Sermon: The Presentation of Christ

Luke 2:22-40, Hebrews 2:14-end (shortened version)

On the Friday before Christmas we said Evening Prayer instead of Choral Evensong. Afterwards I went to meet a family sitting in the nave. There were three generations of them, grandparents, parents and an uncle, and a tiny baby. She was wrapped up warmly in a white shawl, and her mother held her out to me as I approached. They told me that they had promised they would bring her to the cathedral if all went well with her birth, and so here they were on this cold winter's night thrilled to bring their first baby to the cathedral but slightly disappointed that there was no choir and music. After we talked the father took his new daughter to look at the Christmas tree and I watched as he stood there for a long time in silence, holding her up so that she could see the lights.

It was only during Morning Prayer next day that I realised the similarity with the event we remember tonight, when Mary and Joseph brought their new first born baby to the temple in thanksgiving for a safe delivery and to present him to God. They were there to fulfil rituals, set out in the Old Testament, which Luke combines. One involved the redemption of the firstborn, another the purification of the mother following the rigours of childbirth, marking her re-entry into society and its religious observances from which she had been exempt whilst she recovered.

Then there was Simeon, a devout man who seems to have been particularly sensitive to the Holy Spirit's leading and who, on this day, aware of the Spirit's nudging to go specially to the temple, had come not knowing what he would find. When he saw this unremarkable baby, Simeon knew that he had seen the coming of God's salvation and therefore his own time on earth was drawing to a close. And so he placed himself in God's hands, just as Mary and Joseph were doing in presenting Jesus at the temple. Jesus, as a baby, was passive but Simeon was actively bringing himself to a place of trust and relinquishment. Then he blessed the parents and spoke hard words to Mary about her son and her own suffering as a sword would pierce her soul. Tonight, as we are surrounded by candle light and all is quiet in this beautiful building, we need to remember that the gospel makes demands upon us. Simeon's peace and Mary's disturbance have their roots in the same place.

But there is another person, with yet another reason for being there. Anna is one of those people who find a home in a sacred space. The temple is where she belongs. When I hear of Anna I think of the old ladies in churches on the continent, often dressed in black, just sitting there in the cool, and especially of one lady I know who has made Salisbury cathedral her second home. Anna represents all those people who find shelter in sacred space, as many people do in this cathedral. She just walks past at the right time and, perhaps because she heard what Simeon said rather than because of any particular revelation she had herself, she too praises God and also speaks about it to the people around.

So we have four people and a baby, all of whose lives were touched in some way by this unplanned meeting in the temple. Out of it came a song that has been sung through the centuries, and the festival we know as Candlemas, or the Presentation of Christ in the temple. For us it marks the end of the Christmas season, and it opens us to themes of presentation, purification, meeting, light for the world. These are joyful and hopeful themes. But Presentation is also the hinge when we turn from Christmas to look towards Lent, Holy Week and the passion of this child, the light of the world. And so there is a bitter-sweetness about tonight, a poignancy as, like Mary, we take in the fact that the joy at this child's birth will soon have to embrace, too, the pain of a sword piercing the soul.

Jesus, Mary, Joseph, Simeon and Anna had very different reasons for being in the temple that day and you may recognise your reason for being here tonight in their stories, or you may have yet other stories to tell of why you have come. The intersection of their stories in this one brief encounter assures us that no gathering in God's presence is random. In the same way that Mary and Joseph presented Jesus to God, we have prayed tonight that we may be presented to God with pure and clean hearts by that same Jesus Christ, God's son and our Lord. And so our response is, like Simeon, to be willing to be presented, to be still before God in this holy place and open to letting events unfold.

I close with some words by Jarolav Vajda, which we can use as a prayer as we present ourselves before God.

Now the silenceNow the peaceNow the empty hands upliftedNow the kneelingNow the pleaNow the Father's heart in welcomeNow the hearingNow the power
Now the vessel brimmed for pouringNow the BodyNow the BloodNow the joyful celebrationNow the weddingNow the songsNow the heart forgiven leapingNow the Spirit's visitation
Now the Son's epiphanyNow the Father's blessingNowNowNow.