Sermon for Candlemas
Candlemas
Sermon by The Reverend Charles Royden 1 February 2009
We celebrate Candlemas on the Sunday closest to February 2
and that of course is today. It is a time of light and encouragement and
with the weather forecast at the moment we might need it.
Having said that I have seen and read a great deal of very discouraging
stuff lately, have you? My shares are not worth the paper they are written
on. The church has written to me to tell me that my pension is not going to
be worth having so I will have to work until I am older than Simeon and
Anna. My endowment mortgage has lost so much value that I will never be able
to live in my own house, even if I did think about retiring. And so it goes
on!
I am sure that on several occasions over the past few months I have turned
on the radio and heard them tell me 'today is the most depressing day of the
year.' Are they just making this stuff up or are we getting worse and worse
days? I would guess that it is not the most depressing day of the year, - it
just feels like the most depressing day of the year.'
Well the good news is that winter is half way over! We are at candlemas,
halfway between the winter solstice and the spring equinox. Groundhog day as
they say. If it is sunny tomorrow we are all doomed– in for more bad
weather, if it overcast then by some perverse twist of fate we we are out of
the proverbial weather woods.
Spiritually there is also good news as we come to candlemas. We have this
beautiful story of the Aged Simeon and the aged Anna in the temple.
The background to the passage from Luke today is seen in the Book of
Leviticus Chapter 12:1. This taught that
On the eight day after the birth of a boy, he was to be circumcised
Then the woman was to wait thirty-three days to be purified from her
bleeding. Here is the reading from Leviticus 12:1 if you find it helpful
The LORD said to Moses, "Say to the Israelites: 'A woman who becomes
pregnant and gives birth to a son will be ceremonially unclean for seven
days, just as she is unclean during her monthly period. On the eighth day
the boy is to be circumcised. Then the woman must wait thirty-three days to
be purified from her bleeding. She must not touch anything sacred or go to
the sanctuary until the days of her purification are over. If she gives
birth to a daughter, for two weeks the woman will be unclean, as during her
period. Then she must wait sixty-six days to be purified from her bleeding.
"'When the days of her purification for a son or daughter are over, she is
to bring to the priest at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting a year-old
lamb for a burnt offering and a young pigeon or a dove for a sin offering.
He shall offer them before the LORD to make atonement for her, and then she
will be ceremonially clean from her flow of blood.
"'These are the regulations for the woman who gives birth to a boy or a
girl. If she cannot afford a lamb, she is to bring two doves or two young
pigeons, one for a burnt offering and the other for a sin offering. In this
way the priest will make atonement for her, and she will be clean.'"
It is worth noting that Mary and Joseph offer the poor sacrifice. This was a
credit crunch time for Mary and Joseph too. Jesus does not grow up in a rich
family. It is official they were poor. Their sacrifice was all they could
afford.
I wonder how many of you have been keeping up with the Peter Owen Jones,
'Around the World in 80 faiths?' I am enjoying it enormously. Peter is one
of those people who can join in with other faiths as he goes around. I am
afraid I would just not be able to be quite so involved in the way that he
does, he is really giving of himself and shares with the people in an honest
and open way. But one of the things which Peter find difficult is the whole
sacrifice thing. It becomes apparent just how intrinsic sacrifice is to so
many religions still today. So many people believe that the way to God's
heart is to kill things.
Now of course this was once the way that things were in our faith. We need
to be reminded that Mary and Joseph thought God wanted two little birds to
be killed as an offering to God and to make atonement for sin so that God’s
appetite for vengeance was satisfied.
The really good news is that the passage from Hebrews today tells us that it
is all over. The life of Jesus is God's way of telling us that he does not
want the death of anything or anybody. The only death which matters to us
now is the death of Jesus, and that was God's way of showing us his love and
reassuring us that there is nothing which we can do which will make him love
us less.
At Wednesday Holy Communion this week we were looking at the passage from
Hebrews where we are told that Jesus sat down. His work was finished. Jesus
work was done, once and for all. That phrase Once and for All, really does
some up the sacrifice of Jesus, his death was a one time event and it was
for all people.
But I want us to think today about Simeon and Anna. These were really old
people. These were people who had rheumatism and arthritis and all the aches
and pains that we have, without the medication. These were old people who
knew how difficult it was being old. Poor old Anna was also a widow and had
been for a long time. So they have much to teach us about being old.
Now I receive contacts from lots of people of people complaining. There is a
common theme to many of the complaints which I hear. People who are older
tell me that things today are just not what they used to be. Once upon a
time things were so much better. Now I myself have some sympathy for this
line of thought because I can remember a time when my savings, my pension
and my endowment mortgage were worth something. But as I listen I realise
that for these people there is not just a looking back to specific times of
well being. There is a general despair which has so drawn them into a
harking back to some past bygone age when the roads were paved with gold,
they have been so dragged backwards that they no longer have hope for the
future. They have nothing to look forward to because everything back there
was brilliant and everything going forward is rubbish.
Well there are lessons to be learned today for all of us and especially to
anybody who is all fed up and miserable about the future. Do not allow these
people to imprison you in their dungeons of despair.
Remember first of all that when this episode took place, the Romans were
occupying the land as a military force. We know from the stories of Jesus
that taxation was an issue, they tried to trap Jesus with the question about
paying taxes to Caesar. And we know from the life of Jesus also that if you
stepped out of line you could end up being punished on a cross. It was when
times were like this, so much worse than anything which we experience today,
that Jesus was brought by Mary and Joseph, forty days after he had been born
to the temple.
Simeon and Anna, these old people greeted him. Now you would be forgiven for
thinking that Mary and Joseph would find themselves hearing old Simeon and
Anna moaning about how bad everything was. They could have harked back to
the good old days. But they didn't.
They were both old but they didn't live in the past.
They both had lots to complain about but they were positive about the
future.
Neither of them were moaners.
We are told that the Holy Spirit rested on Simeon. The Holy Spirit leads us
into the future with hope, because the future is God's.
The challenge for each of us is to put our trust in God in the same complete
was that Simeon and Anna did
We must like Simeon have the faith to recognise God at work in his world.
have the faith to trust that God has a plan for his world
We must like Anna be able to look to the dawning of a new age.
We do not know what lies around the corner. However we do know that God has
not abandoned us in the dark
The Lord is my light and my salvation whom shall I fear.