Thoughts on Today’s Lessons for Sunday, Feb. 2, 2014
Presentation of Jesus at the Temple, Master of the Cini Madonna, Rimini, 14th century.
“Who can endure the day of his coming?” “He is like a refiner’s fire!” If you love Handel’s “Messiah,” you may feel like singing along with the Prophet Malachi. The prophet, writing after the people’s return from exile, isn’t happy. He calls on God to cleanse the rebuilt temple with fire and to send a messenger to keep it clean. Christians, seeing an image of Christ in the ancient prophecy, imagine a more generous Messenger, who purifies us and makes us pleasing to God.
Psalm: Psalm 84
When we read this Psalm during Christmastide, we heard it as a hymn of joy in knowing that God will provide protection, favor and honor to those who trust in God. Now reflect on the details: As God provides nests for the small birds, so will God provide for us. As God provides pools of water for thirsty travelers, so will God hear our prayers.
Second Reading: Hebrews 2:14-18
Hebrews was written for Jewish Christians who were undergoing frightening persecution, causing many to abandon their new faith. Hebrews stands strong in its call for perseverance. It names Jesus as Son of God and great high priest, God who became fully human like us and overcame death through his sacrifice. The early church, scholars believe, did not understand this sacrifice as tribute demanded by an angry God. That idea came only centuries later. Rather, it joyfully saw Jesus’s sacrifice as freeing us from death, so the old Temple’s sacrificial rites were no longer needed.
Gospel: Luke 2:22-40
Today’s readings celebrate Joseph and Mary presenting baby Jesus in the Temple, sacrificing a pair of birds to fulfill the Jewish practice that the author of Hebrews would later declare superseded. Simeon, a very old man who had heard God’s promise that he would meet the Messiah before he died, joyfully takes the baby, blesses Jesus and his family, and utters the verses that we know as the Nunc Dimittis, the Song of Simeon: “Lord, you now have set your servant free to go in peace as you have promised; For these eyes of mine have seen the Savior, whom you have prepared for all the world to see …”