The Presentation February
2, 2014
Malachi 3:1-4
Ps.84:1-6
Heb. 2:14-18 Luke
2:22-40
In ordinary time in most years, this would have been the Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany but because a Feast of our Lord falls upon Sunday, this feast takes priority and so this Sunday is the Feast of the Presentation, which ironically is also a feast for the mother of Jesus, since it is forty days after the period of "ritual impurity" following the birth of a child and according to rules she could re-enter the Temple and the public community with accompanying ritual offerings. The 1928 Book of Common Prayer retained nuances of this in the Rite called the Churching of Women, which thankfully now is just Thanksgiving on the birth of a Child, since even the slight suggestion of impurity about the post-partum days is rather repugnant to us. This day is also called Candlemas, representing that Simeon referred to the Christ child as a light to enlighten the nations, a main theme of Epiphany. It is a day when candles were traditionally blessed in the church. I guess we today could have you bring your LED light bulbs to be blessed as a modern day counter part.
It just so happens that today is also the day of two secular feasts, known as Super Bowl Sunday and Ground Hog Day. Super Bowl Sunday is not an official Feast of the church, though it does affect attendance. Ground Hog Day is an American folk holiday derived from Pennsylvania Germans and shows the genius of male lodging drinking behavior logic. It has become a tourist event for Punxsutawney and if Punxsutawney Phil sees his shadow, then winter will be long. Preacher Phil got out of bed this morning and saw his shadow; does that mean that Lent will now 60 days this year instead of 40?
I would like to make a ridiculous link between the cult movie Groundhog's Day and the Feast of the Presentation. Jesus of Nazareth manifested his solidarity with human by being a completely ritual participant. Jesus was circumcised on the 8th Day, he was presented on the 40th Day, he went to Temple and Synagogue, perhaps when he was mistakenly left in the Temple as a young boy, he was talking with the rabbi in preparation for something like a bar mitzvah, and we know that Jesus was baptized and we know that he attended synagogue and he observed the Passover meal. Jesus was a ritual being.
You may remember the plot of the movie Groundhog's Day. Phil, the loud mouth weatherman gets trapped in Punxsutawney by bad weather while he's there to cover the "rat." Strangely, Phil suddenly wakes up each day and is faced with reliving the exact events which happened the day before. But something strange happens; Phil learns through being forced to repeat the same events. He is able to begin each repeated day with a cumulative foreknowledge and he becomes someone who finally learns through repetition such that he wins the love of a colleague who had previously thought that he was a real jerk. The moral of the story. We have to repeat lots of things in the life and we are given repetition so that we can finally get it right.
Life provides us only so many totally new happenings. Life involves the repetition of things that happen over and over again. Life is not a straight line, it is a spiral so every morning we return to getting up and completing the same routines. One of the purposes of repetition is the continual practice to do thing better. And if we get good at something, like brushing our teeth, we don't even think about the repetition anymore; we have it on automatic redundancies and so we able to turn our attention to learn new things through repetitive learning.
Positive repetition might be called good habits; negative repetition might be called bad habits or even addiction.
How does human community inform and teach the best habits of human repetition in our behaviors?
One of the way we promote the best of human behavior is from the ritual life of the community of faith. The ritual life involves putting in holy playful rites, a representation of the great insights which came to people like Abraham, Moses, David and the prophets.
Rituals are special repetitive acts within the overall life of repetition of people. The rites concentrate the essence of the faith events which are meant to dissolve like a sugar cube and affect the rest of the repetitions in our lives toward positive repetitions of love, kindness, justice and hope.
Jesus participated in the ritual life of his Judaic context. But the repetitions of the life and ministry of Jesus were so profound and unique that the church was inspired to add to our ritual life in order anchor our community identity upon these Jesus inspired events.
The Feast of this Day involves the purification of Mary who was allowed to come out of post-partum hiding after 40 days and bring her child to present at the Temple. It was the ritual representation of the Passover event; a gift of a lamb was offered in the place of the eldest son to redeem his life. At the presentation Mary was there offering gifts to redeem her son Jesus with gifts of turtledoves, symbolically borrowing the life of the son whose life belonged to God.
Our Christian life is organized around ritual behaviors. These behaviors are not meaningless; they are special repetitions and are devoted to dynamically remember the reality of the presence of Christ. In our ritual life, we renew our identity with Jesus Christ.
Jesus lived his life totally presented to God as God's special child. St. Paul said we should also live lives presented to God. "Brothers and sisters, I urge you through the mercies of God to present your lives, bodies and souls, totally acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service, spiritual ritual, spiritual worship.
