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St Clement Church Community Candlemas Service

Good morning to you all as we celebrate Candlemas, the Presentation of Christ. We are honoured that our service in Church will be celebrated by Fr David Wills, and an additional celebration is that it’s also his birthday!

If you’re unable to be with us in person I hope you join us with this Service of the Word. May Christ’s love sustain you always.

With much love and prayers,

Rev Di and family xx

Let us pray;

Lord Jesus Christ, light of the nations and the glory of Israel: make your home among us, and present us pure and holy to your heavenly Father’ your God, and our God. Amen.

Hymn: ‘Hail to the Lord who Comes’

Our prayers of Penitence

As we join in worship today, let us seek the renewal of our lives in the light of God’s love for us, revealed by Jesus Christ:

Jesus, Saviour of all, who revealed the breadth of God’s love, forgive us when we fail to show care to those who are different….

Lord, have mercy.

Jesus, Son of God, who revealed the depth of God’s love, forgive us when we are too busy to pray, or to seek God’s will….

Christ, have mercy.

Jesus, Son of Man, who revealed the cost of God’s love, forgive us when we have made light of our failings….

Lord, have mercy.

May Almighty God have mercy on us, forgive us our failings, and bring us to everlasting life, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Let us pray our Collect for Candlemas

Almighty and ever-living God, clothed in majesty,

whose beloved Son was this day presented in the Temple,

in substance of our flesh: grant that we may be presented to you

with pure and clean hearts, by your Son Jesus Christ our Lord,

who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Readings:

Malachi 3. 1-5

Hebrews 2. 14 - end

Hymn; ‘At the name of Jesus’

Our Reading is taken from the Gospel of Luke 2. 22 - 40

(Hear the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Luke.

Response: ‘Glory to you O Lord.’)

When the time came for their purification according to the law of Moses, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord (as it is written in the law of the Lord, ‘Every firstborn male shall be designated as holy to the Lord’), and they offered a sacrifice according to what is stated in the law of the Lord, ‘a pair of turtle-doves or two young pigeons.’ Now there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon; this man was righteous and devout, looking forward to the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit rested on him.

It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Messiah. Guided by the Spirit, Simeon came into the temple; and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him what was customary under the law, Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying,
‘Master, now you are dismissing your servant in peace,
   according to your word;
for my eyes have seen your salvation,
   which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples,
a light for revelation to the Gentiles
   and for glory to your people Israel.’

And the child’s father and mother were amazed at what was being said about him. Then Simeon blessed them and said to his mother Mary, ‘This child is destined for the falling and the rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be opposed so that the inner thoughts of many will be revealed—and a sword will pierce your own soul too.’

There was also a prophet, Anna the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was of a great age, having lived with her husband for seven years after her marriage, then as a widow to the age of eighty-four. She never left the temple but worshipped there with fasting and prayer night and day. At that moment she came, and began to praise God and to speak about the child to all who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem.

When they had finished everything required by the law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth. The child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom; and the favour of God was upon him.

(This is the Gospel of the Lord. Response: ‘Praise to you, O, Christ’)

Reflection

Most of us are taught from an early age that patience is a virtue. But that’s not always easy to live by, is it? Especially when we live in such a high pace, consumerist society. There was an article in the Daily Mail about a university research project which highlighted just how extreme our need for getting what we want, as soon as we want it, can become.

Apparently, now keep up with me on this one, tomato ketchup flows out of a glass bottle at a rate of .028 miles per hour. That's slower than a Galapagos tortoise, which, according to the London Zoo, manages to walk at 0.16 miles per hour, or, almost six times faster as ketchup coming out of a bottle. With me so far?

And it appears that some folk seem to have found the agonising delay between tipping the bottle of sauce and waiting for the ketchup to fall onto their plates simply too much to bear.

Thankfully, the Daily Mail reports that a PhD candidate and a team of mechanical engineers and Nano-technologists have finally offered a solution. After months of research, they’ve developed a substance called; LiquiGlide.

The researchers say that coating the inside of a bottle with this would cause ketchup to slide out faster than a Galapagos tortoise. They also claim that the sauce industry, which earns around 34 billion pounds a year, is keen to get its hands on the invention. So there you have it, your waiting may soon be over!

But in the meantime, many of us wrestle with much more serious issues of waiting. If we’re sick, or waiting for medical results, if we’re without work and looking for some, if we’re lonely, or seeking to mend broken relationships - whatever personal issues that we may be struggling with, we know that there’s simply no quick fix for many of them. We need patience. Even in our relationship with God, we can go through slow periods, or can fail to see the realisation of God’s promises. And all we can do is wait and hope.

Whenever we face such situations however, the great good news of the gospel is that we’re never alone. However much patience God asks of us, God is with us. And we can find role-models in Scripture to encourage us in our waiting, such as the powerful examples of Simeon and Anna.

The context is clear. Mary and Joseph have taken a trip to the temple in Jerusalem, for the rituals of Mary's purification after childbirth and Jesus' presentation.

Jewish law required Jesus to be formally presented at the temple, because he was Mary's first-born son and thus, by custom, to be dedicated to God. The law also stipulated that a woman was unclean for 40 days after the birth of a son, (and for a longer time after giving birth to a daughter by the way,) and that she could only be purified by the offering of a sacrifice.

