Year C 7th Epiphany 2025 Love Your Friends

Year C 7th Sunday after Epiphany, 23 February 2025

St James the Less Episcopal, Ashland, VA

“Love Your Friends”

Collect: O Lord, you have taught us that without love whatever we do is worth nothing: Send your Holy Spirit and pour into our hearts your greatest gift, which is love, the true bond of peace and of all virtue, without which whoever lives is accounted dead before you. Grant this for the sake of your only Son Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Luke 6:27-38

Jesus said, "I say to you that listen, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also; and from anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt. Give to everyone who begs from you; and if anyone takes away your goods, do not ask for them again. Do to others as you would have them do to you.

"If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. If you lend to those from whom you hope to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to receive as much again. But love your enemies, do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return. Your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High; for he is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

"Do not judge, and you will not be judged; do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven; give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap; for the measure you give will be the measure you get back."

This week I saw someone post on social media, “Good luck to all you preachers out there. I know I wouldn’t want to preach on this lectionary reading this week.” I have to admit, in these days we are in, I have to agree with him.

So rather than start with the obvious, I am going to start with the only way that I know how to handle the seemingly impossible task that Jesus is asking of us. It all comes down to perception.

If our thinking shapes our actions, then how we look at situations will elicit the responses that we will have.

Common sense. (Which seems to be less common than once thought.)

How we choose to see something makes all the difference. A study was done on the psychology of the classroom, and in it teachers were told at the beginning of the school year that one of their class was a genius, a child prodigy of unbelievable potential, but they were also told that which child that was could not be shared. So the teachers were on pins and needles trying to figure out which amongst their group was so special. And what the study found was that by treating the class as if it had someone special the entire class’s test scores went up. The story the teacher told themselves is they had to treat every child as a genius, just in case. And every child did better because of it.

If the teacher perceived that a prodigy was in her midst, then she would act accordingly. And if we perceive someone to be our enemy, I dare say that the same is true. They can do no right. And if they dare do something right it is perceived as having duplicitous agendas.

The opposite is also true. When someone is seen as a friend, we give them the benefit of the doubt even when they mess up. We give them space to try again and we forgive their peccadillos. While we might work with them to correct their ways, we do not write them off. Not so with perceived enemies.

This is where we are when Jesus very clearly calls us to do something that the world just cannot comprehend. 

Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.

Jesus is calling us to treat our enemies as friends. Love them. Do good for them. Bless them. Pray for them. Do that long enough and they might just stop being enemies. But wait, maybe that perception is what Jesus wanted us to shift all along.

If I choose to see everyone I meet as a Friend, or at worst, a Friend Becoming, then I would have a whole different approach and attitude to the world. 

If they struck me, I might think, “Friend, why would you do that?” instead of thinking how to get the next blow in.

If someone takes your coat, you might think, “Friend, you obviously are in need. Here, take my shirt, too!”

It takes the radical teachings of Jesus, and turns them into a friendly, natural interaction.

It is near impossible for me to love someone I perceive as an enemy. The problem is that I see them in light of that. The problem is not with them, but in how I choose to see them. I can do right by a friend. I can even go out of my way to make a difference and do right by them. Jesus even said that. 

If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. If you lend to those from whom you hope to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to receive as much again. But love your enemies, do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return. Your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High; for he is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

And there's the rub. Jesus calls us, as Children of the Father, to be like our Father. He calls us to do right by all, like God. Rain falls on the Just and the Unjust.

This last week I saw a headline that caught my attention. Columbine survivor Anne Marie Hochhalter, who forgave gunman’s mother, dies at 43. The article was sad. Ms. Hochhalter finally succumbed to the injuries inflicted on her when she was a student at Columbine High School 26 years ago. But what I found fascinating was that half the article was about her death, but the other half was about her forgiveness extended. She wrote to one of the mothers of the gunman 9 years ago saying, “Bitterness is like swallowing a poison pill,” and then she went on and offered forgiveness.

The world cannot offer anything like what Jesus does when he offers us a way to let go of that poison pill. In our anger and rage we think if we swallow this thing, that seems so small, it will work on our enemies and not totally consume us. Poison pills work on the one swallowing them.

