Candlemas Opportunity
Preacher: Revd Dr Harriet Harris MBE, Chaplain, University of Edinburgh
Readings: Malachi 3: 1-5; Luke 2: 22-40
May the words of my mouth and the meditation of all our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord our strength and our redeemer. Amen.
On Tuesday it will be the Feast of Candlemas.
This feast sits in the faultline between the old dispensation and the new. In the East for a time it was called ‘The Meeting’, where Simeon of the Temple meets the Christchild of the new covenant. But it is a feast with many names. In the Western church it has been both the purification of our Lady, and so a Marion feast; and the presentation of Christ in the Temple, and so a feast of our Lord. Traditional beeswax candles, whose wax is made by virgin bees, symbolise the flesh of Jesus born of a virgin mother.
We don’t know why it is that Luke actually conflates two temple rites: the purification of the mother, and the offering of the first-born son. He might have been confused about Jewish custom. But the beauty of it is that Luke has Jesus’ parents redeeming Jesus from the Lord God, literally buying him back, making a sacrifice to the Lord so that they can keep their son. And their offering is precisely that rude sacrifice of two pigeons, for people who can’t afford more. Anna sees him and begins to speak about him to everyone who is looking for the redemption of Jerusalem. So the one who is to be the redeemer is first himself redeemed, and by the humblest of offerings, marking him out as one of the poor of Israel.
Candlemas is also the turning point between Christmas and the Passion, and in this sense it is the fulcrum point of the liturgical year. We celebrate Christ’s coming, but we also start our lament, as, with Simeon, we look ominously towards his suffering. In many traditions Candlemas is celebrated with a procession, so that we are looking ahead to Eastertide when we carry small off-white candles in pale imitation of the bleached white Paschal candle that represents Jesus’ purity. By doing this we show that we try to be like Christ.
All in all, Candlemas is a bittersweet feast, because in it we acknowledge the joy and pain of the incarnation. We acknowledge the light and the dark, birth and death. We discover that God’s light brings us hope and pierces our soul, and reveals our inner thoughts.
The Covid 19 pandemic strikes as being like Candlemas in negative; a tiny life whose reach becomes huge and touches all nations, all peoples.
As a grown man Jesus taught us to look at what is small and expect that from humble beginnings great things can come. The Kingdom of God, he said, is like the smallest of all seeds, that grows into the biggest of trees.
The Covid19 virus, invisible to the naked eye, is spreading death, despair and darkness around the world in so much less time than a tree can grow to full height or an infant grow into a man big enough to be cut down in his prime.
The pandemic, because it brings loss and death so close, also has power to pierce our soul and to reveal our inner thoughts, but the more powerfully if we bring Christ close to us during this pandemic. I’ve been recording podcasts with students and staff over this time, and some of the challenges people have talked about include:
Exacerbation of OCD, with so much learning and assessment being online, and this making you want to check, double check, triple check, multiply check everything over and over again, into the early hours of the morning; the increase in anxiety including social anxiety as all the strategies you have used in the past to familiarise yourself in mixing with people have gone out of the window, because we are not allowed to mix; isolation, especially if you are quite extrovert and need the presence of others to draw out your energy; how painful loneliness is, and loneliness does indeed show up in the pain centres of the brain, as a stomach ache might; burn-out so much present amongst staff, tearfulness at work and at home; strain on relationships. These are just some examples of the big harms a tiny virus can do, not to mention the social and global harms of loss of life, jobs, trade, struggling economies.
So let us never doubt that small things can have massive effects. But bring to this the Candlemas opportunity, to look for the hope beyond the horizon of suffering.
There will be more death, we all know that. Things will get harder before they get better. And yes it is taking some time.
But Candlemas is always a turning point, not only from birth to death, but to the life made possible out of that death. Christian discipleship always involves going, as we are called, into Christ’s death, with whatever literal and metaphorical dying that involves for us: we might need to die to our security, our expectations, our health, our loved ones, indeed our own lives – we do not know. And so our souls are pierced and our innermost thoughts can come into the light, and we can bring them to God for healing.
And then we can take the Candlemas opportunity to look beyond the horizon, beyond what is visible. And if you will allow me, I will invite us to begin doing that now, because this is how we find what we are to do, starting with today.
Now for this be effective, you have to join in – it will do nothing for you if you just watch!
I invite you to stand up and close your eyes, and quieten your soul in prayerfulness, and tune in so far as you can to your heart’s desire. This will take you to a vision beyond the horizon, beyond what is yet visible. What is your vision for God’s world? What do you see, or feel? It may be beyond your lifetime it may generations into the future or not fully realisable on earth, or it may be 50 years from now, or ten years or five. You may have words for it, such as ‘no child going hungry’, or you may have pictures, such as flourishing greenness, people in harmony, or you may just have a fuzzy sense of something, that you can’t quite picture or put into words. It doesn’t matter, what matters is that you are tapping into a yearning that is your God-given yearning for the life God has given us.
Now I invite you to look to the first visible horizon – is it five years from now or 3 years – what are you doing at that first visible horizon? You don’t need to know how you came to be doing it, but what are you doing, and what do you see others doing around you, that makes sense towards the vision you have out there? What are you inspiring others to do? Are you part of a community group, or heading up a project, or a family, sharing knowledge? Do you have a building you are working from, or a network?
Now start to walk further back, to the one year from now mark. What are you doing towards this reality. Are you researching possibilities, creating contacts, getting training? What seeds are already sown?
Now come back to 6 months, what are you doing in 6 months time, that is guided by your heart’s desire ,your vision and the horizon that you can see. Who is around you, how are you spending your time?
Now the 3 month’s mark: what is already underway, what milestones are already passed? Perhaps you have had some foundational conversations, or found a course, or a like-minded buddy?
Now the 1 month mark: what are you doing a month from now, that is guided by your vision? Who are you speaking with, what are you praying for, what are you excited about?
A week from now, what have your first steps been?
And tomorrow, what will you do, what will your prayer be? What is your first action towards the hope and vision that God has put in your heart?
Take this opportunity, afforded us by Candlemas, to look beyond the visible horizon, to the promise that lies beyond.