The Feast of the Presentation, Year A

Luke 2:22-40                                                                                                   

   

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." (Luke 2:34-35)

This morning’s gospel is really part two of the Christmas story.  You may remember that last week we had Jesus all grown up, an adult and calling to his first disciples to get out of their boats and get to work.  But now we’ve jumped backwards 30 years and are again with that cuddly swaddled baby.  Will Ferrell of “Talladega Nights” would be pleased.

That’s because it is the Feast of the Presentation, which rarely falls on a Sunday.  In most Protestant churches this story is told on the Sunday after Christmas, as the next action of the family.  But we Episcopalians – being Protestant and Catholic – on that day, we always hear the prologue of John.

So here we are a month out from Christmas and Jesus hasn’t called his first disciples or even taken his first steps.  And the action of the story is Jesus being presented to God – but the good news of the story comes from the actions and reactions of the supporting cast.

Perhaps you noticed that word – law – repeated several times in this passage.  Mary and Joseph are following the law, the prescribed rituals of their Jewish faith.  After a woman gives birth she is to go to the temple for purification.  After a male child is circumcised he is to be presented in the temple in a symbolic action that gives the child to God. (We kind of do that in baptism, but it’s different) The author is combining the two to make the point that Mary and Joseph are devout.  They do what they are supposed to do when they are supposed to do it. 

And we learn something else.  What you are supposed to bring to the temple for this, is a lamb.  Unless one is too poor to do so in that case, the sacrifice of the turtledoves and pigeons will suffice.  We are again reminded that Jesus was born into poverty.

And it’s kind of interesting that Mary and Joseph even follow through with this whole ceremony.  Because if we think back to Christmas Eve when we hear part one of this long passage, you know when they are on a hillside in a region where there are shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night – when an angel of the Lord stood before them and the glory of the Lord shone ‘round about them to announce – Good news – don’t be afraid – for to you born this day is the Messiah – and suddenly there is a heavenly host of angels proclaiming – Glory to God in the highest and peace to God’s people on earth!

That’s a pretty big deal, yes!  That sort of holy proclamation that their baby is a Messiah!

Why, do they bother with taking the baby to the temple when they got that?  I mean, have you ever been to a church service on a Saturday, like for a wedding and thought – eh, I don’t need to go on Sunday – Saturday/Sunday – that’s pretty close. 

So we learn something else, the mountain top experiences don’t seem to keep Mary and Joseph from following through on the ordinary ones.

Now a few weeks ago on the Feast of the Epiphany, you heard Josh preach about the wacky Magi, also known as the wise men, and their very strange gifts for a baby.  Imagine, he said, you’re at a baby shower and the expectant mom opens a gift bag of spices, on top of a bar of gold.  That would be a very weird gift.

Well, now imagine you’re at a baptism and a strange old man, comes over, takes the baby, lifts him high and starts singing, “Thanks be to God – now, Lord, I can die! Now I can go in peace because I have seen the salvation of all people in this child, prepared in the presence of the whole world!!”

If that happened at a baptism here – awkward silence, before I started rambling in an attempt to move it along.  So I guess we can only assume Mary and Joseph are just used to strange gifts, and very strange things happening around their child by now; for they are filled with wonder and amazement. 

And in their amazement they accept Simeon’s blessing but it is attached to a warning.  This child is destined for amazing things – but mom, you are destined to know pain in your soul because of it all.

There is something I hear so often, and I’ll bet many of you do too.  When I tell someone what I do, or that I go to church, or believe in God – a response I often get is, “Well, I can’t believe in God.  There are just too many horrible things that happen in the world.”

I tend to keep silent and just nod my head.  The correlation of these two things just doesn’t make sense to me.  Did Mary and Joseph go to the temple and fulfill their religious obligations because they believed to do so would protect them from the challenges and difficulties of life?  Do we?

I hear echoes of Simeon’s words at every child’s baptism.  For we all know loving – particularly loving a child – will bring pain to our hearts, whether or not they are a Messiah.  And isn’t it in the temple, in the church, when we come before God with our prescribed words that we acknowledge God is the constant.  God is with us in times of joy and in the times of sorrow. 

Since God’s children share flesh and blood, Jesus himself likewise shared the same things – we heard from Hebrews.  This scene in the temple is all about God’s humanity.  Mary and Joseph didn’t disregard what they were supposed to do because Jesus – was, well – Jesus with all that accompanied his birth.  But because he was a boy, a baby, flesh and blood.

When people say, I don’t believe in God because there’s too much bad stuff in the world – what is the god they picture?  A magician?  A super-hero?  Or genie from a fairytale?  Do they imagine a god who floats above us on a magic carpet in the sky withholding some magic power that would solve all our problems and all the world’s issues?

