One More Baby: The Presentation, Year A, February 2, 2014, Luke 2.22-40

            On January 22, 1973, the United States Supreme Court ruled that the United States Constitution guarantees the right to abort babies. Since then, fifty-six million unborn infants have been offered to abortion centers around the country.

            On the first Sunday of February, Christian churches traditionally celebrate the presentation of the infant Jesus in the temple at Jerusalem. In fulfillment of Malachi 3.1, the Lord suddenly appeared in his temple, but it took a good eye to see it. The merchants may have seen one more set of marks, rubes from the sticks as ripe for the plucking as the very pigeons they purchased at a steep markup. The officiating priest may have seen a cut-rate ceremony with a poor payoff.

            Simeon and Anna saw the Son of God.

            They did not ignore the darkness. The rest of Malachi's prophecy, the part about the intolerable presence of God's purity, would come in time. They did not ignore the darkness, but they saw the light more clearly because of it.         

            Fifty-six million aborted infants: Some see a problem solved; some see a right defended; some see money made; some see the Son of God. Some see the cost and sacrifice the child; some see the child and make the sacrifice.  Some see the darkness and snuff out the light; some see the light and dare the darkness.

            Though Jesus becomes the God-Man, he never ceases to be the Infant Christ. Can we who have sided with Herod abide his appearing?

            Some traditions call this Sunday "Candlemas," a reminder that the light of Jesus shines, but only for those with eyes to see. Poet Malcolm Guite has written a powerful sonnet that challenges us to stop long enough to see by divine light what the world around us seems determined to miss:

They came, as called, according to the Law.

Though they were poor and had to keep things simple,

They moved in grace, in quietness, in awe,

For God was coming with them to His temple.

Amidst the outer court’s commercial bustle

They’d waited hours, enduring shouts and shoves,

Buyers and sellers, sensing one more hustle,

Had made a killing on the two young doves.

They come at last with us to Candlemas

And keep the day the prophecies came true

We glimpse with them, amidst our busyness,

The peace that Simeon and Anna knew.

For Candlemas still keeps His kindled light,

Against the dark our Saviour’s face is bright.

Nunc Dimitis,

Doug