These Eyes Of Mine: a sermon for Year A, the Feast of the Presentation

Preached on Sunday, February 2, 2014 at the Church of the Holy Trinity. The Scripture readings that this sermon is based on can be found by clicking here.

This is an auspicious day, an auspicious date, February 2nd. There’s a lot going on today, in church and out. Today in the ecclesiastical calendar, we celebrate the Feast of the Presentation of our Lord Jesus Christ in the Temple. Now, this isn’t exactly one of the major feasts of the Church; this isn’t Christmas, Easter or Pentecost. But it’s not exactly a minor feast either. It’s one of only three special days in the Christian calendar that take precedence over the regular readings and propers and observances for Sunday when they happen to fall on a Sunday.

It’s called the Feast of the Presentation, but it hasn’t always been known as such. For a very long time, it was called the Feast of the Purification of the Virgin. As Luke tells us in our gospel reading this morning, “The time came for their purification according to the law of Moses, the parents of Jesus brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord.”

There’s actually two requirements of the law being observed by Mary and Joseph in our gospel passage today. It was a requirement, since the time of the Exodus, when God sent a plague upon the first born of Egypt, but yet spared the first born of the Israelites, that the first born son of every family would be ‘presented’ to the Lord in thanksgiving for the redemption of the people of Israel from bondage in Egypt.

 

And then the purification; according to the law, a woman was considered unclean for 7 days after birth, and the time of her purification was to last an additional three-and-thirty days after that. A long time to wait to be made clean again. Mary would have attended a service of purification on the 40th day after her son’s birth, and today, February 2nd is exactly 40 days after Christmas. The law required the sacrifice of a lamb and a turtledove at the service of purification, but for the poor, two turtledoves was sufficient. Luke tells us that the sacrifice of Mary and Joseph was indeed two turtledoves, giving us an idea of the economic conditions Jesus was born into.

We also call this day Candlemas, and there is an old tradition in Western Christianity that all the candles to be used in the church for the coming year are to be blessed and hallowed on this day. That tradition is anchored in the words we heard this morning from the prophet Simeon, who upon greeting Mary and Joseph and their first born son in the Temple proclaims that Jesus is, “a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel.”
But as is often the case, the Christian emphasis on light on this day may well come from an even older tradition. This eve of this day is the date of the Gaelic festival Imbolc, an ancient Celtic celebration of the beginning of spring. And aptly enough, today, February 2nd is the exact midpoint between the winter solstice and the vernal equinox. So, the hours of daylight are, in fact, getting more plentiful, noticeably so. And this year, in particular, we can rejoice in the coming of spring because the temperature is finally out of the single digits, thanks be to God.

 The increase in sunshine that makes us anticipate the coming of spring is also part of the reason that a certain groundhog is being harassed by the media in rural Pennsylvania this morning. There are many weather prediction traditions throughout Europe associated with the atmospheric conditions on this date, February 2nd.

And there’s something else about today that I can’t quite remember… Another important event today… Something on television later today… What is it? Oh, yes! Downton Abbey is on tonight. (nb: Feb. 2nd was Super Bowl Sunday) 

So, today is an auspicious day. A day on which we look forward to what is to come. The promise of soft spring days and long, languid summer afternoons. Today we prepare to say goodbye to the long, dark, freezing winter.

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Simeon and Anna, in our reading from Luke, also are saying goodbye to the past and welcoming a new light, a new revelation, and a promise kept by God.

Luke tells us that Simeon is a righteous man, and devout, and that the Holy Spirit rested upon him. God has promised him that he would not die until he had seen the consolation of Israel in the coming of the Messiah. And on this auspicious day, the Spirit calls him into the Temple, and he sees Jesus. He takes Jesus into his arms, and recites his prophetic blessing upon him.

Can you imagine such a thing? Coming into church with your six-week-old baby, and an old man comes up to you and takes him from you to say these strange and yet familiar words taken from Isaiah. And then Anna, a woman of great age, and great devotion. She takes up the song, and praises God and proclaims to all who long for the redemption of Israel that this child has come.

Simeon’s song, known by its Latin name, the Nunc Dimittis, is one of the great canticles of the Church; chanted by monks and nuns at Vespers for centuries, and still is done today. And too, it is one of the pieces of Scripture that we read at funerals. Just as the body is born from the church, wrapped in its pall, a reminder of an infant’s christening gown, the priest intones Simeon’s words: “Lord, you now have set your servant free to go in peace as you have promised; for these eyes of mine have seen the Savior, whom you have prepared for all the world to see: a Light to enlighten the nations, and the glory of your people Israel.”

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Simeon and Anna knew something, something that was only just dawning on Mary and Joseph; just coming into their minds, dimly. And that is this: with great joy, often comes great sorrow. With the coming of the new, also comes the loss of the old. Simeon knows that he is about to be set free, to go in peace, because that which he was promised has now come to pass. A welcome of great joy, but also a goodbye.

And Mary, full of joy and tenderness, and perhaps great pride, at the birth of her son, hears from this prophet who lauds her child, that, “a sword will pierce your own soul too.”

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It’s a funny day, this February 2nd, this Feast of the Presentation. An auspicious day. A day on which the chill of winter is just a bit less chilly, a day on which the weak winter sun will shine just a little bit longer. But it is a day on which we are reminded that just as spring must come, so will another winter. And with the new, comes the loss of the old.

But the new will come, no matter what. And with the new, comes the consolation of a nation, and the redemption of the whole world. The life of faith is not a life free from loss, or free from sorrow. But always in the end comes consolation, the outcome is always redemption and salvation and peace; for we can say too, that our eyes have seen the Savior, the glory of the people, and the light of the world. Amen+

© The Rev. Mark R. Collins