galilee and to their own town of Nazareth - and of course the wonderful Simeon going home to die a happy man.

The world was to change. ‘A light revelation had been lit to the Gentiles, and the glory of your people Israel’

‘And Mary was pondering all these things in her heart’

In Jesus’s name Amen

 

4/2/2024