A sermon preached at St. Augustine's of Canterbury Episcopal Church, Wiesbaden on Sunday February 2nd
The Presentation of our Lord in the Temple:
Psalm 84,
Malachi 3:1-4, Hebrews 2:14-18, Luke 2:22-40
[Personal Introduction]
I would
very much prefer to be here with you in different circumstances, and I can
imagine that today’s Psalm with its expressions of joy and delight in the temple,
“happy are they who dwell in your house,” the psalmist writes, that this more
than a little poignant as you think about having to leave this house.
And considering the circumstances
I did also wonder whether you would be worried by the Old Testament reading
from the prophet Malachi with its announcement of a messenger who will be like
fire, and the question: “who can endure the day of his coming?” I certainly hope
you can endure my coming! But of course the messenger that Malachi, the name
itself means messenger by the way, is announcing is no normal human being but the
Messiah: the messenger who is also the message: the Word of God.
So what does Malachi
have to say about the Messiah and what we can expect from him? It all sounds a
bit threatening or painful doesn’t it, “he is like a refiner's fire and like
fullers' soap,” especially when we think about what a refiner or fuller are and
how they work. A refiner uses intense heat to melt and then purify an impure
material – gold and silver are Malachi’s examples. And a fuller was someone who
cleaned and thickened freshly-woven cloth – he or she made it full. The process
involved cleaning, bleaching, wetting and beating and as fuller's soap was an
alkali made from plant ashes I suspect that would be a painful process too if
applied to us!
What we should also
note, and that is the promise behind these two metaphors, is that neither
process replaces or completely changes what was there before. The cloth or
metal is cleaner, better, purer, and renewed. But the core or substance was
already there, the accumulated dirt and muck just needed to go. This sounds
threatening only if we are either too attached to the dross and the dirt or
perhaps too afraid about what will be revealed underneath? There is no reason to
be afraid. God already knows and loves what is inside or underneath, God knows
our core being and God is willing to invest the time and the effort to help us
bring this to the fore, to renew ourselves. That is the message of hope, the
good news I take from this passage.
It reminds me of a
scene in C.S. Lewis’ book The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, I recently caught the
tail end of the film of the book on TV. The boy Eustace had been turned into a
dragon because of his greed and selfishness and only Aslan, the lion and Christ
figure, can remove the dragon skin and reveal Eustace’s true self. It is a
painful process:
“The very first tear he
made was so deep that I thought it had gone right into my heart. And when he
began pulling the skin off, it hurt worse than anything I’ve ever felt. The
only thing that made me able to bear it was just the pleasure of feeling the
stuff peel off. . . . And there was I as smooth and soft as a peeled switch and
smaller than I had been. …. And then I saw why. I’d turned into a boy again. .
. .”
The Letter to the
Hebrews picks up a similar theme, but takes the promise of renewal one step
further. To help us overcome sin, that dross and dirt we all accumulate, Jesus
shared our flesh and blood: he took on our human nature with all its weakness
and frailty. We know, the author of the letter writes, that Jesus can help us
when we are being tested, when we experience suffering, when the process of
renewal and purification hurts, because he suffered and was tested during his
earthly life. He was not just tested during his Passion but also by temptations,
through the betrayal of one of his close followers, and by humanity’s seeming inability
to understand and act on his message. Jesus, God’s Son, knew and knows pain and
can help us cope with the pain that comes with renewal. By the way, I am glad
to read that Jesus did not come to help angels, as I would not have a chance
otherwise!
Again, we do need to be
afraid either of the process of testing or of what will be revealed in the
process. Jesus is both a merciful and faithful high priest, he has atoned for our
sins and he knows who we are, because he was like us in every respect. Adversity
and suffering are neither punishments nor tests from God. We are very capable of
devising our own tests and punishments. Instead God’s promise is that when we
experience a time of trial and suffering we must trust in God and with God’s
help and support we will not only make it through this time, but that we will
grow and be refined in the process.
For Simeon and Anna,
being tested meant waiting. Both were of great age when Jesus was presented in
the Temple, but both were also certain that there would be good news at the end
of their long and patient wait, a messenger and message of consolation and redemption.
And yet their joy is
tinged with sadness and Simeon’s song of praise in the passage from Luke’s
Gospel also has a dark side. On the one hand Simeon, like Anna, is overjoyed to
see and to hold Jesus, the savior, and the light of revelation and glory. God
has answered his prayers and rewarded his patient hope and waiting: ‘God has
heard’ is what the name Simeon means. But at the same time he recognizes and
warns that what Jesus stands for will be opposed. Jesus’ life and teaching were
and are a threat to those in power, to the status quo, to carrying on as
before. The result of this opposition, Jesus’ suffering and death on the Cross,
will not only test him but also his mother – that is the sword that will pierce
her soul.
The good news is that
Jesus suffering and death is not the end and that the light of the world is not
extinguished. Instead, through the resurrection that Light shines even stronger
than before. Today is often known as
Candelmas or in German ‘Lichtmess’ because since medieval times candles were
blessed, lit, and carried in procession as a sign of the “Light to enlighten
the nations” that Simeon proclaims Jesus to be in the song we call the Nunc Dimittis.
At the core of all
three readings and of the images of refining, testing, and purification is a
promise that applies equally to us as individuals and to the
institutions we belong to, like the church. If we allow God to help us,
we will be cleansed and refined. We do not need to be afraid as God is with us
when we are tested – we are never alone during this painful process. It may
burn, sting, hurt, and seem at times to take far too long. But what comes out
the other side, both our renewed selves and our transformed institutions, will
be better able to reflect the light of revelation and glory, the light of
Christ, and will be better equipped to serve God’s purposes in transforming the
world. In the words of Tom Wright, former Bishop of Durham, “There is nothing
we face, today or tomorrow or the next day, in which Jesus cannot sympathize,
help and rescue us, and through which he cannot forge a way to God’s new
world.”[1]
This applies to St.
Augustine’s too. If God has a purpose for this parish, and I for one am
convinced God has, I would not be here otherwise, then you will come though
this phase of testing, this process of refining, cleansed, purified,
strengthened, renewed, and better able to act as messengers of and witnesses to
the Word of God, to the sign, and to the Light that is Jesus Christ our Lord
and Savior.
Amen
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