The light to lighten the gentiles

Sermon preached at the 11am Parish Eucharist at St Mary the Virgin, Lapworth. Shorter versions of this sermon were preached at the 8.30am Said Eucharist and at St Michael’s Baddesley for 9.45am Holy Communion (BCP).

The Presentation of Christ in the Temple

Readings: Hebrews 2: 14-18 Luke 2: 22-40


The festival we celebrate today has at least three different names, according to which aspect of it is being emphasised. Most typically we call it the “Presentation” thinking of the baby Jesus being presented in the temple. Under the Jewish Law, the Torah, the first five books of the bible, the first born of any womb belonged to the Lord and had to be presented to the priests in the temple. This is because the Lord had struck down the first born of the Egyptians at the time of the exile, and so he also claimed as his own the first born of all the Israelites and their animals; the first born were to be presented to the Lord and set aside for the Lord use. This rule about the first born applied to both people and animals, and there are several regulations (e.g. Ex 13: 1-2, 11-16, Leviticus 27, Numbers 18: 5) about it which we can read in the first five books of the bible. In the case of human babies, the rules required parents to “redeem” a first born child immediately after they had presented the child to the priests. It would cost five shekels to redeem the child. So the arrangement ended up working rather like a tax that was paid to the Temple on all first born children. I think this shows us something of the humility of Mary. You agree to be the handmaid of the Lord, and to be the mother of the Son of God. Then you have to pay a temple tax on the child for the privilege!
But in fact there was more for Mary to do than that. Under the Law (Lev 12) a woman also had to undergo the rite of purification 40 days after childbirth. The festival we celebrate today is sometimes called The Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The rites of purification involved making a sacrifice for sin. The gospel tells us that Mary and Joseph made the sin offering of the poor, a pair of turtle doves or two young pigeons, rather than the standard offering of a lamb. (I do wonder what happened to all that gold, frankincense and myrrh!?) Again it seems to me that we are shown something of the humility of Mary who goes through these rituals even though her baby is the son of God. If we accept the Roman Catholic doctrines whereby Mary is free from sin, then there is a further irony in her being expected to make a sin offering!
So sometimes we call the festival “The Presentation”, thinking of the baby Jesus presented at the temple, sometimes we call it “The Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary”, but we also call it “Candlemas” and we celebrate it especially with candles, or torch light processions. And the theme of candles or light comes from the words of Simeon that we heard in our gospel today. He said that Jesus would be “a light for revelation to the gentiles, and the glory of [God’s people] Israel”. Now the word gentiles means nations or peoples, and it the Old Testament it refers to all the other nations beyond the nation of Israel, all the other peoples, beyond the Jewish people. So Simeon’s proclamation that Jesus is a light for revelation to the gentiles is extraordinarily prophetic. It is a real epiphany moment. Jesus is shown, or revealed, or manifested, to be a light to all peoples and all nations. Simeon foresees that Jesus’ significance stretches far beyond Judaism and that the whole world will be illuminated by his light. And we, who have few connections with Judaism, can praise God, that through Jesus, the graces God has poured out on Israel are to benefit the whole world.
So what does it mean to us – Jesus the light to the nations, Jesus who later proclaims himself to be the light of the world (John 8: 12). Well first of all we have to “walk in the light” as the song says “Walk, walk in the light”. And the light that Jesus gives us comes especially from his teachings and example. We need to follow that teaching and imitate the example given. These teachings and examples principally tell us to love; to love God and to love our neighbours, to always grow in love. So we need to walk in the light ourselves by always loving others, always seeking the good of the others.
But then that brings us to the other side of it. As the Church we are the body of Christ. Just as Simeon could see that the baby Jesus was a light for the nations, so the body of Jesus, the church should be a light for all the nations, a light for all the peoples. We too are called to be a light for all peoples. We are called to shine with the light of love, Christ’s love for the good of others, so that they too may learn to walk in the light of Jesus, so that they too will learn to love.
So if we walk in the light ourselves, by growing in love, so we become a light to others and we help them to walk in the light and grow in love. And so the light of Jesus spreads – the light for all peoples becomes ever more visible. The prophecy of Simeon is fulfilled as Jesus becomes ever more completely the light to lighten the nations. Amen.

Giving from our gifts

Preached at St Michael’s, Solihull, meeting in Sharmans Cross School.

