Candlemas

Malachi 3:1-4 – PSALM 84 – Acts 8:14-17 – Luke 2.22-40

The Very Rev’d Bertrand Oliver, Dean and Rector

Why do we go to church?

Perhaps a bold question to start our worship today as we celebrate the Presentation of Christ in the Temple by his mother Mary. (and as we are about to welcome Ayden for baptism presented by his two fathers).

For Mary, in the story we heard today, there was an obligation from early biblical Levitical law that as a new mother she should go through the rite of purification after giving birth. This was a way of returning her to ritual purity into her community after the delivery of her child which, though a creative and intensely human experience, nevertheless marked women as ceremonially impure and unable to attend the temple until forty days after the birth.

At a time of limited medical knowledge, isolation from community events and being seen by a priest may have been a good strategy to avoid transmitting disease, though this casts motherhood in a rather strange light given the joy and divine mystery surrounding a birth.

Strangely, for Joseph too, there was a need to be purified for having touched Mary at a time when she would have been bleeding.

For their purification, they buy two doves for sacrifice, and they can go away reconnected to their community.
At the same time, they both bring Jesus to the Temple, because the first born male had a special place in society and was to be dedicated to God.

Three protagonists, and three different reasons already.

But back to my original question – why do you go to church? What prompts you to brave a cold Sunday morning to come to this place? What is it that has drawn you here, what is it that you find?

It could be the beauty of historical architecture, the depth of silence or the quality of the music, the ways the words spoken touch you and speak to your yearnings.

It could be the need for community, and the close connection you feel in communion with all those who are there too.
It may be that you feel weighed down and need to let go of that weight. Or it may be that you feel overjoyed and want to celebrate with others.

You may be seeking a framework for your life and believe that Jesus may have the answers. Or you may simply have seen an open door and come in.

These, and many more, are all good reasons to be here. Hopefully, your original purpose will be fulfilled. At the same time, churches and temples are places where the unexpected can happen, if you enter with an open heart and soul ready to be challenged, transformed, changed. Here are places where lives can be turned upside down, where deep insights come to the surface, where truth can come into light and where darkness can become evident, as we step nearer to God, as we learn to walk with Jesus.

If you have these experiences and need to talk about them, clergy and spiritual directors will welcome a conversation. Sometimes, the blaze of holiness or the quietness of God’s call can be too hard to understand, decipher, cope with alone.

We heard today in our passage from the prophet Malachi how the Lord ‘will purify the descendants of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, until they present offerings to the Lord in righteousness.’ (Malachi 3.)
This sounds at the same time both awe-inspiring and terrifying.

Who is this Lord of whom Malachi speak who will come to his Temple? Who is the messenger?

I think you already know the answers, especially at the end of this season of Christmas and Epiphany. We have had a number of opportunities to reflect on the singular ministry of preparing the way of John the Baptist, and of the Incarnation of Jesus – the son of God – the one who brings light to the world and does indeed help us become who we truly are, if only we would follow him. And so extraordinary events take place as Jesus is presented, as a forty days old baby, in the Temple.

First, an old man, Simeon, on whom the Holy Spirit of God rested. He was full of sorrow at the state of his country and was praying for redemption for his people, and remained hopeful because of the promise that he would see the Messiah, the anointed of God, before his death.

Simeon is led to the Temple, encounter the Holy Family, and immediately bursts into a song of joy and liberation as he recognises the one for which he had been waiting, a song which is still used daily in the service of Evening and Night prayers, reminding us that we too have seen the Christ in our lives every day even if we do not recognise him – and we too have a vision of God’s Kingdom.

‘My eyes have seen the 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’.

Simeon issues a further prophecy: ‘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.’

A devastating thought for Mary, who is still unsure as to what God intends with her miraculous child – and also for Jesus whose life does not now sound like that of a charmed King.

And we know how the teachings that Jesus has left us continue to have devastating power, especially against those who would seek to use them for their own purposes of power and greed – to the cost of the prophets of today who use them wisely and decisively.

Anna – another prophet who encounters Jesus that day – also recognises him as the one who will bring change and redemption for Jerusalem – though perhaps not in the way she or Simeon or any of them expected.

This story may seem rather surreal, and unlike anything that any of us might be about to encounter. And yet.
Today, we have the joy to welcome into this Temple someone about whom intense words of promise and expectations will be said. Baby Ayden has been brought by his devout and devoted fathers for baptism, a sacrament in which the church will make outwardly visible the inward grace that Ayden has received from God.

And we will remember – as we do at every baptism – the promises that we made at our own baptism. Promises which speak of constant transformation as we are being called – each one of us individually, and altogether as the community of the baptised – to be the refiners of the world, as we let God refine us.

Called to be the people of God who, when we see dirt and grime and injustice and oppression and exploitation and greed, are called to work to turn it all into the finest silver and gold, to return the divine creation to its original flawlessness, to create a world where peace, love and joy prevail for all.

This is not a challenge for the fainthearted, and one for which we need constant help in discernment, prayer and community.

That, in the end, may be the answer to the question: why do we go to church today.

Amen