Dear all, hope you are well, and blessings.
I've been in Liverpool for a few weeks now and I am setlling in, getting my feet under the table, getting my way around.
So far I've done one concelebration, one simple said Communion service, and as of today one sung High Mass/Communion... whereby the new pastor -l'l ol' me- had the audacity to introduce some sung parts instead of those parts we usually say...time will tell if this was a valuable experiment with lasting contribution and worth, but I do think people were not too taken aback and enjoyed themselves.
So, here's the sermon (I've got other more theological things on the go, but for now...)
My take on Christ's Mass, Kings' Mass and Candle Mass
Sermon-on the Feast of the Presentation of our Lord/Candlemas
(@Nordic Church, Liverpool, 1st February 2015)
[Jer. 9:23-24; I Cor. 1:1-3; Lk. 2:22-40]
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen (Rom. 1:7 et.al.)
February…Christmas seems a long way away already, in fact, it was 40 days ago. All that hubbub and humdrum, the Bazaar, Lucia, Advent, a certain ordination, and then before you know it we’re 40 days further on the calendar (actually it’s 39, but for the sake of argument, let’s keep 40). And as we know, the number 40 in the Bible always marks special events and commemorations.
Whatever title we give the occasion today –the Purification of the Virgin, the Presentation of our Lord, or the little nicknamed Candlemas- today we celebrate that the Christ-child, the Messiah, promised to the Jewish nation by the prophets of the Old Testament, comes to His Father’s house to be subjected to the Law of Moses and pay homage to the God of Israel. Because He was the first-born son of Mary, Jesus and His family had to perform certain specific sacrifices. The first-born of Mary therefore comes to the Temple in Jerusalem to pay homage as the First-Born of the Father. A child as a gift from God, to God.
If the birth of Jesus was an intimate family affair inconspicuously shared with the poorest of the poor-; and Epiphany was a happy sharing of the blessed occasion with a broader scope of a more exclusive in-crowd; the Presentation as it were gives the whole event the official seal of approval: a rubber stamping, and the if there would have been such a thing in those days, the publication in the Royal Gazette, a royal assent. It really did mean a final liturgical mark on the holy birth.
Lent and Holy Week are inching closer; two more Sundays and Ash Wednesday is on 18th February already. Today, we round up as it were our Christmas and Epiphany cycle with the last feast of Jesus as a baby. Apart from the episode as a 12-year old boy, on the cusp of teenager and man, this is the last information we are given in the Gospels about Jesus’ private life until the start of His public ministry as an adult.
Just when the days are starting to get longer again, and we are getting more and more minutes of sunlight a day, today is also earmarked as a feast of light, the Light of the World, for all the world, not just the intimate few, not just the affluent adventurers: all of us. As our Epistle puts it this morning: “…and called to be his holy people, together with all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ – their Lord AND ours…”.
Today’s feast underscores this once again for us, re-emphasises the Good News of God coming for all people, God being for all people, not just blood relatives and those who happened to be there, not just the elite, but a whole nation AND more… and is that not a joyous News to share and a Good example to follow amongst ourselves? Sharing and preaching, -not boasting as Jeremiah warns us! The God dwelling in His house is for all to behold, the God dwelling in His Son is for all to see, but He is not our possession to jealously guard!
As Old Simeon exclaimed: “in the sight of all nations!” Even this devout and righteous Jewish elderly man, was so moved by the Spirit to state very clearly: God is for all, He is not private property, He is not a nationalistic emblem or a religious institutional symbol.
From that intimate event at Christmas, to the Magi being let in on the secret, to all nations at the Presentation: we too now share in the news.
Yet here He is, for all to see. By coming to the Temple and by being cradled into the arms of His mother and of Old Simeon, Jesus, the Sovereign, in fact has become very approachable indeed. The Temple were God’s presence was revered in awesome majesty and mystery, the very footstool of his divinity, welcomed a new baby boy, like all first baby boys were supposed to, but in this one God Himself dwells, not just in the stones and grandeur, but intimately and physically.
But there’s more to it: Jesus, as the Anointed One promised by God but also as a helpless infant, being brought to the Temple, declares to us the mystery of Himself as truly God and truly man. God is there, so close you can touch Him and feel His presence!
You could say that just like Old Simeon, we too have met the Saviour, and now we may go in His peace whenever and wherever He calls us. Not just as shepherds or as kings or as people of one particular institution. There’s a lot of hope in this passage, and a lot of comfort… the hope and comfort only the Christ of our faith can give us. We too are invited to meet this Salvation of the Nations, this Messiah.
And we can meet Him: in prayer, in words of worship and hymns of praise, in Scripture and in fellowship with others… and in just a few moments time also in the Sacrament of Body and Blood, when Jesus Christ is truly present here today for us, real and approachable. It may not be the magnificent Temple in Jerusalem, it may ‘only’ be the chapel at the Nordic Church in Liverpool, but nonetheless, God’s only-begotten Son is here for us now, just the same as there and then.
And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Amen (Phil. 4:7)