[Mic. 7:7-8; Acts 2:42-46; Lk. 2:22-40]
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
So here we are again, 40+ days after Christmas, time flies when you're having fun.
We've talked about this before, how God in His grace has inspired the Church to organise her own calendar according to her own needs, with colours and readings and festivals, seasons to prepare for major events, to celebrate those feast-days and to properly round up a period of time.
The Festival of the Presentation of Christ in the Temple, aka Candlemas, is one of those days when we've come to the end of one season, namely Epiphany, and now we start getting ready for the next, namely Lent.
By obeying the Law of Moses in bringing a firstborn male to Judaism's holiest place, the Temple in Jerusalem, Mary and Joseph are seeking the final official and liturgical seal of approval on Jesus' birth; at Christmas the poorest of the poor had come to witness; at Epiphany rich strangers had come to pay homage; and now, at the Presentation all peoples, classes and races were officially notified that -as Simeon declared- the long-awaited Messiah had arrived and presented Himself to all.
From the intimacy of the Nativity, to the Wise Men's unexpected visit at the Epiphany, to all nations being told at the Presentation, we too now share in this joyous news:
A child as a gift from God to God.
A divine and yet human child presented to all.
"A light of revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of your people Israel.", sang Simeon filled with relief, filled with happiness, full of conviction (Lk. 2:32).
To put it perhaps in a more modern way, that religious service, that event was and remains an all-inclusive affair and all were and remain welcome!
There's no need to fear that we'll not be included in the celebration, that there won't be enough love and light to go around, that we'll miss out in some way; Christ presents Himself to all.
There's no need to fear that Christ'll only come to the rich, the famous, the elite or 'special', only to those worthy of His interest and affection; Christ reveals Himself to all, to every single individual on this planet, to you and to me.
Now, a deity, a god coming to earth and walking among human beings wasn't by any means unheard off or a stretch of the imagination.
The Ancient World was full of myths, stories about the divine revealing itself or appearing in the flesh: the Babylonian priests enacted sacred fertility-rites channelling Inanna and Dumuzi; the Egyptians believed the pharaoh was the living incarnation of the falcon-god Horus; the Latin poet Ovid wrote about Jupiter and Mercury visiting earth in search of hospitality; Graeco-Roman tales were full of gods and goddesses having half-mortal children, the demigods like Hercules.
So what made this god on earth, this presentation so special, so different from others?
The endurance of the narrative of Christ's Presentation in the Temple -the secret of His success if you will- lies in the fact that He revealed Himself not in sacred fertility-rites or enactments, nor in the claimed divinity of kings and their political systems, nor in one-off secret tests.
Rather, our Lord reveals Himself constantly: in prayer, in hymns, in the sermon, in Scripture, in the inspiration by the Holy Spirit, etc...
Jesus, the Promised and Anointed One from the Almighty Creator, being cradled as a helpless baby and being brought to the Temple as yet unawares of the events unfolding around Him, declares to us in no uncertain terms and for all nations and for all time the mystery of Himself as true God and true man, and not just as some half-half myth.
God is here, so close and so real you can touch Him and feel His presence!
Nowhere does this become more obvious and more visible, more truly evident than in the Sacrament of Holy Communion, the Sacrament of the Altar, the Eucharist, the Mass...
Lutherans use and are allowed to use many words to express the same inexpressible gift of bread becoming Body and wine becoming Blood.
Nowhere are we more assured of Christ's true and physical presence than when we celebrate this beautiful and uplifting event of universal welcome and unconditional acceptance, of unending forgiveness and unlimited love.
Nowhere does our Lord present Himself in such a simple and accessible way to each individual person in each and every nation at each and every single time.
Nowhere does the relationship, the bond between heaven and earth, between the Father and His children become so clear, so intimate than at the Lord's table.
As Jesus Himself promised in Scripture: "...given for you...shed for you..as often as you do this, drink this..."
Because God didn't reveal Himself in order to advertise Himself or to fulfil His own needs but in order to faithfully and simply show His everlasting concern with His Creation and His ongoing involvement with His created, with every one of us, also with those here today in a small chapel in Liverpool.
Just like Simeon and Anna we're invited to meet Him today.
Just like Simeon and Anna we can go in His peace.
God isn't private property and we can't jealously hide His presence from others.
Instead we go out with the Good News, perhaps carrying the candle we've blessed this morning in our hand, and remind others around us, remind the world that the Light of the World shines for Jew and Gentile, for all alike.
Ett barn som en gåva från Gud till Gud.
Ett gudomligt och ändå mänskligt barn framburen för alla.
And the peace of God which passes all understandi