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By the time you read this our Christmas celebrations will probably seem a long time ago, especially as the shops have been selling Cadbury’s creme eggs for weeks already! The beginning of February marks the feast of Candlemas, celebrated in England since the 8th century. It commemorates the visit of Mary and Joseph to the temple with the baby Jesus. They were greeted there by the elderly Simeon and Anna, who blessed the child, and spoke both of the light he would bring to the world, and also of the suffering through which that light would come. The name Candlemas refers to the custom, first recorded in Anglo-Saxon times, of people carrying candles into the church to be blessed, and then carrying them out to light their homes during the year. We will be doing the same at our service at All Saints, Shelve on February 2nd. Candlemas falls halfway between the winter solstice and the spring equinox. The days are getting longer, the light is getting stronger, and the spring flowers are starting to appear in the hedgerows. In our part of the world at least, this moment of turning from winter towards spring mirrors the story of Simeon and Anna, with its contrasts between old age and youth, between birth and death, and between darkness and light. At Candlemas, even as we prepare to welcome the light of spring, we hear the promise that our salvation will come through the suffering of Jesus, and we turn from the crib towards the cross. Lent will soon be here. But the darkness is not yet defeated, and we carry our candles to light our way. Candlemas reminds us that Christ is with us, and his light will shine for us, whatever our circumstances, and whatever 2025 brings. The light has come that all the world might know his truth, justice and compassion. As we nurture that light in ourselves, drawing closer to God through worship, prayer and service, we will be able to share it too. We receive the light to carry it to others, whether that’s our neighbours and family, or those others we encounter, often fleetingly, in our daily lives. I will end with some words of a hymn. You might like to use these as your prayer this month: Longing for light, we wait in darkness. Longing for truth, we turn to you. Your Word made flesh, hope of the nations, Light for the world to see! Christ, be our light! Shine in our hearts, shine through the darkness. Christ, be our light! Shine in your church gathered today.
The season of Advent is traditionally described as a season of waiting, a time to prepare our hearts for the coming of the Christ Child. Yet for many of us these weeks are some of the most hectic of the year; we are occupied with buying and wrapping presents, writing cards, doing extra baking, making arrangements for visitors or planning journeys to see others. Those employed in education, retail and finance, and many other sectors, including the church, find this an especially busy time. Waiting is the last thing we feel able to do, and we have little space to think about our hearts, when there is so much else to prepare. Nevertheless, the Christmas stories can provide us with a rich focus for thought at this time of year. In the midst of my own activity, I have been reflecting on the description in Luke’s gospel of the visit of Mary, the mother of Jesus, to her cousin Elizabeth, mother of John the Baptist. This is a story about two women, from among the many women whom Luke brings to our attention in his gospel. They are ordinary enough women, who would have spent much of their lives busy with mundane chores. Yet, they were women for whom life, in the culture of their day, was not straightforward, Elizabeth, because of her long years of childlessness, and Mary, with the prospect of a child to be born outside marriage. It is easy to see that Mary might have wanted the advice of her cousin about the troubling message she had just received from the angel Gabriel. Both these women were soon to become mothers. Along with mothers before and since they must have shared the uncertainty and risk of childbirth, the doubts as to their own abilities to care for their babies, and their hopes for what their children would become.I once saw a painting hanging in a chapel in south-west England. I have been unable to discover the artist or even its title, but it depicts two women greeting each other, full of joy. It is the moment of meeting described by Luke, as Elizabeth and her own child recognise the identity of the baby Mary is carrying. Mary’s joy finds expression in the song which we call the Magnificat, praising God for what he will do through the child in her womb. It is a song which promises the lifting up of the humble. It announces that God is turning the world’s values upside down. In his poem, ‘The Visitation’, Malcolm Guite describes Mary and Elizabeth as ‘two women on the very edge of things’. They are humble and ordinary, and yet God will use them to change the world. They are more than women, and more than mothers. They are people who are faithful and obedient to God’s call on their lives. Each of us, whether we are women or men, can be faithful and obedient like them. We can never be too ordinary, too doubtful of our own abilities, or our lives too complicated for God to call us.Over the next few weeks, as Christmas draws near, in the midst of our work and our busyness or in a rare moment of quiet, might we too hear his call?
As part of the year’s Ride + Stride, I recently completed a walk round the six churches of the Pontesbury and Stiperstones group, raising money in aid of the Shropshire Historic Churches Trust, and to support Holy Trinity, Hope and All Saints, Shelve. Ride + Stride is a national event, the largest source of income for many Historic Churches Trusts which enables them to make financial grants to places of Christian worship. In Shropshire there are over 300 Anglican churches in regular use and many churches and chapels of other denominations. As we know, responsibility for the maintenance and repair of our churches falls upon parishes; our church buildings are not maintained or financed by the Church Commissioners, Diocese or State. So, grants from the Trust and others are vitally necessary to help with the cost of repairs. Many churches are Listed Buildings, which means they are of architectural and historic interest. But for those of us who worship in them, or who attend at significant moments in our lives for baptisms, weddings, or funerals of loved ones, they of course mean much more. When Jacob awoke from his dream of the ladder to heaven, he said, ‘Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know’ (Genesis 28.16). For many, church buildings are places to meet with God in a special way, whether during worship together, or sitting on our own in the silence. Visiting each of the churches in our group on foot rather than by car as I usually do, gave me the opportunity to appreciate better each within their own distinct setting and community, arriving at walking pace, often using footpaths or bridle paths which predate our modern roads, and so seeing things from a different angle. Rowan Williams’ little book, ‘Being Disciples’ which I have been re-reading recently, speaks of the quality of expectancy, that watching and listening to what is around us, in the belief that at any moment we might see something of God. That can be true as we read the Bible, as we walk our local footpaths, as we deal with whatever tasks face us every day, and as we worship in our churches. But Williams goes on to talk about the expectancy which we are called to when we look at one another. He admits this is not always easy: ‘Yet it can’t be said too often that the first thing … to think of when in the presence of another Christian ... is: what is God giving me though this person?’ The way our churches are organised in parishes, deaneries and denominations may seem a bit random, and we may sometimes find working together challenging, even within our own congregations, let alone more widely or when we disagree. Yet with this kind of expectancy, we can approach each other ready to receive what Jesus has to give us, prepared to see things and people from a different angle. And sometimes, like Jacob, we will be able to say, ‘Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know.’ Rev Fran Brealey Being Disciples: Essentials of the Christian Life, Rowan Williams 2016 is published by SPCK You can find out more about the Shropshire Historic Churches Trust at https://shropshirehct.org.uk