Or think of it this way, what is the opposite  of Love? We might naively think it is Hate. But Hate is finding pleasure in the dislike of something. We feel good gushing our negative emotions out at the source of our hatred. Apathy is the opposite of Love. Not caring at all. Jesus warns us against that, too.

But here in this teaching, and in Matthew’s Sermon on the Mount, Jesus clearly calls us to rethink our underlying perceptions.

If we see that the grass is greener over there than over here we have a deficit mindset. If we have gratitude and approach what we have with thankfulness, guess what, we not only have enough we have abundance.

If we see ourselves as despicable and incapable of loving or being lovable, that is soon what we see in the mirror. But if we see ourselves as lovable and capable of loving, we soon will be.

Perception is what Jesus came to change. It begins with the Beatitudes we had in our lectionary readings last week, and it was the way Jesus began the Sermon on the Mount. If we see ourselves as Blessed no matter our current conditions, we are Blessed. Perception. If we see things as shady, they will soon become that and we will not be able to see it any other way. If we see things as beautiful, they soon become that as well.

We are empowered and enabled in our relationship with God in Christ Jesus to change how we see the world. I think that is why Jesus starts today’s reading the way he does. 

I say to you that listen, Love your enemies…

Many of us might hear, but how many of us truly listen.

Friends, the world needs this very different way of seeing and hearing if we are going to survive. And the choice, the power, is up to us. We can be divided and manipulated, or we can see all God’s children as beloved and our siblings. No one has the power to change how you see them unless you give it to them.

A story is told of a Moody Bible College professor in Chicago who got of the El (elevated train) every day and got his newspaper and went to the school. One day a friend accompanied him. When he got to the newstand, the shopkeeper cursed him up one side and down the other talking about blankety-blank Christians, blah blah blah. But the professor did not even respond, paid for his paper and went on his way. His friend was shocked. Did this happen daily? “Yes,” said the professor. The friend asked why on earth he would stop there every day then. “It is the newstand between the El and Moody. How he acts is not important. Why would I allow him to have that power over me to make me go out of my way for the exact same paper they sell across the street?” 

Forgiveness is about us letting go of the emotion and energy around a situation. And in that non-anxious presence, we can actually help transform the situation and maybe even the other person. Though perceived one way, the professor rejected the way he was being seen. He chose to see himself as loved and lovable in Christ, and refused to be inconvenienced because of the shopkeeper's prejudice.

To be that secure, to be that Christian, it makes people stand up and take notice. It can and does change the world.  One mind, one heart, one life at a time.

I already mentioned Columbine, but the school shooting where forgiveness and loving your enemy struck me the most was the Amish school shooting 15 years ago near Lancaster, Pennsylvania. I told this story 5 years ago, but it remains all the more powerful today. A mentally ill man entered a small one-room schoolhouse and killed 5 students, injured 5 others, before taking his own life. These tight, insulated communities work hard to live a life fully devoted to the teachings of Jesus. They build boundaries to limit temptations but they do interact with the outside world.

[From this point I quote extensively from a StoryCorps 10 year anniversary piece. You can listen to it HERE.] 

Their non-Amish neighbors are usually highly respectful of the Amish faithful’s choices, and that is what hit the father of the gunman after he heard of the tragedy. He said, according to his wife, “I will never be able to face my Amish neighbors again.”

That week, the Robertses had a private funeral for their son, but as they went to the gravesite, they saw as many as 40 Amish start coming out from around the side of the graveyard, surrounding them like a crescent.

"Love just emanated from them," Terri says. "I do recall the fathers saying, 'I believe that I have forgiven,' but there are some days when I question that."

Terri finds it especially hard to accept that forgiveness when she thinks of one of the survivors, Rosanna.

"Rosanna's the most injured of the survivors," she explains. "Her injuries were to her head. She is now 15, still tube-fed and in a wheelchair. And she does have seizures, and when it gets to be this time of year, as we get closer to the anniversary date, she seizes more. And it's certainly not the life that this little girl should have lived."

Terri asked if it would be possible for her to help with Rosanna once a week.

"I read to her, I bathe her, dry her hair," says Terri, who herself is battling cancer. And, while she can't say it with 100 percent certainty, Terri believes Rosanna knows who she is.

