Soul Work
St. Thomas’ Episcopal Church, Owings Mills MD
February 2, 2025
The Feast of the Presentation of Our Lord
Malachi 3:1-4
Psalm 84
Hebrews 2:14-18
Luke 2:22-40
Let us pray:
Loving God, we pray for purification and strength.
Wash away our fear and hatred.
Strengthen our souls so we may withstand the piercings of suffering and sorrow.
Amen.
This past Thursday, our sextons made their way through the churchyard and cemetery gathering up the Christmas wreaths that, thanks to your generosity, have rested on many graves for quite a few weeks now.
The wreath removal happened a little later than usual this year because of the snow and the bitter cold that kept the snow on the ground for several weeks.
And, you know, I didn’t mind that at all, because the wreaths looked so beautiful out there, rings of green and red sprinkled among the graves, flashes of color among the snowy white, much needed reminders of Christmas joy.
But, although the wreath-removal may have been a little later than usual, it was actually right on time, or maybe even a couple of days early.
Most of us have long since moved on from Christmas, our trees disposed of or put away, decorations back in the closet or up in the attic – but there is a Christian tradition that the Christmas Season lasts for forty days, lasts all the way to February 2, lasts all the way to the great feast day that we celebrate today: The Feast of the Presentation of Our Lord.
In the story of the Presentation, Luke tells us that forty days after Jesus’ birth, Mary and Joseph brought him to the Jerusalem Temple.
And in this story, Luke combines two Jewish traditions:
Forty days after giving birth to a male child, mothers underwent a ritual of purification, which included offering a lamb to be sacrificed in the Temple. Or poor people could offer a pair of doves or pigeons.
That’s the option chosen by Joseph and Mary, a sign that the Holy Family was a poor family.
The other ritual was what’s called the “Redemption of the Firstborn,” the idea that a firstborn male child belonged to God and could be redeemed by an offering made by the father.
So that’s why Joseph and Mary and the baby Jesus are in the Temple but, actually, we don’t hear much about those two rituals.
Instead, the story of the Presentation is really about the encounters with two holy people: Simeon and Anna.
I’m going to take them in reverse order.
Anna is described as a prophet – a prophet who seems to have been living in the Temple for a while, totally devoted to fasting and prayer – and once she recognizes who Jesus is, like other women in the gospels – like the Samaritan woman at the well, like Mary Magdalene - once she recognizes who Jesus is, Anna begins to spread the Good News.
Simeon is described as righteous and devout, and like Israel itself, he has been waiting for the Messiah – but maybe he’s been waiting with more confidence than most because the Holy Spirit had revealed to him that he would not die before seeing the Savior.
Well, as we heard, thanks to the Holy Spirit, Simeon recognizes who Jesus is and he sings his song, giving thanks to God that he can now die in peace because he has seen the light, the light of God shining on all the world’s people in and through Jesus.
So, you can get why some people say the Christmas Season extends to the Feast of the Presentation – this story does have a Christmas feel to it, doesn’t it?
There’s plenty of Christmas joy.
But there’s also the Christmas foreshadowing of hard times, of sacrifice and suffering ahead.
We don’t talk much about this during Christmas – we don’t want to bring people down during a time that’s supposed to be “holly, jolly” – but once you start looking for this Christmas foreshadowing you find it everywhere:
No room at the inn: from day one, the world will not welcome God’s Son.
The Magi give the gift of myrrh: customarily used to anoint the dead.
Herod’s slaughter of the innocent children in Bethlehem: the powers of the world try to kill Jesus right at the start.
And the flight into Egypt: for a time, the Holy Family will be a refugee family.
Christmas foreshadowing of hard times, sacrifice, and suffering ahead.
And we certainly hear that Christmas foreshadowing in Simeon’s words to Mary:
“This child is destined for the falling and 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 then Simeon says to Mary, “And a sword will pierce your own soul too.”
Powerful and stark words to a young mother who must have already known that saying “yes” to God would require great sacrifice, both for her and for her son.
As many of you will remember, last Sunday we had a beautiful baptism.
Henry Brooks is just six months old but already a familiar and much-loved presence here at St. Thomas’.
Henry was patient as I poured those three scoops of water over his head, announcing that he was baptized in the Name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Henry was patient but he wasn’t still, he was kind of paddling, which made total sense when I learned that his parents have been bringing him to swimming class!
As we do at every baptism, we renewed our Baptismal Covenant, making those big promises to keep on praying and breaking bread together, to confess our sins and try to do better, and to proclaim the Good News by word and example.
And then there are those two last promises, the hardest, most challenging, promises of all:
Will you seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving your neighbor as yourself?
And, will you strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being?
And to each of those questions, we answered “I will, with God’s help.”
All people, every human being.
If you were here last Sunday or watched online, you’ll probably remember that in my sermon I listed different kinds of people we are called to love, specifically including kinds of people that we might not like one bit, people we might not trust or approve of, some people we might even hate.
As I made my way down the list, I could see some of you start to become uncomfortable, start to squirm a little bit in your seats.
Now, I can’t read your minds – not usually, anyway - but I think you squirmed because this is REALLY HARD.
And I’m right there with you. I can’t tell you how many times I deleted that list from my sermon draft, thinking, no, it would be better – safer – easier – to just keep things vague.
“Love all people.”
But, no, vague is too easy.
Specific is hard.
Loving the people I disagree with, the people I don’t like, the people I don’t approve of or trust, that’s hard – and it’s not getting any easier.
Only remotely possible with God’s help.
But, especially in this tense moment, this is what we’re called to, this how we are meant to live.
The way of the world is the way of hate and death.
God’s way is the way of love and life.
So, the only question – and it’s a big one – is how? How do we live this way of love and life? How do we, with God’s help, keep our baptismal promises?
I was pondering this question the other day when I came across these words from Sam Shoemaker:
“In the end, the outer world is a pretty faithful reproduction of the inner world. We cannot hope to make a world of righteousness and peace while the souls of our people are full of sin and conflict.”
Following God’s way of love and life, striving to keep our baptismal promises, begins with working on our souls.
This will look a little different for each of us but will certainly include time for prayer – what Shoemaker called “Quiet Time.”
And maybe that prayer is simply lifting up to God the people we can’t stand, - name them - the people we fear, don’t trust, even hate. Lift them up to God and say, “I know you love them God, help me to love them, too.”
This soul work definitely includes being here as much as possible with the rest of your fellow Christians – here in a community made up of people from all over, people who disagree about all sorts of things and yet, and yet, we pray together and serve together, we receive the Bread of Life and Cup of Salvation together – we love one another.
Following God’s way of love and life, striving to keep our baptismal promises, begins with working on our souls.
We know that Simeon’s prophecy came true: as Mary watched her son die on the cross, a sword did pierce her soul.
And we know only too well that our souls have been and will be pierced by suffering and loss.
But we also know that the cross is not the end of the story.
God’s bond of love with us is indissoluble, unbreakable.
Suffering and loss and death do not get the last word.
So, with God’s help, let’s do the soul work necessary to keep going, to follow God’s way of love and life, together, and let’s help build a world of righteousness and peace for all people.
Amen.
Posts
