Readings
Malachi 3:1-4
Psalm 24:7-10
Hebrews 2:14-18
Luke 2:22-40
I want to start this morning’s homily with a question. Would you describe your life as holy? If the answer is no, then I would ask you to contemplate why you think that is the case. Why do we have such a hard time accepting that our lives are holy and what might we do to change that?
I am keenly aware of my own proclivity for brokenness and sin. That alone is enough for me to assume that my life isn’t holy. Except that this flies in the face of scriptural witness. Over and again throughout the Bible we hear about the sanctity of creation. We are reminded not only that we are made in the image of God, but that through Christ, we have been adopted as God’s own children. In other words, our lives are by their very nature sacred, and God is with us even in the midst of our brokenness.
So how do we stay connected or reconnect to the holiness inherent in our lives. In the midst of all the busyness and distraction, how do we recognize the radical nearness of God? How do we live lives that are marked by grace and blessing?
Today’s story of the presentation of Jesus in the Temple gives us a short glimpse.
Mary and Joseph, being devout Jews observed all the ritual and gesture required of them. They went to the temple following the birth of Jesus in order for Mary to be made ritually clean and for Jesus to be presented to God as the first-born son. This was not unique to the holy family, but something every household with a new child would have been expected to do.
What we might not recognize however is the place and importance of ritual in the daily lives of Jews in the time of Jesus. Every day, multiple times a day, Jews were called to remember the presence of God and the blessings of this life. Through prayer, study, and communal life God was woven into the very fabric of everyday existence. Engaging in such ritual was not simply an obligation, but an opportunity to know God, to love God, and to serve God. It was an opportunity to love one’s neighbor as oneself.
Through such patterns of religious life, one becomes accustomed to recognizing God and open to such revelation.
Now into the narrative come first Simeon and then Anna. It is the very pattern that we just described that allows them to see the child Jesus and recognize the truth of who he is and prophetically proclaim the impact of his life on the whole world. But it is also this pattern that allows Mary and Joseph to be amazed and remember such an experience for the rest of their lives.
The unfortunate truth for us, however, is that the pressures of secularism and modern life have, for the most part, robbed us of such a pattern of observance.
For many of us, busy schedules, dual-career marriages, and other pressures of contemporary life mean that we eat fewer meals together, often without prayer. Daily prayer and Bible study are observed in fewer homes than just a generation ago. For many religious ritual and observance is, at best, limited to Sunday worship and at worst to Christmas and Easter, with the occasional baptism, wedding, or funeral thrown in.
The marking of both daily and special events with rituals that recognize the sacredness of life and the presence of God in the everyday is practically extinct. In the minds of many, including the faithful, it is associated either with superstition and cultic practices of the past or the peculiar excesses of religious fanatics. The reality is that God has receded from the awareness and experience of everyday life.
So, what would it look like if we took a page out of the pattern and practice of Mary and Joseph? How might we, as the famous mystic Brother Lawrence put it, “practice the presence of God?”
Well, we don’t, as some fear, have to be superstitious or fanatics in order to experience transcendence in the everyday moments of life. What we do need to do is develop a ritual practice and make a commitment to it. That may seem like a tall order, but really it isn’t any more difficult than committing to regular exercise or diet.
Here are three simple things you might consider as a place to start.
First, set aside 1 minute three times a day to stop and be mindful of the presence of God. Take that time to remember that God is present with you in that very moment and be open to that presence. If you need a ritual to help you in that practice then say the Lord’s Prayer or the Jesus prayer (“Jesus Christ, son of God, have mercy on me.”). But quiet your mind and your body for 60 seconds and contemplate the presence of God.
Second, grab a Forward Day by Day off the kiosk in the parish hall and take time to read the meditation either when you first wake up, or before you go to bed. Those meditations help us to be mindful of the witness of scripture and the presence of grace in our lives.
And finally, if you haven’t already, make coming to church a priority. But don’t just focus on the Holy Eucharist, focus too on the people around you and the relationships that you have with them. Recognize that fellowship time is as much a sacred part of the morning as is the liturgy. Let your time in this community be an opportunity to encounter Christ in one another.
There are many other practices that can be adopted, but these are a good place to start. And if you want to go deeper, my door is always open.
The promise of such a pattern is nothing short of life transforming. By adopting, in some small way, the practice of our spiritual forebears we open ourselves up to the in-breaking of the presence of God. The words spoken to Joseph and Mary in today’s Gospel are at the center of the story, but they stand in a powerful context: namely a life marked by the daily remembrance of God through mindful engagement.
May we daily look for God and practice his presence. May we build into our lives the rituals that raise our awareness of when and how God is breaking into the world. And may we always live in awe at the awesome grace, mercy, and blessing ever flowing into our lives.