"I just sense that she does know," she says.

"I will never forget the devastation caused by my son," says Terri. "But one of the fathers the other night, he said, 'None of us would have ever chosen this. But the relationships that we have built through it, you can't put a price on that.' "

"And their choice to allow life to move forward was quite a healing balm for us," she says. "And I think it's a message the world needs."

I could not agree more. Jesus could not agree more.

Mark Twain said, “It ain't those parts of the Bible that I can't understand that bother me, it is the parts that I do understand.”

What makes Jesus saying Love your Enemies so hard is that there is no subtlety or nuance we can dance around. It is very clear and straight. And if you perceive your enemy to be a friend, the scales fall from our eyes and we can start working that transformative love that the world needs so desperately.  

Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. Amen 

Year C 5th Epiphany 2025 Call

 Year C 5th Sunday after Epiphany, 9 February 2025

St James the Less Episcopal, Ashland, VA

“Call”

Collect:

Set us free, O God, from the bondage of our sins, and give us the liberty of that abundant life which you have made known to us in your Son our Savior Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Isaiah 6:1-8

In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lofty; and the hem of his robe filled the temple. Seraphs were in attendance above him; each had six wings: with two they covered their faces, and with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew. And one called to another and said:

"Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts;

the whole earth is full of his glory."

The pivots on the thresholds shook at the voices of those who called, and the house filled with smoke. And I said: "Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!"

Then one of the seraphs flew to me, holding a live coal that had been taken from the altar with a pair of tongs. The seraph touched my mouth with it and said: "Now that this has touched your lips, your guilt has departed and your sin is blotted out." Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?" And I said, "Here am I; send me!"

1 Corinthians 15:1-11

I would remind you, brothers and sisters, of the good news that I proclaimed to you, which you in turn received, in which also you stand, through which also you are being saved, if you hold firmly to the message that I proclaimed to you--unless you have come to believe in vain.

For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. For I am the least of the apostles, unfit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me has not been in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them--though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. Whether then it was I or they, so we proclaim and so you have come to believe.

Luke 5:1-11

Once while Jesus was standing beside the lake of Gennesaret, and the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, he saw two boats there at the shore of the lake; the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little way from the shore. Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat. When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, "Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch." Simon answered, "Master, we have worked all night long but have caught nothing. Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets." When they had done this, they caught so many fish that their nets were beginning to break. So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both boats, so that they began to sink. But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, "Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!" For he and all who were with him were amazed at the catch of fish that they had taken; and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. Then Jesus said to Simon, "Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching people." When they had brought their boats to shore, they left everything and followed him.

Epiphany blessings, friends! Our enlightenment continues!

Over the last few Sundays I inadvertently started a sermon series. In the normal course of preparation I read the lectionary readings for the day, and let them set while I ponder them. Then I read them again, then let them set. I ponder the thread that goes through all the readings, if there is one apparent. The last two weeks there were common threads.

Two weeks ago was Unity, looking at things being “all in one accord,” and the horrible joke that went with that. For us to be at work with God we must be unified to make a real and true difference in peoples’ lives. The world sees enough division and heartbreak.

Last week we looked at being Dedicated. And our need to go “all in” to accomplish things. We need to decide and commit, and that opens doors for us that we may not have even comprehended before.

And this week we are looking at Call. Yesterday I met with many from around the diocese for the Vocations Retreat. Committees on the Diaconate and Priesthood along with those involved in Vocations gathered to pray and discuss the processes that make up the path from what we are looking at today, Call, to the ordination to Orders.

The Call stories of Scripture are some of my favorites, because we repeatedly hear of God breaking in on folks in the ordinary, day-in, day-out routines. It rarely happens in Church/the Temple, but for Isaiah it did. It often happens when we least expect it.

But that is the way God works. Before we get started on what to look for, I want to bring up a foundational belief. God is calling to us all the time, yes, YOU, and YOU, and YOU, and YOU! Each and every one of us. We all are loved. That’s it.

But, Rock, that is not a call, is it? Yes, I believe it is. It is a call away from what is being ground into our hearts and minds by the world each and every day. That we are not enough. That we are not worthy. That we are irredeemable. That we have to look out for ourselves because nobody else will.

