Coming to the Temple

This Sunday, we have the rare opportunity to celebrate the Feast of the Presentation of our Lord. This feast day falls on February 2, and when it falls on a Sunday, it trumps the normal schedule of Epiphany season lessons.  The Presentation of our Lord falls on the 40th day after Christmas and closes out the holy days marking the birth and childhood of Jesus. It is an English custom to keep the creche up until the Presentation, which is why we have done so here at St. Peter’s.

The events of the Feast are told by Luke in Luke 2:22-40.  After undergoing the purification rituals following birth, Mary is now considered clean under Jewish law so she and Joseph take their infant child Jesus to make the ritual offering to God. Under Jewish law, the firstborn male child belonged to God and would be dedicated to service in the Temple unless he was redeemed. The parents would offer a sacrifice as an alternative. As people with less income, the offering required for Mary and Jospeh was two turtledoves or two pigeons.

While in the Temple, the holy family encountered two faithful Israelites - Anne, an elderly widow known as a prophetess who spent all of her time in prayer and Simeon, a faithful servant of God. Both noticed the child Jesus amidst the crowd and saw that God was doing something unique. Anne sang praises to God, Simeon took Jesus in his arms and began the Canticle, “Lord, you now have set your servant free to go in peace, for my eyes have seen the savior . . .”  Simeon’s song has become the final of the three Gospel songs from Luke sung by the church every day.

Thanks to the Anglican choral traditional, there are hundreds of settings of this canticle from the last six centuries that are treasured parts of choir libraries. For those who pray Compline, you will recognize the text as the final words of Compline - a beautiful commendation of the self to God’s grace and peace at the end of the day.

This ritual remind us that the daily life of Mary and Joseph was an ordinary life of two faithful people raising their child in the knowledge and love of God, one of the promises parents and godparents make when they present a child for baptism. 

As we celebrate our parish life at this Sunday’s annual meeting, let us remember that sacred and ordinary are made one in God. When we offer our ordinary selves in worship, fellowship, and service, we meet God, and become God’s light to others. Our parish life is about  doing all three, and it is your offering of yourselves through time, talent, and treasure that accomplishes all that we do and lets Christ's light shine.