Sermon by Rev Sydney Maitland for Sunday 3 February 2025.
Presentation of Jesus at the Temple, 12th century cloisonné enamel icon from Georgia Source
• First Reading: Malachi 3: 1-5 (I will send My messenger who will prepare the way before Me)
• Epistle: Hebrews 2: 14-18 (He suffered and was tempted, is able to help those who are being tempted)
• Gospel: Luke 2: 22-40 (The child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom. The grace of God was with Him)
I would like you to think of a football stadium. It does not matter which club uses it. Most of the time it is empty, apart from training events and the attentions of its grounds people.
Its purpose is not just to provide a space for football matches to be held, but to provide space for the supporters to gather, watch, cheer, gesticulate and egg each other on. The social event is as important as performance on the field.
Most of the time it is empty, and it stands waiting. The point is the game and all that goes with it.
Now think of the temple in Jerusalem. It started off as the tent of meeting, build by Moses in the wilderness as instructed by God, with careful and detailed specifications.
Then came the temple itself, built by Solomon and prepared by King David who had also received detailed designs.
In one sense, both of these were already inhabited by the Word of God, now living in the flesh of Jesus Christ.
And so He was taken to the Temple and presented to the Lord as a baby, following the Law of Moses. In this sense Jesus was already fulfilling the Law, given by the Word of God to Moses.
It was a preparation for a life lived within the Law and fulfilling it, defining it for the needs of His time and bringing it back to the simplicity of purpose for which it was always intended. The later accumulations of custom and practice, the commentaries and later texts on the law might have been intended to support its observance but they really only ended up complicating it for the ordinary devout believer in Israel.
Yet our lessons offer their perspectives on the temple.
The first, in Malachi, looks forward to the end of times when the Lord would come to His temple, taking possession and presiding over its affairs.
This would be a time of judgment. Many might look forward to it as the final vindication of Israel in the face of a hostile world determined to destroy Israel and all that she stands for.
But judgment would begin in the Household of God, and before coming against the powers of the world, it would be the people of God who would first be examined and corrected.
This would be a detailed and a searching time, exposing the corruptions and malpractices that had crept into the life of the temple.
But the aim would be to cleanse and purify, so that the proceedings might be conducted without corruption or compromise. And so the servants of the Lord would be free to act in righteousness and faithfulness to the Lord.
This would be the Day of the Lord and it would be mighty in effect.
But then the other is told by Luke. As I said, Jesus who as the Word of God had already determined the form and conduct of the temple, was brought there to fulfil the law. He was to be presented to God, the firstborn male of the family. It would foretell the selection of the Passover Lamb, an unblemished male a year old. One to be chosen and killed to recall the Passover and relive its events and importance.
He would come back: at His bar-mitzvah, and again on that fateful day in the last week of His life, when He would take possession and cleanse it of its grosser corruptions.
And John tells of other occasions of Him being there, teaching and healing.
But here at His presentation Jesus was being brought to the Lord to celebrate His birth. It was a time of looking forward and of eagerness.
And yet even here Jesus’ mother was being warned that the future held trial and testing for both her and Jesus. She also would find that while many would believe and trust in Jesus, and come into a new life, there would also be many others to reject Him and who would resent His focus on the things of God and demand for purity in the practice of the faith.
And Mary would see both sides without being able to assist or protect or intervene in any other way.
She would watch and pray. She would wait and hope. She would see her son crucified, which would almost crush her spirit and yet she would know His resurrection and the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.
And so what to make of it all? Perhaps it is like that football stadium. Not much use when standing empty apart from a few caretakers and the players in training.
But then maybe the church is also intended to come into its own, like the stadium, when the game is on and the stands are full and there is that excitement and exuberance in the air.
A time of expectancy and celebration. This time, not about winning and losing but about the joy of the victory already won, death already defeated, hope restored.
May we also be ready when the Lord whom we are seeking will suddenly come to His temple – and His church.
May we also be ready and waiting. Watching and praying.
