Malachi 3:1-4, Psalm 84, Hebrews 2:14-18, Luke 2:22-40
Did you know that in England they have a saying about
today’s feast day? It’s very similar to our classic saying about Groundhogs
Day. While we look to Punxsutawney Phil
to find out how long winter will last, in England they say “If Candlemas be fair and bright, Winter has another
flight. If Candlemas brings clouds and rain, winter will not come again.”[1]
Funny the silly things we have in common. What is interesting about both
of these sayings is that they both deal with darkness and light.
In each case it is the opposite of what we
might think. Normally we associate darkness with cold, hopelessness, and harshness;
conversely we associate light with warmth, hope, and love. In these sayings if
light is present today then winter will remain, whereas darkness foretells of
an early spring. Regardless of this apparent contradictory imagery the people
who first devised these sayings were looking for a sign, something to give them
hope that the cold dark winters would be over and the warmth and beauty of
spring would be ushered in soon.
Today we celebrate the Feast of the Presentation of
our Lord Jesus Christ in the Temple.
It is this day that two prophecies intersect to show God’s light and love being
sent to us in a specific time and place, and that God continues to let light
shine through us.
Mary and Joseph were at the temple that
day for two reasons. The first was because it was time for Mary to offer a
sacrifice for her purification after giving birth. It was ritualistic
custom that a woman who had given birth was not allowed to step into the temple
until after forty days had passed. When the forty days were up they would have
to make a sacrificial offering for purity. Now Mary and Joseph were not rich
and could not afford the customary sacrifice of a lamb. Instead all they
could afford was two pigeons. Even though that is all they had they were
determined to follow the Law of Moses. The second reason Mary and Joseph were
at the temple was because as the first born son, Jesus was to be dedicated to
God. It is in observing these important rituals, handed down by God to Moses in
Sinai that they unexpectedly ran into two prophets, Simeon and Anna.
So what is a prophet? Why are they so important? Do
we have prophets in our midst? Prophets have an extremely important role
in our scriptures and in our faith. In the Old Testament prophets challenged
rulers. They foretold of the Messiah that would come. They brought hope
and comfort to a people in exile. In the New Testament prophets named who
Jesus really was. They spread the good news of Jesus Christ because he spoke
and lived a radical message of inclusion. He spoke of God’s love being for
everyone and not just a privileged few. Jesus reflected the light and love of
God and offered it to a people who were so desperate for change. However,
his message did not come without resistance. But this is not new for those
who spread the light of God and we can again look to the Hebrew Scriptures to
see just how prophets were viewed and treated.
Being a prophet is not an easy job. The Hebrew word for
prophet is described in scripture where God said, "...and
I will put My words in your mouth, and you will speak to them all that I
command." So literally prophets were the mouth of God on earth. It’s one
of the most important jobs that God assigns to us, but it’s not an easy one. Often
prophets were the target of persecution and opposition, so it is no wonder that
so many prophets tried to pass on the job.
For example, Moses asked God to pick his brother Aaron to
lead the Israelites out of Egypt
instead of himself. When Samuel was called by God, he did not even know who was
calling him! Jeremiah said he was too young. Elijah was run out of town more
times than we could count on our fingers and our toes. They all knew what it
meant to be a prophet. It meant putting themselves out there, often standing
alone in opposition to the majority. It meant saying what was right and
not what was easy. It meant trusting in God, completely, to the point of
self-sacrifice.
We know
that God was indeed with them. God helped them. God sustained them.
They didn’t know that, they didn’t have the benefit of looking into the
future to see that things would work out even when they faced the impossible.
They had to trust and walk blindly forward into the unknown.
In our gospel story today we find that Simeon and Anna are
a different kind of prophet. We do not get to know much about them outside of
what we heard. We do not get to know if they struggled with their call from God
or if they knew they were going to be prophets or not. We do not get to know if
they shared prophecies at other times in their lives. What we do know is
that in this instance they listened to God and proclaimed the words that God
put in their mouth. To those that were present the words may have seemed
blasphemous, proclaiming the presence of the Messiah in the form of the baby
Jesus, but their words were bringing hope to those who needed most. The Messiah
that most had been expecting was not personified in Jesus as a child or in his
ministry as an adult. Jesus was speaking, but many were not listening.
Prophecy is spreading light in the darkness, but with every
source of light comes a shadow. We know this to be true about the sun or
lights in our homes.
In our story Anna and Simeon were not concerned with the
shadow side of what they were saying. They spoke truth about Jesus without
worrying the consequences. They spoke because inside of them the Spirit
moved them, and inspired them, and gave them God’s words.
Were
people upset that they would say such things in the temple? Probably. Did Anna
and Simeon experience any repercussions for their words? We don’t know
conclusively, but passionate people sometimes act in unpredictable ways. But to
some people, those on the margins of society, their words were like music to
their ears. Either way they trusted God and they spoke.
We cannot know what the shadow of our actions will be. Mary
said yes without knowing everything that would happen to her and her son. She
trusted God. Mary said yes without knowing that she would have to watch her son
be crucified. She trusted God. Mary said yes without knowing that she would
have the opportunity to see Jesus resurrected, to see death conquered. She
trusted God.
So too
must we trust God, especially when we are surrounded by darkness. We too cannot
know the outcome of all of our actions. We cannot control how people will react
or what impact we will have on the future, but we must act. We must be
prophetic when we see places that need light.
We are called by our baptism to share in the mission started
by Jesus. We have experienced prophetic witness in the great saints of
history—from the prophets of the Hebrew Scriptures to Paul, through the
martyrs, the great mystics like Julian of Norwich and Hildegard, or more modern
prophets like Mother Theresa, Martin Luther King, Jr. and Cesar Chavez. But we
also see how Christians share in Jesus’ prophetic ministry when we witness to
one another, share in Bible study groups, or pray together.[2]
We are in a world where there are a vast majority of poor
people are neglected and pushed aside and ignored. In our own country, there is
a larger and larger number of people living in poverty. We find ourselves
embroiled in acts of violence and war. “Prophecy is still something that God is
using. God is speaking to us through prophets, but like the people in Nazareth and Jerusalem
who will attack and discredit Jesus as an adult, perhaps we too are not
listening well enough.”[3]
Our role as baptized members of the Body of Christ is to be
a prophet. We must listen and reflect on what we hear from God. Are we really
trying to hear God’s Word proclaimed by the prophets who are in our midst
today, those who in some special way are proclaiming God’s word and the radical
teachings of Jesus? Are we in turn actually listening or hearing what we want
to hear? Then, also, are we being the prophets we’re called to be?
In this
season of epiphany may you shine as a light in the world. May you not
fear the darkness that will attempt to lead us from our path. May we all
listen more keenly and speak more confidently as we continue in the mission of
Jesus.
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