At the beginning of February Christians celebrate the Feast of the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple
– the story is attractive and simple: the old man Simeon must first see the Messiah before he dies, and there, in the small child offered in the Temple, he sees a light to lighten the gentiles and the glory of the people of Israel. Not surprisingly the Presentation is a festival of light – in the depths of winter the light of Christ shines out as the old man Simeon and the prophetess Anna recognize Jesus for what he is: the one from whom salvation comes to the whole world. St Luke emphasizes the fact that both these people, Simeon and Anna, are holy. They are dedicated to a life of worship, always in the Temple worshipping God continually – as holy people, they are able to glimpse God’s glory in a six week old baby. Nobody knows quite when candles were first associated with this feast of Candlemas, but they fit very well, at least in Northern Europe – they are there to remind us that even in the darkest and coldest of seasons the glory of the Christ-child shines out.
For most of Christian history, at least in the west, Candlemas was also kept as the feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary. And instead of being a feast of Our Lord, it was a feast associated primarily with his mother – Mary and Joseph went to the Temple to perform Mary’s religious duties: to offer two turtle doves as a sacrifice – all part of the process of ritual cleansing, purification. As in most cultures, the kind of Judaism associated with the Temple regarded women as ritually outside the community for a period following childbirth – in the case of a male child like Jesus this was forty days; for females, who, as usual, had it worse, it was eighty days. To return to the community required the performance of a ritual sacrifice. So it is that Mary returns to the community through this humble sacrifice, through doing something very ordinary – nothing different from any other devout Jewish mother. This all points to the ordinariness of the Gospel – to the very humdrum world of religious ritual and cultural customs. Jesus and his mother aren’t exempt from these.
So at Candlemas the two sides of the Christian Gospel are revealed – the glory of Jesus shines out to those with eyes to see, but Jesus is also carried in the arms of his mother and nurtured in her family – God chose to reveal himself in the ordinariness of everyday life, and to share in both the joy but also the pain and suffering that ordinary life brings with it. This means that when catastrophes happen – as has been so tragically demonstrated in Haiti – God is not aloof from the situation but is involved in it. And the Christian hope is that glimpses of light can be seen in the most awful of situations – it is the light shines in those who seek to transform the situation, and to express their love for all regardless of who they are.
On 7th February the Bishop of Dorchester will be coming to our parishes. He will preach at the Cluster Service at Garsington to help launch our renewed focus on mission. This sense of mission is something that will require proper resourcing so that a vibrant Christian presence can be maintained in our villages, but also so that our three churches can become more outward focused. It costs a great deal of money for the church to look out for the needs of our communities and to proclaim the love of God for everyone in our villages and to be there when people most need it. To keep mission and ministry going at All Saints’ Church, Cuddesdon costs over £60 per day – we would invite everybody to share with us in playing a part in the life of our church so that it can continue to proclaim God’s transforming love in our bittersweet world.
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