From The Rev. David Burrows’ “Weekly Word”
Take, Lord and fold my life away; Its purpose is fulfilled.
I clasp, expressed in mortal clay, All that your love has willed:
This babe reveals your costly grace to Israel and the human race.
May we, like Simeon, receive this new reality;
And, living by it, now believe Christ came to set folk free,
Till kingdoms of the earth appear marked by God’s rule and presence here.
©1992 Ian Fraser, Iona Community.
It is the feast of the presentation of the Lord in the temple, or Candlemas, in the Christian tradition. This morning, after I arrived at work I took time in our sanctuary, played the piano (don’t tell the organist), and sang a great many songs. These were songs that I have known, some for over twenty years.
As I sang and played, words and emotions seemed to jump off the page, and out of my heart, based on my feelings, perhaps, my accumulated experience, and the state of my being these past weeks and years.
Upon reflection, I felt completely inadequate, as I contemplated how much memory, emotion, gratitude, and wisdom would have flowed from both Simeon and Anna’s lips, as they sang in the temple, so long ago.
In the book Common Prayer:
A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals, the authors describe the challenge of the story of the presentation so well:
‘Despite their lack of wealth, however, these peasants (Mary and Joseph) from Galilee carried in their arms the salvation of the whole world. Simeon and Anna, a holy man and a devout woman of Israel, immediately recognized the incalculable value of the present they had brought. We sing “Simeon’s Song” to train our eyes to see the salvation of the world in the presents of the poor.’ (page 130)
May we always have our eyes focused on the salvation of the world, as we sing, as we work, as we cradle infants in our arms, as we hear of the challenges and pain of the world and of our neighbours, and may we always respond in the love that God inspires within us.
Peace,
David Burrows
