Monday, February 3, 2020

A Word from Your Pastor February 2 - Feast of the Presentation



The Presentation of the Lord celebrates a moment that was precious to Mary, the mother of Jesus.  We hear about it in the Gospel of Luke, which has a very Marian flavor to it.  The encounter with Simeon and Anna at the Temple 40 days after the birth of Jesus was etched into the memory of Mary and she pondered it often in her heart.

Fulfillment of the precepts of Jewish Law was a value to Joseph, who is identified as a “just man.”  He and Mary experienced the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem under unusual circumstances.  Coming to the Temple could serve to put things back on an even path.  Instead, the visit opened up a moment of prophecy, which is always at least slightly unsettling.

A sacrifice to redeem the firstborn connected the story of this small family to the history of Israel and the Exodus.  Simeon associated the Child’s presentation as the fulfillment of the Holy Spirit’s personal promise to him that he would not die before seeing the Messiah, the Light to the Nations and the glory of the People of God.  Anna, watching the proceedings, was able to see that what the ordinary folks were waiting for was beginning to happen.

God has invited the world to receive the gift of a relationship with Him.  In Jesus Christ, separate worlds and intimate promises experienced in personal prayer are brought together.  Dreams are fulfilled when we walk the journey of Faith according to the plan God has mapped out for us.

Are you able to recall moments of grace in your own life where everything came together for you, when you glimpsed in an instant the past, the present and the future and you knew everything would be okay?  Who has been with you in that experience?  How does it serve you now when you call it to mind?  What new light do you see?

The Presentation is about presenting the perfect human nature of the Son back to His Father.  God has claimed us as His own through Jesus Christ.  What does that mean for our life together?  What do you hear God inviting you to be and us to be together?  Let us give our own humanity to God that He may bring us all to unity in Christ.

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