Video for February 5th, 2026
Hello everyone and welcome to this week’s video. I’m in the greenhouse amongst the lemons today to avoid the rain.
In my last diocese, I knew a few clergy who would keep their Christmas trees up until Candlemas: the feast celebrating the presentation of Christ in the Temple, which we celebrated last weekend. By that time they were sticks surrounded by a pile of needles, and probably a terrible fire risk. They felt it was important to mark the conclusion of Epiphany. You could argue that’s a better way of doing it than putting your Christmas decorations up in November and down again before the end of the year.
Its a uniquely personal festival, I think. The story is deeply touching. Two characters, at the end of their lives, recognise Jesus for who he is when no-one else does. There would likely have been many babies being presented at the time. All new borns were meant to be brought to the Temple 40 days after they were born. Their parents were instructed to bring a lamb as an offering if they were averagely well off and a dove or two pigeons if they were poor. Mary and Joseph brought the latter indicating their economic situation. There was something about Simeon and Anna’s long devotion to God which made them particularly sensitive to the nudging of the Holy Spirit. In a culture that values the new and youthful, we can easily miss that many of the heroes of faith in the Bible were elderly. Moses didn’t really get going on his main life project until he was 80. Abraham and Sarah had their long-promised child when nearly 100 – I can’t imagine what it would have been like to look after a baby at that age!
We know nothing about Simeon and Anna other than what is recorded in Luke, Chapter 2. Besides the divine revelation of Jesus’ identity, Simeon’s remarks reveal an understanding of God’s purposes that only comes from a lifetime of meditation. Jesus is the personification of the salvation of humanity that began through the great Israelite project. It has always been God’s purpose to reveal himself so people could come into relationship with him. Israel, through the laws God gave them, was meant to model what a community submitted to God would look like. This was intended to draw the other tribes and nations around them to seek after the same relationship. Jesus in his life, death and resurrection does this perfectly. Not only does he show us what God is like in a way our frail human minds can begin to grasp but makes it possible for our broken relationship with God to be healed, forgiven and restored. Ther ancient Israelites largely failed in this task of revelation and in the end the nation was taken off into exile and ceased to be an independent entity. This is why Simeon describes Jesus as the light for revelation to the gentiles and the glory – fulfilment of Israel. According to classic Christian theology, he does what they failed to do.
At a personal level however, Simeon and Anna are a prophetic reminder to a culture obsessed by youthfulness that seeks to escape aging. Their epitaph calls to mind this incident at the end of their lives the fruit of wisdom, patience and expectation. These events around Jesus’ birth follow 400 years of historical silence in the Biblical record. They spent most of their lives looking forward to something promised but didn’t get to see it until the very end. They saw they were part of the great story God is telling, and their small part was to be remembered forever until the Lord returns. Likewise, we don’t know the eternal significance of little acts of obedience, patient waiting and love that are part of our everyday life experience. We know what was written of Simeon and Anna. I wonder what will be written of us?
+Richard