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This year’s Crayle sermon was given on 1st February by the Ven. Rachel Treweek, Archdeacon of Northolt
Last time I was preaching here it was Midnight communion on Christmas Eve… The crib was out and there were candles everywhere — illuminating the darkness. Now I know you’ve packed your crib away already, but in many churches the crib won’t finally be put away until tomorrow — because today we’re with the image of the candles in the darkness once again as we celebrate Candlemas. Officially Candlemas is tomorrow — 40 days after Christmas Day. It’s the day we recall the events told in those words we’ve just heard from Luke’s Gospel. Christ is proclaimed as the light for all nations: Christ the Light of the world. But I want to pause for a moment to encourage each of us to look back at the 40 days since Christmas, one month into the New Year, and to ask ‘What is your current perspective on life?’ As you look at the world around you, what’s going on in your own life at the moment? How do you see things from where you’re standing on Feb 1st 2009? If we look through the eyes of the media we see a world shaped by the pain and destruction of the situation in the Middle East, Zimbabwe, Congo; or our own city where people continue to be stabbed to death; or a world in financial crisis. Last week Gordon Brown was quoted as saying that we need to have hope and confidence. Hope — confidence — where do we find these in our lives as we journey through 2009? Now, as has already been said, this is the Crayle Sermon. It seems we don’t know an awful lot about Sarah and Anne Crayle, but they lived in the 18th century. According to your website they were sisters, and both of them bequeathed money to this church from the sale of land and asked that some money be given to the preacher who preaches this sermon (although I think it's less than £5 so please don’t think I’m here for the money!) They asked that prayers would be said for those who have died; money was given to feed the poor each week and there was also provision made to provide clothes for the poor. All this charitable money is now distributed through the Acton Charities and David as Rector will be involved in that. I don’t know exactly how Sarah and Anna Crayle saw life or how they saw God. They clearly wanted to be remembered after death but they also made provision for God’s word to be preached and for the poor to be recognised — that says something about the way they saw life in God’s world in the 18th century. I’d like to think that some of their motivation was about expressing God’s hope for those who struggled. I’d like to think that their legacy was something about Christ’s light shining in the darkness — and Christ’s light as being stronger than death. So as we hold the Crayles in our sights, as well as the words of Gordon Brown, let’s return to our Gospel reading and the episode of Christ’s Presentation in the Temple. And just in case you’re not familiar with the background to our reading from Luke's Gospel, let me summarise: after the birth of a male child, the mother was regarded as unclean for 7 days and then had to stay at home for further 33 days and on 40th day a purification sacrifice had to be offered at the Temple in Jerusalem. So, Mary and Joseph arrive at the Temple in Jerusalem 40 days after the birth of Jesus: because they were poor they offered the sacrifice permitted to poor people — a pair of pigeons or doves. But this visit wasn’t just about Mary, the mother — it was also about Jesus, the baby. The Jews regarded all first-born creatures as consecrated to God: this meant that all their first-born animals were sacrificed. But when it came to children, a payment was made instead. Jewish law didn’t actually require the child to be taken to the Temple, just the payment, but it seems that Mary and Joseph wanted to present Jesus in the Temple as a way of acknowledging him as belonging to God. And here is Simeon in the Temple and he recognises Christ’s light as glory being brought to God’s people Israel but, more than that, he recognises Christ as the light to reveal the truth about God to the Gentiles — to all nations. One of the reasons I love this significant story, is that it’s not about the young and strong-headed — the innovators, the go-getters. This is about the old. Of course, old age can bring bitterness — old people can become very self-centred — but here in Simeon and Anna we have two old people to be respected, people to learn from: the old who are wise and gracious. They had kept their eyes focused on God — that is where their hope and confidence lay. It’s a reminder to us that whether we’re young or old — or middle aged (!) — each day we are becoming the people we will be if we live to old age. If you’re old, what sort of old person are you? If you’re younger, what sort of old person might you become? The truth is that it all depends on where our hearts and minds are focused day by day. Simeon was an old man. We don’t know anything more about his life but he was clearly someone who’d clung on to the hope of the promised Messiah -the saviour — we are told of Simeon’s years of waiting. And in that I assume there had often been places of pain, questions, doubt — it must have been so hard clinging on to God’s promise week after week, month after month, year after year. And yet he was someone who had kept his heart and mind focused on God and lifted his eyes beyond life’s immediate noise and distractions to see and hear God… to be confident in God — and to worship. And now there’s joy. There’s promise fulfilled as Simeon recognises the glory of the Christ-child and gives thanks: v.29 – 32. And let’s look at Anna, 84 years old. Again we don’t know much about her, but we know she has suffered the pain and grief of bereavement: there are hints here of tragedy in a young woman’s life — married for only 7 years before she was widowed — her security and happiness taken from her. And who knows what it had been like for her all those years in the Temple, fasting and praying. But in it all, like Simeon, her heart and mind have stayed focused on God. Confident — waiting in hope. |
Crayle Sermon 2008 |
