Joy and Pain (Christ's Presentation in the Temple)

JOY AND PAIN

(Luke 4.22-40)

Nowadays, shops start to celebrate Christmas as early as October, and as soon as Christmas Day has arrived, they start to celebrate the January sales.

Now, that may well be the way the world celebrates Christmas, but it is not the way the Christian Church celebrates it in the Liturgical Cycle, commonly known as the Church's Year.

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The Church celebrates the good news of Christmas for forty days, culminating with the Presentation of Christ in the Temple, which is celebrated on 2 February.

Hence, Christmas cribs should be kept up until 2 February as a focus of prayer and devotion. The colour of the vestments continues to be white. The Sundays are cal!ed "Sundays after Christmas" or "Sundays of Epiphany", conveying the theme of the revelation of God in Christ, first to the Jewish world and then to the non-Jewish world.

All this comes to a climax with the Feast of the Presentation of Christ in the Temple. After that we begin to look forward to the suffering of Christ culminating with Good Friday. The next few Sundays are called "Sundays before Lent" and these are followed with the "Sundays of Lent". The vestments change colour, first to green and then to

purple.

In other words, the Feast of the Presentation of Christ in the Temple is both a climax and a watershed. It brings to an end the celebration of Christmas and looks forward to Good Friday. It is therefore a feast of both joy and pain.

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This double significance of joy and pain is to be found in our Gospel reading for the Presentation of Christ in the Temple (Luke 4.22-40).

However, it is a bit confusing insofar as St Luke has conflated, in other words brought together into one event, two distinctive Jewish ceremonies concerning child birth.

On the one hand, he talks about the Jewish rite of Presentation, and on the other hand, he talks about the Jewish rite of Purification.

Let me explain.

The ancient Jewish rite of Presentation laid down that every first born male was sacred to God and therefore should be given back to God. [This was how the priesthood of the Temple was originally recruited., though later it came to be restricted only to the families of Aaron and Levi.] Later, there developed the practice of the Rite of the Redemption of the firstborn, whereby, upon the payment of five shekels, the family could buy back their son from God.

The ancient rite of Purification permitted a woman to do house work after child birth. However she was not permitted to attend public worship until she had been purified from the dirt associated with child birth. The method of purification was that she offered a sacrificial lamb. These tended to be very expensive since they could only be bought from the Temple stallholders who took advantage of their monopoly by charging exorbitant fees in order to line their own pockets

However, poor people were permitted to offer a pair turtle doves instead of a lamb. But since these were migrating birds and therefore not always available, these could be replaced with a pair of pigeons.

As I said earlier, St Luke has conflated these two ancient rites into one to account for the presence of Mary and Joseph in the Temple. But this does not matter as far as we are concerned because, whether they were observing the rite of Presentation or of Purification, both were occasions of great joy, following upon the birth of a child.

It was also a joyous occasion for the elderly Temple priest called Simeon. For years he had looked forward to the coming of the Messiah. In fact it was his daily prayer that he would not die until he had seen the Messiah.

And now, as he took the young child into his arms from Mary and Joseph, he recognised that he was holding in his arms the long expected Messiah. Now he was content to die. So he exclaims, "Master, now you are dismissing your servant in peace, for my eyes have seen your salvation". Words which are familiar as being those of the canticle said at Evensong known as the Nunc Dimittis.

And it was also a joyous occasion for another person in the Temple that day. I refer to the 84 year oId widow Anna, who had spent all her life in prayer and worship in the Temple waiting for the Promised Messiah.

And so Mary, Joseph, Simeon and Anna, through their respective words and actions, looked back with joy to the crib of Christmas and the birth of Jesus.

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However, at the same time, through their words and actions, they also looked forward (albeit reluctantly) to the Cross of Good Friday and the death of Jesus.

When Simeon blessed Mary and Joseph, he also said that: "This child is destined for the falling and rising of many in lsrael, and to be a sign that will be opposed" (Luke 4.34). He thus.clearly foresaw that the ministry of Jesus would eventually bring Him into political and religious conflict. He clearly saw that whilst the Gospel would be-good news for some, it would also be bad news for others. Bad news which would eventually lead to the pain of the cross for Jesus.

And pain, not just for Jesus, but also for his mother, Mary. Hence Simeon goes on to say to her: "and a sword will pierce your own soul too" (Luke 4.35).

Little did Mary realise at the time how true those words would become for her in the years ahead, when she would find herself kneeling at the foot of the cross on Good Friday and watching a Roman centurion thrusting a spear into the side of her son to ensure his death

And so the Feast of the Presentation of Christ in the Temple not only looks back with joy to the crib at Bethlehem, it also looks forward to the pain of the cross at Golgotha.

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Joy and pain. Two essential ingredients of everyday life, not just for Mary and Joseph, but also for you and me.

The trouble is that we all want the joys of life but we find it much more difficult to accept and embrace the pains of life. This is probably the reason why our churches are full at Christmas time but relatively empty on Good Friday!

And when the pain comes, we either bury our heads the sand and pretend it does not exist and say "Now then, never mind", or else we look for someone to blame. And that person is inevitably God. And so we protest and cry out, "Why does he allow such things to happen?"

We seem to think that we are entitled to a pain free existence if we believe in God, and that pain should be experienced only by those who do not believe in Him. So we often say "After all, he lived a good life" implying that a person does not deserve to suffer.

But, my friends, if there was no pain in the world, where would the motivation for its eradication come from? What would inspire the removal of the material pain of hunger and homelessness, or the medical research into the causes of illness and disease? Where would be the opportunity for heroism and self sacrifice? Where would be the impelling power for the removal of evil?

What is important in this life is how we use our experience of pain. Like Mary, we can accept it and use it as an opportunity of deepening our commitment to God and to one another, or we can allow it to make us bitter and resentful as we turn our back on God.

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So the Feast of the Presentation of Christ in the Temple completes our celebration of Christmas and looks forward to Good Friday. It looks back to the crib of Christmas Day and forward to the cross of Good Friday. It speaks to us of our universal human experience of joy and of pain, which are essential ingredients of life.

As you know, for twelve years I worked in Australia. Every Thursday morning, at the conclusion of the of the Daily Office, I would recite the following prayer:

"Lord God,

We thank you for all your gifts to us;

Grant us to accept both pain and joy in faith and hope

and never fail in love to you, and to our fellow men

through Jesus Christ. Amen."