This is a turning point for the church year. We now move from Christmas and Epiphany towards Easter and Lent, a turning point from looking behind to looking ahead, symbolic and preparing ourselves for Easter.
I think that Jesus must have grown up learning some of the trade of a carpenter as Joseph, I wonder what he made in wood, I imagine him carving and creating. A favourite picture of mine is taken in Avila, Spain and is of a statue over the entrance to a church. It is of Jesus with a saw in one hand and holding his father’s hand as they are walking.
Candlemas – a time when Jesus is taken as a baby to the temple in Jerusalem. Simeon takes Jesus in his arms and declares that he is a light to lighten the Gentiles. A light in our own darkness.
A time when we move from Christmas and Epiphany towards Easter.
It is in a way, where the plan for earth and heaven collide, a meeting point. Luke cleverly draws us all in to that story wanting to know more and in a way looking at our own journeys and life’s plans.
Processions or just taking a single candle out in the darkness tonight, all will be a pathway and alight for our own journeys.
Read more on Sermons 2019.
Rev’d Sue Martin