The Presentation & Candlemas

 

Luke 4:22-40

The Presentation of our Lord

Our prayer book is chock full of information most of us don’t know is there.  If you turn to page 15 you can find detailed instructions for the Calendar of the Church Year.  The only people who ever need to know this stuff are Master Champions for Final Jeopardy and seminary students taking the General Ordination Exams.  The rest of us simply refer to a calendar hanging in the Sacristy.

Do you know there are seven Principal Feasts in the Church Year?  Christmas and Easter are obvious, The Ascension less so.  These feasts, to use the language of the prayer book, “take precedence” over any other day, i.e. they are the Mt. Rushmore and then some of Christian celebrations.

Turn to page 16 and you will find what are known as Other Feasts of our Lord.  We all would be commended if collectively we could come up with all seven of these:

· The Holy Name, which always falls on January 1^st, seven days after we celebrate our Lord’s birth.

· The Annunciation when an angel tells a young girl she will bear God’s child; a day always observed on March 25… exactly nine months before Christmas.

· We round off these days with the Visitation, when pregnant Mary visits her pregnant cousin Elizabeth, a day to commemorate John the Baptist, a day in August to reflect on the Transfiguration, and Holy Cross Day.

This morning we observe a Feast Day of our Lord known as The Presentation.  It always takes place on February 2, thus it seldom falls on a Sunday, but when it does, it becomes the focal point of our liturgy. 

February 2^nd is significant because it is forty days after Jesus’ birth and Hebraic law requires Joseph and Mary to do two things on this day.  First, Mary is required to present herself to a priest and make an offering in order to be declared ritually clean after giving birth to a son (by the way, birthing a daughter requires an eighty-day waiting period).  Some Christian traditions refer to today as The Purification of Mary.

The second reason this day is significant is because, as is he is their first-born son, Joseph and Mary are bound to present Jesus in the Temple.  It harkens back to when God spares the Hebrew’s first-born males from the plague visited on the Egyptian sons and livestock. Joseph and Mary either can offer Jesus for a lifetime of service in the Temple or they can redeem him for themselves by making an offering.  They chose the second option and make the least expense sacrifice available, an indication of their meager resources. 

Look again at our Collect of the Day where both of these themes are highlighted:

Almighty and everliving God, we humbly pray that, as your only-begotten Son was this day presented in the temple, so we may be presented to you with pure and clean hearts by Jesus Christ our Lord…

So, one focus on The Presentation is the Christian call to be sanctified, to seek both holiness in your life and God’s will for life. 

But why all the candles?  Well, today is also known as Candlemas or Candle Mass; a celebration dating back at least to Constantinople in the 6^th Century when a candlelight processional is ordered in an attempt to stave off earthquakes and pestilence.  It seems to work, and the practice soon spreads.

The image of light has a long history in biblical writings and records.  It becomes especially prominent at The Presentation because, while in the Temple, the Holy Family encounters an elderly man by the name of Simeon.  He sequesters himself here for years as he awaits the fulfillment of a promise God has made to him: You will not die before you see the Savior. 

He greets the Holy Family, takes the infant Jesus into his arms, and says,

Lord, you now have set your servant free,
to go in peace as you have promised;

for my eyes have seen your Savior,
whom you have prepared for all the world to see,

a Light to enlighten the nations,
and the glory to your people Israel.”

One way The Feast of the Presentation invites us to celebrate God’s Light coming into this world is by blessing the candles used in our various church services.  My thanks to Marty and Bunny who put together the array of candles before you which I will bless in just a few moments.  We decided on a simple display rather than doing what some churches do – hauling out all the boxes of candles we have storied away throughout the church.  The mass of them would be impressive, but the arrangement not nearly as pleasing. 

Before the advent of electricity, candles and oil lamps provided much of the light necessary for people to gather for a service.  Today their presence is largely symbolic and spiritual.  Do you know why there are a minimum of two candles on the altar every Sunday?  To remind us of Jesus’ promise, “When two or three are gathered together I am in the midst of them.”  This is part of the symbolism.  Spiritually, they invite us to a place of mystery, solemnity, and contemplation.   Their light has a way of inflaming the Light of Christ within us.

I will also bless candles for you to take home.  When you find yourself in a moment of personal darkness, I invite you to light your candle and from the card to read the scripture verse and offer the prayer.  I pray this simple, holy act will lighten your darkness.

If, come Lent, you are searching for something more meaningful than giving up liver or lima beans, may I suggest you set aside 5-10 minutes each evening to light a candle and read The Order of Worship for the Evening, which begins on page 109 of the prayer book.  I guarantee during these dark months and during difficult times you will rejoice as Simeon did when his eyes beheld the Savior whom God has prepared for all the world to see.