We started celebrating Candlemas a few years ago. We had so many half-used candles around that I thought we should recycle them rather than throw them out. We are doing so again this year; so, I am sorry if this is a disappointment to those hoping to find reflections for the Fifth Sunday of Epiphany.
The lessons for Candlemas also known as the Presentation of our Lord or in the Roman Catholic Church, the Purification of Mary and in the Orthodox Church, the Feast of Meeting are:
For creation themes I’ll focus more on the Candlemas emphasis. This year on Sunday January 15th between services and with middle school youth group and confirmation class, we melted down leftover candle stubs, Advent candles, Christmas candles and the remnant of our Easter Vigil candle. Everyone who wanted to made dip candles for us to bless on Candlemas and for them to take home. We also made small votive candles to give out to our worship guests with tags that say, “Let your light shine . . .” We will also bless all the candles that will be lit during our worship services this coming year.
Candlemas takes place 40 days after Christmas – halfway between the winter solstice and the spring equinox. We are never far away in our celebrations from connections to creation – in this case to the turning of the planet away and then back towards the light. It’s a wonderful time to preach about darkness and light and what it means to live in-between in the shadows. It could be an opportunity to break through the binary of light/good-dark/bad. What does the darkness help us to see? What does too much light prevent us from seeing? Light can be a source of deliverance or a source of judgment.
What are some examples of light being welcomed and light not being welcomed? My geranium plant grew so big and beautiful in my office last winter and spring but when I took it outside into the full rather than dappled sunlight, the light became more like Malachi’s refining fire – there was not much left!
When is shade a gift? When are the shadows frightening? Epiphany is known as a season of light, but the light to be seen needs the darkness. The darker the night sky, the brighter the stars. When I was in Peru a couple of years ago, I learned that the Incas named constellations after the dark spaces whereas we see and name them based on the points of light.
In what ways does creation use and need darkness for growth? What is taking place in this wintering time beneath our seeing ready to burst forth with new growth as the longer, warmer days return? In what ways does darkness foster our faith? In what ways do we meet God in the darkness?
Is facing our death a time of darkness or light? The Spirit that rests upon Simeon in Luke 2 is the One who revealed to him that death wouldn’t come until the Messiah appeared and the Spirit is the One who guides him to the temple to meet Jesus. There is no resistance on his part; he goes to the temple and receives the child, Jesus, in his arms and says:
Now I can depart in peace
My eyes have seen the salvation that you have prepared
In the presence of all peoples
A light for revelation to the Gentiles
And for glory to your people Israel
In the Orthodox Church this is known as the Feast of Meeting. Simeon, the God Receiver, welcomes Mary, the God Bearer. I love this. Where do our feasts of meeting take place? In what ways can we be God Receivers in relationship to creation? One could also preach on the first line – “Now I can depart in peace.” What will allow us to depart in peace when we think beyond our own lives and families and contemplate the world and what we leave to future generations as the planet erupts in the violent protestations of floods, hurricanes, wildfires, tornados more fierce than previously known.
One could also move in a very different way having fun with the fact that Candlemas is celebrated on what we know in this country as Groundhog Day. Here is a Candlemas Proverb:
If Candlemas be fair and bright
Winter has another flight
If Candlemas brings clouds and rain
Winter will not come again
We can hear Punxsutawney Phil, the Pennsylvania Groundhog weather lore in this saying– if the groundhog emerges from its burrow on February 2nd and sees its shadow, it will retreat to its den and we’ll be in for 6 more weeks of winter; if it doesn’t see its shadow because of cloudy weather, spring will come early. This strange tradition was brought over from Germany by the Pennsylvania Dutch. Only in Germany the animal forecaster was a badger. The badger/groundhog winter/spring forecasting is rather nonsensical, but isn’t it interesting that it takes place on February 2nd – Candlemas, the Presentation of our Lord.
Again, we hear about light and shadows and creatures telling us something by their movements about the seasons. Even though this one has no basis in reality, we can in other ways tune into the creatures around us and learn something about the seasons, about changes in the atmosphere, about implications of humans trespassing creation’s boundaries.
The Psalm for the day is Psalm 84 which provides plenty of fodder for sermon contemplation. This is a song of praise celebrating the Lord’s dwelling, in this case, the temple. However, I think we can lean into it and consider how the earth is also God’s dwelling place and a place in which we can offer praise and thanksgiving. The Psalmist celebrates that even the sparrow finds a home in God’s house and the swallow a nest for her young. How can we make God’s earthly dwelling a safe, welcoming home for these small ones? How can the space around our church buildings be welcoming to God’s birds, butterflies, worms, dragonflies?
There is the wondrous line that those whose strength is in God as they pass through the dry land of the Baca Valley make it a place of springs. Those who long to worship God care for the earth helping bring to it new life. One senses that all is right with creation largely because the people whose strength is in God have their hearts set on the pilgrims’ way. Traveling God’s holy way is mirrored in creation living its holy way. What the pilgrims leave behind is not litter and destruction, but a transformation of barrenness into an oasis.
And the psalm ends taking us back to the image of light and shadow: “For the Lord God is both sun and shield, bestowing grace and glory; no good thing will the Lord withhold from those who walk with integrity.” We need the sun and to be shielded from the sun. Warmth and protection – how can we shield one another and creation as God shields us?
Maybe you’ll be inspired to celebrate Candlemas/Presentation of the Lord/the Feast of Meeting this year. Here is a blessing I think we will begin worship with that day:
As Jesus is presented in the temple,
we present ourselves and these candles.
May these candles be a visible reminder of
“the true light which enlightens everyone.” [John 1]
As these candles are kindled,
may our baptismal commission be rekindled in us:
“To let our lights shine before others that they may see our good works
and glorify our God in heaven” [Matthew 5:16]
May our hearts be enlightened
By the invisible fire of your Spirit
May our spirits be illuminated
By the fire we call Christ
With Simeon and Anna may we see your salvation
And be bathed in your light that never fades away
May we enter into darkness knowing that so often
That is where we will find you
May the fire of your love refine our lives
May the flame of your love burn within us
May the light of your love illumine our path
and spread hope for the whole of creation.
