Weekly for 5 February (Year A 2023, Purification of BVM)

Dear People of God

Grace and Peace to you all

Back to work for me! Contrary to previous years we did manage to get some time away: we went to Queensland for a week to catch up with some old friends. Three of them in are nursing homes, and require serious care, one has been in hospital for two months and one is a semi-invalid, so we came away with mixed feelings of depression and appreciation of our “rude health”. There’s generally someone worse off than you if you look hard enough!

REMINDER: This Saturday, 4 February, is the first Saturday of the month and therefore there is an evening Eucharist at St Michael’s at 6:00pm. It reverts to 5:30 when Daylight Saving (Summer) time ends. From Sunday the normal round of services resumes: 8am at St Michael’s and 9:30am at St Paul’s with the talk for children and young people. In addition, at the end of the service at St Pauls we will “Bless the backpacks” for the young and not-so-young who are resuming or commencing school or higher learning opportunities.

My thanks to Mthr Beatrice for holding the fort whilst I was away.

There’s a couple of “interesting” commemorations around this time. Last Monday we commemorated the first King Charles of England, who has executed by the victorious Puritan army under Oliver Cromwell. No matter how we feel about the institution of the monarchy and Charles’ belief in the “Divine Right of Kings” and his authority over Parliament, he is a prime example of obedience to his faith (the notion of the divine authority of Kings is Biblical and one which King David took very seriously) and even at the point of execution forgave his enemies and prayed for them. On Friday we commemorated the first Anglican service at Sydney Cove on 3 February 1788. There’s an obelisk in Chifley Square, near Circular Quay commemorating the event, which includes Chaplain Richard Johnson’s text “How shall I thank the Lord for all his benefits to me?” (Psalm 116, v 12) Imagine the assembled people, mostly in chains, in a strange land, on a hot and humid day in Sydney, having the chaplain exhort them to be thankful….. No wonder they burned his tent down a few days later.

We are playing with the Liturgical Calendar again: the Feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary/aka The Presentation of Christ in the Temple was actually on 2 February. In the tradition of “40”, as in Lent, the period between Resurrection and Ascension, the “days of the Flood” and so forth, Purification/Presentation marks the end of the Christmas season (except in the shops, where “Xmas” ends on 26 December and they start selling ”Hot Cross Buns”) and we turn our faces to Lent, which begins this year on 22 February.

I want to order the Lenten study book this week, so I will need the names of people who want copies as soon as possible, preferably by yesterday! Last year we had a group meeting after church on Sunday and the Home Group also met as a Lenten study. There are a few resources available and we night use two of them so you can join one group or the other or even use both.

This year we need to be about a serious process of “setting our face to the future”. I will have more to say abut this in due course.

The Lord be with you

Fr George

gmainprize@bigpond.com

0410 586 119

PROPERS for the Presentation of Christ in the Temple/Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary)

Sentence

My eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the presence of all people, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for the glory of your people Israel. (Lk 2:3032)

Collect

Almighty and everliving God, we humbly pray that, as your only Son was presented in the temple in accordance with the law, so we may be dedicated to you with pure and clean hearts through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen

Readings

Malachi 3:1-4 The Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple

Ps 24 A song of joy to greet the king

Hebrews 2:14-18 The Incarnate Word took flesh to deliver those who are of the flesh

Luke 2:22-40 Simeon and Anna recognise the Incarnate Word in the Temple

Sermon

I half-heard an interesting comment the other day: “Look for God in the most unexpected places.” That has echoes in the readings for this week. Look for God where you least expect to find him.

Malachi tells us that “the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple” although he seems to be accompanying that with great testing, judgement and painful refining by fire. The images of pain and suffering in judgement are very popular in certain strands of theological thought. The Psalm (24) concludes with the welcome to the King of Glory, the king mighty in battle. The alternate psalm, (84) speaks of the joy of the place where God truly dwells. Both revel in the presence of God. The letter to the Hebrews speaks of God who, in the words of St Athanasius, “became what we are so that we might become what he is”. Luke, in the Gospel bearing his name, speaks of God coming in the most unexpected way, recognised by two aged God-seekers, Simeon and Anna.

Theologically, God is beyond knowing, because God is infinite, the author and source of all that is and all that can be, and therefore beyond the realms of human comprehension. There is, or at least seems to be, an element within the human psyche, or soul; call it what you will, that seeks after God, seeks to find meaning and purpose in the world in which we find ourselves. Virtually every society has either “created” a god or caught some glimpse of a higher reality and sought to express that in some representation. The derivation of the very word “religion” is contested by etymologists, (those who study the origin and definition of words and their meaning), but one school of thought that I favour sees it as coming from two Latin words “re”, meaning “about”, or “concerning” and “ligio” “tying togther” from which we get the word “ligament” that means of tying the human skeleton together. So “religion” means “about that which ties things together” or, to put it simply, “about how we make sense of the world”.

We get “glimpses” of God, hints to a divine something that gives some sort of sense to the world. “Rainbow Serpent” that spirit being that moved across Creation, forming it and giving life, is one of the first “glimpses” of the divine in this land, in the oldest continuing culture on earth. Some societies though of “departmental gods” and “El” was though of firstly as one of many and then as chief among the heavenly council.