And so Mary and Joseph, to meet both these obligations, bring Jesus to Jerusalem and offer; ‘a pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons as a sacrifice in the temple. In fact, verse 39 tells us, they do “everything required by the law of the Lord.”

All this reminds us of something that can be far too easily forgotten about Jesus, which is his observant Jewish heritage and upbringing.

But the meeting at the Temple with Simeon and Anna couldn’t have just been by chance, and to get a clearer idea of the situation, it's important to remember the scale of the building and the size of the crowds who would normally have gathered there.

Rebuilt by King Herod and his successors from around 20BC onwards, the temple was situated on part of a huge area known as the Temple Mount, where just one wall was some 1600 feet long.

When completed, it was a massive structure around 10 to 16 stories high, and within its central buildings there were 4 great courts surrounding the place of sacrifice and the holy of holies where God was thought to dwell.

The temple was built to accommodate a crowd of many thousands, and even on an average day it would have been a hive of activity, with people all over it, in contemporary terms more like a marketplace perhaps than an average church. Yet what happens when Jesus is taken there by Mary and Joseph?

There they are, undertaking their religious duties as good Jewish parents, when two complete strangers come from out the crowds and home in on their baby. And what’s more than this, they make the most amazing statements about him.

Simeon is the first to meet the holy family, and he does so in the temple courts, which would have been the busiest area of all. And what does he do? ‘Guided by the Spirit,’ which is presumably how Simeon finds the baby in the first place, he takes Jesus into his arms. Then he begins to praise God in the words of what we now call the Nunc Dimittis.

And what does Simeon say? Basically, he recognises Jesus for who he really is.

He identifies him as the promised Messiah who has come to deliver Israel, and as the one who brings God’s salvation and revelation into the world. Then he adds a further prophecy; this special child will also cause strife and division as people decide for or against him.

At this point the average parent would probably have run away in terror, but then along comes another remarkable figure; Anna is identified as a prophetess, and although we don’t hear her exact words, she seems to say something similar to Simeon; ‘At that moment she came, and began to praise God and speak about the child to all who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem.’

In other words, in the middle of the vast temple area, with crowds all around, Mary and Joseph are confronted by two very religious people, who approach them from out of the blue and say great things about their son.

More than this, and this is where we begin to come full circle and get back to patience, it’s not as if Simeon and Anna had just arrived at the temple and stumbled upon the baby Jesus, they’ve both been waiting, and seem to have been doing so for a very long time.

We’re told that Simeon is; ‘righteous and devout’ and that he has been ‘looking forward to the consolation of Israel’ the coming of the promised Messiah. We don’t learn exactly how old he is, but we do know that he seems at the end of his natural life.

And we read; ‘It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Messiah.’

So, when he finally meets Jesus he obviously regards his work as done; ‘Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word’ he says, to quote the timeless words of the King James translation of the Nunc Dimittis, ‘for mine eyes have seen thy salvation.’

In Anna’s case she is ‘of great age’ and is incredibly devout, never leaving the temple, but spending her time ‘with fasting and prayer night and day.’ And now she meets Jesus, she’s spent years praying and suddenly finds the living answer to those prayers in the form of a tiny infant who has come to save the world.

So, the examples of the patience of Simeon and Anna can not only be inspiring to us, they can also raise challenges, especially as we live in a culture that so highly prizes fast results and a quick fix to problems.

The most obvious challenge being our own patience and perseverance.

Or put another way, when the going gets tough, or when God’s promises seem delayed, how long are we prepared to wait, to hang in there and pray? How ready are we to stay focused and wait patiently like Simeon and Anna, however long it takes?

But today’s Gospel also reminds us that whatever our struggles or issues, with God our patience will be rewarded, so the wait will be worthwhile!

Our problems may not be resolved, and our needs and desires may not be met exactly as we want, the ultimate outcome may not be what we were hoping for, and we might never see it in this life at all. But if we keep our focus in the right place and are ready to wait on God’s timing, our prayers will eventually be answered. God is faithful to his promises, just as God was to Simeon and Anna, and what is the greatest answer to prayer that we can ever receive? In the midst of the busy Jerusalem temple, as Mary and Joseph go about their business, the answer is right there in their arms. As Simeon and Anna discover, when their long and prayerful wait finally comes to an end, all that they have ever been longing, hoping, or dreaming for is found in the presence of one unique person; our Lord Jesus Christ.

And when they meet him, the same as whenever anyone truly encounters him in faith, their lives are never ever the same again.

Our patience is rewarded. Pass the sauce! Amen.

Hymn; ‘Blest are the pure in Heart’

Affirmation of our faith

Let us declare our faith in God.

We believe and trust in God the Father, source of all being and life,

the one for whom we exist.

We believe and trust in God the Son, who took our human nature,

died for us and rose again.

We believe and trust in God the Holy Spirit, who gives life to the people of God and makes Christ known in the world.

This is the faith of the Church. This is our faith.

We believe and trust in one God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Our Intercessions this week are written by Liz Davies

Almighty God, as we celebrate the feast of Candlemas today, the presentation of Jesus in the temple, we thank you for the example of Simeon and Anna, their faithful service and witness and for their patient waiting for Christ to be revealed. We give thanks for your Son who is the Light of the World and for your call to us to share in that light. We pray that our Church may be a light to those who live in the darkness of unbelief, and reveal to them His love. Please hear our prayers of intercession and thanksgiving and show your presence in our daily lives as you make the ordinary very special and the special, extraordinary.