A feminist liberation theology of Candlemas

Sermon preached at Lincoln Cathedral, Candlemas 04/02/18

Micah 3: 1-5

Hebrews 2: 14-end

Luke 2: 22-40

+May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our strength and our salvation.

Picture the scene when Mary, Joseph and Jesus arrive at the Temple.

To start with, it’s impressive. Like the cathedral, it’s up on a hill – the Temple Mount. And it was a huge building. You could see it for miles. It was new, as well – in fact, it was still being finished. So when Mary and Joseph went in, it would have given them the same feelings of awe and wonder that visitors to the cathedral experience – perhaps more. There were no other buildings of the same scale as the Jerusalem Temple in the country.

The Temple was constructed as a series of courtyards. First you entered the Court of the Gentiles, and from there you went into the Court of the Women. Next was the Court of the Israelites, then the Court of the Priests. Finally you came to the sanctuary, and there inside it was the Holy of Holies, the Most Holy Place.

And the closer to the Most Holy Place you got, the holier you had to be. Anyone could go into the Court of the Gentiles. But to enter the Court of the Women you had to be Jewish. To enter the Court of the Israelites you had to be a Jewish man. Only the priests could go into the Court of the Priests and the sanctuary. And only the High Priest entered the Most Holy Place – and even then, only once a year.

So when we imagine Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus entering the Temple, they can only go as far as the second court – the Court of the Women. And it’s in that court that Anna meets them. This is as far as Anna can go, too – even though she never leaves the temple, she spends all her time worshipping God and praying in the temple, she is still only allowed as far as the second court.

We often forget Anna in the Candlemas story. She seems to play the same role as Simeon – but she doesn’t get any lines and Simeon gets a whole song! Yet Anna, unlike Simeon, is described as a prophet. That means she’s someone it’s worth paying attention to. Someone who reveals a bit of God’s character.

Anna is elderly: 84, which in those days really was elderly! She’s a widow: with no male protector and therefore no real legal existence. She might be homeless: she spends all her time in the Temple, as if she has nowhere else to go. But she is a prophet. Anna, like Mary, shows us that women can be part of God’s plan. Yet Anna is excluded from the inner parts of the Temple – excluded from the holy place of her God, whom she worships night and day with fasting and prayer – because she is a woman. Being a woman means that she’s not holy enough to go beyond the second court. There is nothing she can do to make herself good enough. It’s a burden that has been placed on women throughout history – a burden which some have found so heavy it has crushed them. And yet Anna is a prophet. She has taken the burden of her gender and turned it into a tool, just like the women in the Old Testament (Hannah, Miriam, Huldah, Deborah) who had shared her prophetic vocation. I imagine Anna burning with the sure knowledge that she is enough for God – that she is accepted by God, even though she is excluded from the worship of the religious establishment. Pouring out her prayers to God from the edges... and God answers her and gives her a part in the great plan of salvation. Anna prophesies to those who are looking for the redemption of Jerusalem.

This puts Anna, like Simeon who is looking forward to the consolation of Israel, in the context of a group of people who are trusting in God and hoping that things can be different. People who are waiting for redemption.

In an Israel that was part of the Roman empire and occupied by Roman forces; where many people were in need and where the taxes demanded by the occupying Romans made it far harder to make a living; where the presence of enemy occupiers seemed a symptom of God’s punishment... who waits for consolation and redemption?

Not the rich – the high priest and his family, Herod and the court officials, the tax collectors are profiting very nicely from Roman occupation.

Not the content – the people who are just about managing, or who are comfortably off. Who don’t want to challenge the status quo in case they end up losing some of what they have. Who think that as long as they and their family are OK, nothing else matters.

The people who are waiting for redemption are the poor. The downtrodden. The oppressed.

Anna knows these people because she is one of them. An elderly friendless widow. No male protector. Nowhere to go except the Temple.

But in the Temple Anna meets God.

Not through watching the sacrifices – she’s not allowed into the Court of the Israelites.

But through her own worship – her own giving of time in fasting and prayer, her own commitment to the God of Israel who has promised redemption. Anna is on the edges; on the margins; waiting for redemption, excluded and alone. And the God of the edges, of the margins, of the poor and waiting people meets her there and makes her a prophet to the community of the poor who wait for consolation and redemption, speaking of Jesus to those who are looking for the redemption of Jerusalem.

May Anna’s God meet us today.

May the God of the edges meet us in the parts of our lives where we feel on the edges, marginal, excluded, alone. May we, like Anna, find God exactly where it hurts most; meeting us with consolation and inspiring us to praise.

And may the God of challenge make us prophets like Anna. May we be inspired to speak of Jesus to all who are waiting for consolation and redemption.

May we speak of Jesus to the people who sleep on our streets;

to the people who feel excluded and alone;

to people who think that God could never be interested in someone elderly... or badly educated... or poor... or female... or gay... or transgender... or black... or disabled... or depressed.

May we speak of Jesus who was poor. Who only entered the second court of the temple. Who brought good news to the elderly, the poor, the excluded, the disabled.

May we speak of God who loves those who are rejected, who sustains the weak and who rejects the structures that makes some rich and others poor.

But most importantly, may we speak of this God through our actions as much as our words. May what we do with our time and our money, our hospitality and our choices speak of the God of the edges, of the marginalised, of consolation and redemption. And so may we, like Anna, bring hope and healing.

Focus statement: Anna represents all the voiceless and forgotten – it’s they who look for the redemption of Jerusalem, them to whom the good news of Jesus comes.

Function statement: How can we make our praise of God speak (our praise speak of God) to all who wait for redemption?