The Feast of the Presentation

MALACHI 3:1-4

PSALM 84

HEBREWS 2:14-18

LUKE 2:22-40

Sermon – 2/2/03

Prayer #46 BCP p. 829 “For the care of children”

What, you may ask, are we celebrating today, with this Gospel story about Christ as a baby, being presented in the Temple in Jerusalem when he was forty days old? Didn’t we leave all the infancy stories behind when we finished the Twelve Days of Christmas? Didn’t we just hear about Jesus’ call of the twelve apostles last week?

The Church’s liturgical calendar is like two intertwined solar systems. In one of these systems the “sun” – the focus around which the other dates “circle” – is Easter Sunday. The date on our calendar for Easter changes, but Easter Sunday is always the Sunday after the full moon that occurs on or after the spring equinox on March 21. (You knew that, right?) The “satellites” of Easter – Ash Wednesday and Lent, Holy Week, Ascension Day, the Day of Pentecost and Trinity – are always the same distance from Easter Sunday, and therefore their dates change each year in response to the date of Easter Sunday.

The other “solar system” has as its center Christmas Day, which is always celebrated on December 25. Advent always starts on the fourth Sunday before Christmas. The other liturgical “satellites” of Christmas are, like Christmas Day, celebrated on the same fixed days every year: Holy Name Day (recalling Jesus’ circumcision and naming on the eighth day of his life, January 1), Epiphany (the visit of the Wise Men celebrated on January 6), the Presentation of Christ in the Temple (February 2), the Annunciation of the Angel Gabriel to Mary (March 25), the Visitation of Mary to Elizabeth (May 31) and the birthday of John the Baptist (June 24). These holy days, all “satellites” of Christmas, rarely get much attention unless they are celebrated on a Sunday, as Epiphany was a year ago and as The Presentation is today.

Today we hear in the Gospel of how Mary and Joseph took the infant Jesus to the Temple in Jerusalem when he was 40 days old. The accounts allude to two ancient Jewish traditions: the presentation of the first born male child for the Lord’s service (or giving an offering in lieu of that) and the ritual “purification” of the child’s mother, who had been considered ritually, religiously “unclean” since giving birth.

To which we might reasonably say, very interesting, but so what?

There are at least two significant “so whats” here. One is that, while in the environs of the Temple, Mary, Joseph and Jesus encountered two unrelated, devout elderly Jews, Simeon and Anna, who both were inspired by God to speak of the wondrous impact which the child would have when he grew to adulthood. In Simeon’s words, Jesus would be “a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to God’s people Israel.” Those phrases cover everyone in the world: Jews and non-Jews (Gentiles). Jesus would indeed impact the whole world, and by the power of the Holy Spirit two devout Jews who themselves would not live to see his adult ministry learned of who He was and felt peace and serenity before dying, knowing that the Savior had come.

The second “so what” is that Mary and Joseph brought their baby with them to worship even when he was “too young to know what was going on,” and so gave us an example of good parenting.

Oh, yes: part of being a good parent is making sure your child or children know who they are and whose they are. Each person is a unique creation of God, blessed with a humanity shared with over six billion other human beings and with gifts and personality unique to that person, and each person belongs to God.

At least that’s what we believe. Alternatively, kids may be taught that they are “nobodies from nowhere.” How many kids have been told “You’re stupid” or “You’ll never amount to anything” and who have felt like they never belonged anywhere. Alternatively, kids may be taught that they are the center of the universe and other people were created to cater to them. Until they discover otherwise. Alternatively, kids may be taught (explicitly or implicitly) that they are totally isolated, dependent only on themselves for what they can accomplish and with no supportive connections to family or community which are theirs by gift.

There are lots of other things kids – or adults – could learn about “who they are” and “whose they are.” You get the idea. They could learn that “they are what they buy” and that they belong only to the economy. They could learn that “they are who they hang out with” and that they belong only to the clique – or the company – either of which may have the life span of a May Fly.

But all these alternatives are bogus. They are lies. Because the truth is that every person is priceless and born with infinite spiritual potential as a child of God, and that God loves us, has offered us adoption as God’s children and with that the possibility of a longer than lifetime membership in God’s family.

