The Presentation of Our Lord
The Rev. Rod Sprange

When I was 16, I had managed to get a job as a junior draughtsman in a London architect’s office. I had been to the West End of London, the theatre district many times, but never to what is known as the City of London, the banking and business centre.

I lived on the outskirts of London where there were farms and forest just a mile from our house. So to go to work in the City was a huge change. I hadn’t long started work when I was sent on an errand to Fleet Street. In those days Fleet Street was the location of all the major newspapers. I had the address carefully written on a scrap of paper and made my way among the incredible traffic, both vehicular and pedestrian. It was a busy, noisy place with cars honking, black taxi’s dropping off passengers and picking up new ones. Paper boys shouting out the news headline, red double decker buses, fumes, and people rushing everywhere. It was chaotic.

I found the address, it was an impressive and somewhat intimidating building, with huge glossy black wooden doors and shiny brass name plates and handles. I felt very small and insignificant. I opened the door and went in. Inside was like an oasis of quiet. I found I was facing a reception desk. Behind the desk were two quite beautiful, sophisticated looking young women. To this 16 year old boy they were even more intimidating than the building.

They beckoned me forward and with lovely smiles asked me what I wanted. I immediately forgot the name of the company I worked for and what exactly it was I was supposed to ask for when I got there. I felt myself shrinking like Alice In Wonderland and turning very red as I mumbled and eventually was able to stammer out why I was there.

I remembered this episode, and what it felt like, while reading Luke’s account of Mary and Joseph presenting Jesus at the temple when he was 40 days old. I recalled hearing Herb O’Driscoll, a wonderful preacher, describing what Jerusalem and the Temple were like in those days.

Mary and Joseph lived in, what was then, the tiny village of Nazareth, an out of the way place, with a population of 2-400. Joseph was an odd-job-man-come builder. Nazareth was a conservative Jewish town and the people were diligent in following the Jewish law. Mary and Joseph’s orthodoxy required them to present their first born son at the Temple in Jerusalem as soon as Mary was no longer considered unclean after giving birth. This would be when Jesus was 40 days old. The couple would have made the five day journey from Nazareth to Jerusalem - a hard journey by foot, carrying some supplies and the baby.

Imagine what it would have been like for them arriving in Jerusalem. A huge walled city with an enormous and magnificent temple. The city would be teaming with people, camels, oxen, donkeys, sheep, goats and birds. There would be the din of vendors calling out their wares and prices. There would be beggars asking for alms. It would have been a crowded, busy, noisy, dusty, smelly place, when compared with their village of Nazareth.

No matter how many times they saw it, the Temple, would leave Mary and Jospeh in awe. These relatively poor, country bumpkins, would feel overwhelmed by the city and the size, scope and magnificence of the temple. Its high walls were several blocks long. Inside the temple walls were the money changers and vendors offering approved animals for purchase to offer in sacrifice. People had to exchange their secular money for temple money - and often the money changers were unscrupulous, cheating the out-of-city visitors.

According to the law, the animals to be offered in sacrifice had to be without blemish - the only ones that were certified as being without blemish were the ones sold inside the temple - and wouldn’t you know, they were more expensive than the ones that could be bought outside in the street.

The normal sacrifice for the time of purification of the mother and redemption of the first-born son, was a small sheep. If the family were of limited means they could offer a pair of turtle doves or two pigeons instead. Notice that Mary and Jospeh needed to take that option. They knew what it was like to need to be careful with money. The law also required them to pay a small amount of money to the priest for the redemption of the first-born son.

Here are the two of them, in this strange but awesome place making an offering in place of their son - when a strange old man comes along and takes the baby from Mary - and starts to sing a hymn - which came to be known traditionally as the Nunc dimittis or the Song of Simeon. Imagine that young mother, in this huge, crowded strange place, suddenly having her six-week old child taken from her by an old man - a complete stranger. The urge to snatch back her baby must have been very strong - and what of Joseph the man who worked with his hands, was he tempted to intervene? But the man seemed to posses knowledge of this child and he was clearly in awe of God and incredibly grateful for the opportunity to see this child.

