You’ve heard me say this before, but it bears repeating.
Almost exactly ten years ago, I was sitting at keynote address being given by Dr. Cornel West.
The topic of the event was Creating Common Good.
This conference was sponsored by Trinity Episcopal Church on Wall Street in an annual series that they called the Trinity Institute,
And it happened in what I like to refer to as the B.C. era: Before Covid.
This was also before MAGA, or at least MAGA before it moved from the pages of Octavia E. Butler’s 1998 afro-futurist novel Parable of the Talents, where it was a warning against the threat of white christian nationalist populism, into a real movement.
Teil Slane was about two months old, and it was his first church conference;
He didn’t say much.
There are several things that I remember from Dr. West’s keynote address, and I’ve even gone back many times to rewatch it on the Trinity Wall Street website,
because for about an hour and five minutes, Dr. West gave an incisive, motivating, demanding, and inspirational vision of what it means to be a Christian person and the call to create common good.
Now, you know that you’ve heard something good, if it still sticks with you ten years later;
And one of those things that stuck with me, which you’ve heard me say before, is when Dr. West asked us if we knew the song “This Little Light of Mine.”
He had us all sing it.
And when we came to the end of the verse, he looked at all of us with a twinkle in his eye and said, “that’s not just a song, it’s a way of life.”
I’m moved to preach to you today about your little light as a Way of Life.
Today is Candlemas.
Candlemas, like Christmas, is one of those church Feast Days that takes the object that we’re celebrating (Christ for Christmas, Candles for Candlemas), adds ‘mass’ to the end (to indicate that we celebrate the Eucharist), and drops an ‘s’ off of the end.
It’s like the ancient version of choosing your Star Wars name (what was the name of the first street you lived on, your favorite geological object, and your favorite substantive adjective).
These are also the security questions to reset your passwords on your computer - so a quick PSA – never tell anyone your Star Wars name and never do one of those fun little Facebook questionaires about which Harry Potter character you are (not because you’ll look like a nerd, but because they’re trying to steal your data).
Digression over.
Today is Candlemas.
Historically, Candlemas began as an observation sometime in the 5th century.
It had several purposes.
One purpose was to mark the end of the Epiphany season, the season of light, as the church began to turn its gaze toward Lent.
From the beginning, Candlemas included the reading of Luke’s Gospel account of the Presentation at the Temple; this beautiful passage where St. Simeon and St. Anna recognize the baby Jesus as the Redeemer that Israel have been waiting for.
In their professions of faith in Jesus and in their longing for the Redeemer, we see the expectation and hope that had been prophesied by Malachi,
“I am sending my messenger to prepare the way before me, and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple. The messenger of the covenant in whom you delight-- indeed, he is coming.”
But Malachi’s message also has a warning about this coming, which St. Simeon also recognizes in the Gospel reading.
The light coming into the world is a wonderful thing, but it is also dangerous because it exposes the things that we try to hide in the dark.
We spoke of Malachi’s refiner’s fire a couple of weeks ago, so I won’t recapitulate all of that now, but notice that the coming of this messiah-figure in Malachi is supposed to purify the priesthood.
(Anytime you see something about Levi, or Levi’s descendants in the Hebrew Bible, it is a reference to the priesthood.
The Levites were the only tribe, besides the descendants of Aaron, who were allowed to be priests.)
The author of the letter to the Hebrews picks up this same theme of Jesus’ purification of the priesthood as his main metaphor throughout his letter.
For St. Simeon, the light is not just dangerous for the priests, but for everyone.
"This child is destined for the falling and the rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be opposed so that the inner thoughts of many will be revealed.”
In our own day, we see this don’t we?
When people start talking about Jesus, we see what really matters to them.
Some people talk about Mercy, some talk about Power. Some talk about humility, some talk about greatness. Some say neighbor, some say illegal.
When the light comes, He reveals the depths of the human heart.
And so, we see that Candlemas - as the end of the Epiphany season - asks us to look at what the Light has revealed in our own hearts, what we need to refine as we turn our gaze and prepare for Lent.
Over time, another purpose arose as well.
With Epiphany being the season of light, it became the custom that the people would bring their candles to the church to be blessed for the year.
That way, when they would do their private devotions, or if they couldn’t make it to church, they could still light their candle and bring the light of Christ with them.
This is why the celebration became known as Candlemas.
And, though we don’t always celebrate Candlemas in this way, we do have echoes of the tradition in other things that we do. (hand out and light candles)
We do an echo of Candlemas, when we hand out candles at Christmas and sing Silent Night.
We do it also, when we hand out those same candles at the Easter Vigil and chant, “The Light of Christ…Thanks be to God.”
Maybe most poignantly, we echo of Candlemas everytime we baptize a baby and we hand them their baptismal candle.
We give everyone, who comes to Christ their “this little light of mine.”
And this candle, though it represents how Christ reveals what is hidden in the dark, and the purification of things that need to be refined, also represents the light and the blessings that we carry with us, wherever we go;
This is a way of life, where we take Jesus and His infectious Joy with us.
We may not feel happy all of the time, but we have that spark that helps to remind us of the possibility of beauty in the world around us,
And that as often as we can, no matter how small our effort seems, we want to be a part of what makes this life beautiful.
“This little light of mine, (preach it with me now) I’m gonna let it shine!”
A way of life, where we take Jesus and His Strength with us.
We may be bone tired sometimes, we may feel like things aren’t going our way, but we can carry a flicker of resilience, the knowledge that we have done hard things in the past, so that we don’t become overwhelmed or shy away from the belief that we can do hard things now.
“Hide it under a bushel? No, I’m gonna let it shine!”
In times like these, when shadows seem to be all around us;
This is a way of life, where we take Jesus and His Hope with us out into the world, knowing that no matter what, our light cannot be extinguished unless we let it happen.
“Don’t let Satan blow it out, I’m gonna let it shine!”
And maybe most importantly, when there seems to be so little Good News,
This is a way of life, where we share our light and our savior; inviting them into this life of Joy, Resilience, and Hope.
“Everywhere I go, I’m gonna let it shine!”
The Candle in your hand, like the the candle at Christmas, the candle at Easter, the candle that is placed into the little hands of baptized babies, the Candlemas candle;
This is a candle that you can take with you everywhere you go to remind you that Jesus’ fire has been lit in your heart and that “the world didn’t give it and the world can’t take it away.”
The final thing to say about candles today is this (it’s something that we teach kids when they do Godly Play).
When we put out candles at church, we don’t extinguish them.
The Light of Christ never goes out, even when we die;
The Light simply changes.
As you blow out your candle, notice how the light changes into smoke and dissipates into the air around you, spreading what was light into every corner of the room.
Our ultimate hope, our ultimate claim as people of faith, who believe in the resurrection of Jesus, is exactly that;
This little light of mine will never go out, even at the end of my days, life will be changed and not ended.
So while I live, (preach with me now) I will carry the flame, I will share the light, I will do everything I can to let it shine.
Because this little light of mine,
I’m gonna let it shine.
Now, that’s not just a song, it’s a Way of Truth, and it’s a Way of Life.
Amen.
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