But no one is born knowing that. People have to learn it, and in the face of being told so many other things during our lifetimes which are lies (like those listed above), we need to hear the Good News of God’s grace and love again, and again, and again. Until we know it in an unshakable way, so that when we have a really lousy day, when we flunk three tests in school, our best friend tells our deepest secret to the biggest gossip in the class, our soccer teams loses because of a ball that was off our foot, and our parents yell at us – or when our teenager totals the car, we get laid off from the job, and the biopsy comes back positive all on the same day – we can go home and look in the mirror and say to ourselves “I am a priceless child of God, I have infinite spiritual potential, God loves me no matter what and God is going to help me get through this.”

No one is born being able to say that. People have to learn it, preferably from people who believe it and live it themselves. And to keep believing and living it the most devout people still need to be part of a community of faith in which all its members can lean on each other, and God, through thick and thin. And spread the Good News that, even though someone else may have told us we’re worthless or hopeless or we’ve told it to ourselves, it’s not true. Here, in church, we learn, and remember that it’s not true.

Three years ago we had two kids from the Ozanam Family Shelter in the vacation Bible School class I taught. On the first day we talked about how we’re all created in the image of God, which means we’re priceless. I started a regular routine with all the kids which blossomed during the week. I leaned over one of the kids from the shelter and said, “How much are you worth? 49 cents?” And she’d giggle and say “No.” “Oh, you up to 98 cents now?” “No.” “How much are you worth?” She’d say, “I’m priceless.” “Who told you that?” “God did!” Then I’d smile and say, “That’s right – and don’t ever let anybody tell you different.”

I don’t think anyone had ever told her she was priceless before, and that God says so. She learned it here. And it didn’t hurt for our kids to hear it, either.

That’s just one part of the foundation for Christian living, of course. There’s lots more. But the three principles are: it’s never too soon (or too late) to start coming to church, live the principles you hear about seven days a week, and repeat, repeat, repeat.

The responsibility for “seeing that the child you present is brought up in the Christian faith and life” and “by your prayers and witness help this child grow into the full stature of Christ” is, as the baptismal service indicates, primarily the responsibility of parents and godparents. But – grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, friends, fellow church members all can help out. That’s why the entire congregation takes a vow “to support this person in her life in Christ”, as we will say today for Cerenity.

And guiding kids in the right path, while anchored in the Church experience, can go into all aspects of a child or teenager’s life. There are lots of paths teens – or adults – can travel in life, and some of those paths lead off cliffs, cliffs marked drugs, or alcohol abuse, or violence, or promiscuity or gangs or cults or a host of other things.

So please take out the colored insert to your service leaflet and look at the list of “40 Developmental Assets” which experts have determined can have a huge positive impact in the lives of teens. With them, they are likely to grow up to be healthy, happy and productive adults; without them, they may not even make it to adulthood. And according to the survey results, even the most commonly-held asset is held by only 70% of 6^th-12^th graders and it ranges down from there to one asset that only 19% of teens have.

Parents, check these out. Say, #2: only 26% of teens surveyed say that they and their parents communicate positively and that they (the teens) are willing to seek advice and counsel from parent or parents. 26%. Ouch. And #14: only 27% of teens believe that “parents and other adults model positive, responsible behavior.” They do pay attention, parents – to what you do. And grandparents, godparents, uncles, aunts, teachers and others, note #3: 41% of teens report receiving support from three or more non parent adults. Having a rapport with a teen who is not your kid – having an adult to really talk to who is not your parent – can make a real difference.

Many of these assets can be “under construction” from the day a child is born and for as long as she or he lives. And they make the lives of all those involved richer.

“Asset-building” in a conscious and deliberate way is going on in a coordinated way in the South Brunswick community, spearheaded by our schools and involving many people (including me). Wherever you live and whether you know one young person or hundreds, asset-building can involve you.

It’s never too soon to start, and it’s never time to stop asset-building, until we experience the fullness of our and everyone else’s infinite spiritual potential in the Kingdom of God.

(The Rev.) Francis A. Hubbard

St. Barnabas Episcopal Church