Sermon for Candlemas preached at the Eucharist, Sherborne Abbey on Sunday 2 February 2025 by The Reverend Lesley McCreadie (Hebrews Ch 2: v 14 – 18; Luke Ch 2: v 22-40)
Today we bring Christmas and Epiphany to a close. Our crib can come down as we end the 40 days of celebrating the gift of the Christ child to us – the gift of the Incarnation. The opening words of our service this morning set out for us the meaning of our celebration this morning – the joy of our Saviour’s birth and the change of mood to consider his passion.
One of the great joys for me of our celebration today is that old people take centre stage. Not the young dynamic and enthusiastic disciples but those of us who have a few years under our belts and today our experience and patience is seen in the lives of Simeon and Anna as being important.
So today we take our last look back to Christmas and then turn in a new direction with Easter in our sights.
Mary and Joseph brought their newborn son to the Temple as the law demanded; to present him to God and with that they also offered a sacrifice of two young pigeons – the sacrifice of the poor not the wealthy. Mary presented herself for purification as the law demanded. Ritual purification stems back to a Jewish tradition that women were considered unclean after the birth of a child. For 40 days for a boy, and 60 days for a girl, women weren’t allowed to worship in the temple. At the end of this time, women were brought to the Temple or Synagogue to be purified. After the ceremony women were allowed to take part in religious services again. In the Church of England, we used to offer the service of ‘churching’ which once really important, is now very rarely used. Some of you may remember that service and indeed been part of it as I have. Today we have another service called ‘Thanksgiving for the gift of a child’ sadly it is not very well used, I have only used it for family members, but it’s a lovely way of giving thanks and of welcoming a new child into the world. It’s a shame more people do not use it as it is a very special way of marking the gift of a child, their safe delivery and that of the mother.
Mary and Joseph already had an idea that this baby would not just be ‘theirs’, but was destined to do God’s work in a very special way so in this act in the Temple they also offered themselves remembering the first acceptance by Mary as she responded to the angel at the Annunciation and of Joseph as the angel came to him in a dream and he accepted that the child Mary was to bear would be not be his, but God’s.
Simeon and Anna are so key to this wonderful cameo in the Temple and as we encounter them, we are in the presence of wise and holy giants. Simeon has worshipped in the Temple for many years and was a quiet and patient man. Each day he prayed for the comfort for his nation that Isaiah had spoken of, but more importantly he believed that God had spoken to him and told him that he would not die before he had seen God’s anointed king. In the child Mary offered him, he saw that king, and this made it possible for him to ‘depart in peace’ as the Nunc Dimittis tells us. His parting comments though are not easy to hear, his words to Mary are dark and anticipate how Jesus’s life will be and how it will end. In the wonderful painting of the Presentation by Giovanni Bellini, Jesus is given to Simeon swaddled and knowing as we do the end story of Jesus, we can be forgiven for thinking that he is presented to Simeon in his burial shroud. The faces of the group are serious not joyful as they too seem to anticipate the final days of this baby’s life on earth.
Enter Anna – one of the few women in the Bible to be identified as a prophet. Aged about 84 she had lived in the Temple since she had been widowed. Luke tells us that she worshipped in the Temple night and day with fasting and prayer. I have to say that Anna is one of the stars for me of the New Testament and the older I get the more I admire her. We are told she had known sorrow but had not grown bitter. Hardship in life can often make us react in one of two ways – it can make us bitter, resentful and turn against God or it can make us kinder, softer more sympathetic. Anna had found the way to continue to love God and her neighbour through her difficulties.
Anna lived with hope in her heart, and I think this meant that God for Anna was a very real and intimate part of her life. She felt God’s hand on her shoulder and her response to this was to praise God through worship. Anna saw a change in Simeon as he spoke to Mary and Joseph and perhaps she went closer to listen and she heard the very best news of all – this baby in his arms was The Messiah. Anna then did what so many of us find hard to do – she told others. I just love Anna, don’t you? And as we all get older, I often hear people say to me – my useful days of being a Christian are over – what can I do now? My answer is always the say – You can pray. Pray for our young people, pray for our schools, pray for those who are more active. I have been very privileged to have had people who have prayed for me in my ministry and when one of them has died I really miss their prayers – so pray.
Worshipping, offering, speaking – three responses demanded of us on Candlemas Day to the wonder of the Incarnation. At the end of our service today Becca will remove the baby Jesus from the crib and place it on the altar – the table of sacrifice, thus symbolically moving him to the Passion story. We will all be given lighted candles as a reminder of the Light of Christ which dispels all darkness and a light which we are called to carry to the world. I will finish with the alternate collect for today, may it be our prayer today and every day:
Lord Jesus Christ
Light of the nations and glory of Israel
Make your home among us,
and present us pure and holy
to your heavenly Father,
your God and our God. Amen