We can learn from the ritual life practice of Jesus as we enter into the remembrance rites which were inspired by his witness.
Today, again we present ourselves to God at this altar. In the gifts of bread and wine, we offer and present ourselves, our souls and bodies. And as a gift we receive a renewal in the presence of Christ, signified in the partaking of the bread and the wine. How close does the bread and wine get to us? It becomes us, signifying how Real the presence of Christ is within us.
The life of Jesus was completely presented to God; let us follow Christ in living lives fully presented to God. Amen.
It just so happens that today is also the day of two secular feasts, known as Super Bowl Sunday and Ground Hog Day. Super Bowl Sunday is not an official Feast of the church, though it does affect attendance. Ground Hog Day is an American folk holiday derived from Pennsylvania Germans and shows the genius of male lodging drinking behavior logic. It has become a tourist event for Punxsutawney and if Punxsutawney Phil sees his shadow, then winter will be long. Preacher Phil got out of bed this morning and saw his shadow; does that mean that Lent will now 60 days this year instead of 40?
I would like to make a ridiculous link between the cult movie Groundhog's Day and the Feast of the Presentation. Jesus of Nazareth manifested his solidarity with human by being a completely ritual participant. Jesus was circumcised on the 8th Day, he was presented on the 40th Day, he went to Temple and Synagogue, perhaps when he was mistakenly left in the Temple as a young boy, he was talking with the rabbi in preparation for something like a bar mitzvah, and we know that Jesus was baptized and we know that he attended synagogue and he observed the Passover meal. Jesus was a ritual being.
You may remember the plot of the movie Groundhog's Day. Phil, the loud mouth weatherman gets trapped in Punxsutawney by bad weather while he's there to cover the "rat." Strangely, Phil suddenly wakes up each day and is faced with reliving the exact events which happened the day before. But something strange happens; Phil learns through being forced to repeat the same events. He is able to begin each repeated day with a cumulative foreknowledge and he becomes someone who finally learns through repetition such that he wins the love of a colleague who had previously thought that he was a real jerk. The moral of the story. We have to repeat lots of things in the life and we are given repetition so that we can finally get it right.
Life provides us only so many totally new happenings. Life involves the repetition of things that happen over and over again. Life is not a straight line, it is a spiral so every morning we return to getting up and completing the same routines. One of the purposes of repetition is the continual practice to do thing better. And if we get good at something, like brushing our teeth, we don't even think about the repetition anymore; we have it on automatic redundancies and so we able to turn our attention to learn new things through repetitive learning.
Positive repetition might be called good habits; negative repetition might be called bad habits or even addiction.
How does human community inform and teach the best habits of human repetition in our behaviors?
One of the way we promote the best of human behavior is from the ritual life of the community of faith. The ritual life involves putting in holy playful rites, a representation of the great insights which came to people like Abraham, Moses, David and the prophets.
Rituals are special repetitive acts within the overall life of repetition of people. The rites concentrate the essence of the faith events which are meant to dissolve like a sugar cube and affect the rest of the repetitions in our lives toward positive repetitions of love, kindness, justice and hope.
Jesus participated in the ritual life of his Judaic context. But the repetitions of the life and ministry of Jesus were so profound and unique that the church was inspired to add to our ritual life in order anchor our community identity upon these Jesus inspired events.
The Feast of this Day involves the purification of Mary who was allowed to come out of post-partum hiding after 40 days and bring her child to present at the Temple. It was the ritual representation of the Passover event; a gift of a lamb was offered in the place of the eldest son to redeem his life. At the presentation Mary was there offering gifts to redeem her son Jesus with gifts of turtledoves, symbolically borrowing the life of the son whose life belonged to God.
Our Christian life is organized around ritual behaviors. These behaviors are not meaningless; they are special repetitions and are devoted to dynamically remember the reality of the presence of Christ. In our ritual life, we renew our identity with Jesus Christ.
Jesus lived his life totally presented to God as God's special child. St. Paul said we should also live lives presented to God. "Brothers and sisters, I urge you through the mercies of God to present your lives, bodies and souls, totally acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service, spiritual ritual, spiritual worship.
We can learn from the ritual life practice of Jesus as we enter into the remembrance rites which were inspired by his witness.
Today, again we present ourselves to God at this altar. In the gifts of bread and wine, we offer and present ourselves, our souls and bodies. And as a gift we receive a renewal in the presence of Christ, signified in the partaking of the bread and the wine. How close does the bread and wine get to us? It becomes us, signifying how Real the presence of Christ is within us.
The life of Jesus was completely presented to God; let us follow Christ in living lives fully presented to God. Amen.
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