That’s not the God that gave us Jesus.  A person who did not fix every problem he encountered.  Who did not answer every question he was asked.  Who did not heal every hurt that crossed his path.  Jesus, flesh and blood – fully human – who presented himself before the whole world – not the king of glory triumphant – but accused, alone, broken and ashamed – nailed, flesh and blood, to a cross – saying, Father forgive them, it is finished.  And leaving the forgiving business to us.

But not, leaving us alone.  We cannot forget Anna – the prophet.  Surely, she was homeless because it says she lived at the temple, a widow who relied on the generosity from people like Mary and Joseph.  She completes the scene because she sings about Jesus from then on.  To all who enter looking for redemption she points to the person of Jesus as the living answer to what they seek.

We are the flesh and blood people who point to God through Jesus.  We too follow the rituals, say the prayers, do what it is we’re supposed to do when we’re supposed to do it.  Not because we believe it will protect us from the many swords that will pierce our souls – but to help us remember God constant.  God is always there yearning to help us see the light shining in the midst of any darkness. 

And every day, we present ourselves to God.  As we do I pray we follow the example of Mary and Joseph’s devotion and humility.  I pray we we risk the craziness of Simeon’s song of praise and joy.  And I pray we remember we are prophets like Anna – who can say to all we meet – you have got to meet this guy who transformed my life – Jesus.  The real-life, flesh and blood Jesus who longs to be with us, not to fix all our problems, but to walk the walk beside us; helping us see that love, that acceptance, that redemption that all of us are longing and looking for.  Amen.

- The Rev. Arianne R. Weeks

The Third Sunday after the Epiphany, Year A

Matthew 4:12-23

 

As he walked by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea-- for they were fishermen. And he said to them, "Follow me, and I will make you fish for people."  Immediately they left their nets and followed him. (Matthew 4:18-20)

 

A question for all of us this morning - who do you follow?  We hear Jesus say, “follow me, and I will make you fish for people.”

 

Do you hear an implicit “if” in that statement?  I hear Jesus walking by the boat or car or house or pew where I sit in and saying, “ Arianne, if you follow me, I will make you fish for people.  And I like hearing the “if.”  Because it really is an invitation.  It is always a choice.

 

This story is a parallel of the one last week from John’s gospel (Jn 1:35ff).  It is the call of the first disciples.  Now, one aspect of call for us to explore is, what is my call?  What are my gifts, my talents?  What is my vocation?  What is my purpose in the world?  That is one piece of discerning call.  And we have many talents and gifts that hopefully, we allow God to put to use for the good throughout our whole lives.  So one call for our whole lives wouldn’t suffice.  We spend a lifetime answering calls.

 

However this passage is really about our first and foremost call. 

 

I heard a preacher use this image once:  picture yourself, on the other side of this life, standing before God and hearing holiness intone the question, who are you?

 

My name is Arianne.  I didn’t ask your name.  I’m a girl.  I can see that, and didn’t ask that either.

I’m a New Yorker.  Go Yankees/Go Mets – but I didn’t ask where you are from.

I’m a priest (she says hoping to get on the good side).  Well, I hope you enjoyed your work, but it  makes absolutely no difference to me what you did for a living.

 

What I asked was, who are YOU?  Well, I don’t know God, who am I?

 

And God replies, you are my child.

 

First and foremost we are children of God.  Now some will disagree, but we believe that each and every person is a child of God whether they want to be or not.  God knit us together in our mother’s womb.  God counts and numbers every hair on our precious heads.  God upholds us on eagle’s wings and beholds us as the apple of God’s eye!

 

Before we are called into anything else we are created a sacred child in the image of God.

 

However that does not determine who we follow, because that is our choice.  “Follow me,” Jesus invites.  For if we do  we will be fishers of people. 

 

At one time in my life, when I heard that I thought te message was simple:  make more Christians.  I heard Jesus saying go convert!  Get other people to follow Jesus too.  But I have come to think that is too narrow, too limiting to God’s work.

 

This moment in Jesus’ life happens at the start of his ministry.  And, simply put, he is fishing for people.  The Holy Spirit has just proclaimed that this is God’s beloved at his baptism.  Jesus has just returned from his 40 days in the wilderness and is ready to begin his ministry; perhaps not knowing entirely how it will play out.  But I don’t think converting people and growing the church is his agenda.  Jesus doesn’t proselytize.  Jesus meets people in boats, on the streets in their living rooms exactly where they are and invites them into relationship with him.

 

Jesus wants us to understand who we are as children of God. That basic awareness that our identity is found in God, is one with God has begun and will be shaped and will end in God.  That is the foundation of our life in Christ.  Which is why ultimately, it cannot be found in a book or in a building – but in a body.  A body of people who through their relationship and words and deeds, live lives that show in whom they are grounded and who it is they follow.

