The Certainty of Simeon

Preached at St Stephen & St Agnes, Windsor for Candlemas with a baptism.

I wonder how many times Simeon had told people that he would see the Messiah before he died.  I wonder how many people had thought he was a wittering old fool.  He was a man full of hope and optimism.  But I’m sure that sort of thing went down as well then as it can seem to today.  If we put Simeon’s claims that he would not die before he had seen the Messiah into context, we can see why people may have doubted him.  The history of the Jews was long and hard.  The had suffered oppression for so long under this promise that never seemed to come.  There must have been times when every Jew who heard the scriptures looked to the heavens and sighed.  And now, living as they were in Jerusalem under Roman rule, it must have seemed as if they were very far from any salvation.  And yet Simeon was adamant.  I wonder how many children he had looked at, wondering.

But this particular day, something was different.  This day Simeon took a child in his arms and knew that this was he – the Saviour.

Of all the things I imagine Simeon to have said over the years concerning the Messiah, I’m guessing this would have sounded the most bizarre.  Mary and Joseph, a poor couple from Nazareth, come into the temple for Mary’s ritual purification and to dedicate their first born son to God.  They would have seemed unremarkable to most of us.  Offering the most basic of sacrifices, pigeons instead of a lamb, I don’t think anyone would have made a fuss of them.  They were one couple out of so many going to the temple each year.  So what was it that Simeon saw in the child?

It’s the same thing that a group of fisherman saw many years later which led them to leave their nets, their families and their livelihoods.  The same thing which led Mary of Bethany to break with all convention and to sit at his feet.  The same thing which made Pilate wash his hands of the decision to crucify him …

We often talk of ‘potential’ and it would be easy to say that this is what Simeon saw.  Maybe he saw the potential that this child had.  But potential talks of something that is in the future, not yet realised, and might not even happen for many reasons.   These aren’t the words that Simeon uses.  He talks about destiny.  His words of those of certainty.  As certain as he was that he would see the Messiah before death, he now is certain that this tiny child, just over a month old, is the one who will bring salvation.  It’s a certainty he is willing to die for.  And this certainty is echoed by Anna, the prophet, who declares to anyone who is looking for certainty and hope, that it has been found.

This child is a light to the gentiles … to all nations … all people.  This is the light which can never be extinguished, the light which shines into every dark corner and which drives out darkness and fear.  Isn’t that a wonderful statement?  The most amazing, joy filled, hope filled statement you could ever hear?  And yet how often do we, like those Jews Simeon gave his message of joy to, look to the heavens and sigh?  We live in dark times – times of oppression for so many people.  The news is full of it.  We walk down the street and we see injustice and inequality.  Where is our certainty?  The light cannot be extinguished.  The light shines in the darkness and the darkness cannot overcome it.  And yet we don’t see it.  Like so many others from the day of Christ’s birth, we fail to see Christ in our midst.

On Candlemas, the Feast of the Presentation,  we remember our baptism and reaffirm our faith.  And it is an amazing day to welcome xx into our family of baptised Christians.  We remember our baptism today because in our baptism we were handed the light of Christ.  We were given that hope … no!  … We were given that certainty that Christ is here.  We say it every week: “the Lord is here”.  And God is not sitting around idly watching what His people are going through.  Through the light that Simeon proclaimed we are tasked with joining in with God’s mission.  We are the ones who bring Christ’s light to the world around us.  This is not our potential.  This is our destiny.  It’s who we are called to be and who God will support us in being.  Bishop Michael Curry, the presiding bishop of the Episcopal church tweeted this on Friday; “Real followers of Jesus don’t leave the world the way they found it. Real followers of Jesus change the world.”  This is not the hope of a wittering old fool.  This is certainty.  It is what we are called to do through baptism and what we can do through Grace.

So let’s go to the font, xx and her family will lead us, where she will make her promises for the first time as she is baptised and the rest of us will renew ours.