I know all this can get rather confusing and I wouldn’t at all blame you if you “turned off” in mid-sermon, but trust me, it gets clearer!

The Infinite is beyond our intellectual grasp and we depend on God’s self-revealing. Hence the revelation to Abraham of the three “Visitors”, Moses vision of the Burning Bush and hearing the divine name “Yahweh”, “I AM”, Jacob’s dream of the ladder upon which the angels of God were ascending and descending (did they take it in turns or was it two-way ladder?) and his naming of the place “Beth El” the “House of God” and Isaiah’s vision of the Lord “high and mighty and lifted up”, and his commissioning.

The ultimate self-revelation of God comes in the Incarnate Word. And that’s where the God-seekers of our present set of readings come in. They are looking for God and finding God in THE most unexpected place. The Lord has certainly come into his temple, but not in the way the prophets might have expected. Old Simeon recognises the culmination of his search and can die in peace: here wth this simple couple, come to make the ritual sacrifice for the first-born son, for the ritual purification of Mary after child-birth, is the manifestation of the “God who IS”

Look for God in the most unexpected places. Sure, great Cathedrals are testaments to the glory of God, but the glory of God is also to be found in human beings, created in the Divine Image. St Martin of Tours is said to have divided his soldier’s cloak with a beggar, so as to protect the man from the cold, and then recognised Christ in the man. St Damian of Molokai recognised him in the lepers amongst whom he ministered. So often we go out in the name of Christ, expecting to take him to the world around us but find him waiting there for us. Is God waiting for you in the street? Sitting alongside you in church? Coming into the OpShop? On the checkout at Woolies?

In very truth, we go searching for God until he finds us. The very poorest people are the ones who are sure that God doesn’t exist, so are unprepared to look: are they incapable of being found? I doubt it.

Amen

Intercessions (Dawn Holland)I

RESPONSE: Lord Jesus, truly human, truly God in your mercy HEAR OUR PRAYER.

Dear Lord Jesus we thank you for coming to earth and truly experiencing the life of humans so really understanding how we feel. Thank you for the extreme fact even to dying in payment for our sins.

We are sorry for the way humankind are treating each other and the environment which is so abundant and beautiful. We ask your forgiveness and that we as your children may be a light in the world and an example of your care for each other.

We pray for world leaders that they may be just and fair in treatment of all their own people and those of other countries that peace may reign. We pray for people suffering and dying as a result of their greed and selfishness to overcome people of different cultures. We especially pray for the people of Ukraine, the suffering due to the warring of Palestine and Israel and all those abusing other people. We especially pray for those suffering from domestic violence and terrorism in any form.

We pray today for all parents as they responsibly care for and teach their children the best way to live in our world and to know there is a true God who cares for them. Teach humankind to love each other as you love us.

RESPONSE:

We pray for the worldwide Church. In our cycle of prayer we pray for our sister Dioses of Guadalcanal, the Anglican Church of Kenya, the Lutheran Churches of Australia and in Australia the Diocese of Riverina. In our own Diocese we pray for our Bishops Peter, Charlie and Sonia, for Anglican Care and for the Parishes of Morpeth, Mt Vincent Kurri Kurri Weston and Raymond Terrace. Bless and guide your Clergy and people.

RESPONSE:

We pray for our own Parish and for our Priest-in-Charge Fr George, our Deacon Gail and their families, and for those preparing for Baptism, for Mothers Union Group and for Tarro Uniting Church. Bless our work and witness in our community.

RESPONSE:

We pray for our community, for Mr T’s Gourmet Takeaway, for Beresfield Newsagency and for Beresford Avenue Medical Centre. We especially pray for those in need in our community, for the aged and infirm, shut-ins, lonely, unwanted, poor; and for those who are sick in body or mind. Bless and guide those who care for them and may we be aware of how we can help them.

We pray to for those who have asked for our prayers; for Sue T, Keith and Hettie, Hope, Heidi, Wendy Foster, and all those whose names are listed listed in our Bulletin. In the silence we pray for those known only to ourselves who are in need of prayer.(pause).

RESPONSE:

We pray for those who are dying or who have recently died and for those whose anniversary of death is at this time, Josiah Thomas, Allen Beggs and Lorna Hendry. May they rest in peace and rise in glory to be with you forever.

Almighty God, you have promised to hear our prayers. Grant that what we have asked in faith, we may by you grace receive, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen

A Reminder

The Parish Annual General Meeting, like the end of summer, is inevitably drawing nearer. Annual Reports are required. I know it can be a drudge and it’s easy to recite dates and events, but I challenge you to be as creative as you can possibly be in preparing them. I’m not asking for “sing and dance routines” (interesting though that may be!) but try to make it something that an outside would WANT to read, something which might make the casual observer want to say “That’s an interesting bunch of people: maybe I should go to join them!” Start thinking about that now!

And while you are thinking about that, what sorts of changes would you like to see in the weekly circular? Additions or deletions? Let me know.