Today is the end of Christmas. The time of festivities is over and in the cycle that is the Christian year we turn our minds to Lent. Candlemas is the official end of Christmas.
For schools, Christmas was packed away before Christmas Day. The day after the children left for their holidays, the tinsel and the decorations were taken down, put in boxes and stored for the next year.
For most of the population, Christmas was packed away by January 6….12th Night. Here at St Chad’s the cloths were removed from the cradle, the Christmas tree was dismantled and the lights were taken down by the Monday group and others by Epiphany.
But if you venture to St Peter’s at Maney, the stable, the holy family, wise men and their gifts were still on display until Candlemas.
A number of churches keep their stables until the end of the Epiphany season but as more and more churches come in line with the secular world , Advent loses its aura of preparation as trees and decorations are in place for those weeks leading up to Christmas Day and Christmas gets packed away before the Schools go back in January.
So why do we celebrate Candlemas today. Candlemas is a winter festival of birth and light. It is a story of living, ageing and learning. The wisdom of age, the years of struggling and hurting and loving, the presentation regularly in the communal round of worship, the prayers of a lifetime are what we recall today. These are the experiences that enable Simeon and Anna to recognize God in Jesus and to have confidence of the safety and vulnerability of God’s love. These are the experiences we have. Experiences we can relate to as we come to church regularly, pray daily, cope with life’s struggles, hurts and loves, as we grow older and allow our spiritual nature to grow too.
Consider this Reflection by Ruth Burgess.
Like Simeon, may I grow old in hope and in wonder?
Like Anna, may I be in love with you all my days.
May I be open to truth, open to surprises.
May I let your spirit into my life.
May I let your justice change my behaviour.
May I live in the brightness of your joy.
Living and dying, striving for holiness and justice, accepting forgiveness and affirmation, living with the questions and the mystery, trusting in hope of home and the glory and light of resurrection – these are the element of life and loving that dance and burn in the candles of Candlemas. And these are the candles that are offered to us so that, lit by God’s bright fire, we may be light and warmth for God’s world.
And so we pray: Star maker God, Lightener of the world, bless us and warm us into light and loving. Bring us to the light of Jesus all the length and breadth of our nights and days.
You have found me, I have seen you. Daily I know you cherishing me. Kindle and draw me into the light of your loving every night and day of my journey home.
As the candle, so my life: flickering, burning, changing, alight and warm with the light which is you.
AMEN
Rev’d Edwina Wallace.