Today’s reading from St Luke’s Gospel is one of two contrasting sides – there is the comfy and cosy side, and then there is another far from comfy side!

This means that we have to read it at two levels, and from two perspectives – the ‘on the surface’ reading, and then the ‘delving deeper’ reading!

On the surface, just as with the Christmas story, there is a lot of sweetness and light as we imagine the joy of the proud parents, seeking God’s blessing on their new-born first child – a bit like the parents who bring their children here to be baptised.

That joy is reflected, first in the ritual purification of the mother, marking Mary’s joyful re-entry into society after her confinement during pregnancy, as was the tradition of the day.  And then, there is the more public presentation of the child in the Temple at Jerusalem (again, not dissimilar to the act of bringing a child to baptism, today).

So, this is a day of celebration, joy and pride, for the whole family. And there is also joy for Simeon and Anna, who happen to be  there, and who recognize that this child Jesus is none other than God’s promised one, destined to bring salvation to God’s people.

Joy is undoubtedly the dominant theme which we pick up on the surface reading of this Gospel account – in human terms, a child has been safely delivered, and both mother and baby are doing well, and in divine terms, in this act, the Lord has come to his Temple.

But when we have finished scratching at the surface, and dig deeper into the story, then we discover this ‘shadow’, which is hanging over the scene of domestic bliss!

Mary receives this stark warning of the sorrow that is to come – she is warned of the metaphorical sword that will pierce her heart. 

And whilst we are able to read it with the benefit of hindsight, this must have been a truly shocking moment for Mary and Joseph!

We know that Mary will have to suffer the agony of watching her son die on the cross, but she wouldn’t have had any for-knowledge of this!

This is an epic moment of prophecy, and Simeon is a great prophet, as he recognizes, that, while it is right to celebrate the arrival of God’s salvation in the Temple, it is not the end of the story – the story will not end in sweetness and light!

Luke’s Gospel tells us more about Mary than the other three gospels, and it is Luke who records another visit to Jerusalem, when Jesus causes his mother great anxiety by slipping away from his parents, before he is eventually found with the teachers in the Temple.

When Mary and Joseph carried the baby Jesus into the Temple forty days after his birth, we recognize (like Simeon) that salvation has come to the people of God in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. Yet we also recognize that this salvation, which Jesus comes to bring, will not be complete until he dies on the cross over thirty years later.

So, there is a real sense, in which this event acts as a pivotal moment, both for Jesus’ life and ministry, but also for us. 

I am sure that it is no accident that in the liturgical calendar, Candlemas falls midway between Christmas and Easter – liturgically, it is the point at which we pack away the figures from our crib, and begin to turn our thoughts and our worship towards Lent, Holy Week and Easter!

So, for Jesus in this story, we have to accept that salvation is both now and not yet – and two thousand years after the birth of Jesus, for us, we have to accept that the salvation he came to bring will not be fully established until he comes again in glory at the end of all time. Then, and only then, all will be sweetness and light!

And the same is true for us as individual Christians: in our personal lives there will always be pain intermingled with the joy.

We recognize that our families and our close friends can be the source of great joy, but, because we invest so much time and emotion in them, and because we are all flawed human beings who can behave thoughtlessly and selfishly towards one another, our families and friends can also cause us a great deal of heartache – heartache which in turn makes us feel inadequate or despondent.

If only we can stop expecting the perfect relationships, and if only we can accept that love always comes mixed with pain, then our personal lives will become so much more rewarding, and we will be freed from those corrosive feelings of inadequacy, discontent or despondency.

And the same can be said of our relationship with God – if we turn our hearts and lives towards Christ expecting a smooth and problem-free passage through life, then we haven’t really understood what God, and faith, is all about!

As Christians we can only expect to enjoy the fullness of life when we take up our cross and following the one who was tested just as we are.

But the Gospels assure us that God is with us in all these experiences, for better and for worse.

And so on this feast of Candlemas, let us pray for strength to bear all our experiences of life gracefully and with dignity, looking ahead to that time when God’s salvation will be complete.

And in the meantime, let us go on trusting that our Lord Jesus will walk with us through sorrow and through joy, until finally we pass through the gate of death and enter into his light and share his eternal glory.  

Amen.