God is good and loves us is a call to a different way of thinking and being. We start there. That is a general call that comes to everyone made in God’s image, that imago dei, which according to Genesis is every daughter of Eve and son of Adam. And for the love of God, we are called to relationship with God and one another. That is the body of Christ, each and every one of us making up our part.

And that foundational general call is what guides us to our specific call, our special piece of the puzzle that only you can do. That is what we are going to be looking at the rest of this morning, what our call is and how we can be clear.

When I lead the discernment retreats for the diocese, I talk about that. Clarity. Not that we have 100%, we never will on this side of heaven. But I remind those on the retreat that God is not a God of confusion. A sense of peace and calm comes with God’s call. If the waters are murky, wait and be still. All will be made clear, just not on our demand.

When we hear the call of God I think there are at least three characteristics that come through. The first is a sense of the Holy. It comes with a feeling above the normal to a place of holiness. I remind you, Holy literally means to be “set apart.” Like the china you bring out for special occasions, it is not the norm. You have set it apart and it is special. When we hear the call of God, we have a sense that this is something special, and even more, that WE are something special. We might have thoughts, “I was made for this.” or “This is who I really am.”

When we hear God’s call to do something above and beyond for a season or a lifetime, that aura of holiness surrounds it and brings it to our heightened attention. 

The second part of it, I have found, is a sense of urgency. Urgency on our part to respond, and a sense of urgency that God wants this to happen and God wants it to happen RIGHT NOW. In our Gospel reading this morning, it says of Peter, and then James and John, that they dropped their old lifestyles of being fishermen and took on Jesus’ new call of them to “catch people.” They do so without hesitation. In Mark’s call stories of them, it says “and immediately they dropped their nets.”

When we hear those calls, we are ready. Now, we might question the call and be hesitant because everyone is surprised when God taps them on the shoulder to come and follow. Peter warns Jesus off, “I am a sinful man!” He is unworthy of the call. 

He’s right. And so is everyone else who made that excuse. Moses, Isaiah, Mary, Peter, me. I remember thinking that when I was on my discernment retreat so many years ago. The unworthiness dripped off of me, like gunk off dirty hands. But then God said, “I picked you. Just as you are.” God’s love and choice of us is what equips us. God does not call the Equipped, God equips the Called.

And when we hear that call it feels like it must happen RIGHT NOW. You may have heard me say it before. When Harry Met Sally is one of my favorite movies because it speaks so clearly to the hopes of the human heart. When Harry figures out that he really loves Sally, he runs to her. He must tell her IMMEDIATELY. She blows it off, and then this movie speaks a truth about the human condition. “When you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible.” And the same is true of the call of God, “When you know what you want to do with the rest of your life, you want the rest of your life to start right now!” 

Immediately. Right Now. The funny thing about that is that it may seem like God is calling right now, the disciple probably told it that way and hence the Gospel writers, too. But if we look back, God has been at work for years, maybe decades, for us to have that feeling and thought that it was immediate. There is a phrase from our Buddhist siblings, “When the student is ready, the teacher appears.” The funny thing is often the teacher has been there all along, we are just finally seeing them there.

The call of God is so often the exact same way. We are just finally seeing it. I remember when as a teen I told my mom that I wanted to be a pastor, and I thought it was a big deal and would be news to her. She smiled, and said, “Of course you are, it’s all you have talked about for years.” What I took as all of a sudden and immediate God had been working on all my life.

And that fits in with the third thing I wanted to say about the call of God. There is a sense of the Holy, and there is an urgency of immediacy. The third thing that comes about is that it is Enlightening, we are overwhelmed with God’s glory. 

Peter had his haul of fish after working hard all night. Paul had his blinding enlightenment on the road to Damascus. Isaiah is probably the most clear, there in the Temple, with God’s glory filling the Temple. And Isaiah’s sin is purged and he is able to respond, “Here I am, send me!”

When we hear the Call of God we are given a moment where we see so clearly, and we hear God’s voice, and we are given a vision of what could be. It shakes us out of our complacency and puts us on a mountaintop where we can see the promises that God is making as if they have already come to pass. What a gift! If the Holiness were not enough, if the urgency were not enough, the Glory is wondrous.

