{"id":586,"date":"2020-02-02T15:27:00","date_gmt":"2020-02-02T15:27:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/?p=586"},"modified":"2020-02-03T15:29:03","modified_gmt":"2020-02-03T15:29:03","slug":"presentation-of-our-lord","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/2020\/02\/02\/presentation-of-our-lord\/","title":{"rendered":"Presentation of Our Lord"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Luke\n2: 22-40<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Grace to you and peace\nfrom God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last\nweek we read, here in church, about Jesus and how he was preaching and calling\nhis first Disciples and now we are reading about Jesus as a baby. It only goes\nto show that religion, that the church calendar, and the choice of readings for\neach given Sunday do not always coincide with the order of life. Much of our\ncalendar was established, at different times in history, with little regard to chronological\naccuracy. That said, the story of the Presentation of our Lord is an important\nstory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nLaw according to Scripture was clear, the first-born male was to be dedicated\nto the Lord, designated as holy to the Lord and a sacrifice for purification was\nrequired, two doves or two pigeons. Additionally, the first-born male had a\nspecial role within the Jewish family, each family hung their hat, for the\nfuture of the family, on the first-born male and so to dedicate him to the\nLord, to risk his being taken for the work of the Lord, was a great show of\nfaith, a great show of trust in the Lord. For Mary and Joseph, it was already\nunderstood that Jesus was going to devote his life to the Lord; it was made\nclear to them before Jesus\u2019 conception and it was reinforced by all that\nfollowed. But there was something special about the events of that day in the\nTemple, when they brought Jesus there to present him to the Lord, these events\nfurther reinforced all that they already knew and believed about who Jesus was.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Standing\nwithin the Temple, Joseph and Mary, Mary holding Jesus, were approached by two very\nspecial individuals, individuals known and respected for their being touched by\nthe Holy Spirit, by their righteousness and their prophetic words. Simeon was\nthe first to approach them; he approached them having previously been told by the\nHoly Spirit that he would not see death until after he had seen the Lord\u2019s\nMessiah. Guided by the Holy Spirit to Mary and Joseph, Simeon took Jesus into\nhis arms and praised God. I can see Simeon, almost dancing about with joy and\nexpectation as he proclaimed his release from the burdens of his life and\nannounced to all that in seeing Jesus, he was seeing the salvation prepared for\nall Israel and the light that was for the revelation for all others, for the\nGentiles. This was to bring glory to the people of Israel. For a Jew living in\na time when Israel suffered under the oppressive power of Rome there could be\nno greater joy. The kind of salvation that was to be brought by Jesus, no\ndoubt, Simeon did not fully understand, but that didn\u2019t matter; Simeon knew\nthat Jesus was bringing the Lord\u2019s salvation and that was to be celebrated. Simeon\u2019s\njoy was tempered only by the prophetic words he spoke to Mary, \u201cThis child is\ndestined for the falling and the rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign\nthat will be opposed so that the inner thoughts of many will be revealed \u2013 and\na sword will pierce your own soul too.\u201d For Jesus to save the people of Israel\nand the world he would endure a lot; what that would be Simeon did not know. Simeon\u2019s\nwords surely excited and worried Joseph and Mary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And\nthen Anna, a prophet of the Lord, a woman of maybe 84 who was devoted to prayer\nand fasting, began to praise God and to speak about the baby Jesus. She spoke\nto anyone and everyone who, with her, were looking for the redemption of\nJerusalem. We don\u2019t know the content of her proclamation, only that it had to\ndo with Jesus; Jesus, she knew, was the key to the redemption of Jerusalem. I\ncan\u2019t imagine the emotional roller coaster Mary and Joseph road that day. I can\nthink of no other words, than glorious and exciting, joyful and scary as well\nas worrisome, to express their feelings. Mary and Joseph did all that was\nrequired of them by the Law of Moses that day, and when they were finished,\nthey returned to Nazareth to live out their lives, raise their son and fulfill\nthe calling given them by the Lord. And we are told that the child, Jesus grew\nand became strong, that he was filled with wisdom and the favor of the Lord was\nupon him. The Day of the Presentation of Jesus didn\u2019t involve miracles or\nbattles or moments of human struggle, but the two prophets did a lot to prepare\nMary and Joseph for the child and the man that Jesus would grow to be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lutherans\ndo not bring their children to the church to present, to dedicate them to the\nLord; only the churches that hold off baptism until adolescence or adulthood\ndedicate their infant children to the Lord. As Lutherans we baptize our infant\nchildren. In this service we vow to teach, and guide our children in the faith,\ndedicating our children to the Lord and in that service the Lord accepts our\nbaptized children, and also baptized adolescents or adults as God\u2019s children;\nthe Lord sends his Holy Spirit to present gifts to all the baptized so that\nthey may live within the community of faith and participate in the ministry of\nJesus Christ. Most of us, have lived a long time into our baptisms. And because\nwe are here, I can say with some certainty that the gifts of the Spirit have\nnot been wasted on us, at least not fully. Many of you, like me, have embraced\nyour baptisms, taken seriously the vows made for you when you were baptized and\ntaken on for yourselves those vows, when you were confirmed, and so use your\ngifts regularly. We exist here as a church, (1.) because the Lord wants us here\nand (2.) because as we remember our baptismal vows, we understand that we are\nchildren of God who are called to ministry. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\nam confident that the Lord has supplied St. Peter\u2019s Lutheran Church with\neverything that we need to proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ, to care for\neach other and share the love of Jesus Christ with the community. I struggle\nwhen I see a short fall in finances, when a leadership role is not filled, when\nplanned events, studies and activities are not well attended or supported and\nwhen the suffering of others is ignored. I ask myself, \u201cAre we dedicated in\ntruth to the Lord, or are there some among us who are just going through the\nmotions? Search your hearts, see what needs to be done, make use of the gifts\nof the Spirit; there is no need for this church to fall short in any way. I am\nconfident that the Holy Spirit has supplied St. Peter\u2019s Lutheran Church and you\nhis children by baptism, every spiritual gift needed to minister right here and\nright now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Luke 2: 22-40 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ Last week we read, here in church, about Jesus and how he was preaching and calling his first Disciples and now we are reading about Jesus as a baby. It only goes to Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-586","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons-and-services"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=586"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":587,"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586\/revisions\/587"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}