Presentation of Christ in the Temple - Candlemas

Malachi 3:1-4
Hebrews 2:14-18
Luke 2:22-40

+ In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Christians have always sensed God’s presence in creation. S. Paul writes that human beings have always perceived God’s invisible nature, his power and deity, in the things he has made. (Romans 1:20) I know a bit of the inexpressible, sublime encounter of God while sitting at dawn on a quiet beach or looking at majestic mountains. They’re cliche for a reason.

For the most part, however, I apprehend God in man made things – things like music, literature, and buildings. I was at the doctor’s office not long ago, and to kill time while he subjected me to an indignity, the doctor asked me what were the five most beautiful things I’ve seen. My immediate thoughts were favorite spaces, things like Ste. Chappelle in Paris, St Bartholomew-the-Great in London, La Sagrada Familia in Barcelona – spaces that make your spirit soar, that make you feel good, that make you catch your breath in wonder and awe.

As I thought about it later, I realized that it was a nice parlor game, but an impossible, even ridiculous, task to compose such a list. It did point out to me how important public spaces are to people. Many of you have indulged me in hearing rants against the ugliness, insincerity, vapidity of so many contemporary buildings. They deaden and destroy cities because they deaden our humanity, our imagination, our sense of ourselves.

We’re in the early stages of working with architects for a master plan for our buildings. This morning at coffee hour they are going to present their initial thoughts. What they are presenting is a glimpse of an exciting vision, a kernel of an idea that will take much additional reflection and refinement and prayerful input from us as it takes shape. It is bold, ambitious, and challenging – just what we should expect for any vision worthy of these properties. With God, all things are possible.

The master plan will articulate a direction, a vision forward for many decades ahead. We can expect that it will lead in the next few years to a building project and a capital campaign, but we will not, and should not, attempt to achieve everything at once.

God has blessed us richly with a magnificent church and a couple of lovely houses. We can become so familiar with them that we forget they are extraordinary. We enjoy, and are lifted up, by one of the most beautiful churches in the city. We are located in an enormously vibrant part of town, and the intersection of commercial and residential Washington, have and have not Washington. It is a spiritual danger for us to take these privileges for granted and a sin not to try to share them. This is not a clubhouse.

We have a vital responsibility to use what we’ve been given effectively and to keep these buildings up to date, meeting the ever changing and evolving needs of people. We especially have to plan and build for other people, people who are not yet here, future parishioners and those who we may serve. In the 1870s Dr. Pinckney and Mr. Corcoran led the effort to build this church, and their vision and faith has blessed countless unknown people through the decades. We, too, must think far beyond ourselves to the generations who are still to come.

Buildings, of course, are not important in themselves. They are important because they can be a tool to achieve God’s purposes. Buildings can inspire us, move us toward God, even in a sense care for us. A church building is sacramental – both formed and shaped by the good news of God’s love and reflecting and sharing the good news of God’s love. A church’s property is a tool for ministry; it exists to glorify God in worship and in service and in fellowship.

One of the chief goals of our master plan will be to improve accessibility throughout the buildings to make our them more hospitable and welcoming. The purpose of the master plan, and indeed of the church itself, is so that we may better share what we have here – I mean not only sharing the buildings, but also sharing the good news, sharing our worship and our community, sharing our parish family – making it more accessible.

Not long ago, I preached about four qualities which are increasingly shaping our parish family, defining our life together. These are: joy, relationship, outward looking-ness (that’s a terrible word, but I’ve yet to figure out a better one), and transformation. These qualities need to shape the master plan. These are the marks of an authentic, healthy Christian community, and we find them implicit in the gospel. In today’s gospel, each of the characters shows us one of those qualities.

First, joy. S. Luke tells us that Anna served God in the Temple offering prayers and giving thanks. Joy comes from giving thanks. A grateful heart is a joyful heart. Cultivating gratitude, counting our blessings is the beginning of joy. Joy doesn’t simply come from having good things happen to us. Sooner or later, everyone struggles with darkness and misfortune. Joy comes from being connected to God, to a greater purpose, and devoting our lives to it.

Last week, Molly Ivins died; she was a progressive, populist, Texan columnist. In a tribute to her, I came across some sound advice. She said, “Keep fighting for freedom and justice, beloveds, but don’t forget to have fun doin’ it. ... let your laughter ring forth. Be outrageous, ridicule the fraidy-cats, rejoice in all the oddities that freedom can produce.” That’s a great attitude. Molly Ivins knew something of the joy of living with passion and excitement for a greater purpose.

Second, relationship. Today’s gospel gives us a lovely snapshot of the Holy Family. While parents would be foolish to accept any credit for the virtue of their children, we see the holiness and piety and love of Mary and Joseph nurturing Jesus. We see the creativity and vitality of strong, loving relationships. We should recall that Jesus was not merely born of the flesh of Mary, but also raised in a home of faith and obedience. Mary and Joseph devoutly observed their faith. For Jesus to develop in a perfect relationship with his heavenly Father, it seems that he would have learned that from the faith of his parents and from their love of him and of one another.

We talk about our congregation as a ‘church family,’ and that doesn’t come from cheap, insincere sentiment. In many ways, a healthy Christian community is like a family. We are born into families, and we get what we get. It’s not a matter of choice. Likewise, a parish doesn’t choose its members. God helps people find their spiritual home here, bringing together a wide variety. A healthy church family doesn’t exclude. It accepts and welcomes even the difficult and obnoxious as well as those we simply don’t like. And here’s the really amazing thing, even if we don’t like someone, we try to love him. That’s the heart of Christianity. Without building strong relationships, we’re being dilettantes – not true Christians.

Third, outward looking-ness. The Holy Spirit rested upon Simeon. The Holy Spirit guides us beyond ourselves. Simeon was looking forward to the future, expecting God to act, searching for what God is doing. His openness is extraordinary. For, quite unexpectedly, he finds God at work, indeed present, in a baby. God’s salvation comes not with pomp and majesty and triumph, but in the ordinary activity of a humble family performing routine religious observances. Simeon perceives the presence of God in another person, in someone who appears to be lowly and insignificant. He anticipated Jesus’ own teaching: “Truly, whatever you did for any of my people, no matter how unimportant they seemed, you did it for me.” (Mt 25:40)

Simeon had a remarkable ability to see beyond himself, to perceive the inclusiveness of God. Simeon recognized that this baby came not only to give glory and life to Israel, but also to lighten the Gentiles. Simeon perceived that in Jesus God was reaching out to, and focusing on, those who didn’t even know him yet. God’s salvation and purpose has no boundaries. He loves and serves all, and that’s what he calls us to as well.

Fourth, transformation. None of the evangelists told us much about Jesus’ life before baptism. But in the final sentence of today’s gospel, Luke made a startling remark. He wrote that Jesus grew in the Spirit and in wisdom. Luke suggested Jesus’ early years were a time of growth and development, a time of preparation, learning and discerning who he was and what his Father wanted from him. Even as we read the gospels, we see Jesus growing in self-understanding and figuring out his vocation, figuring out what his Father wanted from him. Cardinal Newman wrote, “Growth is the only evidence of life.”

The master plan is yet another opportunity for us to grow, to grow in faith and love, to share our blessings, to embody more fully this vision of joy, relationship, outward looking-ness, and transformation. I am excited because our work to improve the parish’s facilities can profoundly transform our souls much more than these buildings.

1. ‘Molly Ivins’s Joyful Outrage,’ E. J. Dionne, Jr., The Washington Post, February 2, 2007, p. A15.

2. John Macquarrie, Mary for All Christians, Eerdmans (1990), pp. 73-74. He follows William P. DuBose.