That specific call, that feeling of “I was born for this.” and “This is who I really am.” is something any of us can see and feel, if we are open to God working in our lives and we are ready when the call comes.

Think of paramedics and the military. They train and prepare for whatever the call may be and whenever it might come. They have to have their lives prepared in such a way that they can respond to the Call.

Our spiritual lives are no different. We have to do those daily disciplines of prayer and listening to God in God’s word and in silence. We gather with our siblings also seeking God’s call for fellowship, support, and encouragement. And we gain strength through our sacraments, finding those outward signs of our inner devotions.

Friends, if you have a heartbeat, God is not done with you yet. God’s love of you is the bedrock on which we stand, and God’s call of you for the part you play in the Kingdom is built off of that. Be ready. Be Hopeful. Say yes when it comes. Amen

Year C Candlemas 2025 Dedicated

 Year C Candlemas, 2 February 2025

St James the Less Episcopal, Ashland, VA

“Dedicated”

Collect: Almighty and everliving God, we humbly pray that, as your only-begotten Son was this day presented in the temple, so we may be presented to you with pure and clean hearts by Jesus Christ our Lord; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Hebrews 2:14-18

Since God's children share flesh and blood, Jesus himself likewise shared the same things, so that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by the fear of death. For it is clear that he did not come to help angels, but the descendants of Abraham. Therefore he had to become like his brothers and sisters in every respect, so that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make a sacrifice of atonement for the sins of the people. Because he himself was tested by what he suffered, he is able to help those who are being tested.

Luke 2:22-40

When the time came for their purification according to the law of Moses, the parents of Jesus 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 turtledoves 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 seven years after her marriage, then as a widow to the age of eighty-four. She never left the temple but worshiped 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 favor of God was upon him.

When I was a kid I remember running across some things that I just set my mind to so that they would be accomplished. I just did. I remember hearing about a German exchange program in the local high school and thinking, “That would be cool.” And so from 5th grade when I heard about it to 9th grade when I applied, I tried to make myself the most eligible candidate I could be. Between grades and making German my foreign language, I set myself up to fulfill what I committed myself to doing.

I also have had things that were not so positive which caused me to dedicate myself. A friend in college shared my first name, my given name, Jeff. Jeff, however, was a senior many times over when I was a freshman. He would go on academic probation, or have to take a semester off, but he kept at it, hoping, one day, to graduate. He was already married and had a house. And I remember one of the advisors to the program where I met the other Jeff say out loud that I was just like him. The comment was not to me, but it was about me and I just happened to hear it. Now the other Jeff and I had a lot in common, and many similar interests. But that comment hurt, and I remember thinking in my head, “That will never be me. I will graduate and I will make that reality happen.” While Jeff had 5 plus years with no degree, I broke my back graduating in 3 ½ years from the University of Richmond. While that was not the reason I worked so hard,that comment stuck with me and motivated me to do my best.

For positive reasons or in response to something negative, we commit ourselves through those actions we repeat day in and day out. Our determination shows our dedication.

Dedicated. It is not a word we use a lot any more.

We live in a world designed to be obsolete. We have drive-thru food and disposable lifestyles. Even our existence, which was already fleeting, seems disposable.

I long for an age of craftsmen, of people who take a lifetime to do things right and good and true. This is such a rarity in the days we live in. One of the things I so appreciate about our former deacon, Harrison Higgins, is his ability to do what he did as a master craftsman, and has a legacy of amazing projects that he has done to show proof of his dedication to the craft.

Commitments are momentary it seems in our day and time, and this word we are looking at today, dedicated is arcane. So let’s look at the definition…

ded·i·cat·ed /ˈdedəˌkādəd/

adjective

(of a person) devoted to a task or purpose; having single-minded loyalty or integrity.

(of a thing) exclusively allocated to or intended for a particular service or purpose.

Today we see Jesus being dedicated in the Temple. The tradition in England was to call this day Candlemas. The tradition was to bring the candles made in the dark of winter to be blessed for use in the home for the coming year. It was a festival of lights which had ancient roots. Winter was lessening with the lengthening of days and the hope of Spring was in the air.

