PRESENTATION OF CHRIST / PURIFICATION OF BVM 2007

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"And the child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom; and the favor of God was upon him."

HIS celebration of the Presentation of Christ in the Temple could have been well-titled: "Holy Family Day." Although we know little about Jesus’ childhood and youth, and His family life, we do get a few glimpses in Scripture. In the story of the flight into Egypt; and the story of Jesus sitting at the feet of the elders instead of going with His parents back to their home; and the story in today’s Gospel reading...

Perhaps we could reconstruct more of His childhood by looking at His adult life. Many of the familiar sayings of Jesus surely reflect the atmosphere in which He was reared. He HAD to have learned important things about life from His Mother and St. Joseph which would have brought about some of things He said, like:

• "Do not be anxious about what you should wear, or what you should eat, or what you should say... and don’t be anxious about tomorrow; tomorrow will take care of itself..."
• "He who endures to the end will be saved ...."
• "The first shall be last, and the last, first ...."

And how did Jesus learn to love? Surely from Mary and Joseph, just as we learn from our parents. He learned how to love by being loved. Good parents don’t wait until their children have done something to deserve their love. From the moment of conception and at every moment thereafter, good parents love their children – NO MATTER WHAT. Jesus learned about God’s love as He experienced human love given by Mary and Joseph to Him. And we have learned in the same way. How to love God and how to love others. We are each members of individual families. Some families include several children and some, only one child. And we also belong to a larger family— God’s Family / the Church; the Body of Christ. We became members of this family not by "blood relationship," but by adoption at Baptism. And by this adoption, each of us shares the experience of God’s unconditional love. It is this experience of the unconditional love of God that helps us to love him and to love others.

Think about it...being a Christian is all about belonging and loving. Belonging to God and loving Him, and He belonging to us and loving us, in a wonderfully indelible relationship. This is a part of the reason He took on human flesh in the person of Jesus; so we could understand more clearly the importance of relationship, and the importance of unconditional love.

Today might be a good day to think about your families; pondering the kind of life you share, and thanking God for it. And thanking Him too, for the exemplary family /Jesus, Mary, and Joseph; who show the virtues of humility, obedience, steadfastness, and love in the context of relationship with God and one another. Jesus was an exemplary child.... His family was the exemplary family. His devotion and that of His family were not to be challenged. We find in Him the pattern of living which will bring about the fulfillment of God’s will in our lives. He was reared by parents who were faithful, devout Jews, who performed what the Law required. They presented their Son that He might be called "Holy to the Lord", and they offered the appropriate sacrifices. Every male child of a Jew was called "Holy to the Lord" as He was presented in the Temple. Every Jewish parent had the responsibility to "do as it is written in the Law of the Lord." Jesus obviously knew a kind of respectability in living life according to God’s will. He must have learned early in life how to pray regularly, and that it was important to go to Synagogue faithfully. And this nurturing and spiritual development in childhood prepared Him for the tasks that lay ahead for Him as He began His public ministry. We hear in Scripture, an early account of His activities as an adult, where He was found in the Temple reading the Scriptures "as his custom was..." on the Sabbath.

What does this have to do with us? Christian parents have a most important responsibility to "present their children to the Lord." We do this at Baptism; this is how they "become Holy" to the Lord. Parents are to see that their children know how to pray at an early age and that they experience regular worship as a "given" in their lives. Once a child is baptized, the new life in Christ begins. But if that life isn’t nurtured and encouraged spiritually, the life will have little or no meaning. Like Simeon, the holiness of every life God blesses, is acknowledged, as we are obedient to Our Lord’s Commandment to "break the bread" and "share the cup," being nourished to do something for Him. To continue to "grow and become strong," and to "be filled with wisdom" to live in God’s favor.

I wonder if many of us think about why so few people in our society take the Faith seriously. We observe that they don’t come to church regularly. They spend much of their time in other ways.

They are kind to others only when it is to their own personal advantage. I want to say that people who act this way, never learned who Jesus is by the teaching and example of their parents or once they became adults, the Christian witness to them has been apathetic, or indifferent, or hypocritical; causing them to conclude that all this "Christian stuff" doesn’t really matter. No, you and I, who call ourselves the "faithful churchmen" sometimes compound the problem by just sitting back and saying "tisk, tisk!" Our society has provided itself with its own examples of the "good life" and they are not centered in the life of Christ but are focused on an unencumbered lifestyle which requires no commitment to anything or anyone. Little thought is given to "what happens next." Uninformed and/or guilty consciences dictating the decision making process.

Are you ready for the questions?

• "Why is the story of the Presentation of Christ relevant to us today?
• "Who is this Jesus?" "What does His existence have to do with me?"
• "How do I present myself to God through Him?"

You and I are being provoked by God to "be lights of the world" in our generation. To be the glory of the Church. By the way we share Christ’s life with others. By the way we tell our story of having seen our salvation in Jesus Christ. In the account of His Presentation in the Temple we have come to know a little about Jesus’ childhood. Scripture gives us a theological perspective of His life and purpose; how His existence has some bearing on how we live our lives. Jesus partook of the same nature as we. He took on human nature in order to redeem it. He assumed every aspect of life as we know it, but did not succumb to its sinfulness...He came to know the weakness of mankind without having to be weak. He came to know disappointments and rejection and the betrayal of friendship, but rose above them all. He observed who was faithful and who were the backsliders. He knew who was looking out for "Number 1" and who was more concerned about sharing love.

In the end, He assumed the ultimate encounter with existence itself when He faced death. The one thing He offers us in that experience is His greatest gift, the promise that although we will die, we will not die forever. Our life will be changed to be a more glorious one, taking from us the fear of death.

In the celebration of the Feast of Christ’s Presentation; the Feast of the Holy Family, may we all acknowledge once more the great love God has for us in giving us His Son. Let us acknowledge this love by faithful worship and humble service to one another; that we may be presented pure and spotless before Him.

In His Name and for His glory. AMEN.

+ The Rt. Rev. Daren K. Williams

Bishop Ordinary of the Diocese of the West
Rector of All Saints Anglican Church, Fountain Valley, California