Sermon for Candlemas 2025: It’s All Related
Hebrews 2:14-18; Luke 2:22-41
The Rev. Paul D. Allick, Church of the Advent, Feb. 2, 2025
I come from a large extended family. It is a vast network of
siblings, first, second and third cousins, elders, young people, and
babies. We are all connected to varying degrees.
The family lives in two clusters: one in Montana and the other in
North Dakota. I am one of the very few members who moved
away. I’ve lived far away for a long time. I am grateful for
technology that makes it easy to be in touch.
This extended family orientation has shaped my work as a parish
priest. I see my primary role as the one who brings people
together. What are the life stories God has brought together in
this parish? How do we fit together to be the Body of Christ?
The impact of all the other administrative and liturgical tasks
depends on the strength of the relationships. The work is
relational because our mission is reconciliation. We cannot begin
the work of reconciling all people to God and each other in Christ
without building healthy relationships.
The whole body is called to this work. Building healthy
relationships is always a two-way street.
For some the idea of family is not comforting. This is why it is
important to remember that Christians have a second family to
lean on. At our baptism we were adopted as Jesus’ siblings and
he loves us as his own flesh and blood.
As we heard from Hebrews, “Since God's children share flesh and
blood, Jesus himself likewise shared the same things.”
In our Gospel Lesson, we hear an important family story.
When Joseph and Mary bring Jesus to the Temple, there are two
elders there waiting and praying.
Anna and Simeon are not resting on their laurels nor glorifying the
past. Their prayers and hopes are set on the future. They are
waiting for the Sign that future generations of God’s people will be
set free from the bondage of sin. That they will find healing from
the generational scars of having lived in exile and the current
anguish of living under an occupation.
The Holy Spirit told Simeon that he would not die before he had
seen the Messiah. When he sees Jesus, he knows instantly that
this is the one that has come to save the entire human family. A
light to enlighten all the nations.
Anna has spent decades praying and fasting as she awaits the
Sign from God. When she sees Jesus, she knows instantly that
he is that sign of redemption.
Notice Luke gives us information about Anna’s family line. That is
what happens in cultures that value extended families. She
comes from a long line of Jesus’ cousins.
Her father Phanuel is named after a place important to their
ancestor Jacob. In Genesis 32 after Jacob spends the night
wrestling with God, he names the location Penuel, meaning “I
have seen God face to face, and yet have lived.”
Anna is from the Tribe of Asher, Asher meaning the happy one.
Put it together: “I have seen God face to face and lived! I am the
happy one!”
Some have also seen in this story two of the Lost Tribes of Israel
coming home. Ten of the Twelve Tribes were lost after the Exile.
Now two of the lost branches of the family, Simeon and Asher
come together. They stand in the Presence of God Almighty in the
Temple and God incarnate in the person of the infant Jesus.
It’s all related. It all means something. We are all related. That all
means something.
Our salvation is primarily individual. We each must decide to
accept Jesus as our savior. For us this happens at Baptism and
Confirmation. But once we accept Jesus the ongoing process of
redemption is relational.
We need each other. We need to know each other’s stories. We
need to know the family story to make sense of who we are and
where we are heading.
Each of us is light shining before God. Shining upon each other.
Shining amidst the whole human family as a witness to God’s
Redeeming and Liberating Love in Christ Jesus.
In the 12th Century, Cistercian Abbot Guerric wrote,
“Today as we bear in our hands lighted candles, come to (Christ)
and be enlightened that you do not so much bear lamps as
become them..., May there be a lamp in your heart, in your hand
and in your mouth: let the lamp in your heart shine for yourself,
the lamp in your hand and mouth shine for your neighbors. The
lamp in your heart is a reverence for God inspired by faith; the
lamp in your hand is the example of a good life; and the lamp in
your mouth is the words of consolation you speak.”
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