The Presentation of Christ in the Temple, Sunday 1 February 2009

To understand the drama that we celebrate today it is necessary to understand the context of the drama. The context is Jerusalem’s great Temple, a building understood by those who went to it as the place of sacrifice and the place of divine presence.

The Temple’s daily routine was shaped around the offering of sacrifice. The air was full of the cries of frightened animals (critics of the noise levels at the Family Eucharist should take note), and thick with the scent of incense burned to take away the stench (a brutal truth that those who are in love with the aesthetic of incense forget at their peril). The Temple’s very building was designed to accommodate the divine presence. At its heart stood the Holy of Holies, the inner chamber where YHWH, the God of Israel, was believed to dwell.

Joseph and Mary visit the Temple forty days after their son’s birth to offer sacrifice and to seek the divine presence; they come for Mary’s purification and for her son’s presentation. Jewish law required that mothers be formally restored to the community’s fellowship after the trauma of childbirth. Through the offering of a sacrifice was a new mother purified. And Luke obviously believed that the law also required that first-born sons be brought into God’s presence, presented to God (whether it did in fact make that requirement is a matter of scholarly debate).

So the drama that we celebrate today has been known by both those names. For us, it is the Presentation of Christ in the Temple. For generations of Anglicans raised on the Book of Common Prayer, it is the Purification of the St Mary the Virgin. Since the Middle Ages it has been known as Candlemas, in honour of the candles carried by the faithful in procession, themselves honouring Simeon’s acclamation of the infant Jesus as the light to lighten the Gentiles. Yet the themes of purification and presentation are not just themes for today; they are not abandoned once the candles of Candlemas have been extinguished.

Today we began the liturgy outside on the Portico and entered the building together. In so doing we were recalling the holy family’s entry into the Temple precincts to offer their turtle doves or pigeons, the sacrifice prescribed for the poorest of the poor. A few weeks from now we will begin our liturgy outside again. That will be on Palm Sunday. Today we trace the footsteps of Christ’s first entry to Jerusalem; on Palm Sunday we will trace the steps of his last. Today Mary goes to the Temple to be purified, and we honour her cleansing, the cleansing of the one who has born the Son of God to the world. On Palm Sunday Christ goes to the Temple and purifies it, casting out the money-changers. We honour his cleansing of the place that has born God to the world for generations.

Today we will end the liturgy by removing from the altar the crib figures which have been in place since Christmas Eve. In so doing we will recall Mary’s presentation of her son to God. He is brought to his people’s sacred space. He is acknowledged as the Temple’s rightful heir. Thus the days of infancy are put away, and our worship turns to his Passion, the culmination of his earthly life. A few weeks from now we will again remove the adornments of the altar. That will be on Maundy Thursday. Today we strip away the trappings of babyhood, for Christ is presented to his Father. On Maundy Thursday we strip away the candles and altar cloths. In so doing we recall Christ’s presentation of himself to his Father, stripped of his friends, stripped of his garments, left alone, presenting himself for the world in the garden of Gethsemane.

In the drama of Candlemas we see foreshadowed the drama of Holy Week. The place where sacrifice is offered is purified by the one who himself becomes the sacrificial lamb. The place where presentation is made to the divine presence gives way to the one who presents himself to the Father, the one who is himself the new Temple, the place where earth and heaven meet.

Purification and presentation: we honour today the drama that unfolds in the Temple; we honour too the portents seen in that drama for what was to be Christ’s life and mission. And we are brought to the realization that purification and presentation, our purification and our presentation, are the reasons why we are here today.

We have gathered in our own Temple - not this building, magnificent though it may be and dear to us though it is. We have gathered in the name of Christ, who is our Temple and our sacrifice. In our listening together to his word; in our sharing together in the sacrament of his body and blood; in our common life in him we are restored to ourselves, purified, and made ready to bear his presence to the world. And as bearers of his presence and lights of the world we pray that he will present us, the fruits of his sacrifice, to his Father. To Christ be glory in the Church, now and for ever. Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia. Amen.