 

For those disciples and for us, saying yes to following Christ means beginning the first relationship with Jesus!  Do they want to learn, eat, teach, pray, hang out with Jesus?  If yes, then do they want to be in relationship with each other?  Jesus is going to ask this hodge-podge group of fishermen and tax collectors and zealots to hang out together to eat, talk, argue, pray and make decisions together. 

 

And then Jesus is going to invite even more people – healthy people, sick people, homeless people, outcast people, Jewish people, Gentile people, Samaritan people – the list goes on and on because Jesus is fishing for people.  

 

Certainly that is why the Almighty, Invisible, God-only wise determined that for us to understand what God’s promise to us is all about God needed to break into the world as a person to be in relationship with people.

 

And the way Jesus does relationship, that is what we say we follow. 

 

This is why in our relationship we pray every time we gather to meet or share a meal.  This is why the governing body of this church, our vestry, begins every meeting with bible study or sharing a personal, spiritual reflection.  This is why we get together in small groups – by 2 or 3 or more – to read scripture, wrestle with our understanding and listen for where God is guiding us.

 

This is why we confess our sins and acknowledge where we don’t give God our whole heart because sometimes we just can’t.  But in this relationship we know God knows and God forgives.

 

This is why we develop relationships that seek and serve our neighbors.  This is why in this relationship we hold out our hands to let a morsel of food nourish us, body and soul.

 

Because being in relationship with Jesus is different than anything else. 

 

And if we choose to follow Jesus, then together, we practice that relationship.  And when ordinary people gather together in his name to practice following Jesus – extraordinary things happen.[i]  Some of which become movements or ministries that change the course of history.  Some of which never make any headlines but transform the lives of people we will never know, but who God beholds. 

 

And some of which invites God to mold the depths our very own hearts in the lifelong journey of sorrow and joy that all genuine relationships bring.

 

Isn’t it interesting that when Jesus himself takes up John the Baptist’s rallying cry – he doesn’t change a word of it?  Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near!  The good news of being in relationship with God does not change. 

 

God’s love and forgiveness are still near.  And for us to know it, to experience it, to live it begins with claiming we are children of God who follow Jesus and practice that relationship with God and one another day by day. 

 

How else could we ever have the courage, strength and hope to get out of our proverbial boats, take that first step and answer that call to follow? 

 

 

- The Rev.  Arianne R. Weeks

 

 

 

 

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[i] Thanks to David Lose, “Dear Working Preacher, for 1/26/14” www.workingpreacher.net

 

  “Our Lives are an Experience, not a Performance”

The first time I came to Baltimore was to audition at Peabody Conservatory for their entrance in their voice department to obtain my Bachelor’s.  Auditions are pretty stressful.  As we all know, anytime we are being individually evaluated and judged we get nervous. My teachers and coaches encouraged me by saying, “Remember the faculty hearing your audition they want you to do well, they want you to succeed!” 

But I never felt that.  Standing beside a piano, at a famous institution, in front of a panel of senior voice faculty, sitting comfortably behind a table, eyes looking me over, or not looking at me at all – all I felt was scared.  The fluttering of butterflies in my stomach, the sweat constantly pouring off my palms, the slight tremor in my right knee that would invariably kick-in the minute I opened my mouth to sing – which would always be as parched as a desert, no matter how much water I had just gulped down.  Never once did I enjoy the experience of auditioning.   

And that cold February afternoon at Peabody was no different.  I finished the first aria, one of the faculty glanced at the other 4 choices I could sing for them, looked up and said, “That’s it.  Thank you.”  I went outside and told my mom I didn’t think I’d be moving to Baltimore. 

Fast forward a six months and I was moving to Boston having been accepted at the New England Conservatory.  Now you all know the joke “How do you get to Carnegie Hall?  Practice, practice, practice!”  Well that’s exactly what conservatory students do from 6am in the morning until midnight. Anytime you walk into a conservatory building, you will be surrounded by the sounds of practicing. 

On my third day at NEC, I finally walked into one and closed the door and listened to all the beautiful music being played and sung around me.  Who are these people, I thought.  They don’t sound like they even need to practice!  And I pushed a note on the piano to start my warm-ups and opened my mouth, and out came, “Ahhh,  ahhhh.”  Nothing, nothing was there.   

The auditions were over and I had passed but I was still terrified.  Terrified of someone in another room hearing me and thinking, who let her in here?  And that terror brought an epiphany: everything from now, the next four years and ever after, everything would be a performance for which I was to be judged.   

People, clergy too, sometimes view worship as a performance.  Just this week I heard someone say, “I love church.  It’s such good theater, right?” Wrong.  But I understand where that’s coming from; special clothes, designated parts, reading scripted words, enacting choreographed movements, and stylized gestures.  And when we do all of that standing front of others we certainly want it all to go perfectly. It can feel like performing.   