10.30am Eucharist on Sunday 1^st January 2009

Presentation of Christ in the Temple (Candlemass)

Readings: Malachi 3: 1-5 Hebrews 2: 14-18 Luke 2: 22-40

Last week I was talking to a lady, and she was experiencing panic in her household because 31^st January was the last date for submission of an on-line self assessment tax return. Well today is 1^st February, so I hope that they got the job done and can now relax. This got me thinking about tax. I don’t know about you, but I always used to think that it was very strange that people who worked for the government had to pay tax. I used to think it would make much more sense to pay government employees smaller salaries, but to pay them tax free. Would this not save all kinds of administrative costs involved in paying out money and then taxing it back in again? But as I have got older I have come to understand the wisdom of everyone paying tax. There are many administrative advantages, but it seems to me that the biggest single advantage is that government employees share in the experience of being a taxpayer. If taxes go up, because of some government policy, then they share the pain with everyone else. If taxes go down they share the benefit. If some mess up in government wastes a lot of tax payers money, then government employees are likely to be just as annoyed and frustrated by it as any other tax payer. So the additional circulation of money caused by paying government employees and then charging them tax ensures government employees and the rest of us have a shared experience of being tax payers. This common experience of paying tax helps us to understand one another. It helps the nation to build a common mind on the way that government money should be spent. In its own small way it helps us to build unity in the nation.

And we have a similar situation in our financial giving to the church. There are people, like me, who work for the church and are paid by the church, but we also give money to the church. Just like everyone else in the congregation we have to sit up and take notice when the church asks us to review our giving and perhaps to give more. So church employees face the same challenges on giving as other members of the congregation. And this additional circulation of gifts in the life of the church gives us a shared experience of giving. This helps us to understand each other and to build unity in the church.

This pattern of giving from the gifts that we have received is also evident in the Presentation of Christ in the Temple, which we heard about in our gospel reading today. God had given to Mary the huge gift of the baby Jesus, and yet Mary still went to the temple to present her baby back to God, because the law said that, “every firstborn male shall be designated as holy to the Lord.”

Mary and Joseph knew that Jesus was the Son of God. So they knew that the whole temple, and all its officials which exist for the worship and glory of God, also exist in a certain way for the worship and glory of Jesus. And yet this did not prevent them from making the sacrifice required by the law, “a pair of turtle doves or two young pigeons.” In fact we are told that Mary and Joseph did everything that was required by the law of the Lord before they returned to Galilee.

So even though the Holy Family received very special gifts from God, given to them for very particular purposes, they still felt the need to give gifts back to God. And so we see a circulation of gifts a bit like the circulation caused by government employees paying taxes, or church employees giving money to the church.

And this pattern of receiving gifts and then giving back goes very deep. It is central to the life of God himself. God the Father gives everything to Jesus. In Ephesians (1: 21) we read that the God has set Jesus far above all rule and authority and power and dominion and … has put all things under his feet and has made him head over all things. And yet Jesus too gives everything to the Father. In Gethsemane Jesus is reluctant to drink the cup of poison, but he realises, deep within him, the need to do God’s will, not his own. It costs him everything; his human body dies. God the Father receives this gift of everything from his son, but then he has more gifts for Jesus, beginning with the gift of the resurrection from the dead, and our salvation. And the result of this total self giving is the perfect unity that we see in the Holy Trinity. As Jesus says, “I am in the Father and the Father is in me” (John 14: 10-11).

As Christians we are called to share in the glory and holiness of this life of God, this divine life of heaven (e.g. 2 Th 2:14, Heb 3: 1,14). To prepare for this sharing we need to practice giving and receiving. Let’s be generous givers! We know that we brought nothing into the world. All that we have is God’s gift to us, either directly or indirectly. We also know that we will take nothing out of the world when we die, so ultimately everything that we have must be given away or lost.

Let’s give then, not just money, but of time, attention, talents and prayers. And let’s not be ashamed to receive gifts or love or attention from others, because these enrich us and allow us in turn to give more. All this giving helps goods, and money and news and experiences to circulate within the life of the church, and within the life of the wider community. This helps to build up a common life, a shared understanding. It leads to a sense of belonging and cohesiveness in the community, and it leads to unity in the church. Unity! This is perhaps God’s greatest gift to us, but we can only receive it when we are giving ourselves completely to one another.