Who was this strange old man? Most people in Israel, at that time, were waiting for a Messiah to come and bring Israel back to glory. Israel had been waiting for this for centuries, but still firmly believed it would happen. Some thought a new king, like David would arise, and with God’s help would defeat the Romans and lead Israel to be a world leader. Some believed that God would break directly into history by supernatural means . There were others who understood things differently. According to William Barclay, they were know as The quiet in the land. These people did not dream of armed revolt and power, they believed in the power of prayer, and were constantly in prayer, asking for God to come and save Israel. They kept an expectant vigil, often in the Temple. Simeon was one of these and had been waiting patiently for the day when God would bring comfort to his people. He had been promised by the Holy Spirit that he should not die until he had seen, with his own eyes, God’s anointed king. On seeing the baby Jesus he understood that promise to have been fulfilled. He was moved to praise God, he could now die in peace. However, he also had the revelation of the terrible opposition that would face the saviour and the agony it would cause his mother.

Then Luke brings another strange, older person into the scene; Anna, an 84 year old widow and prophet who spent all her days in the temple in prayer. Anna also came up to the couple and their child and talked about him to everyone who was waiting expectantly for God to act.

What an emotional day for those two parents. Did they speak about all of this on the long walk back to Nazareth? Or, was Jospeh the more silent kind of man that keeps things in? Did Mary continue to ponder all these things in her heart? Our passage ends with these words: ’The child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom; and the favour of God was upon him.’ Can you imagine Mary watching her son grow, wondering what would become of him.

I found some irony in this passage, linking it to the passage from Malachi. In Malachi’s prophesy, the Lord will suddenly come to his Temple, and it will disturb people because he will come to purify worship practices.

Here are Mary and Joseph, after the proper amount of time, presenting Mary as now purified after the birth of her son, and needing to offer a sacrifice to complete the process of purification. Yet she was presenting her son, who was destined to purify the worship of the people of God. Some thirty years later, Jesus would enter Jerusalem and disrupt the temple practices, angry with the misuse of the power of the priests and the way they were abusing the people. He would also show distain for many of the purity laws. Remember he did not react angrily against the woman who had suffered a haemorrhage for years, who, by touching his clothes had made him ritually unclean. And remember too, when a leper came too close and asked Jesus to heal him, he ignored the purity laws and reached out and touched the man. Another time, Jesus taught that it isn’t what we put into our bodies when we eat that defiles us, it’s what comes out of our hearts.

On this first visit to the Temple, as a baby, Jesus is acknowledged to be the one who will bring comfort to the people of Israel and to the whole world, and he is the same one who will call the priests and scribes to task over their self-serving practices that add unnecessary burdens on the people of Israel.

There are interesting models for us in this. The two people who are part of the group known as quiet in the land, demonstrate the power of prayer - corporate or public prayer that is built on a foundation of private prayer. Prayer offered to God with patience and trust in God’s perfect response.

In a letter to parishes gathering for their annual general meetings Our Bishop is calling us, the people of Rupert’s Land, to greater, piety in our lives. He is calling on everyone to incorporate spiritual practices as a priority in our daily activities.

He is calling on lay and ordained alike to take up the practice of saying the daily offices as found in the BAS or BCP, or to at least read the appointed daily readings from the Revised Common Lectionary. He is calling us to be diligent in prayer.

I wonder how many will take up his challenge. I wonder how many excuses we will make for not acting on it. We all want a better world; for the world to conform to God’s will. Are we prepared to make the small sacrifice of daily commitment to scripture and prayer as part of our work in helping to bring that about?

Jesus was not a slave to scripture - he interpreted it through the lens of understanding gained through his close relationship with his Father. This close relationship was developed and nurtured through private prayer. Despite his urgent mission and the constant demands on him and constant movement throughout Israel, he made time to pray alone and with his disciples. If we want a closer relationship with God, we need to be in conversation - that’s what prayer is.

All Jesus’s work was based on his prayerful, intimate relationship with God the Father. In the Gospels we are privileged to get a glimpse of some of those precious conversations.

Christian life is first and foremost about intimate trusting relationship - with God, and with other Christians. It starts with private prayer and develops through shared worship, study and ministry. We nurture and are nurtured when we gather for worship, when we attend Christian education sessions, and when we rejoice in our participation in ministries both within and through St. Peter’s.

We find fulfilment when our worship and studies lead us to discern our gifts and share them in ministries about which we care deeply.

This Lenten season there are a number of opportunities for us to gather and learn together, let’s all make a conscious decision about our participation. And let’s take seriously our Bishop’s encouragement to daily reading of scripture and prayer. I am sure the members of St. Peter’s clergy will be delighted to help you if you come across a difficult scripture passage. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if it became the norm to hear members of this congregation deep in discussion about the meaning of one of the daily readings?
Amen