The Feast of the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple ​(Mal 3:1-4; Ps 24; Heb 2:14-18; Lk 2:22-40)

The Feast of the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple (Mal 3:1-4; Ps 24; Heb 2:14-18; Lk 2:22-40)
 
According to the Jewish Law, Baby Jesus was presented to God in Jerusalem since he was the first male born. Mary and Joseph brought him to the temple. In the story we heard this morning, we meet two prophets, Simeon and Anna. These were the people who had been waiting to meet Jesus all their lives. How wonderful for the parents to receive blessings from holy people for their child! 
 
However, in Simeon and Anna’s praises of Jesus, the actual content, especially that of Simeon, isn’t actually that glorious or promising. Instead, it’s quite horrible. Imagine Mary’s situation to hear that her son is “...destined for the falling and the rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be opposed so that the inner thoughts of many will be revealed--and a sword will pierce her own soul too.” This does not sound good at all. What kind of mother would want her child to be a sign to be hated by people and to reveal all the evil inner thoughts of people? Simeon’s prophecy already seems to pierce Mary’s soul, and it probably prepared her to face her son’s death on the cross. 
 
While we can resonate with Mary and Joseph’s shock of hearing Simeon and Anna’s prophecies of their son, we also see what Jesus was prophesied to do or what role he was called to play. The first lesson from Malachi depicts Jesus’s role as a refiner’s fire and fullers’ soap. Malachi says, “For he is like a refiner's fire and like fullers' soap; he will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the descendants of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, until they present offerings to the Lord in righteousness.” (Mal 3:3) A refiner or a purifier’s first duty is to see and reveal what needs to be refined and purified. See what needs cleaning, and then start polishing. 
 
Throughout Jesus’s ministry, what he did very well was to reveal what’s in people’s hearts. In the hearts of all the local leaders, he reveals their self-centered and power hungry desires that only seek to serve themselves while in turn they end up oppressing and depriving those in need. Jesus is the light that sheds light on the darkness of his community. Those whose selfish desires are completely exposed by that light cannot stand Jesus but get rid of him, murder him. On the other hand, in the hearts of those isolated, forgotten, and abandoned in margin, Jesus reveals the reign of God fully present in them, no matter what their circumstances are. It doesn’t matter what background they have, how poor or sick or abused or forgotten they are by the society, God is the foundation of their being, God is with them, and God’s love to be one with them is eternal. Their brokenness is fully revealed by the light of Jesus and is healed and restored in their oneness with God. In short, Jesus reveals how fractured, divided, and broken our hearts and therefore our world are. But that’s not it. He also reveals God’s eternal oneness with us by mending what’s fractured, reconciling what’s divided, and healing what’s broken. We can then say that this is what Jesus presented in the temple. Our brokenness is presented in the temple as well as our oneness with God or our eternal belonging to God. 
 
My friends, every Sunday what do you bring to the altar? In the collect for today, we prayed, “...we may be presented to you with pure and clean hearts…” In order for us to present our pure and clean hearts, what must take place is to see our brokenness first so that our hearts can be refined and purified. What’s your brokenness, hurt, guilt, shame, or something so heavy and painful that you would like to present to the altar? And more importantly, do you believe and trust that God’s healing of your brokenness can only start with your own awareness of God’s presence, God’s union with you? 
 
Speaking of our brokenness, we can easily go into our own hurts. But deep down, that brokenness comes from a false belief that our identity depends on how I see myself or how others treat me. For example, if someone treats us poorly, we might feel hurt and that hurt usually remains with us to the point that it distorts who we really are. That feeling of hurt becomes a huge part of who we are, which leaks out as a way to hurt others in that same manner we were hurt. The fact we hurt others is that we haven’t been healed. And the way we hurt others is the way we were hurt by others in the first place. Our false belief that I am what I think I am or what others think I am or how others or I treat myself is the very foundation of our brokenness. Thoughts and feelings that are constantly changing cannot and do not define who we are. How we are, what we are, and who we are can only be found in the mystical experience of our oneness with God. In this union with God, we don’t need any predicate that describes or defines us. There’s nothing to add because it is more than enough. 
 
It’s like we are fully aware that the waves are part of the ocean. Consider the waves as our thoughts, feelings, self-image, everything that our ego does. We don’t say the waves remain permanently. They come and go. We are not the waves. The mystical experience is nothing but to see that there is this ocean that is eternal, the ocean in which we are eternally one with God. Another example I can give you is to look at the letters in your bulletin. We see all the letters printed in black, and we only tend to see the letters. What makes the letters visible is the white background. The letters are the waves as the white background is the ocean. The mystical experience is to be fully aware of the white background, not just being caught up in the letters only. 
 
This experience is simply like our sense of being or existing. We all have this experience or sense of being right now at this moment. There’s no need to analyze with your intellect to get this. There’s no need to feel since this sense doesn’t create much feelings either. Simply be. Unapologetically exist. Be aware of your being. Be attentive to your existence. When our thoughts and feelings are all over the place, the world we experience just expands or disperses. But when we begin to be mindful of our being, the world kind of shrinks to the point that there’s only one thing that is presented to your transpersonal consciousness, which is your union with God. This movement is from what’s broken or scattered to God’s oneness with us. Jesus reveals this mystical movement to us. 
 
My friends, let’s get on this journey from the divided to the united, from the broken to the healed. Present to the altar of God all your burdens. And experience God’s unifying healing work in you as you see your true identity in your oneness with God. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. AMEN.