Which is why when there is a baptism rehearsal or wedding rehearsal it is important to say to the participants: this is not a performance.  This is worship, the work of the people.  And our purpose isn’t to perform for God, it is to give thanks to God. And, thanks to our liturgy, I’m always 99% sure that will happen, no matter what else does.

So I was pleasantly surprised to come across a Harvard Business Review article on job performance that used a worship experience as the foundation for the author’s point.  Peter Bregman, a CEO, TV commentator, author, speaker, consultant, etc. and he was reflecting on his wedding rehearsal.   

He remembers he and his wife being very nervous as they worried whether or not they could remember all there was to say and do. Their minister eventually took them aside, looked into their eyes and said, “This is one of the most important days of your life so try to remember:  this is not a performance, it’s an experience.”

Thirteen years later, Bregman’s epiphany was how applicable that is to our work.  Many of us go through our days performing, and feeling judged.  And, let’s be honest he writes, it’s not just a feeling, it’s true.  We judge ourselves against each other.  We know others do the same with us.  We judge our work – we judge the work of others – our bosses, our colleagues, competitors, parents, peers and colleagues.  There are so many people for us to impress.  We are always reinforcing the experience of being judged – which, in turn, fuels our desire to perform. 

And this, he argues, is not only a recipe for stress and unhappiness; it also leads to mediocre performance, because, if you want to get better at your work you need to experiment with an open mind, to try and fail, to willingly accept and learn from any outcome.[i] 

Performance is all about me - will I look good, will I impress, will I get accolades, approval, and acceptance; whereas the mindset of experiencing is exploration and openness.  It is being comfortable with who you are, and what you offer, always trying to see, “what would happen if...”   

“When you're performing, your success is disturbingly short-lived. As soon as you've achieved one milestone or received a particular standing ovation, it's no longer relevant. Your unending question is: what's next? When you're experiencing though, it's not about the end result, it's about the moment. You're not pursuing a feeling after, you're having a feeling during. You can't be manipulated by a fickle, outside measures because you're motivated by a stable internal one.” 

Now maybe some of you are thinking I’ve decided Harvard Business Review preaches better than our scripture?  No.  But spiritual wisdom going back centuries pervades much of current professional leadership psychology.  And this concept is one of them.  Experience over performance, letting go of judgment – that is a big part of the Christian life and a truth that appears in all of our readings this morning; but I will highlight two. 

Jeremiah, in our first lesson, is terrified that God is asking him to perform.  It’s as if he is at an audition he feels utterly incapable of passing.  God anoints him a prophet and his reply – a what?  I can’t even speak – I’m just a boy!  But God equips the called, not the other way around.  God says, you can do this. Don’t be afraid.  I am with you.  I have been with you since before you were even born!  There is nothing for Jeremiah to prove. God wants him for who he is, because that’s who God created.  God is asking Jeremiah to be open to the experience God is presenting, trusting whatever it may bring.  

And in the gospel, we hear Jesus who is motivated by that stable, internal presence – that peace we prayed for in our opening collect.  Jesus is not in his synagogue to perform.  He reads scripture which wows all who are present.  They hear it as a performance, showering him with accolades for his gracious recitation.  But Jesus keeps talking.  And he speaks some hard truths about how God wants them to be engaging in experience, not performing in worship.   Just like the prophets Elijah and Elisha did in the past. They let God lead them out of Israel to new experiences, unknown places and unknown people to help and heal.   And those words clearly pushed some buttons, because apparently everyone in that synagogue got so enraged they literally charged.

Picture if you will a team on a football field.  The offensive line rushing to tackle Jesus!  Chasing him towards the end zone with their goal being to push him off a cliff!   But in some inventive play, because he was always in the moment, Jesus zigs and zags his way right through them and continues on his way. 

 

Now why would I chose a football analogy today?  Because as we all know there is an exciting performance in the life of this community tonight, yes (Superbowl Sunday)?  And since I haven’t lived here since college, it sure seems to this outsider, everyone has been caught up in the experience of the Spirit that will lead to that moment.  And, as heretical as it sounds, I bet there are people who would rather the performance never came because they don’t want to lose that spirit.  That feeling is what everyone in this town wants to last.

We do more than improve on our work when we move from the mindset of performance to the mindset of experience.  That is a spiritual practice - requiring practice.  But experience is where we meet God.  A God who is not looking for us to perform, but who is asking us be present and open to what is going on around us and to live into those experiences - with faith, hope, and love. 

Because our lives are not a performance, our lives are a gift; so may we open ourselves to the gift of that experience and where God is calling.  Amen.

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[i]All quotes from,  http://blogs.hbr.org/bregman/2013/01/stop-focusing-on-your-performa.html

 

4th Sunday After Epiphany The Rev. Arianne R. Weeks

Jeremiah 1:4-10; Luke 4:21-30 Church of the Good Shepherd