Mothers, Fathers, and Prophets — Hopes, dreams, and expectations

A sermon for the congregation of St. Saviour Anglican Church, Penticton BC — Sunday, February 2, 2025 — Feast of the Presentation of our Lord in the Temple — The Very Rev. Ken Gray

Mitzy J Smith, J. Davison Philips Professor of New Testament at Columbia Theological Seminary, Decatur, GA sets the stage for our Gospel reflection today.

[Mitzy Smith] “All the male children in a Jewish household, enslaved and freeborn, are circumcised at eight days old as is Jesus (Luke 2:21–24; Genesis 17:10–12). Also, 33 days after giving birth to a male child, the birth mother is expected to participate in the rite of purification.”

[Ken Gray] I must say that as an Anglican Priest I am thankful that I will never need to study, rehearse, or take part in circumcision. Eye-hand coordination is problematic for my legally-blind self. If “close only counts in horseshoes” the same must be true with circumcision.

Circumcision — While not a part of Anglican Christian tradition, certain emotional connections can be made between the Jewish rite of presentation/circumcision (PLEASE NOTE: guys only, thankfully) and what was once called “The Churching of Women” now renamed “Thanksgiving for the birth of a child.”

Such rites offer a formalized rite of thanksgiving for a new birth, a worthwhile celebration for sure. I expressed thanks for the birth of one or both (I cannot actually remember) of our children followed in time by Holy Baptism. Most Anglicans tend to view the Baptism rite as the appropriate thanksgiving ritual. This understanding is unfortunate as the two services are quite different in design, function, and intent. Thanksgiving is, well, thanksgiving. Baptism is initiation into the Body of Christ. Both liturgies, however, dialogue with the future, especially the Baptism rite where following the baptism itself we hear these words:

Creator, we thank you that by water and the Holy Spirit
you have bestowed upon these your servants
the forgiveness of sin,
and have raised them to the new life of grace.
Sustain them, O Lord, in your Holy Spirit.
Give them an inquiring and discerning heart,
the courage to will and to persevere,
a spirit to know and to love you,
and the gift of joy and wonder
in all your works. Amen.

These words respond to obvious and inevitable questions when newborns appear in our midst: How will this child grow up? What will they do with their life when the time and opportunity come for decision-making? What kind of nurture and encouragement will they receive? As they age will they be comfortable “in their own skin?” How will faith, hope, and love find a place in their person and presence? How will they enter into relationships, intimate or public? How will they take their place in the community of the earth and on the land?

Mary and Joseph have done what the Torah, the Jewish law, expects of them. (Luke 2:25–32) They have offered two turtle doves and a pigeon as a token offering; they could not afford a lamb. No disrespect to Jesus intended. The value of the offering thankfully does not mirror the quality of the life to be lived. All baptismal candidates, regardless of age or circumstance, are enthusiastically welcomed into the family of God.

In this, I am reminded of a particular Gray family conversation. As an Albino I am considered valuable to animists in Tanzania and remote parts of South Africa. Believe it or not, Albinos are sometimes captured and maimed by nefarious hunters seeking to steal body parts for sale and use in the darkest of rituals. Truly scary stuff. While I have been invited to visit Tanzania I have no current plans, for good reason. Apparently I could fetch over two hundred thousand dollars alive or dead. Hearing this, my loving son declared: “Hey, that’s a lot of money.” I digress . . . Back to our story:

Two prophets, Simeon, and Anna testify to the special nature of Jesus’ birth, a message spoken to incredulous parents. We are decades before Jesus’ taking up his divine ministry as we heard last week: “These things have been fulfilled in your presence.” (Luke 4:18-19) Joseph and Mary are just doing what should be done with little thought beyond the moment.

(Anna) is an 84-year-old widow who had been married for seven years. Anna resides in the temple, where she worships God 24 hours a day, day and night (sort of like a church warden, musician, or member of the altar guild). Like Simeon, Anna praises God, testifying about the child, whose life will literally be life-altering for the parents, and for Israel. Wow! Who knew?

So what did Anna and Simeon come to “see?” They didn’t know, though they were assured that Jesus would bring comfort and favour well after their own passage into glory. They were gifted with a vision of a giving God of grace.

Mitzy Smith reads this passage through the experience of her own black community through a lens of emancipation. She sees commonalities and similarities between the characterization and words of Simeon and Jesus’ sermon in Luke 4. For her Jesus will bring release to an enslaved people. Liberation of the oppressed is key to the comfort, the consolation of the nation. The parallels for today are to me, obvious.

Visiting Jamaica some years ago Kathie and I stood in Emancipation Square in the heart of Spanish Town just outside of modern-day Kingston. In a powerful moment we sensed the importance of what happened there in 1834. Slavery was to be abolished as a legal, commercial, and physical practice! It is sad however to see that such liberty, for blacks and frankly any other oppressed group, continues to regress in a global culture increasingly suspicious of “the other” by any definition.

Closer to home and just up the road Kathie and I attend an Okanagan Reconciliation Learning Circle on Tuesday nights in Summerland. Our focus this last week was on the experience of Japanese and Sikh Canadians. Time and again, we learn how peoples are singled out simply because of their perceived difference, selected for ill-treatment and abuse of human rights. Though our group education we increasingly identify both systemic racism and our own prejudices and racist attitudes. Sessions are sometimes quite uncomfortable; I have found sessions to be life-giving and truth-telling.

Once again, Jesus brings good news to the poor, and Mary and Joseph bring a poor man’s offering to the temple. The liberating word of the Master/Lord is good news to Simeon, and Anna, to Jesus’ parents and to us. We can summarize his witness, even from infancy, in a single word. If last week I spoke of mercy, today our theme is grace.

[Mitzy Smith] “Despite their poverty, Jesus grew to become a healthy and strong young man, full of wisdom (sophia), and who experienced God’s grace (charis). At Luke 2:52, Jesus knew both human and divine/Godly grace (2:52)”. God’s Grace is, well, amazing. Grace is pervasive and enduring, a gift we are free to discover over and over again. To experience Grace is a fundamental benefit of living the Christian life. As one of our prayer litanies encourages us, we can welcome “all that is gracious in the lives of women and men revealing the image of Christ.”

Why don’t we conclude with a good old fashioned prayer from the service of Morning Prayer, The Third Collect, for Grace.

O LORD our heavenly Father, Almighty and everlasting God, who hast safely brought us to the beginning of this day: Defend us in the same with thy mighty power; and grant that this day we fall into no sin, neither run into any kind of danger; but that all our doings may be ordered by thy governance, to do always that is righteous in thy sight; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.