The first written records of this celebration date back to the 5th century. They narrate the journey Mary and Joseph made to the temple with the Infant Jesus. The Church created this celebration to replace pagan cults that placed light at the heart of their rituals. The Romans in fact held torchlit processions in February to purify the earth at the end of winter. It was also the month of the Lupercalia, a festival of purification held in Rome on 15 February to revive fertility by releasing vital forces. Syncretizing with the Roman holidays, Christians celebrated this purification ritual and presenting of Jesus as the firstborn son on this day, Candlemas, 40 days after Christmas.

Because this was seen as the end of winter and the return of the light to our days, it got tied in with the Groundhog and the like. Candlemas honors the end of winter and the return of light, so various proverbs link it to the weather, to the cold or the return of the sun. Here are two examples:

“If Candlemas Day be fair and bright, winter will have another fight. If Candlemas Day brings cloud and rain, winter won’t come again.”

Or, more likely you have heard, “If the Groundhog sees his shadow there will be 6 more weeks of winter.”

As we look today, though, may we see Jesus as this light because it is tucked firmly into our season of Epiphany.

So culturally we see our candles blessed and dedicated, but it honors the law abiding Joseph and Mary following the strictures of the Torah for her purification and Jesus’ presentation. The firstborn son was to be dedicated to God.

The Lord said to Moses, “Consecrate to me all the firstborn; whatever is the first to open the womb among the Israelites, of human beings and animals, is mine.” Exodus 13:2

And they brought the required sacrifice for those that were poor, two young turtledoves or two young pigeons.

And speaking of those dedicated, today’s Gospel reading includes two that I wish that we knew so much more about. Simeon and Anna.

Simeon had dedicated his life to God, and for some wonderful reason, he had been given a word from God that he would see the Messiah with his own eyes before he died. He waited a long time and was nearing his last days, especially for then, but on this day he received this blessing. The Spirit’s promise became reality.

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."

That may sound familiar. It is something that comes from one of our favorite liturgies, our Evening Prayer service which is a great way to close our working day.

In our Prayer Book it is called the Canticle of the Song of Simeon, and say it with me if you know it.

Lord, you now have set your servant free *

    to go in peace as you have promised;

For these eyes of mine have seen the Savior, *

    whom you have prepared for all the world to see:

A Light to enlighten the nations, *

    and the glory of your people Israel.

We are blessed to be like Simeon, and proclaim in our enlightenment, in our Epiphany, that we “see” Jesus to be the Messiah, our Savior.

Simeon’s dedication to righteous living impacts still today, encouraging us to dedicate ourselves to God’s call.

We may quote Simeon, but one of the great and unsung heroes of mine in the New Testament is Anna, the 84 year old widow who lived in the Temple year round. She is called a prophet, and could have easily lived in the Temple for sixty years. If she was married around 13 to 18 and was married 7 years before becoming a widow, then that leaves 60 years since she was alone where she could have given a portion if not all of it to God.

She never left the temple but worshiped 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.

She shared what she knew. Like Simeon, she proclaimed that the redemption of Jerusalem had arrived. What a gift! Dedication paid off.

And the one who was dedicated by his parents, and celebrated by these devout souls Anna and Simeon, had dedicated himself long before.

In our Hebrews reading we see Jesus being so devoted and dedicated to US, that he fully committed. He was all in. He was dyed-in-the-wool human. Fully. Lovingly. Devotedly.

As the reading states:

…he had to become like his brothers and sisters in every respect, so that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make a sacrifice of atonement for the sins of the people. Because he himself was tested by what he suffered, he is able to help those who are being tested.

He put on the flesh, he incarnated, so that he could experience all the good, the bad, the ugly, and the glorious aspects of being human. Talk about Dedication. It could not have been more full or complete.

And remember that. When you are being torn and tested. You had someone who lived so you could fully live. You had someone who was tempted and overcame it so you could, too. You had someone who did all this for you before you were born, so that you could be born again.

Today, listen closely as we come to Christ’s table, and we dedicate ourselves to God in Christ. 

Unite us to your Son in his sacrifice, that we may be acceptable through him, being sanctified by the Holy Spirit.

Think on the words said, mean them in your heart. The world needs dedicated and devoted followers of Jesus so much. May God dedicate us more fully, each and every day. Amen