When the time came for their purification 

according to the law of Moses, 

they brought Jesus up to Jerusalem 

to present him to the Lord 

(as it is written in the law of the Lord, 

“Every firstborn male shall be designated as holy to the Lord”),

and they offered a sacrifice 

according to what is stated in the law of the Lord, 

“a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons.”

Now there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon;

this man was righteous and devout, 

looking forward to the consolation of Israel, 

and the Holy Spirit rested on him. 

It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit 

that he would not see death 

before he had seen the Lord’s Messiah.

Guided by the Spirit, Simeon came into the temple; 

and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, 

to do for him what was customary under the law, 

Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying,

“Master, now you are dismissing your servant in peace,

according to your word;

for my eyes have seen your salvation,

which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples,

a light for revelation to the Gentiles

and for glory to your people Israel.”

And the child’s father and mother 

were amazed at what was being said about him. 

Then Simeon blessed them and said to his mother Mary, 

“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—

and a sword will pierce your own soul too.”

There was also a prophet, Anna 

the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. 

She was of a great age, 

having lived with her husband seven years after her marriage, 

then as a widow to the age of eighty-four. 

She never left the temple 

but worshiped there with fasting and prayer night and day. 

At that moment she came, and began to praise God 

and to speak about the child

to all who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem.

When they had finished everything 

required by the law of the Lord, 

they returned to Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth. 

The child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom; 

and the favour of God was upon him.

Two things today. We will be thinking about the story we read. And thinking about these strange things – the Christingles. 

But first, another little story.  The space adventures, Star Trek, began many years ago, and long ago I saw a very strange episode, where the heroes couldn't see things correctly, and life was quite impossible for a while. They had landed to explore a strange planet. As they walked around, they tried to avoid the things that would trip them up, -  but they tripped up anyway. Not very nice! Eventually, they realised the problem. All the things they could see on the ground, and were trying not to trip over, weren't actually there!  And all the things that were there were invisible.  So they tripped over them. If you can't see and understand what's what, life is pretty tough! We'll come back to that idea.

Today we have our story about baby Jesus, when he was six weeks old. And after today we will put the Crib away, until next year, and think about Jesus when he was older. A few things are supposed to happen for a Jewish baby boy, and Mary and Joseph wanted to have everything right. When Jesus was a week old he would have been be given his name. 'Jesus' is really the same name as 'Joshua'. Have we got any Joshuas? The name means something like 'God saves'.

Then, when Jesus was six weeks old, Mary and Joseph took him to the Temple in Jerusalem for the first time. The idea was that your first baby boy belonged to God. So, in a strange way, you had to buy him back from God. Pay five shekels at the Temple. Our Treasurer shouldn’t even think about it!

Then one last thing. When a baby was born, their mother had a break from going to the synagogue and the Temple, and from social occasions, for six weeks. Then, after six weeks, life would get back to normal and the parents would make another offering at the Temple. This time, it wasn't money, but a lamb and a bird. (Which was a dove or a pigeon). Lambs were expensive, so the rules said that if you were poor, you could take two birds, instead of one expensive lamb and one bird. Joseph and Mary were poor, so that's what they did.

When I was six weeks old, I was probably in our air raid shelter to avoid bombing in the Second World War. That was because Hitler was seeing things all wrong, wanting to control big parts of the world, and hating some groups of people and trying to kill lots and lots of them, and far too many people were going along with his ideas, causing a lot of trouble. We've heard the story already of baby Jesus being taken to Egypt for a while, because the very nasty King Herod wanted to kill him. Herod was another of those leaders seeing things all wrong and causing huge unhappiness. Herod even murdered many of his own family.

Well, Christingle. It was invented about 250 years ago by a church leader in Moravia. That is somewhere between Germany and Poland. Christingles are rather odd really, but the different parts mean things, and they are trying to say some important things to us. 

We have the round orange to remind us of the world. We know that the world is like a big ball, and the man in Moravia in 1700s knew the world was like a ball. But in Jesus' day, of course, they would have thought that the world was pretty flat. If we were inventing the Christingle now, I don’t think we would choose an orange! We know now that if we went into space and looked at the world, it would look like a mostly blue and green ball, with some white icy areas. Perhaps the hot Sahara Desert would be orange. But an all-orange world of hot deserts would be a disaster! 

Lighting the world up, we have the candle, making us think of Jesus the Light of the World. The four little cocktail sticks in the orange are about the four seasons of the year. The raisins or sweets on the sticks are to remind us of the crops we get at different times of the year.

At the Temple, Jesus and Mary and Joseph met some old people, who’d been waiting a long time for God to do something special for the Jewish people - to send someone special. And now they are very happy, because they realise that baby Jesus is the one. The old man Simeon says that Jesus is a light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of Israel. That means that Jesus is to be a light for everyone, those who are not Jews, and those who are. Jesus is the one that God has sent to help the whole world to see and understand things right! Simeon said some famous words about that, and the choir will sing them later on.

We need help to see and understand things rightly, and its not always easy. One of parents’ jobs is to tell children to keep out of trouble. And so they should. But not necessarily when they are grown up. Jesus didn’t.

The red ribbon right around the orange, right round the world, is about God's love for everyone right round the world. But the ribbon is red, the colour of blood, because when God came to help us in Jesus, Jesus was hurt and killed, before he rose again. Jesus did not get into trouble because he messed up, but because he got things right. So, we can see that following God and being loving, might cause us trouble. But it can still be the right thing to do, and it can end well. When we’re grown up, real success is about following God, even if it means trouble.  Not about keeping out of trouble at all costs.