After instructing the first graders in Sunday School for several weeks about Easter, the teacher asked the class, “What does Easter mean to you?”
One little boy held up his hand and shouted, “Easter bunny!”
Another child said, “Easter baskets and candy!”
The teacher was disappointed because after all of her hard work, they were missing the point. Then another child raised her hand and said, “It means Jesus died for our sins and was put in the tomb, and on the third day he came out—and if he saw his shadow we would have six more weeks of winter.”
She got most of it right! Everyone knows Ground Hogs’ Day is not on Easter but on the 2nd of February, right? What is a much better kept secret is that the 2nd of February is also the Feast of the Presentation of Christ in the Temple.
Most Christians, if asked, “What are the two most important days of the year for Christians?” would have no trouble coming up with the answer “Christmas and Easter.” These two events in the life of our Lord are so important to the Christian faith that they keep cropping up in one way or another throughout the year. The Feast of the Presentation is one of those days relating both to Christmas, or the birth of Christ, and, less obviously, to Easter, the Feast of the Resurrection. That’s why it is so full of meaning.
On the 40th day after Jesus’ birth the Holy Family traveled to Jerusalem in obedience to the Mosaic Law. The Mosaic Law was that every firstborn male should be dedicated to God, in remembrance of how the angel of death passed over all of the firstborn of Israel in the exodus from Egypt. Likewise, the Law also required that a woman, after giving birth to a son, should mark the end of her 40 day period of purification by making a sacrifice at the Temple. Thus, this feast has been known also as the Feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the alternate title given to it in the 1928 Book of Common Prayer.
Even if that was all that happened when Jesus was presented in the Temple on the 40th day, it would be full of meaning as we would look back at it from the perspective of Easter, but what made it especially revelatory was what happened when they arrived at the Temple. It was what happened there that names the feast in the Greek Orthodox Church: Hypapante, which means meeting. St. Luke tells us that living in Jerusalem there was a man by the name of Simeon. He was “righteous and devout, looking for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he should not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ.” And so, at the time when Mary, Joseph, and Jesus arrived at the Temple, the Holy Spirit moved Simeon to go there also, and when Simeon saw Jesus he knew he was the One. He knew that God’s promise had been fulfilled. So he took Jesus up in his arms and said:
“Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word; for mine eyes have seen thy salvation, which thou hast prepared before the face of all people, to be a light to lighten the Gentiles, and to be the glory of thy people Israel.”
In Simeon’s inspired words we hear echoes of Isaiah’s prophecy that the Messiah would be a light to lighten the Gentiles. They also call to mind St. John’s words about Jesus: “In him was life, and the life was the light of men….The true light that enlightens every man was coming into the world.” And from the words of Simeon arise the other designation for this feast: Candlemas. The Church has traditionally had the blessing of candles and candlelight processions on this day. All of these themes—The Presentation of Christ, The Purification of Mary, Hypapante, and Candlemas—are depicted in our stained glass window of the Nativity in the bottom panel.
A light dispels darkness. It makes visible things that were previously unseen. It is through the light of Christ that we know our need for God; it is through the light of Christ that our sin is revealed to us; it is through that light that we know of God’s forgiveness; and it is through that light that we begin to understand the mystery of God.
John Newton experienced the light of Christ when he was converted as an adult. He lived in the 1700s and prior to his conversion he was the master of a slave trade ship. After his conversion he gave up that business and eventually became an Anglican priest. He described his previous life as one of blindness and his new life in Christ as the ability to see. Newton wrote his own epitaph, which reads:
John Newton clerk
once an infidel and Libertine
A servant of slaves in Africa
Was by the rich mercy of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ
Preserved, restored, pardoned
And appointed to preach the faith
He had long labored to destroy
You know John Newton by a hymn which he wrote: “Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was….blind, but now I see.” The light of Christ is the grace of which he spoke: “T’was grace that taught my heart to fear, and grace my fears relieved. How precious did that grace appear the hour I first believed.”
This is the light of Christ that we celebrate today, the light that enlightens the nations, the light that enlightens every person. We light candles as a sign of that light. We will become bearers anew of that light as we receive him in our hands or on our tongues at the altar. As our lives are enlightened by Christ, so may the lives of others be enlightened through our witness to the risen Lord in word and in deed.
Sermon preached by The Very Rev. Fredrick A. Robinson
The Church of the Redeemer
Sarasota, Florida
The Feast of the Presentation of Christ in the Temple
2 February 2014