Sermon: Candlemas: Looking Forward

It really was the end of an era when Tower Colliery at Hirwaun closed. This represented the end of deep coal mining in South Wales, at least for the time being.  No one can predict what will happen when the energy crisis really begins to bite in  Twenty years' time.

Deep mining was a precarious and dangerous business. The miners had to edge forward along a dark passageway, uncertain what was ahead, with the light of their  miner's lamp to guide  them. They needed always to be looking forward because they  were not sure what was around the next corner.

In a way the miner's occupation is a parable of all human life. None of us knows what  lies ahead. There may be a rich seam for us to experience and enjoy. There may be obstacles and dangers. We need to look ahead, to try and sense what is before us, to be  as ready for it as we can .In the Gospel reading this morning we meet a number of people who, in different ways, were looking forward. ,sure that something really  significant was about to happen but not knowing exactly what it was.

Mary and Joseph had been told before the birth of Jesus that theirs would be a special child, the child of God, the one who was to bring salvation to the world. They did not  know yet what this might mean in practice ,so they committed the future to God. They  brought their child into the Temple and laid him before the Lord, making the  appropriate offerings just as Hannah had done with Samuel many years before. Whatever his future might be, rough or smooth, at home or far away, they committed  The infant Jesus into the hands of God that the Lord's promise might be fulfilled in  him.

 When they came into the Temple they met Simeon, a man described as righteous and  devout, looking forward to the consolation of Israel. For him, looking forward did not  just mean sitting around waiting for something to happen. The Holy Spirit rested upon  him. He was guided by the Spirit, and he actively worked for the coming of God's  kingdom, speaking to people ,advising them, warning them or preparing them. So he  was able to recognize who Jesus was as soon as his parents brought him into the Temple. "Do you remember what Isaiah said ?" Simeon asked, "that the Lord God  would raise up his servant to be a light to the nations ? Well, this is the one." Simeon  had actively looked forward all his life, and he was sufficiently prepared to be able to recognize the moment of God's action when it came.

And then there was Anna. She was of a great age. The translation we have here says she was 84, but the text probably intends to say that it was 84 years since her husband  died after they had been married for seven years, which would make her about I10. So  she was old, but she was not backward looking. She worshipped at the Temple with  fasting and prayer night and day, as part of a community who were looking forward to  the redemption of Jerusalem. Fasting and prayer were signs of expectation. The  community  knew that God was shortly going to do something momentous, and they  needed to be prepared for it, physically by fasting and spiritually by prayer. Like

Simeon, Anna knew who Jesus was on the instant of his arrival in the Temple. She praised God as she spoke about the child.

What of Jesus himself? As a baby, he knew nothing of what was being said over him when his parents brought him in to the Temple. But like Samuel before him, his physical growth and development as a boy were accompanied was accompanied by a dawning of wisdom.  He began to understand that he was God’s Son in a particular and awesome way, and he looked forward to the challenges and opportunities that the years ahead would bring.

As we edge along the passage of our loves, we can be like the parents of Jesus, not knowing what lies ahead but committing it to God  and following God’s guidance every step of the way.  Like Simeon, may we have the insight and the faith to recognise God’s work in the world.  Like Anna may we keep looking forward in hope of the dawning of a new age even when the time seems very long.  And like Jesus himself, accept God’s call and step forward bravely to accomplish whatever God has set before us.

On Candlemas Day we have held aloft our lighted candles to remind ourselves that our equivalent of a miner’s lamp  is the light which shines from Christ himself.  In his light we can step forward into the next phase of our lives, not knowing what is around the corner but confident that he will not allow us to stumble and fall into the darkness.

The Psalm said  “The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom then shall I fear?  We can say Christ is my light and my salvation, with him I can ever move forward."