Saturday 31 January 2009

Sunday 1 February 2009 The Presentation Malachi 3:1-5, Luke 2:22-40, Melanie

We pray that God would meet us where we are and move us on to where he would have us be
Amen

And so we have our two readings ;
the one from the end of the Old Testament.
The other from the beginning of the New.
One concluding what has gone before.
The other pointing ahead to a time to come.
It is a clue for us today
about this very special day in the year.

Picture the scene for Mary and Joseph :
the move from Bethlehem
the place of birth, of new beginnings
to Jerusalem, the place where
in just over thirty years where
a life would end.

Birth and death
suddenly brought together.
Both a looking back
and a looking forward.
A time of new beginnings
and a time of endings

Then Simeon waiting in the temple,
praying
watching
constantly waiting for the Messiah

Mary, only just having given birth,
still unclean in Jewish eyes.
Now 40 days after the birth
coming to the temple ;
arriving for ritual purification,
being able to worship once more
in that most sacred of places in Jerusalem.
Her time of uncleanliness ended
and her entry back into Jewish society marked.






Anna, now an elderly lady of 84,
worshipping
fasting
praying
night and day ;
longing to see the child who held the future

Joseph bringing the sacrifice of the poor :
two turtle doves or pigeons.
And the child, the child of poverty,
yet to all around, the light of the world

And what about the child
so recently safe and secure in his mother’s womb.
Now facing a world that would both love and hate him.
Being presented in the same temple
where in his adult life he would be rejected.

It is that point when beginnings and endings meet.
When we are suspended between
looking backwards to Bethlehem
and looking forwards to Jerusalem

When the church moves out of Epiphany
and begins to look to Lent.
When any Christmas decorations
are finally taken down
and we move into a new season.

When traditionally candles are blessed in the church
in preparation for the coming year.
When in the world outside
preparations are made for that great US celebration –
Groundhog day
The day when the weather is predicted
for the coming year.







Perhaps it’s a similar point for us today between old and new years.
Remember the moment
when the clock strikes midnight on January 1st ;
when we are suspended between what has gone before
and what will be in the future.

Or those turning points in our lives
when we exist
neither in one space or the other ;
The moment in the delivery ward
where new life is suddenly made visible.

The moment in the hospice
when life is at an end.
That moment of timelessness
when words seem inadequate
and all that we can do
is gaze in silence.

It’s also that time between jobs ;
Between relationships ;
Between phases of life ;
Neither in one place or the other
suspended as if in space ;
out of control,
and at the mercy of outside elements.

Perhaps more true now than ever
in a world that is constantly turning upside down.
Traditional structures and institutions
now frighteningly vulnerable.
Human power seemingly unable to stop
natural courses of events.

Whenever it happens,
it is a precious moment,
rare, scarce, and often fleeting.
Yet here is holy ground
that place where we must take off our shoes
and tread with care
for this is the place where we meet God.






This is the place where we come face to face
with divinity.
Where humans suddenly seem powerless
in God’s transforming light.

That place of suspense in the temple ;
the place that Simeon and Anna recognised
that holy moment
is also there for us.
In those moments between times
in the unmeasured spaces

Here is the mystery of God
The joy of the meeting place with God.
And yet it’s a place where we also see
the sorrow and pain of reality,
the sword that would pierce a mother’s heart.

Yet it is a place that we all recognise.
It is wordless
formless
shapeless,
and yet utterly known.
The stillness of eternity.
If any of us should find it,
Let us take care ;
let us take off our shoes,
for we tread on Holy ground.

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