The Presentation of Jesus in the Temple

Would you like to see me struggle? Well here is a sermon I wrestled with. I think it works better as something you read rather than as something I preached. It is a little heavy on the incarnational theology, and a little light on the communicating clearly and well. 

Here are the readings for the Feast of the Presentation. 

            This morning our feast of the Presentation takes us back to Jesus as a baby. If you’ve been a regular church goer since Christmas, you’ve been with us on a journey from the birth scene in Bethlehem to Jesus’ baptism in the River Jordan, and last week he began calling disciples. This feast celebrates the moment in Jesus’ babyhood where his observant Jewish parents take him to the temple to be purified. Reflecting on this trip to the temple and the two righteous, devout and prophetic voices that Mary and Joseph hear there, I have been thinking a lot about what the incarnation means. Simeon and Anna’s commentary on the child expand on what Mary, Joseph and us have heard in Luke’s gospel from angels up until this point. Mary is told by the angel Gabriel: “He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David.” And the shepherd’s seem to get a similar message that they convey when they visit the manger. They hear from the angels: “to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord.” The messianic and salvific aspects of Jesus are revealed early on.  Jesus is going to be great, and he is the Son of God.

All through Advent into Epiphany we are focused on what the incarnation is, and what it means to be incarnational people. Most of our understanding of the incarnation is that God sends God’s Son Jesus to be with us, to live and die as one of us as a sign of love. Maybe in considering his death on the cross, we are able to enhance our incarnation definition to connect it to salvation. But we tend to focus on the love aspect. It is a simple, true message that preachers tend to focus on. Especially when they are confronted with the big crowds around the time of Christmas. We tend to want to tell those big crowds the incarnation means a simple thing: love. But the opportunity we have this morning is to reflect more deeply on the incarnation at the behest of Simeon. A word of caution: I am not saying the incarnation is not about love but I do want to delve deeper into our understanding hoping to find some specificity about the nature of that love that God has for us and for all humanity reflected in incarnation. In order to do this deep delving, I want to spend some time looking closely at our passage from Luke this morning and examine three additional aspects of the incarnation.

Luke tells us that Simeon is righteous and devout, that the Holy Spirit guides him, and that before he dies he will see the messiah. When he encounters the baby, he says to God, “Master, now you are dismissing your servant in peace, according to your word; for my eyes have seen salvation.” The connection of death to new life is important here, because it is the first instance of someone knowing that Jesus’ life changes what death means. Before Jesus dies for the sins of all humanity, his presence as God on earth already changes death. We see death changed later in the Gospels too, when a young girl is brought back to life, and when Lazarus is raised from the dead. The incarnation of Jesus allows Simeon’s death and connects his death to Jesus’ saving power. Incarnation changes life by having life be something that God enters into, and by changing life, it also changes death. There is a warning in Simeon’s welcome for death, which is that before he ever starts making his way towards Jerusalem much later in live, Jesus will die since he is living. The specter of Jesus’ death is raised along with the transformation of Simeon’s death.

The second aspect of incarnation presented in this interaction is that the incarnation itself opens up the relationship between Israel and their God. Simeon says Jesus is going to be revelation to the gentiles, but also bring glory to Israel. Jesus invites others into the promises made to Israel. The idea that God willingly taking on humanity is what makes the God of Israel relevant and available to all humanity is fascinating. It is as if through participating in human life, God is now open to all human life, and that openness means the promises once made to Abraham and all his future offspring apply to all. God the creator had been a particular God to a particular people, but the unity of humanity means that when Jesus takes human life, he makes God universal. In Paul’s letter to the Hebrews, we hear this same sentiment “Therefore Jesus had to become like his brothers and sisters in every respect”—Jesus being human is too like everyone to possibly limit God to Israel any longer.

The third aspect of the incarnation has to do with the rather haunting thing Simeon says to Mary after he blesses them. Simeon says, “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.” Whoa. That’s intense. What does it mean? Certainly it suggests that it is not an easy thing that the Messiah comes. We understand it will present challenges to rulers in the world. The child himself, his presence will make people rise and fall. Jesus is here to skate up the established order. The physicality of Jesus as God and as human will in and of itself change the lives of those at the bottom and at the top of society.

But what about these inner thoughts of many that will be revealed? Looking carefully about how Simeon talks about Jesus here, we hear him describe Jesus as a sign. And not everyone will like what the sign suggests. Some will be opposed to this sign, this incarnate God, and the thoughts of those people will be revealed. In the opposition we see that people are challenged by incarnate God, because it has town down walls previously established, walls between rich and poor, between rulers and the oppressed, between Israel and the rest of the world. Incarnational love is a barrier breaking love, that challenges human distinctions.

I now feel like we have a deeper grasp on the love we see being present in the incarnation. We see that incarnational love shown for us in God becoming human in the form of Jesus is about transforming the meaning of life and death, transforming God into a universal God no longer limited to Israel, and finally that the incarnational love shakes up the established order and breaks down human barriers. This has been a good opportunity to think and examine more about the incarnation and that in and of itself is a very good thing. But perhaps at this point of the sermon you might be wondering why is this important? That’s a good question and I am sorry I haven’t properly addressed it up until now. The incarnation, the idea of God with us, tells us a lot about the nature of the relationship between God and humanity and reminds us (time and time again) of the continued relational aspect of God’s presence. It is also a propulsive idea—that is, because we have God with us, we are also sent outward to all of humanity to be in relationship with them, and to show them God’s love through our words, actions, prayers and persistence. Our outreach committee has done some really excellent work this last year or so giving us greater ways to connect to the needs in our community and communities around us. Our Sandwich Program feeds hungry homeless folks in East New York every Sunday afternoon. Providing them with a meal, on a day the drop in center called “The Gathering Place” has no other food for them. And more recently our monthly outreach projects have connected to the need of homeless folks in Park Slope, by a small group of volunteers from our church going to a soup kitchen to help prepare and serve a meal. Now, I am terribly excited about both of these developments, and very grateful to our outreach committee leaders, Rosanne and John, but friends, I want to say in the most gentle way a priest can from a pulpit, I think we still need to do more. And I think part of the more we need to do will have to include more willingness to go out and interact with people who are in need. We have connected well to needs by bringing items into church for other organizations to give out, and this is very good and very important. But the relational aspect of God, and our call as disciples is to go out and have relationships that reflect God in them. This isn’t an easy thing to do. I am aware of it. And it is not an easy thing to ask. But I do know that with God’s incarnational love, the love that changes our life and death, that makes God available to all humanity, and that shakes up the order of this world and breaks down barriers, we are able to do this.