Words from Saint Stephen's: NEWS
In the middle of this week, the church celebrated what is considered a major feast, The Presentation of our Lord (also known as the Purification of Saint Mary the Virgin, and Candlemas). For many months, I have been presiding at the Noonday Service on Wednesdays and this year, the feast of the Presentation (February 2) occurred on a Wednesday.
Simeon the Righteous, by Alexei Yegorov
The story of the Presentation is found in the Gospel of Luke (2:22-40) and as I read the lesson aloud, I was deeply moved by Luke’s details. Jewish law required that every firstborn son be dedicated to God in memory of the Israelites’ deliverance from Egypt forty days after the child’s birth so Mary and Joseph, observant Jews and parents as they were, brought Jesus to the Temple for the ceremony. The ceremony, grounded in Jewish law and tradition can be taken for granted in our time as just another requirement of the Law and the rituals of the Temple (see Exodus 13:2; 22:29) For us, however, it is meant to be so much more than that.
This most important Presentation comes exactly forty days after Christmas, and we celebrate it because Jesus is the son of man and the son of God. The Presentation becomes a very significant “birth announcement” for the world. It’s very big NEWS, as the Jesus who is presented to Simeon in the Temple is the Savior of the world.
For much of human history, news travelled by mouth and later by print. Today, news travels by print and broadcast media, by internet and other forms of social media and, finally, by “mouth media.” Now, stop and think about the sources of our news, what it means to us, how we handle it, and the all-consuming question of whether we believe the news we receive. How do we ever know what news is true?
Someone surely is going to ask, “what does news mean today”? My answer would be that, in February 2022, news has become whatever we want it to mean, and that meaning is connected to what we believe (believability is so important here). So, is there any news we can trust, and believe in together?
Is there any “news” that is news?
In this time when news can mean everything and nothing, the story of the Presentation comes to us in the Good News of the Gospel (Gospel means Good News) and is meant to be something we hold in common through our beliefs as children of God. The Presentation affirms for us that Jesus, whose presence has been foretold throughout scripture and fully realized in the Good News, is now among us. The Lord Jesus has come and has been presented in the Temple to remind us that whoever we are, we are meant to be in the presence of God. This is the best news.
— Father Peter